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Author Topic: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White  (Read 4459 times)

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Offline palos

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Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« on: February 14, 2007, 10:43:35 PM »
John D/Mucurapo honour Eric White

Saluting a pioneer

Thursday, February 15th 2007

Source: Trinidad Express
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There are many worthy of being honoured when the annual John Donaldson Technical Institute/Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive football reunion comes around. Eric White is certainly one such.

In the short but memorable history these two institutions created with their contests on the pitch in the Colleges Football League in the late 1970s, early 1980s, White, diminutive and deadly in front of goal, was one who left his mark. And this year, the John D/Mucurapo planning committee have decided to honour White, along with ex-John D captain Sean Byer at the third annual event to be held this afternoon on the Long Circular Road ground of the Police Barracks, St James, from 3 p.m.

Byer was a shifty midfielder and skipper of John D in 1981, having come across from Trinity College. He would not have played against White. But those who did will not forget the little man.

"It's great to have the privilege of being honoured this year," says White, whose incisive dribbling and deadly accuracy brought him six hat-tricks in the 1978 season, Mucurapo's first in the Championship Division. And White was good enough to take his prolific scoring into senior football. He banged in 45 goals in the 1984 season for his hometown Cocorite United in the then National League.

But back in '78, little Eric formed a famous partnership with Ian "Dread Dribbler" Clauzel. But it was the dreadlocked Clauzel with the crowd-wowing sleight of foot, who hogged the spotlight most.

Overlooked slightly perhaps was the steady production of White, consistent and clever where Clauzel was spectacular. But together the pair, supplied so well from midfield by the also underrated Emerson Dubisson and company, captured the public's imagination in an era of exciting change in the schools game.

The John D/Mucurapo committee could not forget those times. And neither can White.

"It was a great feeling...We created an impact as we came, mainly because we had a lot of players with ability, our aggressive style," White says.

"It had to do with our lifestyle. In those times, youths were aggressive...in our approach to the game. I call us the last of the Mohicans because after us, discipline broke down."

The new school Mucurapo of 1977/78, was not quite the Senior Comprehensive of today, with its chequered history.

Imbued with ambition and hope then, White and his mates were products of a supportive system.

"Our principal, Annette Wiltshire made sure we got what we needed," says White. "We were given privileges in school...I don't know for now how Mucurapo is."

Support from administration cemented the solid structure of a unit coached by Victor "Sharkey" Henry, in which team spirit was not just a catch phrase.

White talks about the rapport.

"That helped us as a team to come closer because I could have said what I felt about you...there was no animosity, that brought us closer. We were friends in school, we were friends after school."

Especially good it seems was the Clauzel/White partnership.

"Playing with Clauzel was great," says White, smiling easily and pointing to the raised pores on his left hand.

"(He was) witty in the sense of his ability to dribble. He had a drag, he used to drag square," White explains, getting up to demonstrate his hands working all the while.

To help him work out the Clauzel drag and how to play with the Dribbler, White got help from older brother Denzil, himself a talented player in his time. Together they made a study of him. The result?

"I understood him a lot.....I used to get a lot of balls that Clauzel just play through the space."

The success of that relationship also had much to do with what the pair did off the field.

"Clauzel and me was good friends. Before games we would sit and talk what we doing, how we approaching the game. Then Emerson Dubisson was part of the trio...we used to chat about football. We knew what we were about. That was what made Mucurapo special."

There was one game though that the Clauzel/White partnership was just not good enough for "Compre"--the North Zone InterCol final against John D.

A famous game in its own right at the Queen's Park Oval, it ended 2-1 to John D, the winners coming from behind to triumph.

For White, the memories are bittersweet.

According to him things went wrong before game time. They went wrong before the team left school.

"They isolated us. I saying from up front that cost us the game," White declares. "What they did, they took us in a room from lunch hour up to the time we leaving school and we couldn't leave the room at no point in time...which cramped the players."

As he talks, memories of a Strike Squad campaign gone terribly wrong, of a routine disrupted, flood back.

"When we reach to the Oval now, trouble to get to the dressing room. Crowd so thick....We had to push our way inside (the dressing room). When we did get in there, for the first time in Mucurapo history, in the dressing room had other people more than the players," says White, passion dripping from every word.

