Kickball: a unique fusion of football and baseball for girls in Liberia

Just before the kick-off, the Girls of Aries energize the crowd with their team song. The Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium in Monrovia buzzes with excitement.

This is kickball, a blend of football and baseball.

It’s played with feet instead of bats like in baseball, and there are no men involved.

As the game begins, the ball soars toward the plate but is kicked away just in time.

The enthusiasm of the women is evident, and team member Saydah A. Yarbah shares her thoughts:

"This game is our traditional sport. We’ve been playing it since childhood, so we’ve developed a passion for it. It brings us together, our youth, our young girls. It has steered us away from negative activities; we gather to play kickball and make new friends. That’s what I love about kickball."

The sport was established in the 1960s by Cherry Jackson, a Peace Corps volunteer teaching at an all-girls school in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital.

Jackson observed that her students, unlike the boys, were not engaged in sports.

Since then, kickball has become the second most popular sport in the country, played in schoolyards, public squares, and dirt fields.

Yarbah mentions that men are eager to join in, so when they challenge the women during practice, they accept, but only because they consistently win.

She states: "Oh, we always win. Most of the time when we practice, the boys come around wanting to play, but they lack the techniques of the game. So we always win because we are dedicated to it. We understand the game well."

Perryline Jimmie, another professional kickball player, has been playing since she was a child.

She recalls: "When I was young, I was like many others who started playing in their communities, in yards, and various places."

Sports are taken seriously in Liberia; their love for football is so profound that they elected a former football (soccer) star, George Weah, as President in 2018.

His son, Timothy Weah, is an American professional football player who plays for Italy’s Juventus and the U.S. national team. However, football has traditionally been viewed as a male sport.

Liberia's National Kickball League, established in 1994 exclusively for women, was created to unite people following a devastating civil war.

Emmanuel Whea, President of the Liberia Kickball Federation, explains that the game helped to connect communities that had been divided by the conflict.

He states: “Some of the objectives of establishing the federation at that time were to bring the ladies together and involve them in the reconciliation process of Liberia. We had just emerged from the civil war, and everyone had scattered. We needed to unite them before the peace messages could be communicated. Thus, kickball was one of the sports utilized to gather Liberians so they could take the time to hear some of the peace messages.”

Weah has ambitious plans — he aims to expand the professional kickball league to include men and introduce it in other countries within the region.

However, his mission has been hindered by a lack of resources.

This is not surprising, as women's sports are frequently underfunded, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Some of the women here acknowledge that it is challenging to support their families on an athlete's salary, which is significantly lower than that of their male counterparts.

Despite the fact that all professional kickball players are female, the coaches, referees, and league officials are predominantly men.

According to Weah, women are reluctant to take on coaching roles, even though they are encouraged to do so.