Uzzi's family celebrates Tech commencement

But on a bright December afternoon, tucked between the last loss to Georgia and the upcoming Sun Bowl appearance, football was not the reason for so many of his kin to converge on the Georgia Dome.

Uzzi was walking in Tech’s fall commencement. His mother and aunt both wore shiny gold head ties, high fashion anywhere, but especially back in their Nigerian homeland. Aunt Joyce Osunde waved a homemade poster, with a photo of Omoregie in his football uniform, all his playing honors spelled out below. A big party was in the works for afterward back at the family home in Ellenwood, the chicken and jollof rice — a dish of West African origin — waiting.

They seemingly could not do enough to hail this graduation. Outside the Georgia Dome following the ceremony, Osunde distributed commemorative pens and water bottles to the family.

The message on the bottle, opposite a biblical verse, read: “Congratulations Omoregie Uzzi for your persistent aim at excellence. May God continue to be your guide and guard.”

Day of completion

Football has been important to the Uzzi family, escorting it another step closer to the nucleus of the American experience. But not more important than a redshirt junior graduating in three-and-a-half years with his business management degree. (He still must complete one class next semester for his degree, but was allowed to walk at this commencement).

Could it have been even bigger to his family than beating Clemson this season?

“Much bigger,” Omoregie smiled.

Omoregie (pronounced o-MORE-gay), loosely translated from its Nigerian roots, means “that I complete the family,” said the name’s owner.

“My parents knew I’d be the last child. They knew once they had me that the family would be completed,” he said.

The Dec. 17 graduation was itself a celebration of completion. Not just for Omoregie; with his degree, the Uzzi boys officially had gone 4-for-4 in college.

“I am surrounded by positive people, people who want to see me do better, see me succeed. I’ve always been blessed like that,” Uzzi said.

The core of this family’s story lies in the search for something better.

Izoduwa and Frederick came to the United States separately from Benin City, Nigeria. Both settled in the Baton Rouge area, she at Southern University, he at LSU. Their families were acquainted, but they didn’t really know each other until Izoduwa came down sick while in school. From back home, Frederick got word to look in on Izoduwa. He did. She improved, as did their relationship.

Fast forward, to marriage, to settling in the Atlanta area, to Izoduwa establishing a pharmacy in East Point, to the raising of four boys — Mudia, Osa, Giede and Omoregie.

It was almost that quickly, it seemed, that the time passed, and the sons were all grown and going off in their own directions.

For Omoregie, the largest of a sizeable bunch at 6-feet-3, 300 pounds, he would be the one who would ride football as the vehicle from Chamblee High to college.

On the heels of his graduation walk comes the imperative to beat Utah in a mid-level bowl game hard by the Mexican border.

Getting to one of the myriad postseason games has not been a problem for Georgia Tech — this is their 15th straight. Winning them, though, has been thorny — the Yellow Jackets have lost six in a row.

“[Winning a bowl game] is the No. 1 thing on our minds right now,” Uzzi said. “In our first meeting to prepare for this game, Coach [Paul] Johnson asked, ‘Who in this room has won a bowl game at Georgia Tech? Raise your hand.’ No one here was won one, not even him. We gotta get this one.”

On the other side of the Sun Bowl, Uzzi has an internship awaiting with an Atlanta executive search firm. While he is eligible to enter the NFL draft, Uzzi sounded certain he required another season at Tech to prepare himself for that extraordinarily difficult job interview.

“I’m pretty much set on coming back,” he said. “I’m looking forward to focusing on football. I’ve been so busy with school — my mind on school, school, school — that now I can focus on football, try to get my body the way I want it, my skills the way I want them.”

A missing presence

Missing from the Sun Bowl, just as he was absent from commencement, will be Frederick Uzzi. There is a hole in everything good that has happened or will happen to Omoregie where his father should be.

It was in the spring of 2010 when Frederick was diagnosed with prostate cancer. “Doctors told him it could be six months or seven years — he got the short end of the stick,” Omoregie said. By July, just as Georgia Tech was beginning camp for the 2010 season, Frederick was dead, at 63.

The first part of that season, Uzzi said, was a blur. As time passed, he discovered the many ways his father remained with him.

“I feel like every positive decision I make is based on what he and my mother taught me,” he said.

Whenever Uzzi was banged up, he remembered the conversation he had with his father toward the end of his life. Frederick told his son to dismiss the aches, concentrate on the big stuff and let everything else just melt away.

Uzzi found that thoughts of his father preceded every game. “I don’t know if I do it subconsciously, but he always pops up in my head right before I go out. It always makes me feel better to know that he’s watching me, always gives me a little boost of confidence.”

Frederick also was in his wife’s thoughts as their son, towering over all the other graduates of the school of management, walked across the commencement stage eight days ago.

“I thought, ‘Thank God. Finally, I’m finished [getting her sons through college]. And I know his father is proud,’” Izoduwa said.

As Omoregie made that walk across the stage, the presenter perfectly nailed the pronunciation of his first name, underscoring the perfect moment. That’s not easy. Omoregie hears it mangled all the time, he said.

For anyone who cares to call out to him during what’s left of this season, or all the next, he offered an easy solution: “Just call me Uzzi. Everyone does.” The name his father gave him will forever work just fine.

Next for Georgia Tech

Who: vs. Utah in Sun Bowl

Where: El Paso, Texas

When: 2 p.m. Saturday

TV; radio: CBS; 790, 106.7