Samuel Akapo '23 Recruiting Profile

Piedmont Hills High SchoolSan Jose, CAMen's Volleyball

College Coach? Log in to get contact info

Height5'10"

Weight150lbs

Age19

Primary PositionOpposite

Secondary PositionMiddle Hitter

Dominant HandRight

Standing Reach7ft 10in

Approach Jump10ft 2in

Video

2022 Highlights

vball league 10/1...

Personal Statement

The Jack of all trades, master of none. Something that has always been stuck with me since childhood. Growing as someone who was interested in anything that crossed my path, I would always embark in trying out different activities. I once played soccer for seven long years before a long break until I started playing volleyball. I was good at what I was doing but I wasn’t really that “great” per say. I was the player that always tried hard and worked but didn’t have that much progress.

As a child, I was always put into extracurricular activities that would somehow benefit me when I grew up. I don’t have any recollection of when I actually wanted to get into soccer since my parents had put me in a club team. I started getting trained by the coach of this new team I was on and had to get up before the break of dawn on Friday and Saturday mornings and run on the beach until the sun came up. I would somehow keep up with the adults jogging early in the morning while it’s colder than the Atlantic Ocean. With all this rigorous training as a kid, one might think that I would be an extraordinary athlete and soccer player. But to my beliefs, there wasn’t really any progress in anything I was doing. I played for seven years with slow progress while always being that average on the team until when I actually started giving up on the sport. After I got hurt and pulled a muscle on my Achilles tendon, which resulted in me taking physical therapy for a year, I was forced to quit the sport. That’s when the name came back, “Jack of all trades.”

When Tanaka Ryunouske, a character in an anime who had a slow and tough progress during a volleyball game, was completely shot out by the opposing team and couldn’t make a single point in; the one thing he said that deeply connected with me was when he said, “If you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up.” I don’t think I had ever heard anyone, be it fictional or real, say something that I could feel on another level like that. Especially as an athlete who had to stop all forms of physical activities. My Jack of all trades nickname wasn’t just from me playing sports. It came from music itself. As a musician and an athlete, I think growing from that nickname was one of the toughest decisions I had to make in my life as someone who’s always in the entertainment industry. Whether it’s sports, music performances, or teaching. The decision I had to make as an athlete was commitment. I had to commit to something and put all my focus and effort into it. I used to always think lowly of myself when it came to commitment for sports, but that didn’t stop me from looking for something to actually commit to. That commitment was volleyball.

People who think lowly of themselves cannot achieve great things. To make that decision to actually master a trade, I no longer was regarded as the Jack of all trades. I’m not saying that being a Jack of all trades is a bad thing; whereas the actual full quote actually says, “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” I could’ve stayed as one but I only learned of the true meaning of that quote. I’d already found my passion and something I was passionate about. I am always willing to put a lot of things on the line and sacrifice things to always do it. Volleyball has been my passion for the past four to five years. My commitment to the sport has not wavered by an inch since then after my decision.