By Donald Duff
Dennis La Rose is a free man.
Free from a burden he had carried on his broad shoulders and in his heart ever since he left Guyana some 12 years ago.
The year was 1992 and La Rose was the coach of the national team for the Caribbean Championships which was to be held here.
“They had brought a man from the USA to be the coach of the national team. “He spent two weeks and went back so I ended up being national coach,” La Rose recounted in an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport.
“We won the junior and senior titles through Robin Anthony and Sydney Christophe while Godfrey Munroe and Christophe gained a silver medal in the men’s doubles,” he recalled.
The very next year the championships were held in Jamaica and La Rose said he was replaced by Colin France.
The move made La Rose a bitter man.
“Godfrey Wray told me I had no overseas experience which was why he sent Colin France to Jamaica. I went and filed a complaint to president of the Guyana Table Tennis Association, Kim Kissoon, who took it upon himself to send me to Jamaica with some money. I was instructed by Kissoon not to do any coaching.”
But La Rose said while in Jamaica he saw that the team was in trouble and intervened and was able to assist Dennis France to win the boy’s singles title.
“It was the only title we won,” La Rose recalled.
“When I came back I said “That’s it,’ chose a country if my country was going to be so cruel to me after all the hard work, sacrifice and success and I decided to go to Trinidad.”
La Rose had been coaching since 1983 mainly at the Thomas Lands YMCA where a number of players including Robin Anthony, Paul David, Rawle Glasgow, Troy Mc Rae, Dwayne Dick, Jo Ann Johnson, Shaheed Hallim and Jeremy Baddley, trained regularly.
A bitter La Rose left Guyana on February 19, 1996.
“While in Trinidad I made a promise that the only way I would return was if I could prove to them that I was the best coach and here I am 12 years later I have won the singles and doubles title in the boys’ Under-18 category and the boys’ Under-15 team events. I left as a winner and I am going back to Trinidad as a winner.”
For most of the four-day tournament La Rose’s Trinidadian players fought neck-and-neck with their regional counterparts and it was quite evident that Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago were the strongest teams.
La Rose was a virtual “Lone Wolf McQuade’ taking on the Guyana coaching staff of Linden Johnson, France and Godfrey Munroe in the battles between his Trinidad players and the Guyanese.
For most of the tournament his demeanour composed and so it came as quite a surprise when La Rose burst into uncontrollable tears after Kenwin Small won the boys’ Under-18 singles final in the final match of the championships by beating Don Walker Petinaud of Jamaica 11-6, 7-11,11-9, 11-8, 11-4.
The sight of the grown man weeping into the shoulders of Guyana umpire Vernon Rodrigues was one of the defining moments of the championships.
La Rose’s Trinidad teams carted off the boys Under-18 and Under-15 team titles, and the Under-15 mixed doubles title.
Trinidad also reached the finals of the Under-18 mixed doubles and Under-15 boys doubles events.
Why did he come back?
“I feel they felt I did not deserve any recognition and so I came back to prove to the GTTA that they had someone great and they let it go,” La Rose said of his first time back home in the land of his birth.
Will you come back to Guyana to coach sometime in the future?
“I can’t answer that right now. I still feel bitter at not getting any remuneration, any recognition.”
“In Trinidad I have a club of my own Carenage Blasters, in Port-of-Spain. I have a group of 35 youngsters and receive $TT 700 a week. The club gets financial support from parents and different companies.
La Rose said they have a programme which entails national training some three times a week at different venues depending on availability.
The club also gets assistance from the Trinidad and Tobago Table Tennis Association (TTTTA), he said.
La Rose is the national junior coach of Trinidad and Tobago with a responsibility for the training and development of junior and cadet players. He also does a spot of private training as well and his rates range around the $TT150 an hour mark.
His frank assessment of Guyana table tennis was that…“It’s getting back there.”
He noted that there was a couple of young players coming up and singled out Elishaba Johnson and Jamaal Duff.
“These are players that the GTTA should start grooming. Have them travel. No tournament should be too expensive to expose them to.”
Back home La Rose will start preparing the team for upcoming international tournaments such as the upcoming World Junior and World Cadet championships in November once the teams qualify.
Why did he cry?
“I left hurt and made a promise and it came through.”
