Dedication, determination, and discipline are the three traits necessary to be successful in life, the head coach of the T&T Men's National Senior Football team Dennis Lawrence pointed out to the young footballers from the Morvant area. However, he stressed that of all these discipline is the key.
He made the statements during the Church on the Rock Football Awards ceremony held in Morvant on Friday night as he challenged the young footballers to turn the negatives in their lives into positives because as a youngster he left school at age 15.
"I didn't have the opportunity to play in the Secondary Schools Football league, I played 12 minutes in the Intercol, that was it, 12 minutes," he said.
"I was told by the coach at the time that you will never make it in football because you're too small, these were the things that were told to me," Lawrence said.
At age 17 Lawrence said he got his first job working at a supermarket for $135 a week.
He stayed there for four years while also playing football for Caledonia AIA.
Lawrence eventually left that job when he got into the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force.
After spending four years in the TTDF he went to the United Kingdom to play football.
And at age 24 Lawrence finally got his first chance at playing for the T&T Senior Men's Football team and wore the national colours 89 times.
The lanky defender pointed out to the gathering that among those appearances were the World Cup finals in Germany in 2006. In fact, it was his goal against Bahrain in the away match on November 15, 2005, that qualified the Soca Warriors as one of the 32 finalists.
He thanked God and lauded his team-mates for that opportunity. "What was great about it is I learnt how to change the negatives to positives and make it part of my process," Lawrence said about his journey through life.
He continued, "So what I did was every single time somebody said to me Dennis you cannot do this, I took it and I showed them that I can. You have to believe in yourself. For me it's you either win or you learn," he said.
Lawrence advised the young footballers that an important part of life is learning to differentiate between "friends and associates".
He pointed out, "It took me a while to understand the difference between friends and associates. Your friends will encourage you to do the right thing," he said. "You need to be able to differentiate them very quickly because if you want to achieve things in your life if you want to accomplish things if you want to be part of the process to great things you have to become independent."
The teams honoured at the ceremony on Friday were Morvant Football Academy, Shaka F.C., Malick Secondary School, East Mucurapo Secondary and Church on the Rock F.C.
Church on the Rock, which is part of the Open Bible Standard Churches, believes it can utilise football to help the youth in Morvant, senior pastor Rev. Dr Benjamin Agard said.
And as such has placed an emphasis on developing the sport in the area, he said.