Photo: JAY NOLAN
Forever Bulls
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Dr. ChiChi laughs
with student-athletes participating in Reality Speaks’ second annual clothing drive. A former student-athlete at USF, she founded her nonprofit after witnessing collegiate athletes struggle with career choices beyond their sport.
“A lot of people think they’re going to be the next Lebron James,” says associate head coach Jeff Osterman, who coached Dr. ChiChi during her undergrad years. “There is such a need for our students to know the real numbers. We want to encourage dreams but we also want people to be grounded.” Okpaleke had her feet on the ground, Osterman says. “When other students were sleeping, she was getting up early for her workouts” or working out late with coaches who came in at night to help her make up for a missed practice. To hear her tell it, she and the coach butted heads a few times. The way he puts it: “I pushed her, but there was never a challenge she wasn’t up to.” Dr. ChiChi was a local basketball star from Tampa Bay Technical High School, a Class 4A first-team allstate player who came to USF on a scholarship in 2004. But what really set her apart was how hard she worked, Osterman says. “There was no down time for her.” When she wasn’t practicing or in class or catching a few hours sleep, she was studying. By her junior year, her course load included genetics, organic chemistry and physics. At the same time, she was expected to take a leadership role on the team. During her junior year, she almost quit to move into something easier. But there was her mother with her stern advice. This was a woman who had emigrated from Nigeria in 1980, cleaned hotel rooms to earn a living and
50 UNIVERSITY of SOUTH FLORIDA
ultimately become a physician assistant and home health business owner – all the while raising seven children. Even now, “my mom does so much, it’s ridiculous,” Dr. ChiChi says. And through her mom she learned how to make every minute count; how to turn her mind to her studies whenever she could, wherever she was, traveling home after a game or waiting in a hallway before class. She also chose friends who helped keep her on track. Her best friend, Sharon Cambridge, was a USF basketball player who also stuck to her academic dreams, eventually becoming a speech pathologist with a private practice in Charlotte, North Carolina. As other students headed off for spring and summer holidays, Cambridge says, the two of them stayed behind, letting off steam some nights by turning up the music in their dorm, often Beyonce, and making up dance routines. Not everyone has the motivation to excel in multiple areas as Dr. ChiChi, but she believes everyone has a special talent that can be developed into a career off the field or the court. She’s working on melding her own talents by pursuing a career in sports medicine. With Reality Speaks, “I want to help student-athletes see they can do it. There were times when I didn’t really think I could do it.” But now, she says, as she goes through her day seeing patients, “Everything I did, it all makes sense now.” n To learn more about Reality Speaks and ways you can help, visit realityspeaks.org.