October 12, 2004 marked the origin of Samson Adeyemi Okunlola’s journey.
But Samson’s story began with how his parents, Jomel and Monica Okunlola came to America. Around 24 years ago, the two traveled across the Atlantic from Nigeria and settled down in a small Massachusetts town called Brockton.
How they got here may seem like a chance in fate, a winning lottery - ironically, what brought them to Massachusetts WAS winning a lottery for two American visas. In Brockton, Jomel and Monica raised 4 boys - Timmy, Sunny, Samuel, and, at last, Samson.
As a baby, Samson weighed 8 pounds (which is the average baby weight, who would’ve thought?)
He always cried, but loved to eat Apples. Samson didn’t grow up aspiring to be a football star. Matter of fact, he hated sports. He’d rather become a big-time game streamer or rapper. But sure enough, fate has other arrangements for him.
Fast forward to elementary school, where Samson first took an interest in football.
When he wanted to join the school team, however, he was told he was overweight and couldn’t play! Fortunately, Samson found another league, unlimited in weight, called the Brockton Raiders.
Two years later, he transferred to a higher level unlimited team, Brockton Junior Boxer, to play alongside his older brother Samuel. Samson showed an exceptional physique early on - 6'4 and 315lbs as a 7th grader. But back then he didn’t take football as seriously as he should.
The turning point of Samson’s football career came when he joined Thayer Academy with the help of Project RISE, a program that prepares students for secondary school.
First time playing for varsity football and first time playing as Offensive Tackle, Samson quickly discovered his tremendous potential at this position. His talent gave him a successful and rewarding freshman season at Thayer, but also exposed areas that he had yet to develop.
In his freshman winter, Samson joined Thayer’s varsity wrestling, which helped him lose a desirable amount of weight and made him more athletic overall. But just as the wrestling season came to an end, the pandemic hit.
The quarantine shut down campuses and took millions of children out of school and sports.
It was no doubt a challenging time for student-athletes and their families. Samson, however, saw this as a window of opportunity for self-improvement. He began his day by running 2 to 3 miles every morning, timing himself to see progress. After his run, he would practice tackles and footwork, sometimes ending his workout with flipping huge tires.
Not so long afterwards, hard work began to pay off.
In the summer, Samson started to receive offers - first from Morgan State, and then from Boston College and Tennessee on the same day! As Samson entered his sophomore year, offers just kept rolling in - on some days two of them, on some days even three.
Exciting results didn’t knock Samson off his grind. He continued to wrestle in the winter, building muscles and losing weight. He participated in the NEXTGEN football camp in December and the UA Series football camp in the coming April; in both of these, Samson showed domination at a higher level, which made him the topic of even more college football recruiters.
Junior year, Samson put on his best performance for football, racking up even more offers.
In the winter wrestling season, he secured 1st place in the ISL (Independent School League) and 1st place in New England without a single point scored on him. Eventually, Samson came in 9th place in the Nationals. In the off-season, Samson sometimes trained 6 days a week, but mostly 7.
The past summer, Samson took 3 of his 5 official visits to Michigan state, Alabama and Miami. Where would he eventually go? Stay tuned!