German TE Philip Okonkwo Feeling 'Good Vibes' from WVU Staff
The West Virginia coaching staff has taken a different approach to recruiting. Over the last couple of years, the Mountaineers have signed multiple international recruits including DL Akheem Mesidor (Canada), TE Victor Wikström (Sweden), DE Edward Vesterinen (Finland), and CB Jaïro Faverus (Netherlands). You can even throw in S Alonzo Addae (Canada) who transferred in from New Hampshire a couple of years ago.
PPI Recruits is the #1 recruiting database/placement program for International American Football Players which is run by Brandon Collier. Since Neal Brown and his staff have been in Morgantown, he has invited Collier to bring some international players to summer camps to get a look at these kids up close and potentially extend an offer.
Collier brought several players to Morgantown this week, one of which is class of 2022 tight end Philip Okonkwo (6'5", 245 lbs) of Germany. So far Okonkwo holds offers from Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Florida Atlantic. As the summer moves along, you can expect that count to grow.
Tuesday evening, Okonkwo caught up with Mountaineer Maven to discuss how the camp went and what he thought of the trip in general.
"The jetlag hit pretty hard during the camp. Overall, we traveled about 15 hours yesterday," Okonkwo said. "The camp itself was pretty good. I liked the vibe of it not being in a huge town and it had some nature in it which I liked."
Early on, Okonkwo got a feel for the hospitality that the coaching staff provides when he first arrived on campus.
"[Grad assistant] Ty Murphy was super kind and picked me up somewhere on campus after I got lost. He showed me around a little bit but I definitely spent the most time with Coach Trickett. He was with me during the whole camp and he gave me good feedback after every route and stuff like that. I really appreciated him."
Tight ends coach Travis Trickett has done a phenomenal job on the recruiting trail over the last couple of years and played a big part in Victor Wikström coming to WVU. Having multiple international players already on the roster is something that is appealing to Okonkwo.
"I know Victor [Wikstrom] and Jairo [Faverus] through PPI. They didn't tell me anything specific yesterday but I know that they love it there. It was just really great seeing them again, to be honest. I got to meet Edward [Vesterinen] today, he's a really nice guy. I think it makes it easier in the sense that you can see this school is open to international athletes and that's really good to know."
Okonkwo is now headed to participate in a camp at Ohio State and will be traveling to several other schools throughout the month with PPI.
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