Nigel Si­mon

As was ex­pect­ed, bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic cap­tain, Ker­ry Bap­tiste drove away with the prize of a Toy­ota Yaris val­ued $140,000 af­ter he was vot­ed Dig­i­cel T&T Pro League's 2009 "Play­er of the Year." The pre­sen­ta­tion was made dur­ing the league's end of sea­son func­tion held at Spalk­ers Restau­rant & Sports Bar, St Ann's on Wednes­day night. It was the third time lucky for Bap­tiste, who was al­so a nom­i­nee in 2007 and 2008 for the ti­tle.

The awards al­so com­plet­ed a re­mark­able year for the nip­py for­ward who was al­so the T&T Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion's 2009 "Play­er of the Year" and re­cip­i­ent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee's Sports Per­son­al­i­ty of the Year ac­co­lade. Mem­bers of Joe Pub­lic, who dom­i­nat­ed the league with five do­mes­tic ti­tles, were un­doubt­ed­ly the cen­tre of at­trac­tion as the club cap­tured a to­tal of eight awards, which in­clud­ed the Dig­i­cel Pro League Cham­pi­onship tro­phy, Big Six, Toy­ota Clas­sic and Dig­i­cel Pro Bowl ti­tles. The 28-year-old Bap­tiste al­so walked away with the "Most Out­stand­ing For­ward" and "Most Goals" awards af­ter net­ting an em­phat­ic 48 goals–34 in the league.

De­spite his much her­ald­ed suc­cess, Bap­tiste, a mem­ber of the na­tion­al se­nior team and sub­ject of a move to Eng­lish club, Ip­swich, was sur­prised when it was re­vealed he was to be pre­sent­ed with the car, cour­tesy Toy­ota T&T Lim­it­ed and the T&T Pro League. Af­ter be­ing pre­sent­ed with the keys, Bap­tiste said : "Hard work re­al­ly does bring suc­cess and it paid off well." He paid trib­ute to the tech­ni­cal staff–David Prince, Dale Saun­ders, Ralph 'Arab' Nel­son, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Daryll Warn­er, his team-mates and coach Derek King. "I wouldn't have achieved all that I have with­out their help," he said.

"I have a quote in which I go by–I shed a lot at peace time, so I bleed less at war. So work­ing hard dur­ing and be­fore pre-sea­son and in the sea­son ac­tu­al­ly worked for me," said Bap­tiste. Joe Pub­lic's Trent Noel picked up the "Best Mid­field­er" award and for­mer club mem­bers, Keyeno Thomas and Ale­jan­dro Figueroa now at Ma Pau, were named "Best De­fend­er" and "Best Goal­keep­er" re­spec­tive­ly. The East­ern Li­ons coach, 29-year-old rook­ie Derek King was pre­dictably named "Coach of the Year" while the club took the "Team of the Year" award.

HO­N­OUR ROLL

Se­nior Di­vi­sion

Play­er of the Year: Ker­ry Bap­tiste (Joe Pub­lic)

Gold­en Boot: Ker­ry Bap­tiste (Joe Pub­lic)– 34 League goals

Best For­ward: Ker­ry Bap­tiste (Joe Pub­lic)

Best Mid­field­er: Trent Noel (Joe Pub­lic)

Best De­fend­er: Keyeno Thomas (Joe Pub­lic)

Best Goal­keep­er: Ale­jan­dro Figueroa (Joe Pub­lic)

Coach of the Year: Derek King (Joe Pub­lic)

Team of the Year: Joe Pub­lic

Most Dis­ci­plined Team: Cale­do­nia AIA of Mor­vant/Laven­tille

Ad­min­is­tra­tor of the Year: Ray­mond McLean (W Con­nec­tion)

Match Com­mis­sion­er of the Year: Boris Punch

Ref­er­ee of the Year: Neil Brizan

As­sis­tant Ref­er­ee of the Year: Ains­ley Rochard

League Cham­pi­onship: 1. Joe Pub­lic; 2. San Juan Jabloteh; 3. Cale­do­nia.

Lu­cozade Sports Goal Shield: W Con­nec­tion

First Cit­i­zens Cup: De­fence Force

Toy­ota Clas­sic: Joe Pub­lic

Big Six: Joe Pub­lic

Dig­i­cel Pro Bowl: Joe Pub­lic

DI­VI­SIONS

2009 Youth

Un­der-13 Cham­pi­onship: Jabloteh

Un­der-15 Cham­pi­onship: 1. W Con­nec­tion, 2. Jabloteh; 2. St Ann's Rangers

Most Valu­able Play­er: Shack­ile Hen­ry (Unit­ed Petrotrin)

Most Goals: Shack­ile Hen­ry (Unit­ed Petrotrin)

Un­der-17 Cham­pi­onship: 1. W con­nec­tion, 2. Jabloteh, 3. Joe Pub­lic

Most Valu­able Play­er: Adisa Cum­ber­batch (W Con­nec­tion)

Most Goals: Adisa Cum­ber­batch (W Con­nec­tion)

Youth Match Com­mis­sion­er of the Year: Natasha Hink­son

Team Ad­min­is­tra­tor of the Year: De­bie-Ann Lon­don (W Con­nec­tion)

2008

Youth Match Com­mis­sion­er: Jenise Charles-Hink­son

Team Ad­min­is­tra­tor: Os­wald Davis (De­fence Force)