Yorke urges Patience Hill students to achieve their goals

“There are no secrets to success, you have to work for it if you really want it,” Yorke told the students in an hour-long interactive session.

“Coming from the village of Canaan/ Bon-Accord, literally from nothing to something and having the right mindset, I was very lucky that I had good guidance in Bertille St Clair in terms of guiding me and giving me the coaching material but ultimately it has to come down to the individual and how badly you want it and to focus and obviously stay away from all the bad things. I want young people to know that you can make it, you can achieve the goals that you want to achieve if you really have the right fundamentals,” he said.

Yorke, who visited the school on the invitation of Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Secretary of Youth Affairs and Sport, Jomo Pitt said he intends to visit more schools in the future with the aim of inspiring the younger generation.

“My affiliation with the THA going forward as Sport and Tourism Ambassador, something that we are trying to extend is Sport Education and I feel that both sport and education go hand in hand. This is something that I have always tried to get into the system and I am glad that it is finally being implemented. I intend to visit a lot more schools going forward, interact with the kids so they can have an insight not just that I’ve been there and done it but I can also share my experience with these kids as well,” he said.

The football legend said that he intends to continue working alongside Pitt for the development of sport on the island.

“I am trying to put something together that these kids would not just get the best training but get the best person that could probably talk to them and try to encourage them in the right direction,” he said.

Questioned about his contribution to the development of sport on the island, Yorke said testimony lies in his home town Canaan/ Bon-Accord.

“I am sure everybody has their opinion on that, I think you just have to look through my foundation.

I have the Dwight Yorke Foundation that contributes a lot to Bon-Accord and Baby Jo’s school, those are schools that I have been to that I have given to for a number of years, but I am not one of the individual who goes about and brags, you just have to go down in my part of the world that I live. What I should do and I think what the foundation is trying to do is to reach out to more kids across the spectrum of Tobago and certainly in Trinidad as well,” he said.

Yorke said, football in Trinidad and Tobago needs some attention.

“To be quite honest, since 2006 when we qualified for the World Cup, football has not been the highest and this is something that we definitely need to look at.

Whether it is that the local system is not working, whether the emphasis is on the correct coaching is made, I am sure those aspects needs to be addressed, all of those aspects maybe needs to improve and I am sure that we can certainly with my expertise and being out there and the know-how and what it takes,” he said.

Yorke, who captained this country to its first ever appearance at the FIFA World Cup in 2006, believes the chances of qualifying for the 2018 edition are “pretty tough”.

“They have a very tough order in terms of qualifying, things have not been going particularly great. We know that (previous coach Stephen) Hart has done a wonderful job in terms of getting them to the qualification knockout stage, that hasn’t really kicked on, they have struggled in terms of getting results. We know that they got a new manager in Dennis Lawrence, now I wish obviously Dennis all the luck but he has a tough task.

We obviously tend to do things the difficult way, we don’t like to get off to a good start but whether they can turn things around, I think it would be extremely difficult.

We managed to do it back in the days (in 2005) but I think maybe we need to start again and when I say start again, we’ve got six years for the 2022 World Cup and the start to put things into place from now rather than two years prior to the 2022 World Cup,” Yorke said.