Goalie Hyatt thinks Arnett fans have embraced him
BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic — Arnett Gardens fans are said to be some of the most football wise, passionate and very hard to please, and it took goalkeeper Damion Hyatt a number of years to win their hearts.
“Tough fans, but I have won them over. The first season they gave me a warm time, but I have them under control now,” said Hyatt.
Hyatt, 30, who joined the club nine years ago, has not only established himself as the number one choice of Coach Jerome Waite, but has also caught the eyes of the national coaching staff.
He has been invited on a number of occasions to train with the Reggae Boyz, and there are those who argue the case that he may be the best goalkeeper on the island.
“It’s a good feeling to get called up a couple of times for the national programme. I have put in some hard work and it is paying off. It can only get better if I keep doing what I have to do,” he told
the Jamaica Observer as he prepared for another clean sheet between the sticks against SV Notch of Suriname.
Hyatt, who attended Glengoffe High, a school without a playing field, keeps a rich Arnett Gardens tradition of producing top-class goalkeepers over the years.
Not since the late 1970s, with Errol ‘Cat’ Anderson and then Omar Brown in the 1990s, have Arnett Gardens produced a quality goalkeeper who has earned national invitation.
Now Arnett have two goalkeepers in Hyatt and Peter Harrison who have been invited to Jamaica’s training camps in recent times.
“He (Harrison) gets called up too and Arnett have two good goalkeepers, so we have to be on top of our game at all times because if you’re not, the next one can go in. So you have to be up there at all times,” Hyatt explains.
“It (competition with other goalkeeper) pushes me because no one wants to sit on the bench, so I have to be on my A game at all times,” Hyatt noted.
The imposing shot-stopper, who says he is strength is in the air, believes, just like good wine, he is getter better with age.
“Each game I play I get better and better, and I am enjoying my game,” said Hyatt.
– Howard Walker
