Sammy Okpro (born May 2, 1984) is the

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

for

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and staf ...

's football team, the

York Lions The York Lions is the official name for the athletic varsity teams that represent York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's varsity teams compete in the Ontario University Athletics conference of U Sports and, where applicable ...

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Ca ...

. He played

CIS football U Sports football is the highest level of amateur play of Canadian football and operates under the auspices of U Sports (formerly Canadian Interuniversity Sport). Twenty-seven teams from Canadian universities are divided into four athletic conf ...

as a

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

for the

Concordia Stingers The Concordia Stingers are the athletic teams that represent Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They compete with other schools in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, and more specifically in Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ ...

from 2004 to 2007. Professionally, he was drafted by the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Comm ...

in the fourth round of the

2008 CFL Draft The 2008 CFL Draft took place on Wednesday, April 30, 2008, live at 12:00 PM ET on TSN.ca. A total of 48 players were chosen from among 752 eligible players from Canadian Universities across the country, as well as Canadian players playing in th ...

and spent parts of three years with the team.

Early life

Okpro first played youth football with Alexander Park as a

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. The ...

and

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly di ...

from 1992 to 1997. He then played for the North Shore Lions during high school from 1998 to 1999 where he made the All-Star Team in 1999. He was a member of the North Shore Mustangs from 2000 to 2001 where he was the Midget League M.V.P. Defense in 2001 and made the All-Star Team in both 2000 and 2001. In

CEGEP A CEGEP ( or ; ), also written cégep, CÉGEP and cegep, is a publicly funded college providing technical, academic, vocational or a mix of programs; they are exclusive to the province of Quebec's education system. A loanword from French, i ...

, he played for the Vanier College Cheetahs from 2002 to 2003. There, he was the team MVP on Defense in both years, made the CEGEP All-Star team in both years, and was the CEGEP Rooke of the Year in 2002.

University career

In University, Okpro played for the

from 2004 to 2007. He was the Stingers' Rookie of the Year in 2004 and was a First-Team All Canadian in 2005, 2006, and 2007, while also being named the team MVP in 2007. He was the first Concordia Stingers football player to win three All-Canadian honours.

Professional career

Okpro was draft in the fourth round, 25th overall, by the

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ...

(CFL) in the

. He dressed in three regular season games while remaining on the practice roster for the remainder of the 2008 season. He attended training camp with the team in 2009, but was part of the Eskimos' final cuts on June 25, 2009. He was re-signed by the Eskimos on April 12, 2010, but was again part of training camp cuts on June 7, 2010.

Coaching career

Okpro first joined the

Edmonton Huskies The Edmonton Huskies are a Canadian Junior Football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The Huskies play in the six-team Prairie Football Conference, which itself is part of the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) and competes annually for the na ...

as the team's

defensive backs coach In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

and co-

in 2013. He was then promoted to defensive coordinator in 2015 and served in that role for two years. On July 17, 2017, it was announced that Okpro had joined the

as the team's

, reuniting him with

Warren Craney Warren Craney is the former head coach for York University's football team, the York Lions, a position he has held since the 2010. He has also been a coach for the Canada national football junior team, winning a gold medal as the team's defensi ...

, who was his coach at Concordia.

References

External links

York Lions bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Okpro, Sammy 1984 births Living people Black Canadian players of Canadian football Canadian football defensive backs Concordia Stingers football players Edmonton Elks players Players of Canadian football from Quebec Canadian football people from Montreal York Lions football coaches