After two decades under the sometimes blinding spotlight of top flight soccer, former Devonshire Colts player-coach Lorenzo Symonds is relishing life away from the soccer pitch.

Symonds, who as a player made his mark as a stylish midfielder-sweeper during the 1980s when he captained Bermuda, said that he is only now beginning to really enjoy the finer trappings of life, especially related to his family and work.

"Well, it's true I've been in soccer so long...it's been 20 years or so and I just wanted to do different things, I just want to play football and enjoy myself,'' said Symonds.

"I might poke around a little with (Commercial League soccer), but just a little. I intend to play more or less backyard football and do my own thing. I just felt like I wanted more time to myself.'' As a member of Devonshire Colts there was nothing selfish about Symonds -- the epitome of elegance both on and off the pitch, qualities which earned him respect throughout local soccer.

Former coach and mentor Donald Dane, who regarded Symonds as "a son to me'' described Symonds as "an excellent person who thrives on a challenge and always wants to do the best he possibly can in any situation.'' "He's a very proud person and if you have pride you don't want to ever look bad, thus you do your homework,'' said Dane, who first took Symonds under his wing as a precocious teenager laden with natural talent.

"He was good as captain and a player for Devonshire Colts and he was good as captain and a player for the national team.

"I travelled with him on a few occasions as president (of the Bermuda Football Association) to the Caribbean and United States for national commitments. He was always prompt and well organised...he led by example.'' The same style accompanied him to the bench where he rarely became unruffled.

Even if his team was playing poorly Symonds would always seek methods of reversing the negative outlook and turn it into a weapon for something positive.

However, while circumstances dictated he get involved with coaching, Symonds said it was never his intention to coach, although he derived much pleasure in that role.

"It was something that was more or less put onto me to do, it wasn't something that I thought I could do as far as coaching.'' explained Symonds in his soft, mellow tone. "It was suggested to me by coaches from the past who thought that I could do the job and left it in my hands.

"I had a three-year programme in mind when I went in and the club knew this and I went for five years, which was longer than I expected and I feel that I have put back into the game for Devonshire Colts what they gave me.'' Symonds took over the team from Marvin Campbell at the start of the 1990-91 season after it had been relegated to Second Division status, engineering a swift return to the top flight despite a mass exodus of talent at the end of 1991.

He followed that success by steering Colts to a Martonmere Cup berth the following season and in 1993 enjoyed perhaps his most productive as a coach as Colts challenged for every major trophy on offer, placing second in the league, FA Cup and Friendship Trophy competitions, garnering the title of bridesmaids -- one they have yet to relinquish.

Fortunes dipped in 1994 where a third place finish in the league was all that could be mustered and the spiral continued last season as injuries and player unavailability contributed to an eighth-place finish.

Regarding 1994-95 as an anomaly, Symonds expressed a degree of satisfaction over his stewardship, suggesting winning to be not the sole measuring stick for success.

"What we were trying to achieve was getting guys to play good soccer, because a lot of teams play, kick and run and I really wanted them (Colts) to play at a level where they really enjoyed football, enjoyed the way the ball rolled and how things flowed within the game and once you start to lose it or feel you can't get it then you've sort of lost your direction,'' said Symonds. He suggested that some of the lustre may have been lost and a new man could be the tonic for a team he feels to have the potential to become champions.

"I feel that the team needed something new. I feel that they needed something to motivate them and I felt that a new coach could possibly do that.

"My job was to try to improve players and I feel that I did that. There was a time when Burkhard Ziese was here that I had at least seven guys that were included in the national programme and for that to happen under my coaching tour or guide that's something that might not have been considered to happen and I feel that I helped to improve them.

"One of the important things I see them as needing to do is to be focussed again, just to get the focus and the drive to want to do something together as a team. In the last two years for different reasons it's been `this five would be playing and this five can't' because of maybe the Under-23's or maybe school and all sorts of reasons why we were never at full strength.'' While he has relinquished the proverbial `hot seat', Symonds will not be far from the action as he intends to aid in the transition of new coach Vic Ball, a former team-mate of Symonds and similarly a centre-back.

Symonds will assist on an irregular basis and refused to shut the door on a return to the sidelines, saying "there's always a possibility of coming back.'' LORENZO SYMONDS -- "I just wanted to do different things.''