Editor’s note: This tale initially released last autumn. Okoye is detailed by ESPN as Oklahoma’s leading hire among 2024, and also Okoye lately took a hiring browse through to Colorado where he fulfilled brand-new trainer Deion Sanders. According to ESPN, Okoye has deals from Arkansas, Tennessee, Tulsa, USC, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma to name a few.

Danny Okoye’s day constantly begins with 300 push-ups.

Sit-ups and also various other different body-weight workouts quickly comply with. “I can do 50 pull-ups at once,” stated Okoye, a 6-foot-5, 240-pound junior at NOAH.

They go over numbers for Okoye, that stated he has actually been educating making use of exercises considering that he was 5. He submerses himself right into his training, exercising both with his group and also alone.

However he’s quick to explain he’s not in the fitness center as high as individuals believe.

He books time for raising weights to group techniques, where his numbers are equally as jaw-dropping. He bench presses 335 extra pounds. He back crouches 455. His deadlift — an enormous 685 extra pounds — laps most colleagues.

However he connects the majority of his stamina to his exercises.

“I seem like my arms aren’t as huge as perhaps someone that benches 315 extra pounds, yet I’ll have the ability to toss someone around a whole lot less complicated than a person that has a great deal of mass on them,” Okoye stated.

That stamina has actually made Okoye a pressure on Friday evenings for NOAH, in spite of his name not being popular in the Oklahoma senior high school landscape. He can play virtually any kind of placement his trains desire, and also he strikes hard.

It has actually brought about a wealth of rate of interest from Power 5 Department I universities.

According to 247Sports, the junior has actually gotten 10 deals, racking up rate of interest from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri, USC and also Arkansas to name a few.

“I such as the changability of it,” stated Okoye of recruiting. “Like, I need to show myself.”

He isn’t established on a certain university yet, stating various other institutions are still connecting to him. NOAH trainer James Ballinger stated Okoye continues to be rational throughout his employment, a procedure that can obtain frustrating sometimes.

Whenever Okoye does pick an university, his objective is to significant in kinesiology, the research study of muscular tissues and also human motion, and also ultimately come to be a toughness and also conditioning trainer.

Due to the fact that stamina has constantly rapt him.

He appreciates previous fighter Mike Tyson and also exactly how he educated, with Okoye stating it’s something he attempts to duplicate throughout his very own techniques.

“When he was my age, he didn’t touch weights,” Okoye stated. “His trainer didn’t allow him, and also you saw exactly how huge he was.”

Okoye exercises a lot due to the stamina benefit it provides him on the football area. He outlines penalizing appeal protection, which landed him the label “Danny Phantom.”

The label — a nod to an old Nickelodeon animation of the exact same name — was presented to Okoye throughout NOAH’s springtime camp, after colleagues began comparing his difficult hits to “taking someone’s heart.”

It continuously formed from “heart” to “ghost” after that “phantom” prior to his given name was labelled on.

“It simply kind of fit,” Okoye stated. “It simply stuck. I enjoy it. I believe it’s rather trendy.”

And also in one period, Okoye has actually stuck to the Jaguars group.

NOAH is utilized to fielding a group of about 30-40 gamers, once COVID-19 hit — and also moms and dads recognized they can homeschooling their kids — Ballinger stated the lineup expanded to 62.

Okoye was among them. After participating in public college his entire life, he transitioned to homeschooling for his student year, signing up with the Jaguars to proceed playing affordable sporting activities.

“We’ve been truly energetic in obtaining children hired and also obtaining children chances if they do bet us,” Ballinger stated.

Okoye plays a collection of settings for the Jaguars, aligning at protective end, limited end, running back and also as a port receiver periodically. He likewise acts as NOAH’s punter.

“He’s really an excellent punter,” Ballinger stated. “This is his very first time doing it, yet with a bit of job I believe he can be a college-level punter.”

Ballinger wants to shovel extra offending job onto Okoye over the following 2 periods, yet recognizes Okoye will likely be a protective gamer come university time.

For Okoye, it doesn’t matter where he align. He’s simply concentrated on “harassing” his challenger.

“I wish to do my task, most importantly,” he stated. “However I still wish to have the ability to enforce myself on the various other group.”

Those 300 push-ups aren’t simply for enjoyable. They are a suggestion of what’s required for the following degree.