As 2025 draws to a close, sport in Trinidad and To­ba­go leaves us with some­thing more valu­able than medals or match re­sults: per­spec­tive.

This was a year that asked ques­tions of our sys­tems, test­ed our pa­tience, but al­so qui­et­ly re­mind­ed us why sport con­tin­ues to mat­ter so deeply in this coun­try.

Not be­cause every­thing went right but be­cause even when it didn’t, there were signs of growth worth recog­nis­ing.

If we are se­ri­ous about mov­ing for­ward in 2026, then re­flec­tion must go be­yond frus­tra­tion. It must al­so ac­knowl­edge progress where it ex­ists, how­ev­er in­cre­men­tal.

Foot­ball, as al­ways, sat at the cen­tre of the na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tion and yes, this may be my bi­ased view. The 2026 World Cup qual­i­fy­ing cam­paign stirred fa­mil­iar emo­tions, but it al­so re­vealed tan­gi­ble shifts that de­serve ac­knowl­edge­ment.

For one, prepa­ra­tion was no longer an af­ter­thought. Se­nior men’s team camps were more struc­tured, with clear­er time­lines, more de­lib­er­ate play­er mon­i­tor­ing, and greater em­pha­sis on phys­i­cal prepa­ra­tion and co­he­sion. That alone marked an im­prove­ment from pre­vi­ous cy­cles, where prepa­ra­tion of­ten felt rushed or re­ac­tive.

​We al­so saw re­newed ef­forts to re­con­nect over­seas-based play­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly UK-born foot­ballers, with lo­cal pro­grammes. Un­der-17 and Un­der-20 res­i­den­tial camps ben­e­fit­ed from that ap­proach, bring­ing play­ers to­geth­er ear­ly enough to ac­tu­al­ly build un­der­stand­ing rather than re­ly­ing on last-minute chem­istry. De­vel­op­ment fi­nal­ly be­gan to look like a process in­stead of an emer­gency re­sponse.

On the pitch, there were per­for­mances dur­ing the World Cup qual­i­fy­ing cy­cle that showed or­gan­i­sa­tion, dis­ci­pline and tac­ti­cal buy-in. There were pe­ri­ods where T&T looked com­pact, com­pet­i­tive and men­tal­ly en­gaged, ev­i­dence that prepa­ra­tion was trans­lat­ing in­to struc­ture. Those mo­ments did not pro­duce the wins when most need­ed but they showed a base that can be built on rather than dis­man­tled.

Where crit­i­cism re­mains fair is in sus­tain­abil­i­ty.

Progress in foot­ball can­not live from win­dow to win­dow. The les­son from this year is clear: ground­work must be pro­tect­ed long af­ter the fi­nal whis­tle of a cam­paign.

At the U-17 and U-20 lev­els, this ap­proach al­lowed coach­es time to as­sess, in­te­grate and ed­u­cate play­ers on what rep­re­sent­ing T&T ac­tu­al­ly means. Good work los­es val­ue when it is not pro­tect­ed and ex­tend­ed.

Be­yond foot­ball, the wider sport­ing land­scape re­flect­ed sim­i­lar themes. Ath­letes across dis­ci­plines con­tin­ued to per­form re­gion­al­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly de­spite chal­lenges. Coach­es adapt­ed, of­ten as­sum­ing mul­ti­ple roles to keep pro­grammes mov­ing. Vol­un­teers re­mained cen­tral to ex­e­cu­tion. While this re­silience is ad­mirable, 2025 re­mind­ed us that re­silience should sup­port sys­tems, not re­place them.

An­oth­er no­tice­able shift this year was the tone of pub­lic dis­course. Me­dia in­ter­views be­came sharp­er. Ad­min­is­tra­tors were asked about time­lines, plan­ning and out­comes rather than in­ten­tions alone. Con­ver­sa­tions around gov­er­nance, lead­er­ship and ath­lete wel­fare be­came more in­formed and less emo­tion­al. Sport­ing cul­tures im­prove when ex­pec­ta­tions rise.

Lead­er­ship, one of the re­cur­ring themes in my writ­ing this year—proved de­ci­sive in prac­tice. Where pro­grammes func­tioned best, roles were de­fined and com­mu­ni­ca­tion was clear.

Play­ers un­der­stood ex­pec­ta­tions. Coach­es op­er­at­ed with­in a frame­work. Where clar­i­ty was miss­ing, per­for­mance and mes­sag­ing suf­fered. Align­ment, more than am­bi­tion, sep­a­rat­ed progress from frus­tra­tion.

2025 al­so showed the val­ue and chal­lenge of un­com­fort­able voic­es. For­mer play­ers and an­a­lysts who chal­lenged ac­cept­ed norms sparked de­bate that was some­times un­easy. Small sport­ing so­ci­eties of­ten re­sist dis­rup­tion, but growth rarely comes from com­fort. The task for 2026 is learn­ing how to chan­nel those con­ver­sa­tions in­to con­struc­tive change rather than de­fen­sive stand­offs.

De­spite its chal­lenges, this year reaf­firmed one en­dur­ing truth: sport still mat­ters deeply in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Com­mu­ni­ty grounds re­mained ac­tive. Youth tour­na­ments buzzed with en­er­gy. Na­tion­al teams con­tin­ued to draw sup­port, even when re­sults test­ed pa­tience. Pas­sion was nev­er in ques­tion.

The les­son from 2025 is not that we failed but it’s that ef­fort alone is no longer enough. In­tent must be matched by ex­e­cu­tion, and prepa­ra­tion by con­sis­ten­cy. The pos­i­tives are there: im­proved plan­ning, youth in­vest­ment, greater ac­count­abil­i­ty. What comes next is pro­tect­ing those gains long enough for them to take root.

As we head in­to 2026, the op­por­tu­ni­ty is clear. Build on what worked. Be hon­est about what didn’t. And most im­por­tant­ly, re­sist the urge to re­set every time mo­men­tum be­comes un­com­fort­able.

That is how progress be­comes per­ma­nent.

The year 2026 presents a crowd­ed and im­por­tant sport­ing cal­en­dar. Foot­ball re­mains front and cen­tre with the FI­FA World Cup in North Amer­i­ca, while T&T’s se­nior men's fo­cus will in­clude FI­FA Se­ries match­es in March in Uzbek­istan, Con­ca­caf U-17 and U-20 men’s qual­i­fiers, women’s World Cup qual­i­fy­ing rounds, and con­tin­ued ex­po­sure through the Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­ons Cup for De­fence Force. In crick­et, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup ear­ly in the year will again re­mind the re­gion of the stan­dards re­quired at the elite lev­el.

These mo­ments un­der­line a sim­ple truth: op­por­tu­ni­ty is com­ing. Our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is to keep in­vest­ing in youth, de­vel­op­ment and clear path­ways, so prepa­ra­tion, not po­ten­tial, de­fines our fu­ture.