March 11, 2018
Coaching was the last thing on Nana Ama’s mind when she was admitted to Ashesi, much less coaching a men’s soccer team.
However, in her sophomore year, she inspired an undefeated, championship run from a team that, only a few months before, was virtually in the last position in the Ashesi Premier League, a student-run soccer league.
“This was completely new territory,” she said, on taking the job. “However, I felt I needed to step outside my comfort zone. Though I’ve played soccer all my life, this demanded more of my mind, and not as much of my feet. I love soccer and I also love to interact and work with equally passionate people, and the Elites soccer club has very disciplined and dedicated soccer players, so I felt I could work with the team. Also, soccer, like any other sport, teaches you important life lessons of teamwork, passion, and dedication.”
After taking the job as head coach of the Elites soccer club and a mediocre first season, she had to channel some of these lessons into the second season. She learned that winning involved a mix of many little different pieces of life lessons into her game plan.
“I recognized that I don’t know everything about soccer, and more especially about coaching boys,” she explained. “There was the initial questioning of my tactical formation and strategy, so I decided to learn; I read online, watched YouTube videos and got myself well versed in coaching. As a philosophy, I rarely make impositions: rather, I open-up to suggestions, so in the end, we build a plan that is created and designed by the team. My job then is to help execute this plan. I also built a support system for the team: creating a marketing wing and a fan club. This way, I worked to earn the trust of the team.”
Though she was new to coaching, soccer was by no means new to her. Growing up, Nana Ama was exposed to soccer at an early age. Her earliest playmates, her cousins and brother, mostly played only soccer.
“As a toddler, I would cry because I couldn’t play with my rough and rowdy cousins and brother when they played soccer,” she said. “Eventually they decided to teach me to play soccer, and that was goodbye to dolls and teddy bears for me. In time, my dad became my personal trainer and coach, helping me hone my skills, and my mum was always in the stands to support me emotionally and psychologically. That’s how I got into it, and finding it fun and relaxing, I stayed in it.”
[Nana Ama (left), and her dad, after winning a soccer tournament in 2012]
Over time, Nana Ama grew as a soccer player, playing on her high school and travel teams. To her, soccer became more than just a sport, it taught her important life skills.
“Sports is about discipline, and the more you work hard, the more you improve and more successful you become,” she explained. “For me, these lessons translate into my everyday life. Sports, in general, has helped me practically understand the importance of teamwork. And this runs through all the sports I have participated in: handball, cricket, basketball, soccer, and athletics. Even javelin and table tennis are not all about an individual – you will be chosen to represent a team.”
While she looks to repeat the success next season, she also hopes to support the development of other sports at Ashesi and encourage more girls to take up sports and sporting roles.
“For women in traditionally male-dominated roles, I think there is sometimes low expectation because society may think very little of them. In some cases, however, expectations are high because people wonder what that female could possibly do that a male can’t do,” she said. “So if you desire to be in such a position then you just have to make good use of both the positive and negative energies around you to make something extraordinary happen. I don’t think it should be about proving a point necessarily, but most importantly, to show your dedication and love for what you do.”
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