Chikwado’s football career to continue with Bisons

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This article was published 28/12/2024 (264 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Newman Chikwado’s size and determination are a stark contrast to his gentle personality.

Don’t get that confused about his play on the field.

The six-foot-five, 290-pound lineman is graduating high school and has committed to the University of Manitoba Bisons but he hopes the next leg of his football journey will help in his ultimate goal of becoming a doctor.

The bruising presence on the defensive line has played just two seasons in the sport and has been in Canada just four years, but Chikwado’s journey will now take him to Winnipeg where he has committed to the Bisons football team.

After reluctantly joining the Vincent Massey Vikings for his Grade 11 season, his advancement through the sport has been meteoric, but the gentle giant is hoping to use the sport to leverage his academic pursuits while thanking and appreciating his Viking coaches, teammates, family, friends and his faith for helping him along the way thus far.

“I think it’s the push from the coaches and team. Since day one they’ve been pushing me to be consistent, keep showing up to practice and keep putting in the work. Just that foundation has set me up to reach the next level,” Chikwado said after his commitment to the Bisons was made public last week.

Chikwado and his family moved to Brandon from Lagos, Nigeria when he started Grade 8 at Riverheights School, and admitted that aside from a bit of soccer and basketball he wasn’t overly interested in any sports, never mind football.

He started playing football just over a year ago after being convinced by coach Mike Steeves, and it has certainly worked out.

Chikwado was a key part of Massey’s two most recent Vidruk Bowl championships, for which he was named the team’s most outstanding lineman. Now the soon-to-be Bison is gearing up for the next challenge, and his internal drive has been matched by the support he’s received.

“Always trying to get better, always trying to accomplish more. Especially for me in my role who came to the role with no experience in football I found I had to push myself even harder to get stronger, quicker and everything else that leads to a better football player,” Chikwado said.

Once the potential of playing university football became a reality it took some work to sell himself to the Bisons coaching staff, as Manitoba was the only school he was interested in. Chikwado relied on former Vikings like Carter Moore who made a similar jump to help make connections with the coaches, and since receiving a scholarship offer has only furthered his motivation to succeed.

“The fact that I know there are people out there that are better than me that didn’t get an offer like this, so I know that my opportunity pushes me because I know there are others out there that are deserving that didn’t get an offer like this,” Chikwado added.

“The teammates, the coaches, just being around people that push you every day. Instead of trying to hold you down, they’re trying to bring you up, support you, and in a lot of ways they’re your backbone, so being around good coaches and good players, my family, all of the positives I have in my life have helped so much.”

The Brandon Sun first reported on Chikwado in August how he was primed for a breakout season and he did just that, anchoring the defensive line and being named most outstanding lineman in the process.

After watching his run through the playoffs of his Grade 12 season, it became very apparent that his journey in football is far from over.

“You can’t teach size like he has or athletic ability he has at his size. What really got us in trying to get him on board was that a lot of high school coaches would message me about him. They really said you need to get this kid to the University of Manitoba. He’s gonna be a star,” said Bisons special teams coach Sean Oleksewycz, who is responsible for recruiting during the transition in head coach Brian Dobie’s retirement.

Oleksewycz has been handling the bulk of recruiting the past two seasons while knowing Dobie’s retirement was imminent, and is thrilled to see the connection of star Vikings making the jump to the university ranks with the Bisons.

“It helps that we have some Brandon guys in our locker room, guys like Justin Sharp and Carter Moore who have redshirted but we see them having big roles on our team next year,” Oleksewycz added.

“It’s a testament to the culture within the room. To replace a head coach like this is never easy, but to keep talented kids in Manitoba we’ve done a pretty good job, so it will be a matter of getting the new coach acclimated into our systems.”

While he’s thrilled for the opportunity ahead of him, Chikwado currently has no aspirations of playing pro, as his goal is to study medicine and one day become a doctor.

Chikwado is carrying a 94 per cent average through high school so far, proving he’s equally motivated to be successful in the classroom.

“I think with Newman he is so highly academic and his parents really want him to be successful on the academic side, so it took convincing from me for him to accept the scholarship,” Oleksewycz said. “Work balance with school, we helped ease his concerns because we have a lot of smart guys in our program. We’ve got guys in engineering, computer science, things like that, so I think being able to reach out to some of those guys and have them ease concerns. We’ve had doctors come through the program, so once we talked those things through it was a bit of an easy recruit for us because he wanted to be at Manitoba.”

With the success Chikwado has found in such a short time both in competition and in the classroom, he’s quick to point out the help he’s had along the way.

“I’m a Christian, so I believe in God. Growing up, God has always been a big part of my life, so has my family, my friends. Without them I’m alone and without God I’m incomplete so without my friends, coaches, my parents, I’m nothing.”

» mpackwood@brandonsun.com