From Ghana to the gridiron.

What does an African kid who is too big to play soccer and wants to study actuarial science do? Why, he comes to Pennsylvania and plays D-III football, that's what.

Lancaster Ignorancer-Urinal: Warming to the task

LANCASTER, Pa. - Fufu and football make a rather odd combination in the minds of most people.

Not for Powis Forjoe, a 19-year-old student at Franklin & Marshall College.

Forjoe is spending his first semester at F&M, some 5,000 miles from his native home in Ghana, majoring in actuarial science.

He takes four classes, works at the library on campus and continues to search for some good fufu, his favorite dish from back home.

In the little spare time he does have, Forjoe is doing something he never thought possible, playing football for coach John Troxell.

He’d never set foot on a football field until F&M’s first practice this past summer.

“I was so lost, I didn’t know what was happening,” recalled Forjoe, who even needed help putting his equipment on. “I mean, the first practice I was so confused. I really wanted to quit, but I decided to stick with it.”

Forjoe knew about football, but after arriving here last January it was the last thing he could have imagined he’d be doing some seven months later.

Those thoughts were focused on the weather.

“First thing I thought when I got here, it was cold,” said Forjoe. “Back home is way different. It doesn’t get cold. I am always cold here now.”

Ghana, roughly the size of Oregon with a population of 21 million people, is located in western Africa with the Atlantic Ocean to the south. There are two main seasons, the rainy season and the dry season. The dry season starts around late August and ends in February.

It is always hot, but does not get real humid as it does here.

Growing up in Accra, Ghana’s capitol city, Forjoe was surrounded by everything soccer and never played football, as played in the U.S.

“Soccer is the biggest thing in all of Africa,” said Forjoe, listed as 6-feet-6, 269 pounds. “I just didn’t have the coordination for soccer. I played basketball instead, because I was no good at soccer.”

Following high school, Forjoe realized none of Ghana’s five universities would be able to satisfy his quest for a degree in actuarial science, so he decided to look abroad.

Joshua Osei Boeh-Ocansey, his best friend since second grade, was already coming to F&M, so Forjoe wanted to follow his path to Lancaster.

One of eight children, Forjoe arrived at F&M last winter, several months after his best friend due to delays in getting a visa.

Here, he befriended Dan Westfield, a Diplomat football player.

Eventually, Forjoe became interested in learning more.

“When he walked in, I saw a big kid with a big smile,” recalled Troxell of the day Forjoe approached him about playing. “I told him it was going to be harder than any other thing he had done. I don’t know if he believed me or not.”

He didn’t.

“I definitely underestimated football,” said Forjoe. “I did not think it was this advanced. I didn’t realize how much of a team sport it really was. Everyone has to do exactly what they’re supposed to do for it to work.”

Forjoe, considered a sophomore, continues to work hard at practice and likes to play defense.

“He’s been great and the team has really taken to him,” said Troxell. “You can’t ask for a better kid. He fits the F&M mold perfectly and is a perfect example of what we want to see in students and athletes.”

Through F&M’s first nine games, Forjoe has not seen any playing time. He’s fine with that, saying he knows his role.

“I’m not getting frustrated,” said Forjoe, who plans to graduate from F&M in 2009. “I understand why they’re not putting me in games, because I’m not good enough to play in games right now. I’m satisfied with where I am right now.”

Forjoe will go home for the holidays to see his family, share some pigskin tales, and perhaps best of all, get the home-cooked meal he’s longed for since January.

“That will be nice,” he said.