All Is Well Ghana National Team captain Alberta Sackey comes to RMC and rocks the nation with her skills
Just two years ago, RMC women's soccer coaches Kurt Melcher and Tom Czop sat inside Soldier Field watching a women's World Cup game between Ghana and Sweeden.
Never in their wildest dreams did they envision one-let alone two-of the players on the field being on their roster.
Amazingly, that's happened. And the presence of Alberta Sackey and Kulu Yahaya, both Ghana National Team members, is vaulting the Eagles into America's soccer spotlight.
Sackey, a 28-year-old forward, captained Ghana's qualifying run to the World Cup in 1999 and led the team in minutes played, totalling 270 in its three games.
Since arriving at Robert Morris, she has scored 17 goals in eight games, already breaking the school's single-season scoring record.
With a rocket-powered shot and soft-spoken demeanor, Sackey was named NAIA Region VII Player of the Week for the week ending Sept. 9 after a four-goal outing against Viterbo (Wis.). Two weeks later, she won National Player of the Week honors after scoring all of the Eagles' six goals in a win over Olivet Nazarene and tie against St. Xavier.
Yahaya, a 25-year-old defender, was a reserve on the Ghana national team who now is filling Seana VanDerleest's slot at outside back. VanDerleest (Oak Forest H.S.) went down with a season-ending knee injury Aug. 26.
Both Sackey and Yahaya are too old to play in NCAA Division I, said Melcher, who had been working several months to recruit them to RMC. His hard work paid off, with Sackey joining the team for its game against Benedictine, and Yahaya taking the field just after its Florida trip.
RMC offers both players the chance to better themselves, not necessarily with soccer, but with an education.
"As a player, your vision is to play in the World Cup," said Sackey, a business administration major. "I've played in the World Cup, so that's OK. Now I have to get my education."
Melcher is thankful Sackey chose RMC. Nana Amponsah, a faculty member at the college from Ghana, linked him with a soccer contact in the African nation. That contact then helped Melcher reach the national-team coach, who put him in touch with people with whom Sackey stayed during her World-Cup visit to Chicago. They, in turn, led him to Sackey.
"I asked her if she knew any other players that wanted to come with her," Melcher said. "She put me in touch with Kulu."
Word about Sackey spread after she was named National Player of the Week. "Every time she gets the ball, she gets double-teamed and swarmed, and it absolutely doesn't matter," Melcher said. "Teams don't know what to do with her. She finds ways to score."
Sackey and Yahaya are freshmen on the Eagles' roster, leaving Melcher with high hopes for his team's future.
Both are expected to play this summer for the Chicago Cobras, a developmental team for the new women's professional soccer league in the United States.
Midfielder Debora Pacchioni (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and sweeper Jean Gehrke (Sandburg) might join them.
Meanwhile, Sackey is focused on helping her RMC teammates improve.
"I'm here to make a step in my career. I enjoy going to school," Sackey said. "If professional soccer happens, it happens."
