In the defence of Aaron Maund.
By Arnott Maund.
The job of all responsible parents is to teach, guide and help their children through the process of making decisions, in childhood, that would keep them in good stead through adulthood. This is what training is all about. In our family, decisions are made on behalf of the young people, by the adults after considering their input. So it was very disconcerting to arrive in Trinidad to find our family’s name emblazoned across the Express Newspaper of Saturday, February 1, 2009 (I guess it was a slow sport news week) with an article expressing views that were only partly true.
For the past year we have had to make tough decisions with respect to Aaron’s future. Whether to play in this world-cup qualifier for T&T or the US, is only the latest in a long list. At this point in time, it is very important for Aaron’s future that a balance is maintained between the demands of football and his education . All actions taken so far are a reflection of our desire to have Aaron complete his schooling in the shortest possible time.
The only way that Aaron can continue with school and play football at this level is to play for the US Under-20 Men’s National Team. We exhausted all other possibilities ; a waiver from the NCAA (to preserve his eligibility to play for his University); time off from school (to play for Trinidad would mean a whole year living here , remember he is an American kid ).
It should also be taken into consideration that he is on scholarship at the University of Notre Dame, and all of this time off from school would certainly not be in the schools best interest as he is required to play Soccer for them. If he jeopardizes his scholarship, who is going to replace those funds so that he could continue his education next year? The TTFF? We are not wealthy people, and as such, need all the help we can get to secure a good education for our children.
So lets clear up some important points. After starting all three preliminary matches for Trinidad and Tobago at the 2007 FIFA Under-17 World cup in South Korea, there were no TTFF-initiated communications with our family, until December 2008, AFTER AARON HAD ALREADY BEEN INVITED TO THE FIRST US TRAINING CAMP. Previous to this, last summer, we called our previous contacts with the team and discovered there was new management and coaching for this particular group of guys. After contacting the new people involved, we tried to find ways to have the new coach take a look at some of Aaron’s games (even via the internet ) but to no avail. On the other hand the new US U-20 coach Tom Rongen , using his own initiative, called the Notre Dame coach and made arrangements to see him play and did so, obviously liking what he saw. Leading up to this sequence of events no information was shared with us by the management of the Trinidad Team, as to what was going on.
The impressions left by articles in the press, and posts on the various blogs, suggesting abuse of Trinidad football on our part, is grossly misleading. Because of the way things were handled in the 2007 World Cup, I, as a Trinidadian who loves his country, was placed in a position of having to “sell” the Trinidad football program to my own son and I could not bring myself to do it . There were too few advantages for me to point to, so the result is the circumstance we have today.
I personally give my son a lot of respect for having the strength, and confidence in his own abilities, to put himself in the precarious position of going through three or four camps to vie for a place in a new team, knowing quite well that it would probably be easier to stay with the previous group. He should be commended not denigrated, for his intestinal fortitude.
Finally, we would like express our thanks to the TTFF for allowing Aaron the opportunity to come to Trinidad, during the summer of 2007, to try-out, and get a chance to show what he could do on the field. It was a great experience for him and gave him a taste of what the International game is like at the highest level, for that we will be eternally grateful and we wish the Team all the best in the future.
