TEXAS — Basketball looks like it comes easy for Christeen Iwuala. Her combination of size (6-foot-4) and agility will give that impression. Already having 1,000 career points and 700 career rebounds as a junior at San Antonio Reagan High School does too.
“I really want to be able to improve my game from where I am right now to being college ready,” Iwuala said.
But there’s another attribute that’s just as important to her success. A mindset that Iwuala gets from her father.
He’s the perfect role model for me, because he works every single day and doesn't complain,” Iwuala said.
Jude Iwuala was in elementary school when the Nigerian Civil War started in 1967.
“The war lasted three years. We lost everything,” Jude Iwuala said.
After the war ended, Jude Iwuala completed his schooling and eventually came to America for college in the 1980s.
“I couldn't pay, so I was forced out of school,” Jude Iwuala said. “I told the Dean let me go find money. He said, ‘okay, I’ll give you a leave of absence.’ And I left. It was tough.”
Jude Iwuala took up multiple jobs and finally saved enough money to pay tuition.
“When I first heard the story, I was really little and I didn't understand how hard it actually was to do what he did,” Christeen Iwuala said. “And now that I'm older and I'm looking back and seeing my dad, I'm really inspired every single day.”
Jude Iwuala graduated from Pharmacy School at Southwestern Oklahoma State in 1994.
“I told them hard work pays. Don't just relax every day, don't do nothing. You're not getting anywhere. I just told her my story,” Jude Iwuala said.
This is a story about a man who never gave up on his American dream.
“There may be a lot of problems on the way, but look at the end, there is light. The end of everything has a positive light,” Jude Iwuala said.
That attitude carried him through the worst of times, now pushing his daughter to new heights on the basketball court.
“If I can't go out and shoot like 50 shots, and he's staying up till five in the morning to do work, then honestly it's no comparison,” Christeen Iwuala said.