FilOil Spotlight: Nosa Omorogbe

Long way from home

If he isn’t in this country, he’d still end up being scrutinized heavily. And the best guess is, everybody knows why.

Funny-sounding name, check.

Skin color, check.

Country to play basketball while studying, check.

Seems like Perpetual Help’s Nosa Omorogbe has some adversity in front of him. But he just puts his head down and continues to pound that ball up and down the hardwood, letting them pass by, bidding his time to unleash whatever’s stewing inside, on the hardcourt in a manner that will make the Altas win.

Ask anybody out there and you’ll get the same resounding answer: “Why did we have to put up with foreign student athletes since San Beda College started the trend with Nigerian behemoth Sam Ekwe?” To make matters worse, it will be followed up with “Filipinos should be for Filipinos, no one else.” Those are your typical I-hate-foreign-student-athletes-because-it-is-unfair kind of fans. And trust us on this, there are a lot. A whole lot.

But has anyone asked the foreign student athletes what it feels like to be in an alien land? Have we ever wondered how they feel towards us? What do they do about the language barrier? Do they defer because they do not want to bite the hand that gives them free education, and board and lodging? Or do they feel they are entitled to everything since they are considered to be the saving grace of their school’s basketball team, hence they are recruited?

They said we Filipinos are a hospitable nation. So why the animosity towards the likes of Sam Ekwe, Sudan Daniel, John Njei and the recent additions to their ranks like Cedric Noubi Happi, Ola Adeogun and Omorogbe?

Some quarters say that these guys are taking away opportunities from Juan. Well, that is only so if Juan is reluctant to up his game so he can prove to school administrators that they do not have to recruit outside of the country to fortify their men’s basketball teams.

All-Filipino champions. All-Filipino challengers. Really, it’s getting boring now. Look at what the foreign student athletes can provide. Look at what Nosa Omorogbe provides for Perpetual Help and tell me straight to my face that foreign student athletes are not worth a bunch of whatevers.

Omorogbe, in his short stint, has proven to be very dependable for Perpetual Help especially in their Final Four run last season. Yes, he is alternating playing times with another foreign recruit, Femi Babayemi. But as much as Babayemi gives the Altas that presence in the paint, Omorgbe is still the better one to mix with the locals since he has the height to play even the center slot if the Altas go small ball, which they did countless of times.

 He can put the leather on the deck, drive and fish that foul. Sad to say, the jumper is still not present in Omorogbe’s arsenal. There are good days and bad days, like his 2-of-12 funk in their opening game in the FilOil Premier Cup. It still needs work for him to pull out the opposing big man to free things up inside for Justin Alano if they are in small ball mode. But you cannot fault the effort he is showing in trying to consistently knock down that jumper. At times, it gets ugly in that he tries to force it so hard. “Pwersa” Omorogbe, some observers have resigned to calling the Luol Deng look-alike.

Force it he must.

Who knows, he might be the Force to pull Perpetual through.