San Joaquin Village has always had a strong football team, as far as Corozal football was concerned, but not good enough for national participation.

Jose Castro (Tito), former coach of Queen’s Park Rangers, came to work with Tate & Lyle Ltd. and made San Joaquin his home. He got hold of the village boys and started training them in modern soccer methods. However, it was not until Mr. Raymond Ysaguirre appeared on the scene that San Joaquin really started making the headlines.

At that time there were several immigrant stars from the Queen’s Park Rangers working with Tate & Lyle, so he organized this group along with Tito’s trainees, and thus was the seed planted in early 1968 for the present San Joaquin team.

Immediately, San Joaquin started on the success run when in 1969 they won the Knock-out Championship and was second in the National League. In 1970 there was no Knock-out competition; however, they won the League Championship, which was repeated again in 1971. In addition to this, they emerged victors of a Quadrangular Championship during 1970 in Chetumal, Quintana Roo.

Almost at the end of the 1970 Competition, Tito Castro was unable to continue coaching the team due to illness; and Mr. R. Ysaguirre, manager, approached Mr. Leslie Sharp, former coach of the Queen’s Park Rangers, to assist the team during the 1971 Competition.
The key to the overall success of this team, in my opinion, is the unfailing and loyal support of Mr. R. Ysaguirre, sponsor and manager.

The Team also owes thanks to the Belize Sugar Industries Ltd. for giving assistance from time to time.

(AMANDALA Sports Ed. Note: Because of how the dates of their championships were expressed in that story, it was sometimes not clearly recalled that San Joaquin won back-to-back regular season championships. The seasons usually started in September or October, and ended in February or March of the next year. So, their season championships would have been for the 1969-70 and the 1970-71 seasons.)