“American Planted Nigerian Grown”

             I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and both of my parents are Nigerian immigrants. When I was five years old, I moved to Nigeria (Lagos) where I lived with my Grandmother and uncles for ten years. Living in Nigeria was an experience I will cherish forever. I learned a lot about the culture, how to speak Yoruba (one of the main languages), and about my heritage. When asked what I am, I always tell them I am “American Planted Nigerian Grown”.

            I was 15 when I returned to the USA, and it was a culture shock for me. I was more Nigerian than American; my English wasn’t fluent, I had a very thick accent, and I didn’t know much about American culture. I came across so many challenges, like the way people interacted and morph the English language. I could hardly understand anybody, and people could hardly understand me. I felt left out most of the time, but as time went on I started grasping everything. After about six months, I started adjusting very well and became fascinated by how diverse the country is.

            I graduated high school at 16. I was a good student and took many credits in Nigeria that allowed me to move on to college early. I attended junior college and decided to tryout for sports. In Nigeria, soccer was my favorite sport. Everybody played soccer. Even if we didn’t have a ball we would wrap up paper with rubber bands…good times. Here in the US, everywhere I went people were playing basketball. I fell in love with basketball and had talent, especially being able to dunk. Everybody was talking about me, about the guy who can dunk. Before this I never played organized sports, and there were too many rules, regulations, drills, plays, etc for me to learn. I made the team but it was tough because I wasn’t used to organized sports. The coach played me just to go grab rebounds.

            In between seasons I wanted to stay in shape so I joined the track and field team. The high jump looked pretty interesting, so some teammates encouraged me to try it. My first jump I reached 6’ 4”! We were all amazed because I had no previous experience with the high jump. My family, coaches, and friends told me that track would pay my way through college, so I began applying and searching out the right college for me. I sent out many letters to different coaches in the NCAA DI, DII, NAIA, etc, and I received almost 30 different letters of interest. The coaches expressed excitement at my natural jumping ability and saw how much better I could be with their coaching.

            One of the hardest decisions of my life was deciding which school to attend. I needed a college that would offer me a full scholarship, and not all of the NCAA DI schools offered full scholarships. I chose Northwest Missouri State University because I liked their computer science department, their track coach, and the small-town feel of the area. I received an Academic Scholarship combined with an Athletic Scholarship for a full scholarship.

            I was very successful as a college athlete. I began competing in the event and came in the top three every competition. In my second year, I set a personal best of 6’ 9” which won conference, broke the school record, and ranked me 3^rd in the state.  I won conference multiple times, broke a second the indoor school record, and qualified for Nationals each year, receiving an All American Award my last year. At the end of my college career this past spring, I was ranked 3^rd in the US with a personal best of 7’ 2.5”.

            Now I am transitioning into the realm of elite athletes. The Nigerian Team invited me to compete in the African Games, which was my first international competition. Unfortunately, I was ill did not do as well as I would have liked. I tied for 3^rd place with a jump of 7’ 2.5”, but took 5^th place due to misses.

My Goals now are to keep training after i finish up my Degree and jump professionally.