"The only person we used to allow in the dressing room was the principal, Mrs Wiltshire. That game, we had about 20 (extra) people in the dressing room...Imagine 45 or 30 of us in the dressing room...I remember standing and waiting to sit. People ain't getting up for me to sit to put on mih boots! That part of the atmosphere wasn't good for us. We didn't have a team discussion....It was a total disaster....To reach the field was a next problem. The crowd was thick, we had to push our way. When we reach out there, we were totally unsettled."

But Compre still had a final to play, in front of a crowd numbering about 18,000.

And despite the unsettling backdrop to the game, Mucurapo had a fine start, thanks to Clauzel.

White describes it.

"Clauzel scored a beautiful left-footer. I talking about it now and mih pores...." He gestures to his arm.

"It started in the back. Foncette the goalkeeper rolled it to the left back. Left back played it down the middle to Emerson (Dubisson). I moved from the centre, went to the right. Emerson played me and passed one man, come inside the next man and played Clauzel in the middle. Clauzel went across and hit left foot, back down last post. It was a great goal. It was real organised. John D didn't touch the ball."

As if it were yesterday, he goes through the move. And just as if yesterday, White relives the pain of losing, of opportunities missed--by Dubisson, by Clauzel, by himself--before John D equalised. Soon, he puts what is on his face into words.

"We threw away that game several times. The atmosphere got to the players and we lost because we went for self when we should have gone for Mucurapo first."

In the statement, is a hint of a self-destructiveness that future generations of Mucurapo players seem to have inherited. Only once--1983 InterCol--have Compre ever won a national title, despite various teams getting close.

White, a recent observer of the present generation, has his own theory about that.

"They are not accustomed achieving. Even in school, they don't achieve anything," he begins, reckoning further that the underprivileged background of many of the school's players, has been a significant factor.

"I went one set of Mucurapo games and I would look at a good player and ask him: yuh brother here? father? mother? They were not there. In our times, Clauzel had brothers, they used to be there. My brothers and sister used to be there, even my father and all. Clauzel and Foncette from Gonzales; Gonzales used to have hundreds of people. I from Cocorite...hundreds of people.

"In those times, you had support. Now, is not like that...The instinct to win, to be on top is not within them even from home, so they are always struggling.....There is no pride...They don't have that sense of worth, that's the word I looking for. The sense of worth is not there."

White certainly has a sense of his worth; a pioneer's sense of history.
 
Carlos "The Rolls Royce" Edwards

Offline palos

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2007, 10:45:28 PM »
Dat Clauzel goal in de final against John D was special in trute.

Oval was ram cram fuh dat game.

Doc...u play in dat game?
Carlos "The Rolls Royce" Edwards

Offline vb

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2007, 05:22:41 AM »
Dat Clauzel goal in de final against John D was special in trute.

Oval was ram cram fuh dat game.

Doc...u play in dat game?

Yuh mad!!

Doc eh dat young!!  ;D

But anyways, I LOVE these retrospective Intercol articles :beermug:

VB
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Offline Observer

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2007, 06:28:59 AM »
I think Doc played the year before.
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead
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Offline doc

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2007, 07:40:25 AM »
Dat Clauzel goal in de final against John D was special in trute.

Oval was ram cram fuh dat game.

Doc...u play in dat game?

Yuh mad!!

Doc eh dat young!!  ;D

But anyways, I LOVE these retrospective Intercol articles :beermug:

VB
I think Doc played the year before.
I played one season -1976.
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Offline Jumbie

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2007, 07:41:32 AM »
Lawd..doc so ole he had ah dinosaur for ah pet oui!  ;D

Palos..dig up some real news/flashback and post about ah real school nah.. Tech south!

Offline fishs

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2007, 07:43:13 AM »
Lawd..doc so ole he had ah dinosaur for ah pet oui!  ;D

Palos..dig up some real news/flashback and post about ah real school nah.. Tech south!

The overage era ?  ;D ;D
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Offline Cocorite

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2007, 09:03:43 PM »
Cocorite ;D ;D ;D ;D talk done
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Offline slates

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #8 on: February 16, 2007, 09:07:17 AM »
John D/Mucurapo honour Eric White

White, a recent observer of the present generation, has his own theory about that.

"They are not accustomed achieving. Even in school, they don't achieve anything," he begins, reckoning further that the underprivileged background of many of the school's players, has been a significant factor.

"I went one set of Mucurapo games and I would look at a good player and ask him: yuh brother here? father? mother? They were not there. In our times, Clauzel had brothers, they used to be there. My brothers and sister used to be there, even my father and all. Clauzel and Foncette from Gonzales; Gonzales used to have hundreds of people. I from Cocorite...hundreds of people.

