Once We Were Kings: An OKESS Love Story

The Kumasi based school had a reputation for producing world class footballers and athletes. One headmaster would change its trajectory

The heat of the day was beginning to take its toll on the female sprinters as they went through the excruciating 4x400 final of the Ashanti region schools Super Zonals in 1999. The Kumasi Sports Stadium was agog as thousands of screaming students cheered on their favourite school. There might have been eight schools in the final, but the race was between two. Osei Kyeretwie Senior High School and St.Monica’s School. Both schools were anchored by two stars of the track with a long ,storied rivalry.

Favourites Osei Kyeretwie started the race beautifully with its second biggest star Linda Boateng. Her nickname described her attributes perfectly.

“Akonfem”. The Guinea Fowl.

She had outstanding stamina and a final kick that always made her dangerous in races. She strode confidently into an early lead before handing it over to the second member of the team. Over the next two laps, however, that lead would be wiped out by a St.Monica’s quartet that was eager to make a stand at the games that had been thoroughly dominated by the female team of Osei Kyeretwie. The final lap would decide the race. It would go down as one of the greatest races ever contested in the storied history of Ashanti region high school sports.

Vida Anim was the final member of the Osei Kyeretwie quartet. A lithe, light skinned athlete with phenomenal pace and an upright running style, she was the best sprinter her age in the country. That was across three events. 100m.200m.400m. Many considered her the most complete athlete the country had seen since the late eighties.

She was chomping at the bit to get into the race as St Monica’s star athlete grabbed the baton for the final lap and set off. Childhood rivals since basic school, Anim knew what her arch rival, nicknamed Tontola was capable of. She was a short, powerful runner whose greatness at that level was regularly eclipsed by Anim. She had a healthy lead and Anim had work to do if she was going to finish her high school career in glory. She was bound for the summer Olympics in Sydney.

Once she grabbed the baton, once could sense the anticipation and suspense in the air in the stadium. Meter by meter she ate into Tontola’s lead. Anim knew if she could stay in touch until the final 200m, she could overtake her rival. And overtake she did, albeit much closer than she was comfortable with. It was a remarkable comeback and sealed the championship win for the girls team of the school at the events.

OKESS reigned supreme again.

This is just one of the stories that describes the legend and mystique of this small school in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Considered one of the earliest centers of education in the region, it would set its stall as perhaps the most dominant high school sports program in the country from the mid nineties to the early 2000’s. Football and athletics were its calling card. A program so good it could single handedly fill junior national football team rosters. Those were the good times.

“The school always had a reputation for sports. It was not like in the early days we did not perform. We dominated football in parts of the 80’s and early 90’s But we were not part of the national psyche of sports then” recalls Kwame Amoako, a former star footballer of the school who would later become a physical education instructor at the school in its golden age.

To understand the school’s stature in sports is to understand the Asante spirit.

Competitive. Confident. Stylish.

The culture of school sports in the region is bound by the near fanatical relationship between schools, their students-past and present, and the community they are located in. It is not easy to become a cross over attraction, especially if you are not among the so called elite -Opoku Ware School, Prempeh College,Yaa Asantewaa and St.Louis.

These are schools that represent the upper class. It does not take much to be admired when you wear their colors. Entry is enough.

The same cannot be said for schools like OKESS. A co-educational school for the blue collared heartbeat of the region, you have to be exceptional to stand out and gain respect. The colors are not enough.

So how did it become such an effective conveyor belt of world class sporting quality? A former physical education teacher of the school,Paa Kwasi Fabin ,offers his perspective.

“For starters, we had a headmaster who had a passion for sports. His name was Mr. Acheampong. He realized quite early that most schools tended to ignore athletically gifted kids especially if they lagged behind in the classroom. His mentality was that, there were several avenues to success in life. He picked these kids and offered them places in their grades were up to it. We provided a decent education as well as a solid structure around which to hone their talent. It started slowly but it paid off superbly later.”

