<\/p>\n
Back at the very beginning, right when the idea of water polo in Ghana started swimming into reality, Prince Asante got out a couple of balls and caps in front of a handful of curious kids.<\/p>\n
He decided to try a scrimmage, but he had no nets. So they put a soccer bench on each side of the pool.<\/p>\n
It was \u201centhusiastic confusion,\u201d he said. And the caps \u2014 which have protective cups that go over a player\u2019s ears \u2014 well, they were particularly amusing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody said, \u2018Oh, water brassiere, thank you very much,\u2019 a water bra,\u201d a chuckling Asante said.<\/p>\n
That was one of the first meetings of the Awutu Winton Water Polo Club, a budding league in a tough part of the world for the Olympics\u2019 oldest team sport \u2014 and a true passion project for the energetic Asante.<\/p>\n
Growing up in Coronado, California, he was often the only Black face in the pool or his classes. He went in search of a water polo that looked more like him, and found it in the waters of his father\u2019s homeland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is like my baby, and it\u2019s cute because, you know, it cries and it\u2019s growing up, but it needs all of your attention, 24-7,\u201d the 31-year-old Asante said. \u201cWhenever I talk about it, it\u2019s great, because it\u2019s something that I would have loved to see as a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Ghana, dangerous rip tides off the country\u2019s coast have caused countless drownings over the years. That\u2019s led to trepidation about deep waters in a nation where low- and middle-income families already have limited access to swimming pools.<\/p>\n
When Asante first started swimming in African communities, he saw looks of fear and panic on faces because \u201cthey all have stories of someone going out and not coming back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Awutu Winton club has seven teams representing three regions of Ghana. Players range in age from 7 to 25, and the league includes a group of about 20 women. It had 85 athletes and 10 coaches when it opened its new season last month in Ghana\u2019s capital, Accra.<\/p>\n
Asante said most of his Ghana players had some knowledge of swimming when they joined the program, but not in deep water, where the sport is played.<\/p>\n
\u201cTreading water and how to handle the water polo ball was very difficult when I started playing,\u201d said Ishmael Adjei, 20. \u201cBut as time goes on, I could see I am improving personally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adjei\u2019s club is part of San Diego-based Black Star Polo<\/span>, an organization founded by Asante that also works on creating aquatic opportunities for African and African-American communities in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I started playing, (my family) thought it was just a waste of time,\u201d Adjei said, \u201cbecause you had to help them do the family chores and you would take a timeout to go and have training … but as time goes on, they are getting interested.\u201d<\/p>\n Any significant growth in Africa would be a welcome development for a sport that has wrestled with a lack of diversity for decades, much like aquatics in general. Even in the places where water polo is most popular \u2014 such as California, and parts of southern Europe \u2014 there are very few players of color.<\/p>\n Egypt and South Africa are the only African countries that have played men\u2019s water polo at the Olympics. South Africa became the first women\u2019s team<\/span> from the continent to make it to the Games when it finished 10th in Tokyo in 2021. World Aquatics said it doesn\u2019t have player participation figures broken down by ethnicity.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s vital for the growth of our sport to break out of the normalcy that it\u2019s been the last century, of traditional water polo nations,\u201d said former U.S. player Genai Kerr, who serves on the board of the Alliance for Diversity in Water Polo.<\/p>\n The second of three brothers, Asante got into swimming and water polo after his family became good friends with the family of five-time U.S. Olympian Jesse Smith.<\/p>\n Asante played college water polo at California Lutheran University and got his degree in psychology. He competed professionally in Brazil and trained in Europe.<\/p>\n He often felt he stood out as a Black man.<\/p>\n \u201cJust being used to everybody being able to see me and standing out,\u201d he said, \u201cand I\u2019m the one everybody notices first, on every class, every team.\u201d<\/p>\n It was different in Ghana, the birthplace of his father, Dr. Kofi Sefa-Boakye. Asante\u2019s mother, Elizabeth, is from Los Angeles, and she met Kofi when they were students at the University of Southern California.<\/p>\n Asante started going to Ghana with his father after he graduated from high school. He often brought balls and caps on trips to visit family. In 2018, he reached out to the country\u2019s swimming federation, and it held an event at Awutu Winton Senior High School \u2014 one of the only schools in the country with a pool \u2014 where it made a donation and promoted the program.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat he\u2019s doing is awesome, because it\u2019s so difficult to start something from scratch,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n A relatively small geographic footprint can put a sport at risk of losing its place at the Olympics, according to Victoria Jackson, a sports historian and clinical assistant professor of history at Arizona State University. But, Jackson said, decisions about what sports to include are hard to predict and reflect politics, relationships and subjectivity.<\/p>\n Jackson said an all-Black water polo team at the Olympics could have a profound effect on the sport.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it\u2019s that quote, right? \u2018You can\u2019t be what you can\u2019t see,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s immediately horizon expanding.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Asante\u2019s effort in Ghana has attracted attention in some prominent corners of the sport.<\/p>\n KAP7, a company that sells swimsuits and other water polo gear, has shipped over goals and other equipment. Kerr and five-time U.S. Olympian Tony Azevedo also have donated equipment, and former USA Water Polo high performance director John Abdou did a Zoom training session for referees.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is something where everyone can see, hey look, this is happening,\u201d said Wolf Wigo, a three-time U.S. Olympian, one of the co-founders of KAP7 and the men\u2019s coach at UC Santa Barbara. \u201cIt\u2019s not just one Black person in a pool with 12 white teammates, or two. It\u2019s a whole pool full of all Black athletes, all playing water polo, having a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Asante \u2014 whose full name is Prince Kofi Asante Sefa-Boakye \u2014 hustles to keep the project afloat, making the most of his connections in the sport and a GoFundMe page. But the way Asante sees it, he has already won.<\/p>\n