ALEXANDRIA, LA – Louisiana State University of Alexandria has announced its 2026 Hall of Fame Class to be inducted on February 14 in The Outpost.
Among the inductees is former LSUA men's soccer player Brian Okpala.
Okpala made 58 appearances for LSUA over four seasons from 2015 to 2019. He notched nine goals for 18 points. He recorded four goals in back-to-back seasons in 2018 and 2019. Okpala earned a pair of First Team All-RRAC and RRAC All-Tournament Team selections in 2018 and 2019. He was selected to the LSUA Men's Soccer All-Decade Team this past summer.
LSUAGenerals (LSUA): First, I want to congratulate you on your induction into the Hall of Fame.
Brian Okpala (BO): Thank you very much, Caleb. It's an amazing accomplishment. I wouldn't have thought about it at all. I'm kind of short of words and just kind of letting it flow, but it's an amazing thing. So proud of it.
LSUA: When you when you received that call from Assistant Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics,
Tyler Unsicker, what was your reaction?
BO: Shocks! First of all, I wasn't too sure who Tyler was. I had never met him so I was confused on what was going on. I really heard it from Mackenzie (Young). Shout out to Mackenzie. Great job he's doing over there. Amazing job. Yeah, I heard it from him that Tyler was reaching out for this. So that's when I indulged and spoke to him and he told me and I was, wow, ecstatic I tell you.
I was proud of it. I was so happy for it because I guess they say the cycle comes around. I guess it knew how much I felt about the place, how much I put into it while I was doing it. I was just shocked. Over the moon, though, I tell you.
LSUA: How did you end up at LSUA?
BO: I can speak on that for hours because I'm not even too sure how it happened. I'll just say life, life kind of brought me down that way. It came at a point when I was deciding either LSUA and keep chasing my dream of football, or get stuck in the working corporate world.
I've just moved over from Nigeria. That's where I went to high school, so came back over to the States and went on the college pathway. I started looking into colleges and everything was just smooth from then on at LSUA. That's how I kind of knew that's the path I was supposed to go on. It was just smooth, the way everything happened.
From applying to the accepting to the football scholarship, everything just was a straight path, no corners. Life took me down that path. I tell you, life does amazing things to us.
LSUA: What do you miss most about your time at LSUA?
BO: It's got to be the people I've met on that journey. Wow. I've traveled my life, but I've never been together with so many internationals, it was a big thing. I think when I first started it was about 80 internationals. Yeah, my first or second year with Coach Brock Chapman. He's amazing, he was a different kind of coach, exactly what we needed at that time.
How he handled it, I'm not too sure. It was about 80 to almost 100 of us international students on the team. He got it organized, split us into teams and then from then on, he took the program to where to where it was. Just meeting different people, living with people, growing with them, learning their differences and, making it work. So that was a huge part of what made it memorable for me.
LSUA: Looking back, would you have done anything differently in your time at LSUA?
BO: I would probably enjoy it a bit more. While I was in there it was easy to let things maybe get frustrating or not fully engaging on the ride. I think everything went the way it was supposed to go. I wouldn't change a thing.
LSUA: What advice do you have for current and future LSUA student athletes?
BO: Embrace the culture, embrace different cultures you come across. Live in the moment. Enjoy, enjoy what you're doing. Continue to learn, to grow and you don't have to know everything or even feel like you have seen everything. I would just continue to take it, learn from the people, grow every day.
LSUA: What was your, if you had to pick one, pick two, your most memorable moment at LSUA?
BO: So many memories. It's going to be the first time we won Conference and we made it to the NAIA national championship. I believe that was the first for LSUA. To get there with our coach Michael Poropat, shout out to him as well, he did an amazing job. We didn't make it all the way, but we believed in ourselves and I think that was the main thing.
LSUA: Did you ever imagine while you were at LSU A that you would wind up in the LSUA Athletics Hall of Fame?
BO: No chance. I didn't even think about it to be honest. I didn't feel like what I did would even maybe call for that, I felt I had more to achieve. I wanted to win the whole thing, get to the nationals and win it. I didn't feel like I had done enough. I finished my last year and I still wanted more. I didn't see it coming, but I'm glad it happened now.
LSUA: And on the heels of that, how does it feel to be the first men's soccer inductee?
BO: I'll have a story for the future. I have something to tell the kids, the family. So, it's a good story to have. It's a good feeling, soccer is still my beloved. I'm still playing professionally here in Australia.
These accomplishments or these acknowledgements, come from the past, from what I've done. It shows how much I really love the sport, how much I love the school, I love everything that came with it.
LSUA: You were a two-time first team all-conference selection, A two time all RAC tournament selection, and NAIA Honorable Mention All-American. You were part of the 2018 season team that won both the regular season and tournament titles. What was the biggest reason outside of your talent for your success?
BO: It's got to be my love, dedication to the game, willingness to learn and to get better. I don't feel like I was the most talented, but it was those extra things that pushed me over the line. Working a little bit harder, training more or encouraging my teammates. It was to bring my brother next to me so that they could perform.
I knew I could play this sport and that this sport could take me places. I was blessed to have good teammates - teammates that really wanted it just as much as I did. So that's important, if you don't have people around you that want it as much as you, are you really going to achieve it?
LSUA: You've touched on it a little bit, but can you catch us up on what's happened in your life since LSUA?
BO: Football, football and more football. I've travelled a bit. I signed my first professional contract in the Faroe Islands, which is by Denmark. I followed that up to Australia as well. Football is still taking me, still doing things, still shaping my life, still allowing me to meet people and grow. So that's pretty much what's happening. A lot more to come. Excited for the future.
LSUA: That's all the questions I had. Is there anything else that that you would like to add?
BO: For the future athletes over there, I can only wish them well and show them that there is a lot for them to achieve. They have to kind of continue to grind day in, day out.
LSUA is in great hands. The soccer team is in great hands with Mackenzie and the basketball teams have always done well, softball was great. I just really want to wish those athletes the best. LSUA is so great. It's like a family community over there. I loved it.
