Samuel Ukwuachu
America’s college football is grouped
into conferences. The Big 12 is one of the top conferences under the
National Collegiate Athletics Association. The NCAA is divided into
three conferences based on size of schools within the conferences.
In 1996, the NCAA formed the BIG 12
conference with its headquarters in Irvin, Texas. Big 12 consists of 10
school collegiate athletic conference. It is also a member of the
prestigious NCAA Division One teams. Its football teams pride themselves
for competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Big 12 collegiate
members include, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Boise
State University.
In
the early winter of 2011, Nigerian-born Samuel Ukwuachu, a resident of
Brownsville, Texas, with his high school then, Pearland High School,
signed with Boise State University as a member of 2011 recruiting class
for the school. It meant a tentative acceptance to play for the
university after high school. That year, Sam, as he was fondly called by
teammates and fans, finished a spectacular high school senior year
season with a 16-0 win. He stood at 6ft 11 inches and 211 pounds of
athleticism.
In
2012, Sam was welcome to Boise State University Football team and
programme as a prime time starter in this first division conference,
Boise State Broncos. He started 12 games at defensive end. His talent
and impressive field demeanor attracted college girls. The 19-year-old
was enjoying the magnanimity of a great defensive end show stopper. He
was being recognised and idolised by female fans. He began to befriend
one of the girls and, soon, something in both of them stirred: a
relationship.
It is unclear if his relationship with
his then girlfriend affected his focus, dedication and performance, but
shortly after, Sam began to run foul of the school’s football programmes
disciplinary code of conduct. The coaching staff and coach were being
inundated with alleged violence acts by their star Defensive End player
against women, including his girlfriend. The girlfriend later alleged
that she had been choked and beaten during Sam’s violent rage with her.
By the spring of 2013, there had been a mountain of complaints of
alleged violence and assault against women by Sam. The school understood
the implications of these allegations against one of its players, a
recruited All American star footballer with strong prospect for the
National Football League. But the coaching staff could no longer
continue to tolerate the erratic violent behaviour and allegations of
assault against women by their star player, circulating the campus of
the university. The then coach Chris Petersen dismissed him from the
team in May 2013 for unspecified disciplinary reasons. He was
transferred to Baylor University near Waco, Texas and sat out the 2013
season as required by NCAA rules. He did not also play in 2014. He was
ruled ineligible that year.
Four months after he was transferred to
the Baylor State Football programme, The Bears, Sam allegedly sexually
assaulted one of the school’s female soccer players. That was in October
of 2013. It was gathered that there were credible information and
report of Sam’s violent and sexual assault on a female soccer player of
the school’s soccer team.
In June 2014, the 21-year-old was indicted on two counts of felony sexual assault; then the school ruled him ineligible to play.
Early last month, one year after the
indictment was issued, the trial of Samuel Ukwuachu commenced inside a
Waco Texas court. One of his ex-girlfriends was called as a witness to
testify on her relationship with the football star.
According to a Waco Tribune report,
prosecutors called one of Ukwuachu’s former girlfriends at Boise State
to the stand during the trial, and she testified that Ukwuachu punched
her in the head several times, choked her, physically restrained her
from leaving and had a violent temper.
The report said the incident occurred at Ukwuachu’s South Waco apartment after a Baylor homecoming party.
On August 21, a Texas jury, after
deliberating for more than five hours found Samuel Ukwuachu guilty of
sexually assaulting a former Baylor University soccer player in 2013.
The victim testified that Ukwuachu raped
her at the football player’s apartment after a homecoming party in
October 2013. She testified the two originally had plans to go to a
restaurant, but he decided to drive home instead. The victim, who was 18
at the time, testified Ukwuachu held her down and raped her while she
tried to resist and yelled “No!” throughout the assault. She also
testified that Ukwuachu told her, “This isn’t rape,” and asked if she
would call police.” He was sentenced to 10 years of felony probation and
placed in the county jail for 180 days. He will also have to serve 400
hours of community service. Ukwuachu was facing up to 20 years in
prison.
Reacting soon after his son was
sentenced, Mr. Felix Ukwuachu said his son had been battling mental
disorder. “Samuel was depressed, he was homesick. The illness was making
him think suicidal thoughts, so I told him to come home. Samuel was in
good standing with University of Boise State.” Meanwhile, his coach at
Boise State did not disclose that Sam had been violent toward women, he
did tell of a rocky relationship with his girlfriend which contributed
to his depression.
The bright lights of his prospective
first draft NFL pick for 2016 dimmed by rape and prison sentence. He
would be listed as a sex offender after his release from jail.
Copyright PUNCH.
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