Women Conquering Liberian Sports


Minister at the Ministry of Youth and Sports Wheatonia Dixon-Barnes

   3/ 19/ 2004 Monrovia-Liberian women are gradually conquering their male counterparts as far as sports is concerned in Liberia.

  Consellor Wheatonia Dixon-Barnes kicked the ball rolling when she took over the mantle of authority as Minister at the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

  Since her appointment, Counsellor Barnes has been striving to make sure that the Youth and Sports Ministry does not function as "Football Ministry" but rather for all sports, be it swimming, kickball, taekwondo, basketball, table tennis, and so on.

  Another achievement by Counsellor was to make sure that the national soccer team Lone Star qualified  for the group stage of the now combined 2006 World Cup and African Nations qualifiers.

  Among other things, Counsellor Barnes has brought back to life the National County Sports Meet. And on March 5, 2004, the National County will begin.

  Few months after Counsellor took over the Youth and Sports Ministry, Mrs. Deborah J. Williams was not deterred by the fact that her husband Henry O. Williams is at the helm of the Liberian Track and Field Federation (LTFF).

  Following the expulsion of Clemenceau B. Urey as President of the Liberia National Olympic Committee (LNOC), the LNOC executive committee, dominated by men, turned to Mrs. Williams to succeed the man under whom she served as Vice President for Administration.

  Mrs. Williams was told to act until the LNOC Congress on December 27, 2003, before being unanimously endorsed as the first female LNOC President and the second female NOC President on the dark continent of Africa.

  Despite being a woman, Mrs. Williams has been making some headwaves at the helm of the LNOC. Since one of the reasons why her predecessor was ejected was because he allegedly unilaterally shut down the LNOC head office and sent workers home, she immediately reopened the headquarters of the LNOC on Benson Street.

  Thereafter she initiated the total renovation of the headquarters in the shortest possible time. The LNOC says its headquarters would for the first time have an internet system, DSTV and fully air-conditioned offices.
                                                                                                                                  Sombo Izetta Wesley (LFA)

  Mrs. Williams, who joined the LNOC by way of the Liberia Women and Sports Association (LIWASA) which she helped formed, was endorsed internationally by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) at its meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon.

  At the moment, she is on her way to Athens, Greece to attend a gathering of heads of National Olympic Committees of the world.

  Meanwhile, like Counsellor Barnes, another female of the legal profession in Counsellor Sombo Izetta Wesley.

  Counsellor Wesley, at the Congress of the Liberia Football Association (LFA), took over as the new head of the LFA after Mr. Edwin Snowe gave up the leadership to focus on his job as Managing Director of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC).

  Since being elected as Vice President for Administration in 1997, Consellor Wesley had been serving the LFA with dedication and productivity, no matter why she is known as the Iron Lady of Liberian football.

  Her ability to serve the LFA well should not be in doubt because she ably represented the football house at a number of WAFU, CAF and FIFA functions.

  With Wheatonia Dixon-Barnes, Deborah Junius-Williams and Sombo Izetta Wesley heading the first three most viable sporting institutions, the sporting eagerly look forward to seeing another lady to assuming authority at another federation or association.