I think it was just natural that as youngsters at the time we played football and cricket and the major sports at the time were certainly football, cricket and track and field. In schools as such those were the sports that were focused on.

So it was just something that as a young boy all of us played football, and certainly with the background of my father who played football as well.

So it was a natural inclination for me to become an athlete as well.

: I can vividly remember getting up very early in the morning to get dressed for school at Southampton Glebe which was just about a mile away from my home on Woodlawn Road, Sandys. We left home early because when my mother and father left the house we had to leave as well, but I made sure I got up early and dressed early so that I could have some time before we left to go to school to play football.

Every morning in the yard I was kicking a ball. And that was good for me because that was another opportunity to play football. So I played football before school started, I played football during recess and then again after school.

It was just a passion that I had to play football. So there were lots of opportunities for practice and from the very beginning football has always been my passion.

: At the same time I was developing physical skills, I was also developing administrative skills organising tournaments in the backyard; setting up schedules and the times for the matches and so on.

And, there were a number of us in the neighbourhood who used to play Subuteo and so organising the league schedule for that I was also developing administrative skills at the same time and it led to organising the seven-a-side tournament at Southampton Glebe School.

So that was an important time as far as developing administrative skills.

Despite it being a table game, it required very technical skills. It was game in which you couldn't depend too much on luck to win. In Subuteo, you have to develop technical skills and if you didn't develop those skills, then you didn't stand a chance of winning.

My favourite player at that time was George Brangman and there were many players at that time in the Somerset (Trojans) team that stood out. Richard (Dirt) Simmons, Sheldon Bradshaw, Rudy Minors, Dwayne (Tricks) Richardson, certainly too many to mention.

But my favourite was George Brangman and I can remember going to Somerset matches with my family and during that time there was at least 3,000 to 4,000 people at every match.

And after the match we would go back to the neighbourhood and play and each call ourselves one of the Somerset players we had just watched.

Sometimes I tell the story about the extent to which these players were my heroes. My aunt (Iona Brangman), her husband (the late Erskine Brangman) at the time was an official at Somerset Cricket Club. And so my aunt was responsible for washing the team's uniforms and I can remember being at her house and literally watching George Brangman's jersey dry on the clothes' line.

That was how it was back then in terms of how we looked as these players as heroes. And just to be there next to his shirt was important at the time, just as it is to a six or seven year old today who comes across the shirt of Ronaldo (Brazilian star). But the game at that time was certainly more appealing than it is now.

George Brangman was my favourite player and not just from a perspective of how he played football, but also for the manner in which he carried himself. His dress on the field was immaculate and his socks were always pulled up with the bands tied around the top of his socks.

He was always very neat and very respectable as a person and so you can imagine my joy of getting into the Somerset team at 17 and George was still playing. That's probably one of the highlights that I was able to play alongside my childhood hero in the same team.

Certainly winning the championships that we won at Somerset and playing with the national team, the highlight being the two-leg tie with Haiti which we won 1-0 here and advanced to become the first Bermuda World Cup team to advance past the preliminary round (1992). Despite losing 2-1 in Haiti we still advanced and that was certainly a highlight for me.

Also a tour of Europe during my time in high school in the US I was selected as part of an East Coast All-Star football team which toured Europe. So it was another memorable occasion for me being in a real football environment, playing against top European players and being very successful.

Coming up during the time in which I came up, the FA Cup was probably ten times more prestigious than it is now in terms of just the whole atmosphere and the attention which was given to the FA Cup and going up to the old National Stadium to the finals.

I always wanted to be a part of that and couldn't wait to get into a Somerset team to be a part of that. So it is a bit of a disappointment, but at the same time you must move on. And it wasn't a situation in which I was prepared to wait until an FA Cup triumph came along to decide when to stop playing.

Once I decided to stop whatever was in the cupboards, so to speak in terms of championships, stayed there and what wasn't well . . . wasn't. The only satisfaction which regard to the FA Cup was that I did win it as a coach at North Village in my last match (2001).

: Yes, I was working at Butterfield and Company at the time, my father worked there and so during the summers I worked there as well. One day we were moving boxes along the conveyor machine and on one of the corners a box became stuck and so I got on the conveyor belt to help move it along and my foot (left) accidentally went down between where the two belts meet.

I just remember screaming. A lot of skin had come off and it was most difficult for me mostly from a cricketing perspective growing up in White Hill and naturally being a Somerset fan in Cup Match. That was in 1979, and the incident happened two days before Cup Match and so I was in hospital during the Cup Match that Somerset won the cup for the first time in 20 years.

So I have never experienced a Cup Match victory in Somerset. I missed the first victory during that time and so from a disappointment perspective it was more from a cricket perspective.

I could have ruined my football career but the only fortunate thing was that my foot was too small. Had it been larger then it probably would've been crushed.

I never felt like that was the end of my career, but it could've been worse.

In fact, I was playing again sooner than I should've.

I was 14 years old when I made my Western Counties debut. With my father being a Cup Match player, I guess you could say some things just rubbed off. The Western Counties experience was a good experience.

I can remember Mackie Simmons (now deceased) was the captain and I wasn't even playing regular cricket that summer but I decided one evening to go and field out at practice. I went back the next day to do the same thing and they offered me the chance to bat and then they put me in the team and I played two league matches and scored a few runs and then they put me in the county team.

