JONESBORO - Jones boro Coach Randy Coleman said he’s never attempted to spell the actual first name of Chuks Ota, and only recently learned how to pronounce it.
Coleman won’t even touch Ota’s middle name, another lengthy tongue-twisting blend of consonants and vowels that, upon closer examination, appears to be pulled straight from a Scrabble rack.
“For a while when I first heard him say it,” Coleman said, “I would introduce him to people and I’d say, All right, say your whole name,’ just because I wanted to hear it.”
Clearly, there is a lot to hear.
Meet Chukwuemeka Ifeanyichukwu Ota, Jonesboro’s atypical senior defensive tackle and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette preseason All-Arkansas team member, better known as Chuks (pronounced Chooks) since he was a child around this northeast Arkansas city booming with growth.
Ota, 6-2, 292 pounds, helped the Golden Hurricane reach the Class 6A playoff semifinals last fall after logging 70 tackles, including 17 for loss, and 8 sacks.
But befitting a name with 27 letters, Chukwuemeka Ifeanyichukwu Ota (phonetically Chook-Woo-Eh-mehkah ee-fine-yee-chook-woo Oh-tah) has a story that stretches far beyond the football field.
The son of a Nigerian father and an American mother, Ota has a 3.82 grade point average, scored 28 on the ACT, is student council president, adores classical music, particularly the work of Chopin, the famed 19th-century Polish composer and virtuoso pianist, and wants to become a general surgeon - if he’s not playing in the NFL.
“A lot of times, it gets to be just about athletics,” said Coleman, a 1992 Jonesboro graduate and architect of the school’s recent uptick to statewide prominence.
“When you’ve got somebody like Chuks, who excels both athletically and academically, and just as a citizen, it really makes you proud. You can put him at the forefront of your program and he can be the face of it. I think he’ll do that for the school in football, too, in college.”
Ota visited academic heavyweights Yale and Duke in the off season but has orally committed to play football at Arkansas State, where he plans to go into pre-medicine.
“It’s always been an option,” Ota said of ASU. “A year ago, I really didn’t know anything about recruiting. I was just like playing football and everybody told me I was good. All of this stuff kind of snowballed.”
Asked where he sees himself in five years, Ota said “hopefully” working on his master’s degree, possibly at UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock.
Maybe.
“It’s more like I want to be a surgeon, but it’s like I would love to do other things,” Ota said. “I went to New York this summer and it’s got me interested in fashion now, so I may try fashion marketing a little bit. I’m just kind of all over the place.”
It’s in his blood.
Ota moved to Jonesboro from Goshen, Ind. - 120miles east of Chicago - in the seventh grade after his father took a job in Paragould.
Gregory Ogbonnia Ota, an industrial designer and minister, was born in Nigeria and overcame polio as a child before leaving the west African country to attend Kean University in New Jersey during the 1980s.
He honored his heritage by naming his only son “Chukwuemeka,” which means “God has done something great” in Igbo, the principal native language of the Igbo people, an ethnic group of southeastern Nigeria.
“A lot of people think it’s short for Chuck or Charles,” Chuks Ota said. “Everybody just calls me Chuks.”
Ota said it wasn’t until he was “6 or 7” that he was able to spell his entire name. Maybe only a couple of friends from junior high can do the same today, Ota said.
Most, like Jonesboro senior wide receiver D.J. Anderson, fumble the pronunciation.
“It’s Choo-kee-a-mug-ah, something,” Anderson said with a laugh. “I just call him Chuks.”
Ota didn’t play football until he arrived in Jonesboro but quickly emerged as an intriguing prospect exiting junior high, Coleman said.
Ota said when he entered high school, Perry Darby, the school’s offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, called him “Nigerian Nightmare,” an obvious reference to Christian Okoye, the 255-pound Pro Bowl tailback who played for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1987-1992.
Okoye was nicknamed “Nigerian Nightmare” because of his birthplace and bullish running style.
