At the end of my fifth form year I had done my SAT's and was actively pursuing education options abroad (never liked UWI). I sent out maybe 15 or 20 applications to a variety of colleges and believe it or not, got a response from every one. Of course, not all were acceptance letters. I had included recommendations from my football coaches and got some interest from a few colleges as well. However, they wanted more than just recommendations, they asked for video. My SAT score was good enough for two college coaches to indicate that they would recommend I get a partial academic schol for the first year and if I was good enough they would give me a full athletic schol for the next three years.
Anyway, young love and the necessary success at CXC convinced me to do my A'Levels before going further with my search for an overseas education. By the end of lower six I had received 3 solid offers (academic schols) and had decided on which college I would have attended.
As fate would have it, TTT had aired one of my school's SSFL games live on tv and I had a beast of a game. Can't say who exactly saw it but I got a call from Quincy University in Chicago who indicated they had someone in Trinidad who would organise a scrimmage and report back to them. Their guy?: Hannibal Najjar.
At the scrimmage I met Ruskin Mark who was a sports anchor at TTT at the time and he said he remembered me from the game that was aired. We chatted for a few weeks after and I got confirmed offers from Quincy, St Mary's University in Texas and Concordia College, Alabama. Ruskin's contact was at Concordia.
Quincy offered half schol for the first year and full for the next 3. I couldn't accept because the half my parents would have been responsible for was almost 13k usd. St Mary's offered a full ride, including a stipend, but Texas was reeling from a hate crime where a black dude was dragged from the back of a truck, so I had no desire to go anywhere near there. I chose Concordia literally a week before I left Trinidad.
Concordia had just started their soccer programme and were in the NAIA. We were treated like kings. We were included in a parade through the streets of Selma and we even signed autographs. Mia Hamm was part of the parade as well. The school didn't have a confirmed schedule but we played against schools like University of Mobile, Auburn University, Middle Tennessee State etc. The attraction of being a part of the beginning of the soccer programme was a big part of me choosing there. Its good to know that Concordia is doing quite well now.
I left after semester, and received an offer from St Francis College in NY. St Francis was the NCAA div 1 North East Conference Champions at the time. I was recruited personally by their coach. Just phone calls and school programme info. Nothing like being asked to join the conference champs and playing with guys from Serbia, Albania, Africa, etc. It was a great cultural experience.
There's a big difference between NCAA divisions. Division 1 programmes get more money and coverage and are very stringent with their rules. Imagine we were allowed to practice for only 2 weeks prior to the season. NAIA didn't even have age limits. At Concordia there was a 29 year old dude on the team.
The thing with ST Francis was that the school didn't have dorms so ALL students had to have their own housing arrangement. Not a bad deal for trinis who always have some relative in NY.
Eventually I left and finished at St Johns U. Recruited by a fellow Trini who simply said that the coach was looking for players.
I always had fellow Trinis around so my experience wasn't bad at all. The only negative was the weather. Winter is a stinking bitch....but makes the ladies quite horny. I always had to slow down when talking in class as the professors barely understood me. So i began to understand why alot of Trinis develop accents after a while abroad. Once I was asked if I'm speaking spanish. But my favorite part was that Americans didn't understand what 'hull yuh mudda c..." meant....I loved yelling it at them. They would just smile.
