Blackhawks > HAWKHEAD 2009
St. Paul Blackhawks Soccer Club Newsletter
2010
Second Annual Coaches v. Players Game
The coaches squeezed out a 4-1 victory against a much improved players team. The athleticism and great footskills of the players caused many headaches for the aging coaching staff. However, experience and knowledge won yet again.
St. Paul Blackhawks donate soccer equipment to Ghanaian Village
Blackhawk donated gently used soccer equipment for me to take to kids in Ghana. I would have been thrilled with a single ball, but Blackhawks supplied jerseys, shoes and all the balls I could carry. The equipment was used on an experimental farm targeting village youth. The goals of the farm had been simply to introduce aquaculture (fish ponds) and Moringa (a medicinal tree) to the village of Dwinyama.
Soccer was suddenly the third dimension. The promise of playing football with good equipment would magnetize kids to the farm. Once there, they could learn hands-on how to manage those two crops.
The project lasted from January to December. Jerseys, socks, shorts, and boots were disbursed along the way, but the balls were the most coveted, and were reserved until the end to be given to the top contributors.
Football is the most inspiring part of many people's lives in Dwinyama. Most young boys and many young girls play for several hours a day, every day. Occasionally the village becomes organized enough to field a team and play a neighboring village. Weekends and holidays are full of little matches between groups of kids from different corners of the village. All these beginning athletes long for a quality field to play on, equipment good enough to give them a fair chance to show their skills, and good reception on the days when Chelsea are on TV. There are a handful of TVs in the village. English Premier League games are on live each week and dozens of people crowd around each set. A Ghanaian hero, Michael Essien, is having a strong season for Chelsea.
Thank you so much to Blackhawks Soccer Club for donating the soccer equipment for my work in Ghana and especially the inspiration it gave to so many great kids. Yaw, who became the soccer team captain, motivated his friends to come to the farm to build the field, dig the pond and plant the trees before practice. He is very grateful towards the people in the U.S. who sent the soccer balls and his white Blackhawks jersey.
