Over-40 soccer players with Caribbean roots play in tournament in Land O'Lakes
By
David Rice, Times Correspondent
In Print: Wednesday, July 21, 2010
LAND
O'LAKES — Old friends and long time opponents gathered at the Land O'Lakes Recreation
Complex on Saturday to re-create rivalries of Jamaican and Caribbean youth
soccer from decades before.
The event was the inaugural Tampa Albion Masters, an over-40 tournament for
teams from around the country that have some former players from the Albion
League of Jamaica. The organizers — Carrollwood FC Masters player Greg
Phillips, who lives in Odessa, and Roger Gordon-Martin, a Land O'Lakes resident
who once played internationally for Jamaica — plan to make it a yearly
gathering.
"We live here and we know the facility is nice, so we decided to hold it
here in Land O'Lakes," Phillips said. "These guys out here are mostly
guys who played in Jamaica together and then migrated to play in college, and
met people in college and play together now. Some of the guys out here played
internationally as well."
The tournament was composed of four teams from Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale
and the Bronx, N.Y. The teams usually play in masters leagues in their
hometowns, where the quality of play is high enough to sustain their interest.
Organizers brought in three FIFA-approved referees for the tournament. Lamar
Duja, an American who plays with Phillips on the Carrollwood FC team, said the
veterans still have the ability to play an entertaining match.
"I like the idea that these Caribbean guys have come up with," Duja
said. "These older guys are pretty good. You'd be surprised; they don't
need to run a lot anymore. They know what they're doing, so you can't let the
age fool you. A team only needs one or two guys that can really run."
The tournament was held in a round-robin format, featuring matches with
20-minute halves. Then the top two teams played for the championship.
Santos FC, the Bronx team, bested their rivals from Fort Lauderdale in the
final, winning 4-2 on penalty kicks.
Still, there was more than competitive pride at stake. The event also was about
preserving old friendships and passing on the ideas of one generation of
Caribbean people to another. Co-organizer Gordon-Martin said camaraderie was
one of the most important reasons to put the event together.
"It's good for us to come together again and reminisce,"
Gordon-Martin said. "One important part of this is getting our kids
together and they see who we grew up with and how we are. It's a social gathering
for all of us who knew each other way back
when, but it's more than that, too, because we all have families now."
The tournament was organized quickly, which limited the number of teams able to
come. But organizers hope to have more participants in the future.
"There are a lot of teams that could have been here that aren't because we
did this very last minute," Gordon-Martin said. "It can bring people
from other places into the area, and it keeps the hotels busy in the off-season.
We live up here in Pasco, so it's always nice to bring people down here and to
Tampa to play."
Cool Runnings FC’s captain attempts to power a free kick over the Santos wall. Cool Runnings later won the match, the first of the tournament, by way of penalty kicks after overtime.