Defender Alanna Lewis and forward Akim Toussaint continue to fly the Paragon flag with pride having secured the Top Players (Male and Female) of the Year Awards at Sunday's T&T Hockey Board Annual Awards Ceremony, held at the VIP Lounge at the Hasely Crawford, National Stadium in Woodbrook.
It was Lewis' fourth Player of the Year triumph at the weekend tribute. It was the first for Toussaint.
Both athletes have the honour of being national players, too.
Moments after receiving their awards, Lewis and Toussaint cited the excellent introduction they had to the sport, while attending South East Port-of-Spain Secondary School on Nelson Street in Port-of-Spain. They hailed the development programme at the educational institution under coach Colin Thompson as the futile grounds for all the public adulation they now enjoyed.
Delighted, Lewis said, "It's a good feeling. I did contribute to my club and country, so it is a great feeling that I got this award."
She admitted having no clue that South East Port-of-Spain had such an excellent hockey programme.
Lewis recalled that Thompson saw her during a physical education session and enquired about her interest in the game and the rest was history.
"He is the major reason why I am in hockey," she declared.
"I didn't even know where South East (Port-of-Spain) was. I thought it was in south because of the name. Sir (Colin Thompson) made hockey in South East," Lewis said.
Speaking to the Guardian, Toussaint, 26, said, "It means a lot. This year has been one of my better years, winning the World League Round One in Jamaica (with the national team) and being voted MVP and Top Scorer of the Tournament. I have been playing hockey 12 years now. I started at South East Port-of-Spain. I was a footballer. I didn't know about hockey. South East was a prestigious school for hockey, winning titles year after year. I was like, I could try this. We weren't that good in football. Before I went to South East Port-of-Spain, I did not even know that we played hockey in T&T."
Responding to questions about the future of the sport in T&T, Lewis expressed concern that not enough women were involved in the sport, when compared to the numbers she saw on entry.
"Before, I used to see more women in the sport, but now I think more women are going into professional careers, because it's hard to be working and playing. I hope more women start (back) playing, any type of sports. But at the same time, you need money to survive. I hope they can find a balance," she said.
Asked about efforts to recruit new talent into the sports, Lewis, said there was inconsistency in people's interest in hockey.
"You see them come and then another week you see them go. It's not like they are not coming, but they are not staying. I guess we need to find a way to make them stay," she said.
Meanwhile, Toussaint was holding out hope citing "the good developing team" in training.
They were, however, optimistic about the national team's success in 2015.
Lewis said, "We have World league Round 2, we might be able to go to the PanAm Games. We have a lot of training to do next year. I hope we do good in all the tournaments to make T&T proud and hopefully we will be recognised more and just go from there."
Toussaint said, "If we continue winning, we will come into the top sports in T&T and hopefully next year�if we go to the PanAm Games and if we win that one�we go to the Olympics (in Rio, Brazil). We are definitely going to be one of the top ten sports in T&T, if we can get through from PanAm straight to the Olympics. PanAm is the direct qualifier for the Olympics. We have to win PanAm Games to qualify for Rio. If we come second, third or fourth, then we have to do other qualifiers to try to qualify for the Olympics."
THE HONOUR ROLL:
PLAYERS OF THE YEAR and FIRST CITIZENS SPORTS NOMINEES
WOMEN: Alanna Lewis
MEN: Akim Toussaint
TEAM OF THE YEAR
WOMEN: Paragon
MEN: QPCC
OUTDOOR
Under 19 Division
GIRLS
Place Notre Dame
MOST GOALS
Kristin Abreu (7)
Ventures
BOYS
Place Malvern
MOST GOALS
Tariq Marcano (30)
Malvern
TRINITY DIVISION
WOMEN
Place Shandy Carib Magnolias
Most Goals
Stacey Siu Butt (13)
Shandy Carib Magnolia
MEN
Paradise
Most Goals
Desmond Archer (6)
Paradise Hockey Club
MIXED VETERANS
QPCC
MOST GOALS
Gary Griffith (16)
QPCC
OPENING DAY WINNERS
Women�Harvard Checkers
Men�Notre Dame
BIG FOUR (WOMEN)
Paragon
BIG FOUR (MEN)
Petrotrin
NATIONAL INDOOR
U19 GIRLS
Shandy Carib Magnolias
MOST GOALS
Brianna Govia (14)
Shandy Carib Magnolia
U19 BOYS
Malvern
MOST GOALS
Jordan Vieira (16)
Fatima
MIXED VETERANS
QPCC
MOST GOALS
Raphael Govia (13)
QPCC
WOMEN OPEN
Paragon
MOST GOALS
Alanna Lewis (5) Paragon
Krizia Layne(5) Malvern
MEN OPEN
QPCC
MOST GOALS
Wayne Legerton (13)
Petrotrin
OUTDOOR LEAGUE
CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION - WOMEN
Paragon
MOST GOALS
Brianna Govia (11)
Shandy Carib Magnolia
CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION - MEN
Notre Dame
MOST GOALS
Wayne Legerton (18)�Petrotrin
Shaquille Daniel (18)� Notre Dame
YOUTH PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2014
WOMEN - Brianna Govia
MEN - Tariq Marcano
GOALKEEPRS OF THE YEAR 2014
Female - Petal Derry
Male - Andrey Rocke
TOP FIVE PLAYERS 2014 - MEN
Darren Cowie
Solomon Eccles
Shaquille Daniel
Akim Toussaint
Aiden De Gannes
TOP FIVE PLAYERS FOR 2014 - WOMEN
Patricia Wright-Alexis
Petal Derry
Alanna Lewis
Kayla Brathwaite
Brianna Govia?