When you are watching your favorite team, which player do you pay the most attention to?  What about when you are watching your favorite band perform; who gets most of your attention?  If you are like most people, you pay attention to the star player on the field and the lead singer on the stage.  The point is all of our attention tends to fall on the person everyone perceives as most important, but what about the others on the field or the stage?

In football, the team can’t just rely on a few key or star players, but needs everyone to play well in order for the team, as a whole, to be successful.  The dancers and the background singers are important to the show just as the other players on a football team are important to the game being played.

So, on the field, what is it really like for those who do not get everyone’s attention?  Richard Awojoodu, a senior outside linebacker on Paint Branch’s Varsity Football Team, is one of these players – one who plays an important role, but not one who draws everyone’s attention.

Richard has been playing football all throughout high school and actually started playing because of his brother, PB alumni Tony Awojoodu, who graduated in 2005. Athletes tend to have very busy schedules, and Richard is no different.  Richard sometimes finds it difficult being on a team because of how hard it is balancing all of his work and devoting time to the team. “As a result of all the work and time commitment, sometimes one gets less effort than the other,” says Richard. He thinks he’s done well this season, a year which saw the Panthers make a run all the way to the state semi-finals, but says, “There’s always room for improvement.”

Over the years, as the demands of football got harder and the team got better, he thinks he’s gotten better since his freshman year and is still getting better. While he did not start every game, he did start three and contributed a lot to the team. 

After high school, Richard hopes to achieve his goal of becoming a collegiate athlete.  This desire motivated him at every game night and track meet.  Richard does very well in school, managing a 3.71 GPA, and hopes to obtain a career in computer engineering. He also takes three honors classes and an AP class. “I enjoy the innovation of things that everyone uses. Computers advance more and more throughout the years; therefore, they go through the most innovation and interest me the most” said Richard.

Richard is a very well-rounded student who hopes to one day work for the National Security Agency (NSA).  His advice for other young athletes is to stay focused and never give up because it’s only going to get harder.

So, the next time you go to a football game, be sure to focus – even for a moment – on  every player out on the field and even on the sidelines because they all have worked hard for the team.  You never know; one of them may be in charge of an important group like the NSA in the future.