FORMER Trinidad and Tobago football coach Bertille St Clair has said that he was extremely honoured to be awarded the Chaconia Silver Medal for community service during the annual Independence Day awards.
However the Tobagonian opted not to journey to Trinidad to collect it on Wednesday.
St Clair, in an interview at his Lambeau Village home, said that he was disappointed that several key factors had been overlooked by the awards committee but refused to elaborate on what they were.
He said that he hoped to receive his award whenever President Richards visited the sister isle.
St Clair however said that he was elated he had been recognised for his efforts in assisting the youngsters of Tobago who were now in desperate need of proper guidance.
"I am not doing it for myself. I am doing this for the youths of this country especially Tobago. I live my life for football and maybe anything I can do for Tobago. I coached cricket and once I was the national women’s hockey coach because God gave me that gift and I am giving it back." he said.
The "principal" of the St Clair’s Coaching School has, for several years, been involved with youth upliftment on the island and has suceeded in securing scholarships for several of the island’s rising football stars in educational institutions abroad.
He also recently established a football training camp and a gym at Mt Pleasant.
"When I started building the facility, a gentleman came up to me and asked if I was crazy. He told me that everyone was constructing apartments to make money and I was setting up a sporting facility. But I am a little concerned about the development of football especially and cricket in Tobago," he said.
"I am saying this openly that it’s about time, people may want to call it sour grapes but it has nothing to do with that. I have been saying it for years that Tobago should be able to play on its own at least against the Caribbean countries," St Clair said.
"I’m not even talking about the World Cup and if they give Tobago that opportunity, when they are actually going to the World Cup, the players would have been exposed and we would have more people to choose from to make a stronger team for the World Cup," he said.
He expressed concern that young men between the ages of 19-22 were dropping out of football because of the lack of incentives being offered and limited facility to increase and display their skills.
"After they have left school and obtained jobs, there are just not enough incentives for them to just come and play football. What is in it? Are we going to represent Tobago against the Windward Islands or against Trinidad when the time comes or play in the Caribbean League?" he said.
"Recently there was an invitational league here why couldn’t Tobago take part there. Even if you didn’t want to call it Trinidad and Tobago or Tobago and Trinidad you could have called it Trinidad and Tobago ‘A’ and ‘B’ and given them an opportunity," St Clair said.
"And this has nothing to do with sour grapes," St Clair said as he urged the relevant authorities to assist the island’s young people. Another son of Tobago’s soil, Caricom Secretary-General Dr Edwin Carrington, received the nation’s highest award, the Trinity Cross.