After missing a season with myocarditis, Maryland tight end is back and bringing his mom joy

She realized what soccer meant to her son when he was in highschool and she had traveled to Italy. She referred to as Chigoziem on FaceTime, and he answered whereas sporting his helmet inside the home. She requested why, and he mentioned he was simply so excited for the upcoming soccer season. That ardour intersected with potential. Okonkwo developed into a three-star recruit out of Powder Springs, Ga., an Atlanta suburb, and acquired scholarship affords from Power Five packages, finally deciding to turn out to be a Terrapin.

After a couple seasons in College Park, Okonkwo emerged as a go-to tight end, poised to thrive as a starter in 2020. But then that slipped away due to a coronary heart subject. He couldn’t play all final season and wasn’t positive if he’d play once more.

“I had those thoughts: I was like, ‘Dang, what if the last time I played football was the last time I could play football,’” Okonkwo mentioned. “And those are kind of scary. But I knew I was going to come back.”

Okonkwo felt ache in his chest final March and wanted to remain on the hospital in a single day. Doctors recognized him with myocarditis, which is irritation of the center muscle that may be attributable to viral infections. Okonkwo didn’t check constructive for the coronavirus round that point, simply because the pandemic had begun upending life within the United States, however he mentioned medical doctors consider his check was a false destructive and that his coronary heart subject was a complication from covid-19, the illness attributable to the coronavirus. Okonkwo initially didn’t inform his mom in regards to the analysis. She mentioned she discovered from the hospital paperwork that arrived at her home a few weeks later.

“I guess he’s just trying to protect me from everything that has happened to us,” Okonkwo’s mom mentioned, including that her son should have requested the medical doctors to not inform her, “because he knows I would just freak out.”

When Okonkwo was in highschool, his dad suffered a deadly coronary heart assault simply after sitting right down to eat at a Mexican restaurant. On that Sunday after church, “we never came back together again,” Okonkwo’s mom mentioned, and it’s nonetheless troublesome for the household. That historical past prompted warning in Okonkwo’s return to play, however his mom felt reassured by constructive experiences from the medical doctors.

Okonkwo might inform his physique didn’t really feel back to regular and he most likely wasn’t able to return to soccer. His subsequent checkup confirmed he wanted to overlook the whole season. After the primary hospital go to final spring, Okonkwo continued to work out as a result of he mentioned he didn’t understand the severity of the difficulty. When he began feeling chest ache once more and returned for the checkup, medical doctors instructed him not to participate in any bodily exercise for the subsequent six months as a result of there was nonetheless scar tissue on his coronary heart.

Okonkwo couldn’t do something that might make his coronary heart price enhance, and he stayed away from the soccer facility to mitigate the chance of catching the virus once more. (During the season, the Terps needed to cancel back-to-back video games due to a coronavirus outbreak that contaminated at least 30 players and staff members.) Okonkwo stayed in his College Park condo, specializing in schoolwork, which led to what he referred to as “probably my best semester I’ve ever had here in terms of grades.”

By late October, after six months of a laid-back way of life, Okonkwo started to really feel higher. Cardiac screening confirmed that his coronary heart had healed. Before then, Okonkwo had been separated from the staff, however as soon as medical doctors cleared him for a gradual return, he began to work out within the facility and attended a couple video games. This spring, he can lastly follow once more.

Without Okonkwo final season, the Terps didn’t have a standout pass-catching tight end. That’s the place offensive coordinator Dan Enos mentioned would look essentially the most completely different this season, because of Okonkwo’s return and the addition of a few proficient freshman, together with Weston Wolff and CJ Dippre, who’ve already joined the staff as early enrollees. Coach Michael Locksley’s scheme has typically relied on tight ends as receiving threats, and this 12 months, they’ll provide one other dimension to the offense that returns its beginning quarterback and all of its prime vast receivers.

“Now that I’m back, we’re definitely adding that element back in the offense,” Okonkwo mentioned of his place group. “If you guys could see practices, then you’ll see, yeah, tight ends are definitely back.”

As a sophomore, Okonkwo recorded 201 receiving yards with a pair of touchdowns, and now in his senior 12 months, his position might develop considerably. He’ll be part of his staff for the spring sport April 24, then formally return to the taking part in discipline within the fall, maybe with much more appreciation for the sport. His mom flies to Maryland for at the very least a couple residence video games every season, and when she sees her son taking part in once more, she mentioned she’ll really feel the identical feelings as earlier than: “Joy, so much joy, happiness, pride.”