Mrs. Gifty Oware-Mensah, CEO at Berry Ladies Football Club has praised our squad’s resilience and ‘anti-fragility’ as we head into the business end of the season.
Speaking ahead of our vital fixture against Thunder Queens FC tomorrow, Mrs. Oware-Mensah explored how our Berries have managed to step up in the wake of injury and technical team crises, and a demanding playing schedule for club and country.
“It’s adaptability,” she explained. “I think it’s an opportunity for players to step up and show their qualities. It’s essential to the work we do to prepare players to be ready when opportunities arise, not only between games but also during games.
“This group of players has responded very, very well in tough situations. In tough moments, we stick together. We keep to the plan. We believe in the way that we play and that’s going to be just as important, if not more so, here at the end of the season.
“There’s a very good book I read recently that explores the theory: if something shakes you but it doesn’t break you, it probably will make you stronger. You will become more adaptable to future challenges.
“In a very volatile and chaotic world like professional football, it’s really important to be anti-fragile,” she continued. “To be able to handle turbulence. The only way to be better at that is by going through it and that’s not nice but there are many different ways to do that.
“But we have been adapting very well. I think those experiences together will definitely help us in the future.”
After losing Maybel Amoyaw, some technical team members, some key players and even some to injuries, our squad were forced to adapt as we entered the new year in 2023. After finding a new rhythm during an impressive run of games from January by Coach Freeman Amponsah, more injury woes were in store but these girls didn’t succumb to the pains.
“It would hurt any team to lose a player like Amoyaw Mabel, but we have managed so far during this season to handle the absence of many great football players and technical staff.
“We need to show that adaptability again, keeping the key principles in the way we play but of course, adapting it to the individuals that now need to play.
“As the CEO and Founder, you always want more options. We have a lot of quality in our squad, and I have a lot of trust and belief in the players that we have. I also believe that’s where our focus should be on what we have and not on what we don’t have.”
When asked by www.berryladiesfcgh.com to speculate as to why our squad has been blighted by so many injuries and technical team absence this season, Mrs. Gifty Oware-Mensah believes there is more than one simple explanation.
“It’s a boring answer: it’s multifactorial. The injuries and absence we’ve had are very different. We look internally, of course, and we compare to previous seasons and so on. Load and number of matches played are always the two major components when you look at injuries and many not believing in the team’s vision along the way is also normal in management of a club.
“There’s been a lot of talk this season about the congested fixtures in this year’s league and FA Cup due to the world cup break, with major tournaments now happening and very little time for the players to recover. That is something we will need to learn from and do better for the seasons to come, in order to keep the players healthy and on the pitch more.”
Beyond the football pitch, our CEO also credited the unity of the entire club, across staff and players, first team and academy (Valued Girls Academy).
“What’s even more important is that the connections between people working with the teams have become stronger during the season. I think when we talk about being one club, that starts with people feeling connected, wanting each other’s success, and understanding what things we can do to help each other.
“I really think that has gone to another level this year. That’s really great to be a part of. I will quote what Elizabeth Ayebea said in one interview, “We are Berries, we never give up until the last whistle.” ”
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Copyright 2023 Berry Ladies Football Club. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.berryladiesfcgh.com as the source.
