After being introduced to the sport by his friends, sophomore Bennett Okello has been playing football for two years. Since first starting the sport he has been consistently competing in the positions of wide receiver and returner.
He ran for the track and field team at La Salle last year, as well as played for the La Salle basketball team, but ultimately decided to pursue football because of his friends’ encouragement and because he really likes the game.
Okello’s favorite part of football is his team and the opportunities the sport provides to get to know people. “It’s kind of like a big family,” he said. To him, having this relationship with his team is what makes the sport so enjoyable.
Communication is the most important to him, on and off the field. “I think just expressing how you feel sometimes can help your team,” he said. “That’s the key to stuff, because if you don’t communicate to others, especially, you won’t know what’s happening.”
On the field, communication proves crucial because talking with his teammates helps everyone stay in sync among all the commotion.
“We’ve been good with teamwork,” he said. “Talking to each other about mistakes and helping each other out.”
He’s appreciative of his coaches who always “see how you’re doing from a scale [of] one to five,” he said, explaining that the coaches often express care towards the players.
His most memorable moment on the field and what he considers his biggest achievement was when he scored his first varsity touchdown. “I was really excited,” he said. “It’s a lot of emotions… especially being a backup. I don’t think I would have thought that I would have scored my sophomore year on varsity.”
However, his football career has not been free from setbacks.
Last year, Okello hyperextended his leg and injured his hip while competing in high jump during his track and field season. “That kind of pushed me back a little bit, but I’m still fighting through it,” he said.
This year, he’s looking forward to making the playoffs.
In his free time, Okello loves listening to music, some of his favorite artists being Brent Faiyaz and Tyson Briller, as well as Drake, and PartyNextDoor. He also plays “EA Sports College Football” and “Madden NFL” and likes to FaceTime with his friends.
Because of his love for discussing sports, Okello hopes to be a sports analyst in the future.
He looks up to his teammate, a senior, Pablo Escamilla-Garcia. “He’s one of my inspirations for football, but outside of football, he talks to me,” Okello said. “He really helps me when I’m going through something.”
The person who motivates him most is his mother. He said, “she always tells me, ‘give full effort,’ so I try to do everything with 100 percent.”
Empathy is an important quality that he values in a person. “I want somebody to know what I’m feeling,” he said. “I don’t really feel connected to a person if they can’t fit in my shoes.”
This year, he’s striving to put in 100 percent of his energy. “I feel like last year I wasn’t mentally prepared, so I went 90 percent because I didn’t really know my job,” he said. “But now, since I know my job, I want to give all my effort.”
Okello encourages all athletes and students to be open to growth, be willing to take advice, and be open minded. “[If] you just want to figure stuff out on your own, you’re always going to [hit] a dead end,” he said.
His advice to people aiming to join football is to be unafraid to become part of the team. “If you’re scared to meet new people, it’s okay, but we’re a very open community,” he said. “I think everybody should join football. It’s a pretty fun sport.”
