By Jim Fenton, The Enteprise (Brockton)
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- He grew up in a part of the country where high school and college football are a way of life.
“It’s like religion almost,’’ said Emmanuel Omere of how the sport is viewed in Alabama. “Everybody plays football. If you’re big and skilled, you play football.’’
Omere played at Bessemer City High School near Birmingham, then had hopes of moving on to college football after graduating in 2010.
He went to Hinds Community College in Raymond, Miss., looking to improve as a player and student in order to move on to a four-year school.
When things didn’t work out there, he headed north to Massachusetts to join sister Sekia and enrolled at Quincy College to begin pursuing a criminal justice career.
Suddenly, the sport that Omere grew up being so attached to while in Alabama was not part of his life as he returned to Massachusetts, the place he was born and lived for three years before moving south.
Omere graduated from the two-year school in Quincy in 2015 and set his sights on transferring to a place where he could resume playing football and pursue a criminal justice degree.
After being away from the game for five seasons, Omere was reconnected with football last fall when he joined the team at Bridgewater State University as a defensive end.
It didn’t take Omere long to get reacquainted with the sport that he had such passion for in Alabama. Omere made an instant impact with the Bears, earning a spot on the All-Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference first team.
Omere had a team-high eight sacks for 58 yards, was second with 12.5 tackles for a loss of 76 yards and fifth with 44 tackles in his first season since being a senior at Bessemer City.
BSU knew nothing about the 24-year-old Omere when he showed up for training camp a year ago and quickly discovered it had a gem of a defensive player on its hands.
“He just showed up and said he was interested in playing football,’’ said interim head coach Joe Verria before the team’s second practice of training camp on Thursday afternoon at Swenson Field. “We were lucky, very lucky.
“He showed up out of the clear blue. He had a very, very good year for us. He’s strong. He’s quick. He has a good feel for plays.’’
Omere wasn’t sure where football was going to fit into his life when he arrived in Massachusetts.
He settled in at Quincy College and earned the associate’s degree, then found a path to Bridgewater State.
“I had left it alone,’’ said Omere of football. “I was just going with the flow. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just moved up here.
“I had a little cousin who went here and she wanted me to come to school. I knew they had a football team, but that was about it.’’
Omere said he is better prepared for his senior season this year after joining BSU on the fly last summer.
He worked out throughout the offseason with teammates and is in better physical condition. What he accomplished a year ago after being away from the game was impressive.
“I wasn’t expecting to be first team (all-conference) and leading the team in sacks,’’ said Omere, who had six pass breakups and one forced fumble. “I wasn’t expecting any of that. I was just expecting to get back in the groove of football.
“Last year I just jumped into it and didn’t know what I was doing. This year I worked the whole summer knowing what I needed to do, worked out with teammates. It should be real good this year’’
With the rust shaken off of his game, Omere is expected to make even more of an impact this season on the Bears’ defensive line.
“He is in better shape this year than he’s ever been,’’ said Verria. “He’s been working very hard in the offseason. He made some plays where he was totally out of position and his athleticism just took over. He didn’t have the whole offseason to think about playing football.’’
Football is something Omere has been doing since a young age in Alabama where cities and towns devote plenty of energy supporting their teams.
Omere is an fan of Auburn in the state’s heated Auburn-Alabama rivalry, and he notes that even high school matchups are intense.
“We just take it was more serious down there,’’ said Omere. “I think they play it for fun up here in high school. Down there, you are raised up as a baby wanting to play football.
“Even if you aren’t good, you still want to play just because you might get better. The high schools take it more serious than they do up here.
“If it’s two rival high schools playing and both are good and make the playoffs every year and get scholarships, there are a few thousand people there. There’s a lot of anticipation and everything in the city shuts down.’’
Emmanuel Omere remembers those days fondly, but after being away from football for several years, he is glad to be back playing a key role a long way from home at Bridgewater State.
“When you grow up playing and you have scholarships coming out of high school and then you just stop playing out of the blue, it gets you down sometimes,’’ said Omere. “That’s why I came up here and tried it one more time. It’s great to be back playing.’’