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Sixteen-year-old, Mariah Shade is the captain of the national Under-17 Girls team as well as her school team, Debe High, which won the T&TEC Secondary Schoolgirls Football League national title, last Tuesday at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella.
Shade is also a member of the Petrotrin women’s football team, where her outstanding performances won her the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award in the National Women’s League. The forward began playing football while in primary school at the age of eight, before graduating to Petrotrin at 14. She is now in form five, preparing for the CXC exam next year.

1. How does it feel representing your country?
It’s a very great feeling to represent the country, especially as captain. And it’s also great having played at the U-20 and senior levels at age 15.

2. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
Playing professional football somewhere in the world.

3. Why not in T&T?
Because T&T does not have the necessary programmes for developing players to their full potential.

4. What are your future career goals, other than football?
This is a really funny story, but I always wanted to visit the moon. I’ve always liked astronomy and always wondered what was up there.

5. What do you think needs to be done in order to improve football in T&T?
There needs to be more programmes that develop players from the age of five, instead of preparing one or two months before a tournament.

6. What is your greatest challenge?
Balancing academics with sport, I manage pretty okay, though.

7. Who are the most important people in your lives?
God, my parents (Lennox and Pamela Shade), my coaches and some of my friends.

8. Who is your role model?
Zidane, because he’s a very simple player and I like the way he carries himself (minus the headbutt).

9. Have you ever felt like quitting football?
Yes, when training gets really hard.

10. What keeps you from doing it (quitting)?
I just think about where and what I want to be and somehow I find it within myself to give 100 percent.

11. How did it feel captaining your school team, Debe High to victory?
It was a bit surprising, because we went into the match as the underdog team, but everyone played as a team and even though we quarreled among ourselves for the first half, we pulled ourselves together in time for the second.

12. What do you do in your spare time?
I don’t really have much spare time, but usually I’m home doing schoolwork. My mother prefers that I stay home and do something constructive so I don’t have much of a social life.

13. What is your favourite dish?
Lasagna.

14. What type of music do you listen to?
Gospel hip-hop.
Mariah Shade