The first game that I played we played against Warwick at Southampton Oval and we won the match and it was the first ever victory for Somerset Bridge in the Western Counties.

We lost in the final in the two-day game against Southampton Rangers but it was our first victory. So from a cricket standpoint, I have lived through a time when Somerset couldn't win Cup Match and Somerset Bridge couldn't win the Western County Cup.

So to have been a part of the first Somerset Bridge team to win the Western County Cup will always stay with me. But it was immediately following the final round loss to Southampton that I discovered my real interest was not in cricket. So that was my last match until recently playing in the Commercial League. After that all of my focus and concentration was on football.

: Being the athlete that my father was certainly had an influence on me as far as being a sportsman. One of the things that I say to people when we get into this conversation is that he didn't push me to be an athlete.

Basically, he followed whatever I wanted to do and was there for guidance. So his passing naturally was a shock and it was a situation from a perspective whereby being lost at sea is a very difficult situation to deal with.

In your mind there's always that chance that he's still alive. So the days following the storm and him not coming in, in my mind I felt that they were OK and any day now they would be rescued. On the Sunday after the storm I had to play a match for Somerset Eagles in the Second Division and I ended up scoring two goals and I remember someone commenting that it was incredible that I had played so well despite the situation my family were going through at the time.

But everything happens for a reason and my father's passing helped me to mature a lot quicker than I was at that time. That was all a part of life and I was young (16) and we were certainly saddened but even at that age I was able to accept that this was a part of life.

Again, everything happens for a reason and who knows what I might have been had he been alive. Maybe the things that I don't take for granted now I might have.

My last full season playing for North Village during the 1989-90 season, I really enjoyed myself at Village. At the time Andrew (Bascome) was the coach and so being able to play with the guidance of Andrew was very appealing to me and that was one of the reasons I ended up playing there.

But by the end of the season and Andrew was no longer the coach, there was something I talk about a lot now: meeting the expectations of the players. On the whole, my expectations were not met. Whenever I went to the training ground I was looking for more.

I just didn't find the things that I was looking for from football programmes in Bermuda. At the end of that season I recall expressing to the current president at North Village, Shervin Dill, at the time that I would be moving on and that I had been invited to be the coach at Somerset Eeagles.

And at that point one of the things that I said to myself was that I would do whatever possible to ensure that players that come into a programme which is led by me, their expectations would be met. So I look at it from a standpoint that I had to sacrifice myself a little bit because I was only 26 at the time.

So I had to sacrifice playing in order to maybe get on the bandwagon of improving football in Bermuda and help meet the expectations of players. I started off with senior players but the next season I was the coach of Somerset's (Trojans) youth team and that was a tremendous experience because the players' response to the environment that I put them in was fantastic.

And it was at that point that I decided to go back to school because it was at that point that I knew that I was required and needed in youth development and not just from a football perspective because they were asking me questions outside of football sometimes.

So I returned to school and studied becoming a teacher because of the positive impact that I saw that I had on young people.

While I was away in school I had an idea of the type of programme I wanted to be a part of and the type of programme that I wanted to implement.

Whenever I came back to Bermuda I always spoke with Shervin (Dill) and at the time we spoke extensively about setting up this type of programme at Village. By the time I graduated I had an offer from Somerset Bridge Recreation Club president Pop Simmons and I remember saying to Shervin that I had to go and pursue this offer at Somerset Bridge because that was my neighbourhood.

I put together a programme that had players from seven to 11 years of age and it a very good programme and a very good team, they played very good football.

However, the unfortunate thing was that the environment was not conducive to youth development, football-wise and socially. And no one was prepared to do anything about it, the negative behaviour by many in the area.

So it got to a point where I knew that I had to end the programme there because in my mind I always felt these boys of no more than 11 years of age, who every day were walking past this negative behaviour on their way to training and again on their way out, sooner or later would stop, either on their way or on their way out and become a part of that negativity.

So with that in mind, I had to put an end to the programme. But during that time North Village were requesting my services and I can remember the president at the time Rudolph Hollis approaching me on two occasions and both times I turned them down.

But by the time he came with the third request I knew that we had to end the programme. Many people don't know this but before I negotiated anything about a contract at North Village, one of the most important things for me was what would happen with these young players (Somerset Eagles youth players) because I just didn't want to leave them or cut them off.

So these players were given the option to come under the North Village banner but still train in their own neighbourhood. Most of the parents rejected that and that was fine because they had the option. Sometimes I wonder a little bit about some of the things that are happening at North Village, that same blueprint was on the table at Somerset Bridge Recreation and Somerset Cricket Clubs. So who knows?

It's been very interesting being in this position. The challenges I can understand from being a Bermudian and living in Bermuda how difficult it can be. Generally, the mentality is one of resistance to change and in order to improve you must change.

I understand fully the challenge I have and I can accept the criticism of a person trying to bring change in the name of progress to the Bermuda community. But certainly at the Bermuda Football Association, we are making tremendous strides.

The youth programme and the vision that we have for youth development we see them as an important first step to realising the progress we are looking for in the future. And yes, there's going to be resistance; there's going to be criticisms, there's going to be all of that.

But I believe in years to come people will look back and the same things that we are resisting and criticising now we will all accept as being a point that was very important to some of the relative success that we can be achieved in the future, and I 've been through it all before at North Village.