Ota, however, blossomed in the line, initially offensively as a sophomore before moving to defense. He became a starter midway though the 2011 season and, eventually, a nightmare for quarterbacks and running backs.
Coleman called the move a “natural fit” because ofOta’s agility - he has a wrestling background - power (he bench presses 405 pounds) and understanding the importance of leverage and using his hands to shed blockers.
Among the colleges that took notice were Arkansas State, Alabama-Birmingham, Arkansas Tech, Harding and Ouachita Baptist, which all offered Ota a scholarship.
He decided to remain home and orally committed to ASU on June 18, citing his relationship with coaches and strong support system available because of family and friends in Jonesboro.
Ota said the thought of playing at Yale, a prestigious Ivy League school in New Haven, Conn., was tempting, but it would still cost $10,000 annually. The ride at ASU, he noted, is free.
“When he and his father, mainly, would go on these recruiting trips and were talking to the universities, whether it’s coaching staff or all that, a lot of the major questions were about education,” Coleman said. “Arkansas State did a really good job of promoting the education he would receive.”
Still, Coleman said he was disappointed Ota wasn’t coveted by more bigger schools, believing recruiters backed off because of his height.
“We’ve heard so much if he were two inches taller, if he were two inches taller, if he were two inches taller,” Coleman said. “As an interior defensive lineman, leverage and taking on double teams is so key. It’s so frustrating to think that two inches would keep somebody from being an SECtype recruit. I just wonder when measurables become more important than being a good football player. But he’s not hung up on that at all.”
Off the field, Coleman calls Ota “a big old teddy bear,” pointing specifically to how the near-300-poundlineman interacts with young children through “Cane Kids,” a mentoring program involving the district’s elementary schools.
“My daughters love him,” Coleman said.
Ota is also youth group president at First Baptist Church, Kitchen Street, in Jonesboro, where his father is an associate pastor, and aligned with Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit Christian ministry that builds and repairs houses throughout the world using volunteer labor and donations.
Chuks Ota called a Habitat for Humanity mission to Joplin, Mo., devastated by a May 2011 tornado, a “life-changing experience.”
“He loves everybody,” Anderson said. “He knows no strangers.”
But Coleman and Anderson said Ota doesn’t have a problem shedding his good guy image on Friday night, calling him “ ultra-competitive” when he crosses the white line.
“When he gets into the mode, it’s a whole different Chuks,” Anderson said.
Coleman said Ota became incensed with the offense’s struggles last season in a 7A/6A-East game at Cabot and became vocal trying to motivate the defense, an outburst that rubbed the coach the wrong way.
Coleman said he and Ota had words, but their conversation never left Panther Stadium and both quickly moved on following the 38-12 loss.
“It was one of those things that frustrated me while it was going on,” Coleman said. “But when all of it is over and you’re looking back, you love it because you want those guys to be that competitive. That’s what I love about Chuks.”
Even if he still can’t spell his actual first name.
Chuks Ota file SCHOOL Jonesboro POSITION Defensive tackle CLASS Senior HEIGHT/WEIGHT 6-2, 292 pounds 40-YARD DASH 5.2 seconds NOTEWORTHY Had 70 tackles last season, including 17 for loss, and 8 sacks.
... Helped Jonesboro finish 9-3 and advance to the Class 6A semifinals last fall. ... Will be a three-starter this fall. ... Orally committed to Arkansas State on June 18.
... Actual full name is Chukwuemeka Ifeanyichukwu Ota. Has been called Chuks since he was a child. ... Father was born in Nigeria and came to the United States to attend Kean University in New Jersey during the 1980s. ... Moved to Jonesboro from Goshen, Ind., as a seventh-grader.
... Has a 3.82 grade-point average and scored 28 on the ACT. ... Student council president. ... Wants to become a general surgeon.
Sports, Pages 22 on 08/25/2013