NEW JUABENG TABLE TENNIS CLUB

History

Table Tennis was played by individuals in the municipality in the early 1950s. It was not until in the mid-1970s that a prominent King of the New juaben Traditional Area Nana Kwaku Boateng the 2nd took particular interest in gathering the youth together to play the game in his Palace. It must be on records that this famous King himself was a good player. He was actively involved in the grooming and training of the enthusiastic youth who developed an interest in the game. The performance of the kids began to soar and there was the need to have a permanent trainer to mold the players to attain appreciable standards. Fate smiled on the club when Mr. Vincent Arhin, a former school and college Table Tennis star and an Assistant Superintendent physical Educationist of the GES who was seconded to the National Sports Council as a table tennis coach was transferred to the New Juaben municipality. He saw the raw talent in the players and decided to help train them. He liaise with the GES to secure the veterans Legion Hall as a training center where six (6) tables were assembled to train the players. The players were categorized into 3, ie, U12, U15, and 17 years and above. The club grew steadily with the emergence of Coach Vincent Arhin. The list of the first batch of prominent players he trained at their new-found training base at the Legion Hall in 1978 includes, John and Francis Afful, S.V Coomsom, John Appiah, Samuel Baffoe, Stephen Agyei, Richard Adjei Darko, Michael Appiah, Thomas Appiah, Mark Owusu Ansah, Prince Yaw Boateng and Agyeman Dua who later became a top professional football player and played for both Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak and the National Football team as well. Some of the ladies among them were Christiana Afful, Caroline Dompreh, and Dora Larbi among others. As the club grew numerically the men at the helm of affairs at the time thought it wise to outdoor the club. So on the 17th of August 1978, the Club was officially inaugurated by the then GTTA Chairman. Mr. Oheneba Charles. The SWAG president was the Guest of honor at that occasion held at the EREDEC Hotel with the special guest of honor being the then Regional Minister, Mr. Ohene Agyekum. Tickets were sold for the first time in the history of Ghana Table Tennis at the Inauguration. The major side attraction was a match between the Regional Team which was inundated with Koforidua-based players, played against top players from Ogun state in Nigeria. Some of the names that featured for the club were the Afful brothers and S V Coomson who beat one of the Ogun State players who doubles as a Nigerian National team player. It earned him spaces in the national dailies. The enviable position of Life Patron was conferred on Nana Kwaku Boateng de second at that august ceremony. Nana Yaw Opoku becoming the first chairman of the club.

The Club had chalked many enviable successes with some outstanding individual players holding the mantle to win great laurels for the club. Notable among them ( just to mention but a few) were Stephen Kwame Agyei who is on record to break the dominance of Greater Accra and become the first player outside the region to annex a national championship gold medal and represented Ghana at a world championships. The club is also proud to have Isaac Opoku aka Asawa as the only player to qualify to represent the nation in the Olympic Games. Only Olympian Ghana had produced. ( through intensive qualification processes) Also on the list of achievers is Nana Yaw Boateng aka Abishi Lolo who won a medal in the All Africa Games for Ghana. He's on record to have won the SWAG's Table Tennis player award for four consecutive years. We also have Edward Agyeman Duah who defied all odds to annex for the first time in the history of Ga Homowo table tennis title in the Boys U15 category in accra.

From 1978 to date, some talented individual players had dominated Ghana Table Tennis at all levels and categories, especially at the schools & colleges levels. Some of the prominent names include Thomas Appiah, Osei Boateng, Mark Agyei aka Otomo Siasia, Richard Adjei Darko, Samuel Sarpong, Leslie Ofosu, Charles Kankam, Mark Owusu Ansah, Ebenezer Asamoah, Prince Yaw Boateng, Samuel Agyapong. ( just to mention a few ) for the boys category, and the Girls are, Caroline Dompreh, Patience Tagoe, Dora Larbi, Sylvia Aryeh, Gifty Mould, Henrietta Arhin, Hagar Amo, Comfort Adobe, Dora Sarpong, Yaa Ketewa, Rita Darko, Joyce Nzeba. The list of national champions is endless and a few that readily comes to mind are...Otomo Siasia, Hagar Amo,

In 1981, Coach V A Arhin, indisputably, one of the best coaches Ghana had produced, was then at the helm of affairs for the club and was nominated by the National Sports Authority to represent Ghana at the first All Africa table tennis Coaches coaching course in Lagos, Nigeria under the auspices of the ATTF & ITTF. A couple of other top coaches had been assigned by the National Sports Authority to nurture the players. Mention can be made of Mr. Owusu Ansah and Mr. Ebenezer Anang White. Mr. Owusu Ansah who was later elevated to become the National coach trained players like Nana Yaw Boateng, Samuel Akayade, Emmanuel Asante, and Gloria Asafo-Adjei to perform creditably and win a couple of African titles not only for themselves but the nation as well.