“I was excited when I found out!  I could not sleep so I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and browsed through my phone, refreshed my email and saw the United Soccer Coaches Association email that said “Congratulations as being selected as an All American!”  I was wondering what was going on.”

Oakton student Bukky Abdulwahab-Omotose soon found out what was going on.  He’d been selected as a member of the 2018 United Soccer Coaches Junior College Men’s Division I All-America Team.  The United Soccer Coaches (USC) was founded in 1941, and is the largest soccer coach’s organization in the United States.  

Abdulwahab-Omotose is a forward on the Oakton men’s soccer team.  The United States National Soccer Team Players generally define a forward as “the glamour position in soccer, the player expected to score the goals. A true #11 knows his or her job is to put the ball in the back of the net.  Forwards are goal scorers. Forwards are our front line of attack, our main offensive players.”

Abdulwabab-Omotose’s quiet and measured demeanor contradicts the tremendous responsibility he carried as an Oakton forward.  Before anything else, he is a team player. What he’d set out to achieve during the past season dealt with goals. “You just set your goal and try to achieve it.  I just wanted to beat the 21 goals in a season record.   I didn’t know that 24 goals would help us to get to the regional final.”

In December, 2018 the Chicago Tribune wrote that, “Bukky led the Owls in scoring with 58 points (24 goals, 10 assists), ranking fourth in the nation in goals scored. He helped his team reach the finals of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region IV Championship and a 13-7 overall record.  Owls head coach Steve Brody says that the forward is very deserving of the accolade: “Bukky worked very hard to achieve success at Oakton, and I’m very proud of him. I’m excited to see how much further he can grow as a player as he moves on to his next challenge.””

Additional awards given to Abdulwahab-Omotose include being named to the NJCCA Region IV All-Region Men’s Soccer Team and the Illinois Skyway Conference (ISCC) Men’s Soccer All-Conference First Team.

Coach Brody and all of Oakton College are not the only people proud of Bukky.  When asked what his family thought of his success, he stated “I texted my Dad and who said he was proud of me.  My whole family was happy!” Future plans include playing for University of Illinois Men’s Soccer after graduating from Oakton.