Arrowhead’s Okla became a find for Illini’s Bielema
Prior to the 2021 prep football season, the Journal Sentinel will reveal the Supreme 17, a look at the top players in the area to watch. Each day between the first day of practice on Aug. 3 to the first day of games on Aug. 19, a different story on a different member of the Supreme 17 will be published. This is the third installment.
It was early in the morning one day this past winter when Arrowhead head coach Matt Harris woke up to a message alert on his phone from someone he was not expecting to hear from: Bret Bielema.
“I thought, ‘Oh this is strange,'” Harris said.
The former University of Wisconsin head coach had just taken over as the coach at the University of Illinois. Harris figured Bielema was just one of the many coaches inquiring about thensenior Owen Arnett, an all-state defensive player for the Warhawks whose recruitment was still gaining steam, or another member of the 2021 class.
Bielema, though, had his eyes on a junior member of the Warhawks, hoping he could get in early on a prospect who he saw as an unheralded sleeper in the 2022 class.
That player was Joey Okla.
“I was definitely surprised at first,” Okla said. “I hadn't known much about (Bielema) or UI until he started recruiting me.”
Okla, a 6-foot-3, 290-pound guard at Arrowhead, learned quickly.
From Warhawk to Illini
Bielema left the state abruptly and unceremoniously for the head job at Arkansas after winning his third consecutive Big Ten Championship with the Badgers in 2012, but still wanted to prioritize recruiting in Wisconsin when he was hired at Illinois in December 2020.
He watched Okla's film and saw the tenacity with which he played and the versatility he could bring to an offensive line. When he saw Okla had no other scholarship offers, at any level, and no other strong Power 5 interest, he swooped in.
“It's a really strong 2022 lineman class in the state and I think Joey was on the radar as the fifth or sixth-best lineman,” Harris said. “If people looked at it the way that Illinois did, he could be top two or three. They saw him as a hidden gem.”
Soon after, in late January, the Illini offered Okla.
“I was in between classes, so I had to stop in this empty hallway and take a call from (Bielema),” Okla said. “We were talking and he offered me. It was my first Power 5 offer and this one was the Big Ten. It was super special.”
A couple days later, the Illinois staff hopped on a large Zoom call with Okla, his family and coaches. They walked Okla through the campus and team facilities while laying out a plan of what they foresaw.
“They drew up what they saw of him in detail and showed me what they look for,” Harris said. “These guys are thorough. They saw things I think a lot of people didn't.”
One week later, Okla, holding one other offer from Eastern Illinois, committed.
Illinois' campus is only a roughly three hour, 30 minute drive from Milwaukee, yet neither the area nor entire state had been a focus of the Illini's for a long time. Before Okla, the last player from Wisconsin to commit to Illinois out of high school was Rice Lake's Austin Roberts in 2014.
“When Bielema got hired, his first thing was recruiting in-state,” Okla said. “He takes a lot of pride in that. And then the other surrounding states, Iowa, Wisconsin, that's where he wanted to expand.”
A slight change and major results
Okla started on varsity as a sophomore and earned second team all-conference honors last year, but Harris believes his right guard still has plenty of room to grow.
“The difference between him now and last year is ridiculous,” Harris said. “He's primed to have a big year.”
Okla says the most notable difference in his game is added speed and quickness. While straight-line speed isn't at the top of the list of most important attributes, he's added burst and moves much more fluidly in shorter areas.
“A key part of my game is being able to pull quickly and explode,” he said. “I've really worked on that.”
Harris, also an assistant track and field coach, noticed when he took over at Arrowhead last year that Okla's running form was out of sorts.
Okla worked to tweak minor movements over the off-season and now is able to move his nearly-300 pound frame in a new way.
“After a year of constant focus on it, he's gotten so much better at it,” Harris said. “He moves cleaner. It's fun to watch kids change that much by listening and focusing on small details.”
Okla is starting to develop the traits necessary to check all the boxes of a great lineman: size, strength, mobility, bend, burst, technique and – Okla will tell you is most important – attitude.
“I definitely have a switch I flip,” Okla said. “When I get going, I just can't stop.”
Arrowhead coaches, after watching Okla during contact days, are going as far as to throw around comparisons to another standout Warhawks lineman.
“I've had coaches on our staff that were here when Ben Bredeson was here,” Harris said. “And they can't believe just how close Joey is to reminding them of him as a high schooler. Now that's high praise.”