The Art of Serving Others
Alex Semadeni
Every year, the Boise State football team participates in a team-building activity called Bronco Olympics. On the official report day of fall camp, the entire roster is evenly split into groups that will compete in various competitions.
One of those events required each group to perform the Boise State fight song in front of the entire team in the team room of the Bleymaier Football Center. Each group had a few days to prepare for the event.
Hilarity ensued as the performances rolled in. A majority of groups made up for their lack of vocal abilities with some dance moves, but no group in particular was by any means a heavy favorite to win the event. That is, until Seyi Oladipo’s group was called up.
Unbeknownst to the team, Oladipo had gotten in contact with several members of the Keith Stein Blue Thunder Marching Band for help in his performance. The band was all in, and surprised the team by performing in the team room while Oladipo and company belted out the fight song. Their team won the event handily.
“I love those guys,” Oladipo said. “Those guys are my people. They were so pumped to come in here. I told them that they do more for us than we do for them. We are very thankful for their energy and what they bring. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen that there are so many people that do stuff for us that just want to get to know us. And I want to be a part of that.”
As Oladipo has become a playmaker on the field over the course of his career, he has developed numerous relationships with various people in the Treasure Valley. Known among the locker room as one of the most outgoing members on the team, he has poured into those relationships and developed connections that have inspired him to become a servant leader among various Boise-area factions.
Oladipo grew up in Centennial, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. As a kid, his father made him share a room with his brother, so that the family could keep an extra bedroom available for anyone that should need it. Their household was always available to family members or family members who would come visit, especially those who would visit from his father’s home country of Nigeria.
“My dad always pushed me to be the best person I could be,” Oladipo said. “I think it's easy to just go and do the bare minimum, but my family kind of raised me to be really gracious and generous to others. If you pour into just yourself, it’s not fulfilling. Pouring into others is where it’s at.”
Oladipo always stood out athletically, using his competitive nature to become a standout athlete both on the football field and the basketball court. His easy-going nature ensured that he was friends with nearly everyone, which also opened up a variety of experiences for the young adolescent to be exposed to.
“I realized that I can be a pretty good football player, but I had to maintain the classroom part,” Oladipo said. “There were a lot of guys who just came into my life and told me that being an athlete alone is not going to get you where you want to go.”
However, it was hard to ignore the player that Oladipo was becoming. As a starting defensive back, he made 45 tackles and had three interceptions as a sophomore. In his next season, he added a pair of picks and averaged 9.5 tackles per game en route to be named 2019-20 CHSAA/MaxPreps All-State First Team. Oladipo was rated the No. 10 prospect in the state of Colorado per 247Sports, and was ranked as the fourth-best defensive back by Prep Redzone Colorado.
After committing to the Blue and Orange and battling through a pandemic-riddled senior season, Oladipo arrived on Boise State’s campus in the fall of 2021 and was instantly inserted into the lineup. He made an instant impression on the field, earning Mountain West Freshman of the Week honors after recording a pair of interceptions against UTEP on Sept. 10. He would go on to finish the year appearing in all 12 games as a freshman, concluding the season with eight tackles, one TFL and four pass deflections.
As Oladipo made himself familiar with Bronco fans in the stands, he also became more familiar with numerous faces on campus. He became extremely involved in BroncoLife, a program within the athletic department that empowers student-athletes to utilize their natural leadership abilities to become positive influences in the community.
“What he'll do is he'll sit up at the desk and literally just be a greeter all day,” said BroncoLife graduate assistant Richard Turner, who has worked with Oladipo a lot since starting in the summer of 2023. “I've never seen anybody more outgoing. And he talks to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re a soccer player or a staff member. We joke that he’s our intern with how much he’s up at the front just saying hey to everybody.”
Through the BroncoLife program, he volunteered on several school trips, visited prison inmates and volunteered at multiple on-campus events. He’s even become a scorer for the Boise State beach volleyball team during its home events.
“He's asking us all the time, do you guys have anything? Do you need me to help with anything?,” said Turner. “He wants to go to schools. He’s one of the first guys that is ready to talk. He wants to make an impact on the youth. And also, he just wants to talk to people. I think he's just a great talker. He's a very God-driven person. A lot of what he does is he wants to be a good person for the world.”
As his involvement in the community deepened, Oladipo began to sense a bigger purpose. A passionate man of faith, Oladipo joined a church in the community and currently serves as a junior high youth group leader. Last summer, he spoke at the Biblical Studies Center in town to help generate fundraising efforts.
“A big thing about myself that I realized from getting to know a bunch of different people is that I want to make a difference in other people's lives,” he said. “There are people that changed my life and don’t even know it. It pushed me to tap into a deeper part of myself that I really didn't even know was there. I want to be a servant leader to other people so that who knows; someone rises up because one person actually believed in them.”
His leadership and easy-going personality have both been on full display this semester. Oladipo has developed a great rapport with Turner, and as the two continued to work together, they discovered they shared a mutual interest over shoes. Eventually, Oladipo confessed to Turner that he has a “trophy case” of shoes in his closet that includes 45 pairs of sneakers.
The two decided to hold a friendly competition, with the duo each deciding on a pair of shoes to wear on a certain day and asking various people who had the cooler shoes. As the shoe-battle evolved, the duo decided to use different categories to help showcase their collection. The first week’s theme was shoes that no one else has. Another week was who had the most colorful shoes. Another week was the best shoe design between a pair. Yet another idea was wearing shoes with a story behind it.
More and more people began voting as word of the friendly competition spread, sparking an idea among the duo.
“We started thinking about how we can be connected through shoes,” Oladipo said. “He's on staff, and I'm a student-athlete. Using our love for shoes, how can we make a connection within our athletic department? We’re starting to get to know people through the shoe rather than it just being another shoe on your foot.”
The idea continued to spread throughout the department, and inspired a shoe drive that BroncoLife will put on later this year. The impromptu shoe competition became a perfect word-of-mouth marketing tool for the community event.
“We decided to make it all one thing,” Oladipo said. “We’re using the shoe drive as an advertisement. We kind of organically realized that we can make this an actual thing.”
Though members of the Boise community might recognize Oladipo as an affable, friendly person, opponents see a different version on the field. Through 44 career games, the safety has totaled 130 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and has picked off opposing quarterbacks four times. Four games into his senior season, Oladipo has already generated 12 tackles and a sack.
Oladipo isn’t sure exactly what his next plans have in store for him, but knows serving others will for sure be a part of his future. In the meantime, he has business to take care of on The Blue. The Broncos are off to a 3-1 start, and following a dominating performance in a 45-24 home win over Washington State on Saturday, the Broncos hope to open conference play with a bang.
“I don’t want to lose,” Oladipo said. “I don’t want to lose again.”