"Where Are They Now" is back, and today we are featuring Men's Water Polo alumnus, Asante Sefa-Boakye. He was at Cal Lutheran and played as a center for the Kingsmen for two seasons. In his senior season, the captain appeared in all 24 games, making 22 starts. He led the team in drawn ejections with 23 and was fourth with 23 goals. Safe-Boakye was a balanced player and also added 23 steals and dished out five assists. He finished the season with six multi-goal games and tallied three hat-tricks. Now, Sefa-Boakye lives in Ghana, and along with teaching, mentoring, private tutoring, swim lessons, and a career in music, he also founded the country's first water polo team. 

What year's where you at Cal Lutheran and what made you want to come here?
I was a transfer student at CLU from Fall '13 to Spring '15 where I graduated with my degree in Psychology with a Minor in Spanish. I came from Community College back in San Diego in pursuits of transferring to a UC school or D1 university That was the original goal because that was the experience I thought I wanted most. During my second semester at CC, I started to get used to the small classroom sizes and the convenient accessibility to my professors and other staff members. After some critical thinking, I realized it would be in my best interest to forego the previous pursuits of attending a larger universities, and decided to stick with the small classroom experience. That's when CLU popped up on the radar, & truthfully it was the best decision I could have made at the time.

While at Cal Lutheran, what was your experience like?
Being a transfer student, my first year was difficult. I remember it being hard at times to find a good place to fit in. Any transfer will tell you that it really is it's own unique experience. For me it was an entirely new town/city that I wasn't too familiar with, and I remember that year saw a very high acceptance rate so I was placed in off campus housing. Being a part of the water polo team however gave a lot of peace of mind since that was a common ground I was able to share with a good network of people. I remember being recruited by the coaching staff in high school, so it felt good to receive that warm welcome.

How was your experience with the team and other athletes?
The great thing about sport is that it's a universal language, so being passionate about water polo for so long allowed me to click instantly with the team. It did take me some time to get to where I wanted to be physically and in shape, but the work ethic I had laid a solid foundation to let others know I was serious about playing. Having that desire to improve also paved the way for me to become the Team Captain my senior year. It really was a great experience to be able to lead by example after having worked so hard. Though the respect was nice, it absolutely did not come without being earned.

What is your current job, and how did Cal Lutheran prepare you for that?
Along with teaching, mentoring, private tutoring, swim lessons, and a career in music, currently I am in Ghana founding the First Water Polo Team here. The goal is to establish a solid foundation while creating a successful and world renowned program. I've been donating equipment and setting up coaching clinics and small training sessions with some schools and regions in the country to jump start the program and National Team here since 2018. It's been an incredible process & journey, and the support so far has been overflowing with allies from all over the world. CLU prepped me for that by showing what results can come when a true belief is placed in you. I remember entering the sports program at CLU not being very confident in myself as I was out of shape and believed my competing days were over. That's where I have to give credit to the coaching staff on both the Water Polo and Swimming teams. I remember being recruited again by Rond and Pletcher and feeling inspired by their outreach and words. It was encouraging to hear I needed to put in the work to get where they saw I could be, and to where I knew I wanted to be. I won't forget sitting in that office and being fueled to not give up and commit to a passion. That lead to joining the swim program in the Spring, where yet again the staff was patient and expressed that same faith in me as well. That alone allowed me to move mountains in the long run, and reach new heights in a transformation that for a while I didn't see.

Using that experience as a catalyst to assist in shaping this program has made me to sure to express the same faith, belief, and ability to dream, towards young athletes that was shown to me. It always goes farther than you would ever expect.

How did being a student-athlete prepare you for your professional career?
From High School to College, being a student-athlete has taught me one of the most valuable life lessons: Time Management! For those unfamiliar, a typical training schedule for Water Polo can begin as early as 5am, and then once again in the afternoon after lectures. So right away we've always had to be sharp in constructing our schedule around trainings and school to make sure there was no falling off track with academics or trainings. Remembering that trait now is just as important in terms of spacing out your work load, planning out your day to day productivity, and especially mapping out your sleep schedule. Being a student-athlete was the best practice run to managing life in the business world.

What is your favorite part about the job?
Making a difference in the youth & the diaspora is definitely the best part of the job. It's incredible to me to be able to pass an opportunity down to a generation of youth that they may not have had otherwise. Providing this experience to a new demographic and generation will always be incredible to me. Not to mention growing the sport of water polo and placing a positive light on the African Continent.

What is a typical day at your job?
At the moment pretty basic. Reaching out to other programs, establishing relationships with swim programs, scheduling days to train, which now calls for strategic adjustment due to COVID, but all adversity brings growth so the challenge truthfully isn't any burden to bare.

With the mentoring, tutoring & swim lessons, a typical day includes more scheduling, preparing lesson plans, and being flexible to schedule changes. Plans always change throughout the day so being on my toes about that is pretty routine.

With music it's been so rewarding. I recently shot a music video called "African Man" under my stage name "Santé Prince" for my latest project "Phenom". You can check it out on YouTube or any other streaming platform. Up until that point a lot of the job onsists of constant writing on what inspires me and my experiences. Then having to arrange studio time to record new tracks, which would normally lead to a live performance, but we all know how much that has changed in recent times. In place of the in-person shows, there have been some live streaming events, but nothing can beat being back on stage in front of a crowd so hopefully that can come back soon!

Did you know you always wanted to do this, or when did you know what you wanted to do?
The hardest part about following your dreams is being the only one to see the vision when it comes to you. No matter how much faith you have in yourself, the obstacle of overcoming doubt from others always arises. What has keep me going is realizing that staying true to your vision will always turn the doubters to believers! I've been passionate about Music and Water Polo for so long so I've always known would guide the direction of my life, even though athletics and entertainment can be very variable career choices. Talking out your aspirations is effective, but at the end of the day I found thag it's action towards towards your dreams that will get you where you'll need to be. I started to map out my plan to get to this position once I graduated from CLU and spent some time working in my degree field.

What does it mean to you to be a Kingsmen?
​I'm always grateful towards the Purple & Gold! Being a Kingsmen brought me one big leap closer to who I needed to be! The structure provided was definitely beneficial, so I'm very thankful for the experience and the all connections made there. My time there was short but it made all the difference! I'm a proud alum.