Before his track season began this spring, first-year student athlete Ricky Kwabena Yawson has been in the Hamline spotlight for quite some time. Making his collegiate athletic debut back in August 2024 Kwabena Yawson has been making a remarkable impact on campus.
Early Career
Kwabena Yawson had a later-than-most start to his athletic careers in both soccer and track & field. He began playing soccer as a sophomore in high school and started competing in track & field starting his senior year where he attended Rosemount High School. Kwabena Yawson stated that he was “not a track guy” and liked playing soccer more than track.
“[Track was] just not something that I was really after. I love playing for fun, not like something that I wanted to stick to the next level,” Kwabena Yawson said.
Kwabena Yawson spoke about how he never intended to join his high school track & field team. However, in his senior year of high school, he was scouted by friends to run for track.
“I was in class and they said ‘so you play soccer so that means you can run’ and then I was like ‘nah’. And they needed somebody for the 4 x 4 which is not my thing, like I could never do the 4 x 4,” Kwabena Yawson said.
But oh were his friends persistent. Kwabena Yawson’s friends came back and forced him to go at least try to run the 4x400m with them. He attempted the 4x400m to his dismay and discovered how much he despised running track. He hated track so much that knowing the next day his friends would try and drag him to try again, he skipped school entirely.
“They forced me to go and I went there and then, it was cold, so the next day I didn’t go to school cause I didn’t want to run. I knew they were gonna come to my class,” Kwabena Yawson said. “So the next following day I showed up to school and my older brother – he did wrestling and track – he talked to me, but he was like ‘you should go’ and all that. I still didn’t listen.”
Despite his friends’ and older brother’s best efforts to try and get him to run, Kwabena Yawson would not budge. However, without Kwabena Yawson running, his high school track team was still down one person for the 4x400m. With the school being in desperate need of a fourth runner, they sent in one final reinforcement to recruit Kwabena Yawson – they sent for the track coach.
“The track coach showed up to my class and he was like ‘they need somebody’ so I went there and then tried out for the long distance running,” Kwabena Yawson said.
Attempt after attempt to get him to run for track & field and countless skipped practices on Kwabena Yawson’s end due to his detestation for running, he finally grew to at least tolerate track.
Hamline Career
After he graduated high school Kwabena Yawson, as most post-high school graduates are, was filled with unknowns on what he wanted to do post-graduation. As if fate heard about his confusion and intervened, the Hamline Head Men’s Soccer Coach Tyler Oliver might have just been the answer Kwabena Yawson was looking for.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do, like there was a whole bunch of schools coming after me for track and I was like, I don’t know, I don’t know what I wanted to do, I don’t know what I want to measure, you know. Then [Head Soccer coach Tyler Oliver] reached out to me and was like, I should come to play soccer for him. He didn’t talk about track at all. He was like, ‘just come play soccer for me. I would love to have you,” Kwabena Yawson said.
So with Coach Oliver reaching out and track & field being the furthest from Kwabena Yawson’s mind, he enrolled at Hamline University.
Despite enrolling late into Hamline, he began practicing and focusing on soccer with his new team. Within his first season with the Pipers, Kwabena Yawson had quite a remarkable year. In his first season, he played in 17 games – 10 of which were starts – scored 13 goals – four of which were winning goals – and was named the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Rookie of the Year and MIAC Men’s Soccer All-Conference Team.
After paving a way for himself, Kwabena Yawson’s first soccer season for Hamline came to a successful close. With only the focus on the second half of his academic first year on his mind, little did he know what else was to come for him.
“Tyler was like, you should talk to the track coach, they would love to have you. I was like ‘nah’ I don’t want to multitask, you know like soccer and track. Then he was like ‘You don’t have to do it the same seasons, it’s different seasons so you will be fine.’ So I told him I would think about it,” Kwabena Yawson said.
Coach Oliver must have reached out to the track & field coaches at Hamline because before he knew it, Kwabena Yawson was sitting in a meeting with the track coaches and was on the track practicing for the upcoming Indoor Track & Field season.
Being a part of the track team might be one of the best things to have happened to Kwabena Yawson. After a successful soccer season, he carried over his athletic abilities to the track team where he went on to continuously break – and re-break his own – school record for the 60 meter dash, break the school record for the 200 meter dash with a time of 22:41 seconds and qualified for the 2025 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship.
Kwabena Yawson was the only track & field member for Hamline to make it to the Nationals this indoor season. He flew out to Rochester, New York where he competed on Friday, Mar. 14 and placed 20th overall for the 60m dash in the country for the NCAA Division III Championship with a time of 6.90 seconds.
Future Plans
So what’s next for this star athlete? The answer might be a bit underwhelming for some because the truth is not even Kwabena Yawson knows what he is going to do next. All he knows for sure right now is how he wants to keep improving every day to become the best student athlete and person he can be.
“I just be me, you know? Like I don’t really care about all that. It’s just me. I’m just a normal guy walking around campus. I just like being me and I’m proud of what I have,” Kwabena Yawson said.
