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Tobago will return bigger and stronger at next year’s Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) says Huey Cadette, secretary for Sport, Education and Youth Affairs in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA).

He said the new structure adopted for the 2014 season negatively affected the academic progress of athletes; a reality that neither the Assembly nor civil society could not accept.

The premier league concept was the new feature of the championship which coincided with the 50th Anniversary of the League.

Cadette said, “I did have discussions with the SSFL and the Tobago Zone and indicated that because of the new structure, which saw the introduction of a premier league, it would have placed significant pressure of Tobago teams by way of travel, which ultimately would have created a challenge on their ability to function in the school environment.”

He added, “This year, the Tobago Zone winner would have participated at a Big Four level only. I have had some discussions with both the SSFL and the Tobago Zone in terms of determining what happens for 2015 onwards, to ensure that in a real sense Tobago teams can participate for the entire premier league. That is something they would have to revisit, but obviously, I would have been disappointed that a Tobago team would not have had the opportunity to play through the league and therefore have an opportunity to compete against the best in Trinidad, and maybe hone their skills and have more competitive action.”

Providing an overview on the state of sports in Tobago, Cadette was clear that sport was in a “very good” place.

Having former Soca Warriors captain and ex-Manchester United star Dwight Yorke as its ambassador for sport, as well as fielding four athletes on the T&T Senior Women’s Football team, he said, Tobago undoubtedly added tremendous value to the national sporting foot-print.

In table-tennis, he said, athletes on the island seemed to dominate judging from results over the past two decades.

“We have seen excellent performances over the years in term of athletes in particular table tennis. We are seeing our dominance in Secondary School Champions over the last 23-24 years. But we also feel, though, that while we are seeing that success in the number of individuals making it to the elite level, we still feel the need for us to do a little more in terms of (the) community involvement and our facilities maintenance. We feel in some sporting disciplines there is still an opportunity for more Tobagonians to be seen and to get involved in the national set up,” he said.

To achieve that, the division of Sport was in discussions with national governing bodies seeking ways to ensure the structure for screening and selection in Tobago, allowed for more persons to be exposed.

Cadette said, “We also realise that there is constantly a need to improve our facilities and that is something that we are working on. We recently installed at the Dwight Yorke Stadium a certified new track which has been certified class 2 and we are extremely proud of that. We are hoping that in the coming months, we will see some activities to commission that track, and for 2015 we will see a season of athletes in Tobago: Zenith Relays coming back, the Falcon Games coming back to Tobago, (and) the Tobago Games, all in a bid to ensure that good things are happening for sport in Tobago.”