‘Dr Mac’ inspires victory

Dr Mac, as she is fondly known, reinforced this motto to Dwight Yorke in a scolding pep talk with the TT football captain at a reception during the Soca Warriors’ recent visit to Tobago. Speaking exclusively with Sunday Newsday, McKenzie recalled how she was thrown into the role of counselling psychologist for the team by “The Coach,” Bertille St Clair.

“Some team has to score first. If two teams are playing one has to score first. If the other team scores first, it just means you are next, and you next after that! Go with God, go with faith.”

Dr Mac recalled that years ago when St Clair was at Signal Hill he used to call her to “psyche” his football team. While he took care of the technical work and the skill, he thought that without the mind to carry the skill and the body, something was missing. Out of the blue one day he told her: “You have to come and talk to the football team.”

When she protested, citing her lack of knowledge of the game, St Clair countered: “No, you have to tell these fellas to believe in themselves.”

Enter Dr McKenzie, the “psychologist”!

“And I ‘psyched’ Signal Hill, so when they went down to Trinidad to play against the colleges, and they would come from behind and win, people would sit up and take notice,” she said.

“I used to carry them through some paces so that they could believe in themselves, to believe they have the skill, they have the best coaches, they are the stronger team, they are good, they could do it. I also advised them — keep your eyes on the ball, you are there to play as if your life depended on it; play ball! And that was our slogan, play ball, play ball — Dwight Yorke, Rensyl Dillon, Wendell Moore, Nigel Davidson, Colvin Hutchinson, all those boys.”

She said this continued through the years and today is no exception. Dr Mac asserted that she is very proud of Yorke’ s achievement, especially “playing to the end.” She said this was one piece of advice she drummed into his head.

“One of the things that I used to tell them, is that you play to the end, because sometimes it is the psychology. Another team feels ‘it’s two minutes to the end, we already up two-nil, they can’t come back in two minutes.’

And I would tell them ‘you play until the last whistle is blown, and even when the referee blows the whistle, you may think it is the referee and it is somebody in the stadium who is playing the fool, don’t stop until you see the referee start to walk off.’”

Dr Mac said she felt that psyche of years ago paid off when Yorke scored in the last two minutes for Manchester United to register that famous win in the UEFA Cup.

“ I thought that was where my words had meaning to him,” she asserted.

“Play ball, it is now they (TT team) have to play ball; this is serious business!” Dr Mac declared.