"In those times, you had support. Now, is not like that...The instinct to win, to be on top is not within them even from home, so they are always struggling.....There is no pride...They don't have that sense of worth, that's the word I looking for. The sense of worth is not there."

White certainly has a sense of his worth; a pioneer's sense of history.
 


Kicks is kicks, but yuh see dat statement quoted, is reflected not just in de football, but in all de insanity we does read about in de Express and other news media.

Eric "Old Man" White hit de nail right on de head dey.

I was ah small man at dat game. Reading it, is like ah see it all over again. Ah loss money on dat game, and refuse to pay. To this day, mi bredren does ask mi for he money. Ah juss couldn pay. Compre throw way dat game.
Toujour Pret!

Offline Tongue

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Offline Coop's

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Re: For the old heads a good read on Eric White
« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2007, 11:04:25 AM »
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports_mag?id=161104035

     This is a nice read,my pause and all raise just reading it,you can see the kind of passion he and those that played with him had for the game,the things that must come together to create the right atmosphere for a game/team/players to lift the quality of playing(level) that we struggle to achieve today.
      It's not that the guys today are no good,is just that the present day guys don't have the passion we had,we were obsessed with the game,what makes it so interesting in that the guys today have so much opportunities which we didn't.I've had the opportunity to work with Eric because he played for me with ECM Motown he had a way of always seeing something different in the game,very coachable which made it very easy for any Coach,besides being a good player he is a very nice person.

Offline CK1

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Re: For the old heads a good read on Eric White
« Reply #11 on: February 20, 2007, 01:18:30 PM »
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports_mag?id=161104035

     This is a nice read,my pause and all raise just reading it,you can see the kind of passion he and those that played with him had for the game,the things that must come together to create the right atmosphere for a game/team/players to lift the quality of playing(level) that we struggle to achieve today.
      It's not that the guys today are no good,is just that the present day guys don't have the passion we had,we were obsessed with the game,what makes it so interesting in that the guys today have so much opportunities which we didn't.I've had the opportunity to work with Eric because he played for me with ECM Motown he had a way of always seeing something different in the game,very coachable which made it very easy for any Coach,besides being a good player he is a very nice person.

Definitely an emotional piece as I remember him and that team so well. Brilliant players with much passion as Coops mention. Very humble persom too...my mom was one of his teachers at Cocorite Gov'.
Sean Byer was a boss player too back in the day.
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Offline Mango Chow!

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #12 on: February 20, 2007, 03:25:18 PM »
  Reading that article really brought tears to my eyes.  I will always maintain that, besides my alma mater, that Compre team, that Inter-Col year and the whole atmosphere that accompanied Compre are some of my sweetest memories in my life.  That game in the oval brought them memories to a sad, sad ending with the only goal of the three that I can remember was the John-D corner kick that went (was it untouched?) into the Compre goal.  I does still support Compre to this day, once they ain't playing against "The Q".   Much respect to Eric White and Co.  Thanks for the memories!!  :chilling: :chilling:


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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #13 on: February 20, 2007, 06:06:59 PM »
I am reading this at work and tears come to my eyes that was total football at its best aldo i was a john supporter I love compre also the good old days bring them back please thx for the walk down memory lane

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2019, 03:17:19 PM »
Imagine the archives that TTT has. I wonder if the Sports Dept. is aware of the gold mine they possess and how the public would appreciate it.
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Offline asylumseeker

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #15 on: October 31, 2019, 03:25:54 PM »
Imagine the archives that TTT has. I wonder if the Sports Dept. is aware of the gold mine they possess and how the public would appreciate it.

Damn VB, yuh ent asking fuh much. Wha yuh go want next, to interview Raffie Knowles? :devil:

Offline maxg

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #16 on: October 31, 2019, 10:08:30 PM »
Imagine the archives that TTT has. I wonder if the Sports Dept. is aware of the gold mine they possess and how the public would appreciate it.

Damn VB, yuh ent asking fuh much. Wha yuh go want next, to interview Raffie Knowles? :devil:
:rotfl: ;D ;D

Offline vb

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Re: Blast from the past....Mucurapo/JohnD honour Eric White
« Reply #17 on: November 03, 2019, 05:10:53 PM »
I noticed the MSC's Goalkeeper's name was Foncette.

Anyone know if he is any relation to Adrian Foncette, the present GK in the TT setup.

VB
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