Akaoma Odeluga’s rebounding numbers are eye-catching.
Just look at Munster’s most recent game. The 5-foot-11 senior center had 20 rebounds in a win against Hobart on Thursday.
What is Odeluga’s secret?
“You just have to want the ball,” she said. “When the ball goes up, you see it, you have to want it. I say, ‘This needs to be my rebound.’ I box out, and this is mine. You already have to claim it as yours to make sure you get it.”
Odeluga is averaging 10.0 points and 15.0 rebounds, which leads the state, according to MaxPreps. As a first-year starter last season, she averaged 9.8 points and 12.4 rebounds.
Munster coach DeAndre Williams has seen Odeluga’s performances firsthand. He is in his first season with the Mustangs (7-2) after three seasons at Morton.
“She carves out so much space,” Williams said. “The funny thing about it, she gets so many offensive rebounds, but she misses so many layups. We crack jokes about that, but just getting her to finish around the basket is what we’re working on with her. A lot of times, she’ll fight for the offensive rebound, and she’ll rush it.
“I always tell her, ‘You’re working without getting paid. You’re working and working, and you’re not rewarding yourself. Just take your time.’ But she’s a monster on the glass. She’s just a hard worker. She’s not super athletic. But what she doesn’t have in athleticism, she makes it up in hard work and effort. She’s a joy to be around. I’m lucky to have her as a player.”
Williams also praised the “leadership and energy” Odeluga provides every day, along with classmates Trinity Hogge and Lillian Mason.
More Top Picks Best Desk Organizers For Students
“She has such high character,” Williams said of Odeluga. “She’s always even. She brings so much excitement to the team. She’s just been a pleasure to be around.
“I’m thankful she’s on our team. She’s a hard worker. She never settles for being average. She always wants to keep going and keep going and keep going. She’s been an awesome leader for our team. I don’t know where we’d be without her.”
Odeluga credited her father with emphasizing rebounding. She said she has enjoyed hearing his stories about former Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman.
“Growing up, I was one of the bigger, taller girls — a post,” Odeluga said. “My dad has always instilled in me, even though you might not be the best shooter, your job, what you can bring to the team and what you can give, be who you are and what you have, and that’s my height and my power. That’s the job I had to adopt.
“Even if I don’t put up points, I have to get that rebound because that rebound helps a lot. It gives us a second chance, and that’s the role I’ve really adopted and called my own. I have to rebound for my team. If that’s the one thing I can do for this game, that’s what I’m going to do. My dad always says ‘rebound, rebound, rebound.'”
Odeluga also developed her mentality, skills and toughness by watching and playing with her older brother, Kenenna, a Mount Carmel graduate and redshirt freshman linebacker at Illinois. She has three younger sisters, including Igbo, a freshman in the program.
“That guy has muscle,” Odeluga said of her brother with a laugh. “I got bullied in the paint by him. From a young age, having to body someone like that, finding how to use my body and use my strength to play against him, has given me an upper edge on the people around me because of what I experienced with him.
“I’ve always been a raw-strength type of person. You can see that when I play basketball, my ability to bully girls on the box. I’ve found a love for lifting — lifting is one of the favorite things I do now — and track combines all of that.”
Indeed, Odeluga is a multisport athlete. She has excelled as a thrower in track and field. She qualified for the state meet in the shot put as a sophomore and narrowly missed a return trip last season.
“It was the biggest upset of my life,” she said.
Still, what Odeluga has accomplished in track is remarkable, considering she didn’t take up the sport until she was a sophomore.
“It was my first year ever throwing,” she said. “I came into track wanting to run. The summer before my sophomore year, I put a lot of work into basketball and conditioning. I got my weight down, I got faster, I was better. Everyone could tell the big difference, and I wanted to continue it, keep in shape. But I wound up throwing, and it was, like, ‘Hey, I’m actually good at this.’ I’m a competitive person, so I did want to be the best.
“One day I was in this gym just throwing this medicine ball. The next day I’m at state competing with the top girls in the state. It’s crazy to think about it. It’s hard to wrap my head around it.”
Odeluga is a straight-A student who participates in multiple clubs and extracurricular activities. She is weighing the combination of academics and athletics in considering her college future. She mentioned Michigan, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Harvard, Stanford and Georgetown are some of the schools on her radar.
“I’m a dream-big person,” Odeluga said. “There’s no harm in trying. You want to go to the place where you feel you can gain the most and it’s an equal partnership. It’s a trade-off: I give them my best, and they give me their best.”
Odeluga plans to study political science or public policy.
“My biggest dream has been to be a lawyer,” she said. “Helping people has always been a really big thing for me since I was younger. I’ve always felt a calling to the political system. I want to get into public service.”
Both of her parents are doctors who began their careers in Nigeria.
“They built a home here,” Odeluga said. “They established a life for themselves and for me and my brother and sisters. They never tried to push a career on us. They’ve always told me to do what you love and where you feel you can help the most people and make the most impact.
“When you look back, you want to see how many people you touched.”