Banishing demons to grab athletics gold
I had long promised myself that I would attend this year’s Ashanti Regional Inter-School Athletics Superzonal event at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, having been involved to an extent in the Opoku Ware School’s preparations for some time.
It had been 18 long years since we won at this prestigious event and I was cautiously optimistic that this year would be the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
The boys were fired up and they were hungry for glory.
It was not until Friday evening, when the trophy had been won, whisked away at high speed and was safely in the headmaster’s custody on compound, that I realised that whilst I was busy at the stadium calculating the points the boys were bringing home at the end of each event, two important, unrelated events had conspired to slide quietly below my usually eagle-eyed political radar.
Like the famed Roman emperor Nero, it appeared I had been fiddling at the stadium whilst bombs rained from the air in the Middle East and Parliament buzzed with pomp and circumstances alongside some good-natured partisan drama during the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Fond stadium memories, victory at last!
Sitting in the stands with fellow Akatakyie, the athletes and their trainers brought back so many fond, vibrant memories of over 40 years ago.
The tracks that many worthy athletes had pounded during their glory days on their way to national and international stardom stared back at me.
In the shimmering distance, students chanted the glories of their respective schools, oblivious to the glare of the sun, with the ladies, primarily, seeking refuge under umbrellas.
Back in the 1980s, as secondary school students and feeling on top of the world, we thought we were the best thing that had happened to humanity.
For us, this was better than Christmas and we looked forward to it with eagerness, saving whatever coins we could.
The spectacular, intensely competitive races, sometimes with records smashed and smashed again.
The loud singing by excited, charged students from various schools in an effort to drown out their rivals as they taunted them.
The valiant efforts by young boys dressed to the nines in their spotless school uniforms and highly polished shoes, on their best behaviour trying to win the charms of young girls from other schools.
Then when darkness beckoned, the beeline for Star and Pink Panther nightclubs by the more daring boys — and girls, of course.
The meeker ones dutifully boarded the bus back to school. It was a true and proper carnival out there.
The victory on Friday, following three days of running, jumping and throwing, was sweet and exhilarating, made even more delicious by the fact that it had been 18 long years since we last won and our arch rivals Prempeh College trailed comfortably in second place — a fact I have not been shy to rub in the faces of my friends from there.
Some of them have refused to pick my calls since Friday, clearly suspicious of my motives.
Securing the future
There is no doubt in the mind of even the most casual observer that on the senior high school athletics scene, the Ashanti Region does it like no other.
We put on a truly wonderful show and it is a useful lightening rod in many ways.
Legends such as Ohene Karikari, Sandy Osei Agyemang, Rex Brobbey, Christian Nsiah (all old boys of Opoku Ware) and many others from around the region honed their skills on the tracks of the Baba Yara Stadium and went on to make this country proud on the international stage.
Of course, other regions have contributed their quota to athletic talent in this country.
As social media and modern phone technology combine to make it possible for senior high school athletics and sports in general to come to us wherever we may be, I hope that those that matter will begin to harness and nurture the huge talent that young students have been exhibiting over the years in our quest for national in track and field.
This year’s well-organised Ashanti athletics festival unearthed a number of dazzling athletes with grit, confidence and resilience, and it would be a shame to allow them to wither and disappear after leaving senior high school. We simply cannot afford to lose them.
As the competition has grown more intense over the years and sports in general has become a matter of prestige in our school firmament, senior high schools have not been sitting on their oars hoping that talented athletes in the junior high schools will choose their schools.
They actually go out there, scout talent at the junior games and effectively woo these students and their parents to choose their schools for their SHS education.
It is a whole industry.
I think athletics has a bright future in this country in terms of public interest. Hopefully, as social media access brings more viewership and interest, corporate Ghana will dock into it in a more meaningful way, as it has with the National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ), and bring in the much-needed support to grow athletics in Ghana.
But those in charge of these games must be deliberate about full social media involvement and bringing in corporate sponsorship. Things do not just happen.
Bragging rights
At the Opoku Ware School, we have confronted and banished our demons at last and have every right to brag about this incredible feat as we glow with pride over the team’s achievement.
But for Lent, I would have cracked a bottle of beer in celebration.
However, over the next few weeks, anyone who has ears to hear us will hear from us, especially our Prempeh College brothers.
As we prepare for our 75th anniversary next year, may the gold dust from this glorious victory rub off our other nemesis — the NSMQ — and set us on the path of a winning streak after 24 years of drought on that stage.
Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng.
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