Ben Asante retained as president of Ghana Hockey Association
By popular acclamation, members of the Ghana Hockey Association has accepted the continuity of the leadership of Dr Ben KD Asante for the next four years.
This was witnessed by the media at the Theodosia Okoh National Hockey pitch on Saturday. He went unopposed.
Dr Asante, who doubles as the Chairman of the Citizens International Hockey Club, urged members of the Association to rally behind hockey and strive to seek for sponsorship for the association.
Madam Elizabeth King, Vice President, also went unopposed.
“On behalf of the board, I want to thank you all for the support for the last four years. It’s been an exciting journey with ups and downs.
“Our commitment towards funding should be looked at. Our development agenda has remained the same but our funding has not reached the mark that can help us execute all our plans.
“We still remain committed to develop our facilities and equipment, and also looking at our pillar number two, which is developing our personnel, not just the players, but rather the coaches and technical officials because we’re far behind.”
He reiterated that the Association’s commitment of funding has been a problem.
The main tool for purchasing equipment, training coaches and enabling players to play at competitions has not been forthcoming, he noted.
The other members are Kwame Owusu, Albert Ofori, as honorary treasurer, while Frank Oti-Mensah and Grace Ankomah all went unopposed with two executive members of the association.
They were sworn in as the new executive members for a new four-year term.
The Association has successfully hosted two major international tournaments being the African Cup of Club Champions (ACCC) and Africa Cup of Nations in November, 2021 and January 2022 respectively.
In the ACCC, two Women Clubs from Ghana, GRA Ladies won Gold and Prisons Ladies, Bronze.
None of the men’s team made it to the medal zone.
In the ACN, Ghana hosted 15 participating teams from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Namibia, Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria, and Uganda.
Ghana’s female team sailed through to the finals but lost to South Africa, thereby winning silver.
The Black Stiks placed fifth in the men’s category.
Sequel to these tournaments and ranking, the men and women national teams qualified to the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games in the United Kingdom, placing 10th in both men and women version.
On infrastructure, four new water-based artificial turfs have been installed, with the support from the president of Ghana Hockey Association, Dr Asante. The association acquired turfs and accessories to construct three new pitches at KNUST, UG and UCC and renovation of the national hockey stadium.
Human Resources after the first four years under the executives – Association has birthed a number of FIH officials and umpires who get appointments at international tournaments or represent Ghana.
The likes of Mr. Frank Oti-Mensah, Isaac Graham, Dr. Bayitse, Joyce Datsa, Aziz Adimah, Cynthia Clement, George Roland, Agatha Hagan, Kwabena Asante, Quagraine Kofi, Ebenezer Nortey, and many young people have had international appointments.
Coaches, trainers and officials, have all benefited under his leadership.
This achievements, wouldn’t have happened if not the intervention of the president Dr Asante.