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Student's selection as graduation speaker completes next chapter in childhood 'American dream'
McCOOK, Neb. — Barely one month after thinking he’d realized the dream of a lifetime in McCook, Chinedu Myles Okonkwo -- from the Enugu state of Nigeria, Africa -- crawled into his bed in Brooks Hall, screamed into his pillow, and wept in shame.
As a McCook Community College freshman, he’d missed a few classes, he’d disappointed his basketball coaches, his body was betraying him, and he dreaded going to practice, where his deficiencies would be on blatant display.
On Friday Chinedu will receive his associate’s degree from MCC and was selected as the student speaker -- not only because of his academic and athletic success but because of his remarkable journey from humble beginnings, that has inspired others.
Commencement for McCook Community College is set for Friday at 10 a.m. at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center. In addition to the conferring of degrees, the Dr. Gene A. Budig Outstanding Faculty Award will be presented, long-time McCook resident and McCook College alumni Lloyd Benjamin will receive the President’s Award and Chinedu Okonkwo will deliver the student address.
CHINEDU WAS BORN in Kaduna, Nigeria. His father died when he was four. He and brother Chidera were raised by their mother – when she could. They also spent time with his uncle in Abuja. She earned enough money cooking for people to rent a small two-bedroom home, and usually earned enough to feed growing boys once or twice a day.
With only one bed, Chinedu slept on the floor. It often gets hot in Nigeria, which has an unreliable electrical grid, so frequently Chinedu slept outside with the mosquitos. Neighbors -- unhappy about the lack of electricity — sometimes buy generators, which are extremely loud. But there is nobody to solve disputes.
With no running water, he and his brother showered from buckets of water they fetched from a nearby well.
But what makes life most uncomfortable is the threat of getting caught up in religious disagreements. When he was younger, Chinedu recalls once, when warring factions were nearing their home, his mother snatched up the two boys and tied them to her back as she ran from men with guns. While conditions have improved, his eyes have witnessed shootings. The image of dead bodies leaves a lasting imprint. It inspires a better life.
“I just knew I wanted to get away,” he said.
THE ONLY THING he had with any value was his height. He’d only been playing basketball for a couple years, but knew he loved playing the game with friends. He decided to try and find a college, and sent videos to American colleges, including McCook Community College, a school which ultimately was willing to give him a chance.
“Mostly, because he was tall,” MCC Coach Brandon Lenhart recalls.
When Chinedu dreamed of America, it was in the abstract. When MCC offered him a scholarship, everything that happened after that was a desperate scramble.
First he had to apply for a visa and get a passport. He estimates that only about one in 100 applications from his country are approved, but his student visa was. Upon receiving his visa, his mother wept with joy.
“She said if she lived to be 90 or 100 she would never hear better news,” Chinedu said.
Then came the tricky part: getting to America.
“We didn’t have $10 in our family so I didn’t know how I would pay for an airplane ticket,” Chinedu said.
IN McCOOK, classes had already started and Coach Lenhart called, wondering why he wasn’t on campus.
“He called me daily and told me that if I wasn’t coming he’d need to find another player to give the scholarship to, I didn’t want to lose my scholarship and my chance so I told him I bought the ticket but I didn’t know where I would find the money. I needed a miracle, so I prayed.”
His uncle stepped forward offering a little bit of money, then others began to chip in, $5 here, $1 there. Still, there wasn’t enough money, so he had to go out and find people who would buy into his chance and donate to his dream.
Finally he raised enough to buy the ticket. He arrived in America Aug. 22, 2016, signed up for classes and moved into Brooks Hall where – for the first time in his life – he had his own bed to sleep in.
ALMOST AS SOON as he set foot on campus, some unpleasant truths threatened to send him back. In his desperate attempt to entice coaches to notice him, Chinedu might have exaggerated his height.
“When he arrived on campus, I knew he wasn’t as tall as he said he was,” Coach Lenhart said.
Chinedu started his academic career almost a week and a half later than all the other students. After his whirlwind trip halfway around the world from home, he missed a couple classes.
Then he showed up at basketball practice where the fun sport he’d discovered a couple years earlier playing with friends for fun was nothing resembling the high-stakes, high-paced game played at the college level.
“Quite honestly, after seeing him play, my goal for him had nothing to do with basketball -- just to help him use the sport to give him a chance at a better life,” Lenhart said.
From a basketball fundamentals level, he was years behind all his other teammates. He struggled. On top of everything else, his body was failing him. There were times when it was difficult for him physically to make it through a complete practice.
