Ghana Shock Softball Creates New Opportunities For Girls

Softball has finally made its way to Ghana. The Ghana Shock, the western Africa country's first known girls' softball team, was founded in 2017 by coaches George Mawuli Akamah and Ben Afotro.

Since then, over 100 girls in Ghana have received softball training at their schools and in their communities thanks to the Shock. The athletes, who range in age from 10 to 14 years old, have been provided with mentorship from their coaches to help in their development as both softball players and young women.

And, if you ask the team's coaches, the Shock's players have come quite far in three years.

"We draw so much inspiration from our earliest beginning," Mawuli Akamah told Softball America. "When we decided to coach the girls, we didn't know where or whom to start with, but we found this little angel Christabel Mawutor Akamah."

Mawutor Akamah, who was selected from the Ghana Shock by the Ghana Baseball and Softball Federation (GBSF) to participate in the 29th World Children's Baseball Fair (WCBF) in Fukushima, Japan, was the first softball player who the Shock's coaches focused on developing. In 2019, Mawutor Akamah also became the first African girl to win the Super Heroes award at the WCBF.

Also present at the 2019 WCBF was Mawutor Akamah's teammate Clara Boni Antwi, providing the Shock with good representation at the worldwide instructional event.

While the Shock are still trying to expand their reach to girls across Ghana, the team is also attempting to reach people all over the world through social media. The team's recent posts on Twitter have even helped it attract the attention of some of softball's biggest names in the United States.

Apart from the Shock's desire to bring softball to girls in Ghana, the team also hopes to one day build a stadium to train players, run camps and invite volunteers to Ghana to provide modern softball instruction.

For now, the team is focused on the development of its players and its collective desire to spread a love for softball among girls in Ghana.

*The Shock need modern and better equipment in order to continue to train softball players. If you wish to help the team, please reach out to [email protected].

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