UBC's defensive end Charles Nwoye looks like he could have a bright professional career ahead after an improbable start to his CIS career.

Last June, as he scrambled to find bodies to fill out the depth chart along his defensive line, newly installed UBC head coach Blake Nill decided to follow his gut instincts and act on a tip from one of his former players. “He said, ‘Coach, you got to see this kid,’ ” remembers Nill, who got Nwoye’s phone number and later flew out to visit with him and his family in the small Alberta town of Strathmore, 50 kilometres east of Calgary. “I took one look at him and even though he had never played, I said ‘Wow, this kid looks like he can move.’ ” ...
There was so much that could have gone wrong, but based on that eye-test alone, Nill invited the native of Lagos, Nigeria who had come to Canada in 2006 with his family and promptly skipped a grade, to join his squad later that summer at the team’s training camp. “The first time he put on his helmet was Aug. 14,” Nill continues. Yet in the six weeks between their initial meeting and the start of camp, Nwoye had the fortune of watching an NFL Films documentary on Christian Okoye, the former Kansas City Chiefs’ all-pro running back who has started playing football while in college at the age of 23 and was later nicknamed The Nigerian Nightmare. “Not that I am saying I’m going to the NFL, but when I saw that, I thought ‘If he can do this, why can’t I?’ ” says Nwoye, who suddenly had a script to follow that was worthy of his own ambitions. “We’re both from the same tribe. The Igbo tribe. We grew up in neighbouring states.” From that point, with a template to guide him, Nwoye learned to leave his caution and fear on the sidelines. ...
And once he got through the initial pain that accompanied his quest, a heck of a quick learner. “That whole camp, my body was so beat up and honestly, I wondered if football was even for me,” Nwoye admits. “The contact part was something I struggled with. My aggression wasn’t where it needed to be. But now I am not afraid to hit anyone. I think my inner savage came out.” Nwoye became proficient enough over just two weeks of camp that Nill put him on the travelling roster, and Nwoye actually got on the field for a number of snaps in UBC’s 41-16 season-opening upset win in Quebec City over the powerhouse Laval Rouge et Or. ...
If there was one other thing that Nill noticed in that first meeting with Nwoye, it was the muscular package he carried with such grace and ease. “He looked like a weight-room kid,” Nill confirms. Because he skipped a grade in elementary school not soon after the family arrived in Canada, Nwoye graduated high school at age 16. And when Nill met with him last June, Nwoye had already finished his second year of studies toward a degree in economics at the University of Lethbridge. ...

From Okoye to Onyemata to Kongbo, Nwoye admits comfort in knowing that others have travelled along his road. And now, with the UBC program at an all-time high in terms of its visibility and his personal ceiling seemingly unlimited in his next four university seasons, Nwoye admits he would love to be in a position to play at the next level.
It seems evident that Nwoye has become more than just Nill’s pet project. “Right now, I’ve got him starting in one of the (defensive line) positions,” says Nill, who personally works with the defensive line in practice. “I don’t know if he’s ready yet, but he’s definitely competing and that is a big thing. “Here’s a guy who was only 18 when he finished his second year of university,” continues Nill. “His attitude has been phenomenal. You can’t help but have some patience for him because you’re looking at a kid who is a diamond in the making.”
If last season was just a rough, early cut of what is to come, then there is a great chance that Nwoye, who has only been playing the game for about nine months now, will achieve a lasting brilliance.
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