Hundreds of villagers of Roxborough gave a hero's welcome to their village boy and Soca Warrior's defender Cyd Gray on Monday.
Gray who was accompanied by his teammate Densill Theobald arrived at Crown Point airport earlier in the morning where he was received by supporters of the Lakers Sports Club.
In a true motorcade style, Cyd and Desil was afforded the privilege to wave and greet pedestrian from a jeep and made several stops at pre-school and primary school along Windward Road to Roxborough. The village of Roxborough was cramped with schoolchildren from Cyd's alma mater, Roxborough Composite and Roxborough Anglican School.
Production came to a temporary halt as government offices and business places close their doors to pay tribute to the Cyd.
Later in the day at a function hosted by Lakers and Roxborough A.C. Primary at the Roxborough Anglican Auditorium, several prominent villagers paid tribute to him. Schoolteacher and Acting Principal Ken Webster recalled Cyd's primary school days at Roxborough. Several tokens were presented on behalf of school and the PTA. A Wall of Fame was later unveiled in his honour.
Representative for the area and Secretary of Agriculture, Marine Affairs and the Environment Hilton Sandy congratulated Cyd and Lakers Sports Club for placing Roxborough on the map.
Sandy also called on his colleague and Asst. Secretary of Sport and Youth Affairs Tracy Davidson to rename the renovated Roxborough Complex, "The Cyd Gray Sports Complex".
Roxborough Police Youth Club leader Collis Hazel who addressed the function, reminded the packed "Bass School" as it is popular known, that the village of Roxborough has been waiting a long for such a function.
Hazel recalled that 24 years ago Roxborough celebrated the victory of Claude Noel for bringing home the World Lightweight boxing title. "Ironically", Hazel said, "Cyd Gray wears the number 24, so while Trinidad and Tobago waited 16 years to qualify for the World Cup Finals, Roxborough has waited 24 years for its second world class sporting event of prominence."
The Roxborough Police Youth Club through its leader declared that one of the competitions in the popular Night Football knockout tournament would be named the Cyd Gray Knockout Finals. Hazel informed the crowd that efforts would be made to secure funding from corporate organisations to ensure a posse from Roxborough visit Germany to support the Soca warriors in June 2006.
A talented display of cultural items, including poems written by Cyd's teachers Sharon Anderson and Louisa Bess Hercules brought the gala function to an end.