Fabin is no mere teacher when it comes to recounting this story. Most modern accounts of the sporting history will give him the most credit for the school’s hallowed place in Ashanti sports folklore. It is an honor he shuns. Too much work had been done by others to lay the foundation upon which he built his masterpiece when he first arrived at the school in 1997.

By his side was Kwame Amoako. Together they would make history and bring the school’s program to national attention.

“When we arrived, we were lucky enough to meet Stephen Oduro, John Mensah, Ben Wilson and co.They were in form two and had won the national Milo tournament in 1996. These were outstanding players for anybody to begin working with. We took things up from there with the support of Mr.Acheampong.”

For the unfamiliar, these three players are among the very best to lace their boots in the country. Ben Wilson found local fame playing for local Premier League club, King Faisal. Stephen Oduro is considered among the finest midfielders in the history of Ghanaian football while John Mensah would go on to captain the senior national team. These were the standard bearers.

To maintain it and find the best talent as a replacement, Fabin and Amoako had to be smart with their recruiting. Fabin in particular had a check list he did not stray from under any circumstance.

First for him was ability. He had to be convinced a player could make the transition from one level to the other before he would recruit him. A player’s mindset was assessed for any sign of mental weakness and attitude problems. He did not get them all correct.

None irks him more than Abedi Sarfo.

Upon leaving OKESS, Sarfo made his name with B.A United before earning a dream move to Asante Kotoko in the year 2000 under Ernest Middendorp. To hear Fabin describe his potential, he should have been a world beater.

“I rarely like to compare my players, but of all the boys who passed through the school, Abedi Sarfo was the most gifted. He could do everything. We called him “Maestro”. But even then you could see his attitude was all wrong from the way he approached training. Attitude determines everything. He was much better than how his career ended up.”

The recruitment was further augmented by another role Fabin held.

“I worked as the head coach of the regional federation at the basic level in the region. This meant that I was at every district and regional sports tournament for twelve and thirteen year olds in the country. I could pick the best of the crop and convince them to attend OKESS. I also had a very good relationship with the colts coaches too. People like Sanni Demdem of Anokye,Mallam of Corners Babies and Kamarat of Deportivo.

Mr.Acheampong also created an avenue where we could offer sports scholarships to these students. You would realize that the talented ones also came from the most deprived backgrounds. Parents did not have enough money to pay school fees so our incentive laden plan was attractive to most parents.”

That is how the likes of Vida Anim and other talented students were recruited. Among the early recruits was a left back from a town called Konongo.

His name, Sulley Ali Muntari.

A highly regarded player who had been voted as the best juvenile player in the country, there was no shortage of offers. One would think this was going to be a hard sell for Fabin and Amoako. It wasn’t, much to the surprise of Fabin.

“Muntari had everything in the tool kit to succeed. After we watched him play for his district, we were convinced.We spoke to him and surprisingly, he told us he had already picked OKESS as his first choice school . He felt it was the best place for him to play football because of its reputation.”

Muntari was not the only star arrival. Maxwell Owusu Banahene, a soft spoken goalkeeper with cat like agility was also on the books. Lawrence Kainyah, a heavily touted right back also picked OKESS as his school of choice. Kofi Amponsah, Kojo Poku and Abedi Sarfo would all pass through the school during this time. Another generation would also have Prince Anokye,William Thompson, Osman Mohammed and Osei Kwame Jnr.

It was a generational load of talent. That alone did not guarantee success however. The two men in charge of their training had also arrived with new methods. Its aim was simple. To mold teams capable of beating all comers according to Kwame Amoako.

“We started training these boys to play a style that focused on a limited number of touches with quick movement into the territory of our opponents. Each player was trained to play in different positions. The system was designed to reduce mistakes when in possession and also maintain enough energy when we lost the ball to retrieve it quickly”.

It's a system that will look familiar to watchers of some elite European teams. None benefitted more from this kind of training than Muntari. A nationally recognized left back who would later make a name for himself in European football as one of the best central midfielders of his generation.

