Team got 14 Trinis
Trinidadians guide US college to football titleSunday, November 15 2009
http://newsday.co.tt/sport/0,110944.htmlTEN LONG years it took coach Brent Dukhie to build a champion football team. The Trinidadian joined Concordia College as a player. Then he turned coach of the team with the aim of bringing a championship title to the American college in Selma, Alabama.
And despite great adversity, on Sunday last, ten years later, Concordia College were crowned national champions in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA).
The Hornets as they are nicknamed, did it the hard way. First the student-athletes were forced to raise the finances to attend the championship.
They held fundraisers and suffered great personal financial sacrifice but the effort enabled them to attend the tournament in one week.
But the hardships did not end there as they endured a 31-hour bus ride from Selma, Alabama, to the tournament site in Vermont. Still the problems did not cease as on the first day of their journey they suffered a flat tyre.
This set the Concordia College footballers back seven hours, and according to Dukhie they had to play a 1.30 pm match in the snow on the Friday.
“It was the first time we had ever played in the snow, and as if that was not bad enough, we played at 8.30 pm on Saturday when the temperature was 19 degrees,” Dukhie said.
But, Concordia, seeded sixth in the eight-team tournament gritted it out and beat Penn State York (Philadelphia) 1-0 on a goal by Brent Pierre n Friday and on Saturday with goals from Pierre and Hyron Browne- Baptiste, shut out Rochester College (Minnesota) 2-0.
In the championship match, Browne-Baptiste gave Concordia the lead mid-second half, but Jabneel Springer scored from a corner-kick for Briarcliff to knot up the scores sending the match into two over-time periods. Dukhie said: “It was 30 degrees when the game started and the temperature kept dropping as it went on, then our starters started dropping through injury.”
But after the two over-time periods, Concordia scored with their first four kicks in the penalty shootout while Briarcliffe managed one goal and the Hornets were champions.
Goalkeeper Akil Benjamin of St Kitts was named the tournament “Most Valuable Player”.
And Browne-Baptiste who scored 12 goals in the 15 matches Concordia played and Bryan Constantine were both named to the USCAA All- American first team while Emery Joyeau and Pierre earned honourable mention. Browne-Baptiste, Leandro Subero, Lekol Kordah and Akol Benjamin were named to the All-Tournament team. Concordia had a season record of 15 matches played, 11 won, two drawn and two lost.
Dukhie said their championship title was designed by fate, “We never stopped believing. It is not how the story begins, it’s how it ends,” said an overjoyed Dukhie. “We have written out own stories. This is not about soccer. This is about life.” To add to their success, both Kenjay Simmonds and Brent Pierre were named Academic All Americans.
Dukhie was very proud of his 19-man squad made up of players from Trinidad and Tobago, Senegal, Nigeria, St Kitts and the USA.
One congratulatory e-mail to coach Dukhie and his team pointed out Concordia Colleges’ overall GPA, noting that the school consistently led in grades and graduated every single player that came through the system.
The e-mail said, “This is a testament to the quality of student-athletes and said credit goes to coach Dukhie for recruiting and maintaining those standards that are now National Champions.