Staff Report
Paul Rodio has won more than 1,000 high school basketball games during his storied career as head coach at St. Augustine Prep. You don’t rack up those kinds of numbers without being able to take raw talent and develop it into good high school hoops players.
A couple of years ago, Olumide “Mide” Okebiorun was a rangy sophomore who scored just 15 points on the varsity level. This year, he blossomed into a 6-foot-5 inside enforcer who helped lead the Hermits to another Cape-Atlantic League championship and a berth in the quarterfinals of the always difficult Non-Public A South state playoff bracket.
Okebiorun — one of the top students at St. Augustine Prep as well, and that’s saying something — wasn’t a stat hound, but he did have some nice games as a senior, scoring 20 points against St. Joseph Academy and reaching double figures in points on seven other occasions. He also did a lot of the dirty work that doesn’t always get recognized, like fighting for rebounds and loose balls, and setting screens so that a guy like Rory Friel could score 466 points this season and finish his career as a 1,000-point scorer.
More than anything else, though, Okebiorun provided great leadership on a team that was very young, featuring freshmen and sophomore starting guards. With Mide leading the way, the Hermits fought through a tough opening to the season, as well as some midseason injuries, and ended up winning nine of their last 12 games to finish the season 17-13. It was one of the more unlikely Prep teams to win a league title, and Okebiorun helped deliver the program’s first such trophy in eight years.
— Dave O’Sullivan, Staff Writer
