Prince Anokye Turkson recently completed the CAF/GFA License D coaching course and is hoping to take the next step in juvenile coaching…
It’s the way Prince Anokye Turkson speaks about the players under his care.
“Performance-wise, she’s up there with the best I’ve seen,” he says, pointing to the skies and only stopping short of swearing. Turkson, who’s popularly called Coach Jack in and around Sefwi Bekwai, is referring to the latest prodigy under his tutelage.
Coach Jack is the founder of the Army for Christ Charity (AFCC) Football Academy, which is located in Sefwi Bekwai in the Bibiani Anhwiaso Bekwai District in the Western Region.
The academy, although still fledgling, has a number of kids – both boys and girls – enrolled and being coached to reach their full potential.
One of the kids at the academy is 15-year-old Ruth Amponsah, and she’s the one Coach Jack was speaking about in the opening paragraph.
The talented teenager is the face of girls enrolled at the AFCC Academy. Despite her relatively young age, one does not need to watch her twice to realise how special Ruth is.
She is blessed with great passing ability, and has pace, while dribbling comes to her as light work – all these attributes that have seen her snapped up by the Right To Dream Academy, the farmhouse that produced Ajax star Mohammed Kudus. Coach Jack has high hopes for Ruth, who he believes will be playing for the national team very soon.
“She can progress to the national U17 team,” he stresses, adding: “This girl is good; I’m not even exaggerating. She’s very good.”
Coach Jack set up the AFCC Academy in 2015 with the aim of helping in the development of talents in the Sefwi Bekwai community and offering hope to kids who aspire to play professional footballers.
Players of the academy currently train at a school park in the community, which has been christened the Coach Jack Sports Arena. The academy started by nurturing only young boys but, in recent years, a few girls have also joined.
“Currently, we have six girls in the academy,” says Coach Jack. “And we plan to form a full women’s team by next year.”
The juvenile manager is well aware of his limitations and knows that to be able to take the academy to the next level, he needs to add value to himself.
That is why earlier this year he acquired a CAF/GFA D License and is already working towards getting the CAF C License.
As we conclude our conversation, Coach Jack makes sure to introduce me to another prodigy at the academy. This one, he says, is only five years old but plays with an elegance that he is yet to see in any female footballer.
“We have another new discovery,” he grins. “Her name is Harriet Agyaponmaa Turkson. A five-year-old but she’s marvellous and can do a lot of things with the ball.”
Coach Jack’s dream is to drive academy football in the Sefwi Bekwai community to the next level. He also wants to bring all corporate bodies together to support this course through games.
“We want to organise corporate games. We want to bring all the corporate games together for these games, which will be held every year,” he added.
So far the AFCC Academy has had many of its players excelling in the prestigious national Milo U-13 Champions League and Coach Jack believes there is more to come from the project he’s leading.
Pulse