Fabin recalls a game where Muntari’s ability to switch positions saved OKESS. It was no ordinary game. A national title was at stake.

“Sometimes when our games were not going well, I would switch him to a number ten. He had strong legs and he could shoot. I recall our game against Bompe Secondary school from Takoradi at the national Milo tournament. It was a very difficult game for us and we needed to try something different. With a few minutes left I switched him from left back into midfield and he scored the goal that won us the tournament.”

The revolution was not just on the football field. It was on the track and its stars were the girls.

The female athletics program of the school can make claim to being the most successful female program of the modern era. No event encapsulated this achievement than the Sydney Olympics in the year 2000.

Ghana’s 4x100 relay team was made up of Mavis Akoto,Vida Anim,Vida Nsiah,Monica Twum and Veronica Bawuah. Four of them were graduates of OKESS. From different generations. The school was so influential in the nation’s athletics program that for a period it was the recipient of monthly payments of $1,500 from the country’s Olympic committee for the upkeep of athletes.

Again the secret ingredients were a combination of administrative understanding from Mr.Acheampong and sound training.

“The headmaster, Acheampong was passionate about the girls. He would sometimes even go to the market to shop for them just so they were happy and focused on training. He also reached out to the security agencies and created an avenue where they could employ graduates of the school once they graduated. In this manner, a fully rounded sports program was created. The training was also very rigorous. We would take them to the stadium where they would train sometimes with the supervision of the late “Arrow”. The girls were also willing learners. It truly was a good time for sports.”

So what went wrong?

How did this sporting juggernaut that had become a fabric of the country’s sporting success lose its luster?

Both Paa Kwasi Fabin and Kwame Amoako admit a number of systemic changes affected the school’s sporting reign. But both also do not hesitate to lay blame at the doorstep of one person.

“First of all there was a levelling of the field due to the new educational system. The kids are now evenly distributed so it became difficult to chase and poach talents like previously. But at OKESS Opuni Boakye was the main cause.”

An alumnus of the school, he arrived from Effiduase secondary school as Mr.Acheampong’s replacement with a different mandate. To improve the academic standing of the school.

“We were really hopeful he would continue with Acheampong’s legacy when he took over” says Kwame Amoako.

“He, however, made it clear he was not in favor of handing out sports scholarships and the like.It was during his time that Paa Kwesi left to take a job with Kotoko’s youth team. We were both surprised by his approach because he had taught both of us at Wesley College and had shown enthusiasm for sports back then. Honestly, it was bizarre to blame sports for the school’s perceived academic misfortunes. After all,how many athletes and footballers were in the school.They were not even up to 40.”

To save the situation Kwame Amoako even offered to pay the school fees of some of the athletes who had been admitted prior to the arrival of Opuni Boakye. It was not enough to save the situation. The situation was made worse when students also realized that there really was no incentive to attend the school any longer. Most would take their chances with life.

For Paa Kwasi Fabin, it also marked the general decline in Ghana’s sporting fortunes.

“Look at the district games, for instance. Previously it was held every other year. Now it is held every other two years. That means, for instance, that, if a talent emerges in JSS1 and does not make it to the district team, he has only one other chance to participate before he goes out. When he goes to the high school level, it’s the same.So you can meet somebody who competes only once at the level and is off. This has particularly affected Ghana with athletics. Because with the footballers, you can always find them elsewhere.”

In football it has been a decade since OKESS won anything in the region. It is the longest title drought it has endured. They have been overtaken by schools like Adu Gyamfi Senior High School and T.I Ahmadiya Senior High School who have built their own successful eras on the OKESS template of old. Widespread recruitment, scholarship offers and well placed incentives. OKESS still have their moments but cannot be considered a powerhouse these days.

All that is left are stories of days gone past. When kids dreamt of becoming “Ahenemma” or royalty as their students are called. They are no longer kings.