The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Well-traveled Okounam, Scott now call Storrs home
STORRS — The drills at Thursday’s spring football practice ranged from the intense rodeo drill pitting offensive and defensive players in a one-on-one blocking competition, to a seven-on-none offensive drill and plenty of goal line work.
Perhaps, if the UConn coaching staff could have fit in one more period of work, they might have had the well-traveled duo of Philippe Okounam and Zavier Scott stand 10 paces away and display their proficiency in the various languages they are fluent in.
Scott, a redshirt freshman running back, spent a few years living in Germany and can speak German fluently. Okounam, a redshirt junior defensive lineman, is fluent in Russian, French and English.
“I think it is nice that I speak three languages, French, Russian and English so I can pretty much find friends anywhere in the world,” Okounam said. “People get shocked when I tell them I am Russian and I start speaking Russian. They get a bit confused.”
Okounam lived in Moscow for most of his first nine years, although to avoid the racism in Russia, his family did spend a couple of years residing in his father’s native Congo. At age 9, the family found a home in Quebec giving Okounam the ability to converse in a variety of languages but also some unpleasant memories along the way.
“It helps me to adapt and not take things personally because when I was in Russia, it was because I am black, so there was a lot of racism,” Okounam said. “Now when I come here and I see people talking about racism, it doesn’t affect me as much because I’m used to worse, so I don’t take things as personal as other people.
“My parents went there (to Russia) not too long ago and said it was better, but back in the day I couldn’t go out by myself. I couldn’t go anywhere, I had to have somebody with me. I can’t go on the bus anywhere by
myself, but you get used to it. It is like an every day routine.”
Okounam, whose work in the classroom drew the interest of more than one Ivy League football program in the recruiting process, was also talented enough to be listed as a running back on the St. Paul’s (N.H.) School roster in both of his seasons there.
He has found a home on the defensive line. All three of his career tackles came in the final four games of the 2017 season.
While Scott hasn’t lived in as many different countries
as Okounam, he is no stranger to moving around. Raised in a military family, he has lived in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas in addition to his time in Germany.
“Moving around has helped me with meeting people, being in different atmospheres and being around with different people around me so it has been easier to make the transition from Germany to Connecticut, the transition from Virginia to Germany, from Tennessee to Kentucky. All of these transitions have been easier because of that.”
Speaking of moving around, Scott came to UConn projected to be a
receiver. However, with just two scholarship running backs and plenty of other receivers on the roster, Scott was moved to running back. He certainly hasn’t looked out of place at his new position.
“He is a football player and an athlete, you could probably put him at a couple of different positions and he would do fine there,” UConn coach Randy Edsall said. “He is pretty natural, he has some God given talent, his ability to see things, his ability to slide and he has some of those traits that you just don’t teach. He is just a great kid who works his tail off.”
At 6-foot-1, 205 pounds,
he gives UConn some size at the running back position and as a former receiver, obviously he can catch the ball as he demonstrated with back-to-back touchdown receptions during a 7-on-7 goal-line drill at Thursday’s practice.
“Right before spring camp (he was told) to focus on running back, get those plays down and a little bit at receiver,” Scott said. “They kind of eased into the flow. It wasn’t too bad. At first it was a little uncomfortable, but now it is second nature.”