Akintokunbo
A Adejumo
"A
vision that I never thought would become reality is now unfolding before my
very eyes”, that is
how that Nigerian football icon and legend, former Green Eagles captain
and IICC Shooting Stars FC of Ibadan forward, Patrick Olusegun Odegbami, MON,
also known as The Mathematical (a nickname that stuck with him after being
named by the legendary football commentator, Ernest Okonkwo) put it.
On
Wednesday, 28th August 2019, arguably the world's greatest sprints
teacher and coach, former World record holder and Double Olympic Gold
medallist, American legend, Lee Evans, arrived Wasimi Orile, a hamlet in
Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State, to the campus of Segun Odegbami
International College and Sports Academy, SOCA, to start a program of athletes
development in the school to compliment the Academy's vision to be the best
such sports and academics institution in the world.
Lee
resumed his service (the school can never pay him what he is worth) in Wasimi
with a session on the day with the Youth Summer campers that rounded off their
camp on Thursday.
It was a
mutually beneficial, memorable and exciting exercise, and will continue to be,
with Lee in place for the Academy.
When the
school resumes in September, Lee Evans will be helping to design additional indigenous
sports facilities, a unique curricular for the school's sports development
program, training courses for coaches and games masters in the area and Ogun
State as a whole, discovering and placing young talented boys and girls in
programs in the USA, and, generally, taking SOCA to new heights that will make
the school and Ogun State to become models of athletes' and athletics
development in the South West.
The
training regimen will unarguably impact the various sports (football, tennis,
basketball and athletics) in the school.
Ogun
State grassroots sports development will never be the same again, so he said,
and all hands are on deck to make Lee Evans's stay in SOCA and Ogun State, the
best experience for all the lucky boys and girls resuming in September in the
Academy.
"Conceive
it, believe it, and achieve it!" It is the culmination of the hard work,
negotiation, goodwill and communication put in by Chief Segun Odegbami, the
proprietor of the Academy, in past months. SOCA, has been in existence for over
12 years and has been quietly producing future sports stars for Nigeria.
Segun
Odegbami International College & Sports Academy is Nigeria's FIRST and ONLY
co-educational multi-sports secondary school established in 2007. First named The
International (Sports) Academy, it is a specialized multi-sports Secondary
School of Excellence for boys and girls with exceptional talent in sports and
the arts.
The
school is a specialist institution that provides young boys and girls with
interest, talent and passion for sports, with the opportunity to undergo
intensive 6 years of academic studies combined with sports at a very high
level.
The
school runs a six -year (JSS1 to SS3) programme that empowers the students with
a good educational foundation that significantly improves their sports and
prepares them for further education in tertiary institutions here in Nigeria or
abroad or for a professional sports career.
The
school offers courses in Arts, Commerce, and Science subjects up to WAEC, GCE
O’Levels, Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and NECO, plus, vocational courses in
photography, cinematography and tourism
This is
the first such senior secondary school in Nigeria that provides this unique
service to children. In 12 years of the school’s establishment, since January
2007, the school has succeeded in exporting extremely talented athletes
(footballers, basket ballers and tennis players) to colleges and universities
in the United States of America where they are effectively honing their sports
talent and getting first class education, all on full scholar-athlete American
scholarships.
Using
their specially trained teachers, instructors and coaches, the Academy offers a
comprehensive development programme through sport academies in 5 different
sports within the school namely, basketball, tennis, athletics, table tennis
and football.
Upon
graduation our students have the opportunity of pursuing an associate degree
from its partner school, Wayne County Community College, in Detroit, USA.
Awards:
The school was nominated for an
international award, several years ago, by an international organisation in the
UK, Beyond Sports, as one of 35 such institutions in the world using sports to
drive social inclusion in the communities they are located.
Other Awards include, GLO LISABI CHAMPIONS (2011 & 2012), MTN FOOTBALL SCHOLARS (2011 & 2012)
The
school’s website is www.socaschool.com
About Lee
Evans:
“Lee
Edward Evans (born February 25, 1947) is an American Olympian from the 1968
Summer Olympics where he ran track and was part of the boycott and black power
movement.
Evans was
an influential leader in regards to the black power movement. The Olympic
Project for Human Rights began with black students protesting in order to have
equal housing opportunities and was made into the black power movement after a
Tommie Smith interview. Tommie Smith and John Carlos were the face of the
movement, but Smith and Evans were the driving forces behind the movement.
Carlos was said to have not even come to any of the meetings of the group, but
when it came time to be in the spotlight, he took his chance and claimed his
spot in the history books. The black athletes of the 1968 Mexican Olympics
chose not to protest the Olympics as a whole, instead they chose to protest by
wearing an article of black clothing during every event in which they
participated. Evans wanted the world to understand the way he felt about the
Mexican Olympic Games but did not want to take away from the winners and the
sports themselves. In regards to the South African Olympic Ban, Vince Matthews
asked Evans what would happen after the verdict because of his position as OPHR
organizer. Evans replied by saying that it was unclear as to what the
International Olympic Committee would decide, but whatever the decision was the
United States Olympic Team would stick together. Evans received death threats
prior to and during the Olympics and claimed that had he not had these threats
on his mind he probably could have run faster than he did, even though he broke
a world record. Evans won the 1968 Olympic trials at Echo Summit, California
with a world record 44.06 and demolished it in the Olympic final, winning in
43.86 seconds aged 21 years and 8 months, from which he still stands as the
tenth best performer in history. Evans won a second gold as the anchor-man on
the 4 × 400 m relay team, setting another world record of 2:56.16. Both the
times stood as a world record for almost twenty years (the relay, for almost 24
years). While accepting the relay Gold medal Evans, with fellow
African-American medallists Larry James and Ron Freeman, received their medals
wearing berets in imitation of the Black Panther Party. After winning the AAU
400 m titles in 1969 and 1972, Evans finished only fourth in the 1972 Olympic
trials, but was named a member of the 4 × 400 m relay team once more. However,
the United States couldn't field a team because Vincent Matthews and Wayne
Collett were suspended by the IOC for a demonstration at a medal ceremony
similar to the one staged by Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the previous
Olympics.
Evans
became a professional after the 1972 season joining the International Track
Association (ITA) tour. He had some success on the ITA tour notably setting a
600 m indoors world best at the first meet in Idaho State University's
Minidome. The ITA folded in 1976 and Evans was reinstated as an amateur in 1980
and ran a 46.5 in one of his few appearances that year, at the age of
thirty-three. Evans went on to head the national athletics programs in six
different African Nations before accepting a position as head cross
country/track & field coach at the University of South Alabama. Upon
fulfilling his contract, Evans plans to return to either Africa or Mexico where
"you are truly free – not like this fake freedom America has everybody
believing in." Evans' college and amateur careers as well as his
involvement in the Civil Rights Movement is chronicled in Frank Murphy's The
Last Protest: Lee Evans in Mexico City. Evans was inducted into the United
States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1983” (From Wikipedia)
Yes, Ogun
State Grassroots Sports Development will never be the same again, indeed!!!!
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