“Everything was difficult especially basketball,” Chinedu said, adding that he’d come back from class and lay in his own bed and dread the time leading up to practice. “I did not want to be on the court. My stomach ached, I was constipated. If we had practice at 2:30, I would be in the dorms after class, just worrying for hours about how bad I was. I missed my family and there were times when I thought I wanted to go home.”
ASSISTANT COACH BRANDON PRITCHETT met with Chinedu about his academic responsibilities and expectations for classes.
“At home I was naturally good at classes, I always loved math and science,” Chinedu said. “The studies here were the one thing that was not difficult – but things were much different,” he said. At home he’d hand in his assignments on paper using pencils.
“He really struggled early on, but he is such a perfectionist, and so highly-intelligent and driven that it didn’t take long for him to figure things out,” said English instructor Jean Miller.
“Coach Pritchett helped me with my class work and encouraged me, and showed me what was expected and how to accomplish the goals of my classes,” Chinedu said.
“We noticed that he was having a hard time adjusting on many levels. He wasn’t used to our academic methods, he wasn’t used to our food, he wasn’t used to intense workouts,” Coach Lenhart said. “His body was just in a different place.”
Later they were able to pinpoint some nutritional deficiencies and correct that with vitamins and a dietary plan.
CHINEDU ALSO WASN’T USED to a coach who yelled at him.
“Sometimes Coach Lenhart is hard on you and it took me a while to realize it was nothing personal. He helped me realize if I didn’t want to have to return to Africa, I had to improve some things and that he didn’t want to see me fail.”
“I call it being loving but sometimes brutal,” Lenhart said.
“At one point coach called me in and told me ‘I don’t know if you can make it here,’” Chinedu said. “That hit me hard.”
He went back to room, laid on his bed, cried and then decided to work as hard as he could. He worked hard in the classroom, followed a healthier nutritional path, and agreed to “trust the process,” as his coaches urged him to do.
The season started and he was not a big part of the team. His confidence hit bottom around the Christmas break of 2016 despite the coach being encouraged that his player’s work ethic was paying off, “We were just trying to figure out how to make him more aggressive at the rim.”
THAT CHRISTMAS, with a renewed purpose, Chinedu remained in McCook. He couldn’t afford to return to home, so he stayed in McCook, with his “Adopt-A-Student” parents Greg and Cindy Larson. They gave him a place to process his whirlwind previous four months. They opened up their home to him and let him recharge. Chinedu credits the Larsons for helping him launch an amazing march through his next three semesters.
With the momentum he gained, Chinedu was named to the NJCCA All-Academic second team for student-athletes with grade-point averages between 3.80 and 3.99. He also earned Region IX Academic All-Conference honors. Last season he played in all 31 games and came back from Christmas break starting the final 16 games averaging 6.5 points and 5.3 rebounds.
“I had to take everything seriously. I had people at home and people in McCook who were looking out for me and I didn’t want to disappoint any of them,” Chinedu. “I worked hard for them.”
UNABLE TO AFFORD a plane ticket home, he remained in McCook over the summer and kept working out, kept trusting the process, kept working at being more aggressive at the rim.
When the 2017-18 season began, teammates began hearing about Chinedu’s humble background. He is a soft-spoken man, but as a sophomore if he saw a teammate was down or not giving it their all, he’d share his journey to illustrate, that things could be worse, and that you can overcome much with hard work, and trusting in the process.
This past season, Chinedu not only became aggressive at the rim but led all Region IX south conference players with 252 rebounds (8.1 per game). He was tops in offensive rebounds with 114, (3.7 per game), averaged 12.0 points per game and made 51.8 percent of his shots. He was named to the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference team, and third-team all-Region IX.
He received a basketball scholarship at the University of West Florida.
FOR MUCH OF THE SEASON, his aggressive at-the-rim style was limited somewhat by a knee injury. That may change his plans once again. He had an operation in April to repair a torn ACL. He said normally, those procedures will keep him off the court for at least six months. So a new chapter emerges in his life.
If that happens he feels confident he can now figure out how to get from one point to another, to attain a higher level.
“He had a great year, even though he played hurt he accomplished so much on the court. I know he’ll work hard on recovering and getting back,” Lehnart, “But simply being here is a testimony – let alone everything he has achieved.”
On April 30, Chinedu was named MCC’s male academic athlete of the year and is on pace to duplicate his NJCCA All-Academic status this year as well as Region IX Academic All-Conference honors.
He plans to get a bachelor’s degree in cyber security, and a masters’ in estate management, with dreams of continuing his basketball career as long as he can. Mostly he wants to give his mother and his family a better life.
“Everybody has their own story. I come from a place where the rich people are really rich and the poor people are really poor,” he said. “That really doesn’t matter. Everybody comes from a different place and has different difficulties, what matters is what you do with what you are given.”