Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/350567
BY LOU SOMOGYI T he United States has been criti- cized in recent decades for be- coming too soft by adopting an "everyone gets a trophy" men- tality among its youth. As an eighth-grader in North Caro- lina, current Notre Dame junior de- fensive end Romeo Okwara did not have that experience. Okwara actually was cut from his eighth-grade football team in Charlotte. "It was upsetting, but I wasn't very good, I guess," Okwara recalled. "I didn't really talk about it with anyone. It just hurt." Okwara's family had moved from Nigeria when he was 10 years old, and he had grown up with soccer as his primary sport. Aided by a growth spurt of about a half-foot between his eighth-grade year and freshman year in high school, the 13-year-old Okwara was elated to make the freshman foot- ball team in high school — although he said they didn't make cuts at that school. "I always liked the game, and all my friends also played football. I thought it would be cool to play the same sport with them and be around them," he said. "It was about being more focused and getting better every day. "Lift harder, practice harder, do ev- erything harder." By the end of his junior year at Ar- drey Kell High School, where he met Notre Dame recruit Prince Shembo (2010-13), Okwara received his first football scholarship offer, from the in- state Duke Blue Devils. "I was star-struck," Okwara said. "The first time I got an offer, I wanted to commit right then, but I was told there would be other offers coming, too, and to take my time." The ties to Shembo's family, who emigrated from the Congo, began the interest in Notre Dame, which recipro- cated. The mutual interest resulted in an offer from head coach Brian Kelly's staff to the 6-4, 240-pound outside linebacker prospect with the 3.5 grade- point average. "Notre Dame was prestigious aca- demically, which was very important to me," Okwara said. Few recruits at Notre Dame ever have been more earmarked for a ON THE CUTTING EDGE Romeo Okwara's progress at defensive end will be crucial