His parents separated when Junior was in fourth grade. His mother, Aisha, kept him and his younger brother, Shazali, and yetto-be-born sister, Ramatu, at their family home in Maryland, filing for political asylum as she feared for the family’s safety in Nigeria. When his father later died, Aisha returned to Nigeria, at first to settle the estate with the rest of the family, which includes eight other children from two previous marriages, and then, realizing that her business licenses and training were most applicable in Nigeria, she stayed to make the best living possible for the family. “My mom is the most supportive person in my life,” Junior said. “She’s given so much — having to move away from her children and not see us on a daily basis. We try to do our best with the little contact we have. It’s so difficult.” Returning to an environment where the family estate was being contested and to a still volatile political environment was never really an option, so 14-year-old Junior, Shazali, and Ramatu were left with a guardian, Uncle Peter, in America. It became an eye-opening experience. In the span of six short years, Junior had gone from living a life of privilege to one where his family was torn apart and he served as a father figure to his siblings. Not only could his mother no longer return to America, since remaining in Nigeria for work ended her need for political asylum, but Junior and his siblings couldn't leave the United States and retain their asylum status. Through all of this, Junior and his family’s odyssey was not just a heartbreaking tale, it was also international news. If anyone wanted to know about the sordid details of the family’s battle for his estate or about his parents’ separation, it wasn’t hard to find. “It’s still not easy,” shared Junior. “You have to look at people and hear what they say, see what they do, and every now and then, you need to look the other way because they can come to you tomorrow in a completely different light.” While all those things were so hard to get through in his youth, football became one of those things that wasn’t — well, after his mother allowed him to play. When Richard Montgomery High School’s varsity football coach got a look at Junior one day in his junior high physical education test, he decided it was worth an email to Junior’s mother to ask if he could play. Aisha asked Uncle Peter, who confided that his own son had played football, and so Aisha signed up Junior without even telling him. “The moment I really fell for football was in my first game, I was put in at nose guard,” he said. “I ran past the center and saw the guy with the ball, grabbed the back of his jersey, and pulled him down. It felt so good. I got up hootin’ and hollerin.’ Football it is.” During his first year in high school, he found joy in the weight room, breaking the school’s dead lift record at 525 pounds. He started for three years on the offensive line and also became an important part of the defensive line. “The first day at Lycoming, I was excited,” Junior said. “I felt like it was a family when I got here, and it felt amazing. Through COVID and the return, that’s been the biggest thing that’s kept me at Lycoming.” Unsurprisingly, Junior quickly became one of the football team’s leaders, and in 2022, he was named one of the five team captains. Earning a starting slot on the defensive line, he notched 18 tackles and a sack during the season, giving him 50 tackles in his career. With one season of eligibility left, thanks to the COVID-cancelled 2020 season, Junior will return as one of the three players in head coach Mike Clark’s 16year tenure to be a two-time captain in 2023. After that, Junior, a political science major, wants to get involved in business and find a way to make an impact, just like the man he is named after. “My father had faith in me,” Junior said, “that whatever becomes of his legacy, I could eclipse it. I have goals for myself and a map for my life. I know there will be changes on the path, but I know I will get there because I will keep pushing myself. Everything my father did for people, for himself, his family — I want to double or triple that.” 19 www.lycoming.edu
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