This coun­try's first-ever pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball team, Avi­a­tion Ser­vices Lim­it­ed (ASL), will be host­ing its sixth re­union match at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um Train­ing Ground in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain, Sat­ur­day (Sep­tem­ber 27) at 3 pm, tak­ing on Es­sex Old Boys of St James.

Among those ex­pect­ed to be in ac­tion are the first cap­tain of ASL, Ron La For­est, El­liot Al­leyne, Wa­ter­man broth­ers Mar­lon and Hay­den, Dean Quam­i­na, Lennox Eve, Kegan Pelti­er, Emer­son Du­biseau, Neil Suzan­no, Samuel Llewellyn, An­tho­ny Fer­nan­des and Ju­nior Phillips.

Earl "Spi­der­man" Carter and Leroy Spann were al­so part of the orig­i­nal ASL line­up, which was formed in 1980. How­ev­er, nei­ther will be play­ing to­day.

This year, ASL has been work­ing on reach­ing out to young men and women in im­pov­er­ished and rur­al com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try. Ac­cord­ing to Sec­re­tary of the ASL Pi­o­neers Gideon Charles, "The guys be­lieve they have a lot to of­fer, es­pe­cial­ly to young men in Trinidad and To­ba­go, to let them know that ASL was the first pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball team in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Sam­my (Llewellyn), along with An­tho­ny Fer­nan­dez and Ver­non Jeri­cho Charles, said 'let's come up with some­thing to keep the tra­di­tion go­ing, to keep the name of ASL.'"

Charles, who was a sup­port­er back then, added: "Last year, we came up with the idea. In the past, that was not a part of the plan. We draft­ed up a con­sti­tu­tion that would en­able us to have a trade­mark so we have this tra­di­tion now so peo­ple will know who we are, where we are from and what we plan to do. We are rais­ing funds to help. We are hav­ing a fete dur­ing Car­ni­val of 2026."

ASL was formed in 1980 at the Wood­brook Youth Cen­tre by Arthur Suite, the founder. The first coach was Rob­by Greenidge. He was fol­lowed by Brazil­ian William Kem­pes San­ta Rosa and then Alvin Corneal.

ASL won the Third Di­vi­sion that year and ASL own­er Suite want­ed the team to play the big teams at that time but would get the squad in­to the Port-of-Spain League. Suite then start­ed a Big Four di­vi­sion with Pa­lo Seco, De­fence Force and Mem­phis (of Ari­ma).

The Big Four match­es were played at the PSA Ground in Long Cir­cu­lar, con­sid­ered a mec­ca of foot­ball at that time. The fans came out in droves to watch the match­es. ASL won the hearts of the fans, es­pe­cial­ly from Care­nage, Co­corite and St James and cap­tured the Big Four ti­tle. Fol­low­ing the suc­cess, ASL was pro­mot­ed in­to the new­ly formed Pre­mier League, which fea­tured Chal­lengers, Es­sex and San Fer­nan­do Strik­ers, among oth­ers.

The orig­i­nal ASL won the Pre­mier ti­tle in 1981, 1982 and 1983. (Kairi­belle­sports)