The saga of the national women's senior football team began, in the public consciousness not with a bang, but a tweet.It came from former USA Under-23 coach Randy Waldrum, who sent an urgent message begging for help for the team, who arrived in Dallas in October with only pocket money–US$500.
That sparked many donations to the team, an avalanche of bad publicity and humiliation for the T&T Football Association (T&TFA) and increased attention focused on the team, which, it might be argued, it needed most of all.
That matter ended with the T&TFA finding money to support the team's efforts during its Concacaf Women's World Cup qualification run and Mr Waldrum apologising for his desperate tweet, which ended poignantly with the observation, "I have to help these players somehow, they deserve better."
Those words would ultimately resonate in the national consciousness, and serious attention began to turn, at last, to these feisty young women.The effort to build a strong women's team has been inching forward for a decade, but began to gain steam after Mr Waldrum returned in July to begin building a capable team to qualify for the Fifa Women's World Cup.
He previously coached the national Under-17 team during the final round of the Concacaf World Cup qualifiers and currently works for free, hoping to win formal engagement should the team qualifies.
Poor planning and support plagued the entire effort in pursuit of the Caribbean Cup, which the team defiantly won. Since then, the requests of their coach have been largely ignored. The team has not played any of the strongly competitive friendly matches that are normal in building a cohesive and capable roster of players.If Mr Waldrum hoped for a refreshed approach from the T&TFA after it removed long-serving coach Marlon Charles from the post, he's had many hard reality checks.
The team has weathered uncounted indignities and deserve a better name than the diminutive "Soca Princesses."These are women who have fought hard, well and consistently throughout this year's football campaigns, weathering the regular hiccups of bad preparation with good grace and delivered resolutely strong performances on the field.
Their efforts are an example for other girls and young women who face the even more intimidating prospect of exploring their potential in a sector of the sport that's traditionally been ignored and underfunded.Tomorrow, the team will face Ecuador in the decider of their future in the campaign to qualify for the Fifa Women's World Cup.
Despite surprisingly high ticket prices of $200 per seat and the decision to charge children under 12 to sit in the covered stands, tickets are said to be selling well, with reports on the weekend of sales as high as 14,000.That's both a lot of support and a lot of pressure, but it's also a salute to the pride and admiration the team has earned since beginning a serious campaign to qualify for the prestigious tournament.
However tomorrow's game goes, this team has earned the right to be known as the women warriors they are. These are no dainty ladies, at least not on the football field. They have deftly carried the hopes of all the sporting faithful this far and they continue to do so with deceptive grace.