On Tuesday past, in this space midfielder Cameron Hepple was officially introduced to readers as the new team member on the KF Tirana Club in Albania. He has been one of the high profile Bahamian soccer players in recent years, along with Lesly St. Fleur and Happy Hall.

Quite often, our athletes are taken for granted. Many take credit for their successes and are present always for photo opportunities but a much smaller number has an awareness or even cares about the struggle our athletes go through in the ongoing effort to excel among their world peers.

Let's take Hepple as an example. He spent 32 hours traveling from The Bahamas to the capital city of Albania, Tirana (also known as Tirane or Tirona). He had the resolve to go almost directly to a practice session. The demonstrated dedication led to Coach Julian Rubio's decision to include the Bahamian in the KF Tirana Club's starting line-up.

Then, there was the major adjustment he had to make.  "Europe is a completely different atmosphere. It is more of a lifestyle rather than just a sport to play in the United States. It is taken a lot more seriously here by the fans, the players and the administration involved.

 The style of play is quicker and smarter compared to the USA. Here, players have more of a 'footballing' brain. The adjustment has had its challenges, dealing with the language barrier and adjusting to a completely different environment have all been factors, but, for the most part, I feel well-adjusted and my focus is only on performing and getting better as a player and representing The Bahamas in the best way I can," Hepple said as he provided me his outlook recently.

There are in fact all those other aspects that come into play for athletes prior to the actual game time.  Hepple paints a picture that clearly indicates what our sports ambassadors go through as they contribute worldwide, to the positive image of the country. This is why I seek often to make the case for the athletes and the programs they come out of, to be elevated to their rightful position of importance in this country.

For instance, here is Hepple, with his own personal objectives, but with an equal concern about building a pathway for others to follow. Hepple says he wants to play the game of soccer at the highest world level but the focus also is for his country to be noted as a producer of prime talent.  "I want to push myself to be the best that I can be.

 I want to work hard here, learn and see where that takes me. Hopefully, with my success a gateway will be opened for other Bahamian players to follow in my footsteps to play soccer professionally. I wish for a domino effect whereby The Bahamas is looked at as a destination to find players. At the end of it all, I want to be able to help the youth in The Bahamas to follow their dreams and to continue to play the beautiful game of soccer."

That's quite noble of the young lad. These are the kinds of valuable citizens our national sports program breeds. Our system should treat them accordingly.  (The second part in this series follows tomorrow. To respond to this column, kindly contact Fred Sturrup at fredericksturrup@gmail.com)

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian