The best part was when my whole family got into a game by donating four pairs of shoes:
Michael Obacha, a starting forward for the Appalachian State basketball team, has made it to the Final Four. His accomplishments on the way there transcend basketball.
Obacha is one of five NCAA Division I players named to the 2015 Allstate-NABC Good Works Team, which honors athletes for leadership and community service. He will be recognized during Saturday’s semifinals in Indianapolis.
His good works began two years ago when he returned to his homeland Nigeria and took a few pairs of basketball shoes with him to give to children who couldn’t afford them and were playing either barefooted or in shoes worn and falling apart. Since, through a charity drive that he organized, about 1,000 pairs of shoes have been distributed. …
Ryan Bower, associate sports information director at Appalachian, was invited by Obacha to accompany him to Indianapolis. He describes Obacha, a former player at High Point Christian and Oak Ridge Military academies who will be a senior for the Mountaineers next season, as not only “a great student and a hard worker on the basketball court,” but as an “even better human being.”
Bower said Obacha’s impact off the court is something that will resonate for a long time. “He’s one of the more quiet people you’ll meet, but he’s so driven to help make a difference in the lives of others, it’s incredible to see,” Bower said.
Obacha will be the first of his family to get a college degree. He plans to graduate in May of 2016 with degrees in economics and international business. He hopes to continue to expand on his charity work after his final season of basketball.
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