The next David Ojabo? On300 EDGE Joseph Mupoyi overcoming odds on journey to football stardom

Joseph Mupoyi left his home country with dreams of being the next Emmanuel Mudiay.

A former Top 10 NBA Draft pick, Mudiay fled the Democratic Republic of Congo after his family was impacted by the Second Congo War and ascended as one of the most high-profile basketball recruits in the country.

Mupoyi also grew up in the Congo and earned a basketball scholarship that allowed him to move to the United States and pursue a career in the NBA. However, Mupoyi later realized he was only a good basketball player and not a great one.

If he wanted to be a professional athlete, it was going to have to be in a different sport.

“I got a scholarship to come here to play basketball,” Mupoyi said. “I transferred from my first school to Carroll to play basketball. I wasn’t too good (laughs). I talked to Coach Rob (Robert Harris) and asked him if I could play football. I had never done it before. It wasn’t easy. I had never done so much stuff — go to the gym, wake up early, stay after school, go to the weight room.”

At 6-foot-6, 220 pounds, Mupoyi is quite the athletic specimen. With a basketball and soccer background, Mupoyi moves well for his size and is extremely quick off the edge. Letting him pin his ears back and get after the quarterback was a no brainer for the Washington (D.C.) Archbishop Carroll football staff.

After only playing the sport for just five months, the On300 EDGE shined as a junior, racking up an eye-popping 27 tackles for loss and 12 sacks en route to helping his team win a state title.

“We put him on the seven-man sled, and it was a match made in heaven from there,” said Carroll head coach Robert Harris. “It didn’t take long for him to adjust at all. He’s long and athletic. He’s a former soccer player. That was plus. He has great feet and hips. He can actually kick 55-yard field goals as well. He’s very enthusiastic. He wants to please you at all times. He’s the type of kid you want to coach.”

Added Carroll defensive coordinator Derian Quick:

 “We all call him Vicky,” Quick said. “He said he got the nickname from his grandad. But anyway, he’s the kid that’s always smiling. At first, I was a little concerned that he was a little too happy go lucky to be a defensive player just because of the nature of football. But Joseph has a switch that he can turn on easily. His motor is high, his work ethic is crazy high and his motor is relentless.

“He doesn’t let anything stop him. He’ll play through anything. You have to tell him he’s going too hard. Just because you have the size doesn’t mean you can play the sport. But he just took to it naturally. He also made it easy because he wants to do it so bad. He puts everything he has into it.”

So why football?

Mupoyi, who is still perfecting his English, hesitated a bit before answering the question. He could have easily made something up or just said he wanted to give a new sport a try. Instead, he was brutally honest.

Simply put, Mupoyi had no other choice but to put the pads on and fight.

“People always ask my why,” Mupoyi said. “I’ve never told anybody this, but I lost my grandma and my grandpa. I was misbehaving. I wasn’t doing anything. My basketball coach kicked me off the team. I said ‘I need to do something.’ I was mad and sad. I told myself maybe I’ll do boxing. But then I got into football.”

Mupoyi didn’t learn about the passing of his grandparents until two months after they were gone. Already being alone in a foreign country was tough. With no familial structure and basketball dreams fading, Mupoyi fell into a dark place before discovering football.

The sport helped him get through a time that would be tough for any person — let alone a teenager — to overcome. Now, he’s literally putting his heart and soul into the game.

“Football is everything,” Mupoyi said. “It’s crazy. I used to call Coach Quick almost every day to learn about my position, how I can get better and what I could do for the team. In my country, I had never watched football. I always watched (NBA stars) LeBron (James) and Kobe (Bryant). There was so much stuff I had to learn. I had to work hard.”

While football became an outlet, Mupoyi also began to excel in the classroom and off the field. He eventually found family in the United States as well.

“My wife has fallen in love with Vicky as an adopted son,” Harris said. “After we won the state championship, he rushed to her and gave her a hug. He’s so appreciative of little things. That memory will always be embedded in my head. He calls her mom. His mom is so far away, so he’s adopted his own mom to have here with him.”

Mupoyi also happens to be teammates with five-star athlete Nyckoles Harbor, who quickly volunteered to serve as a mentor and help Mupoyi in his transition to football.

“That’s my big little brother,” Harbor said. “I had to take on the role of a mentor and a role model. Even though he’s older than me, I see him as a younger brother. I’ve done everything to help him out along the way. I feel like we’re both learning from each other. We’re the same person with two different mindsets. I love that man. He’s going to do something special one day.”

And no family is complete without a bit of a boisterous uncle. If anybody has earned that title, it’s definitely Quick, who is currently helping Mupoyi prepare for his first-ever prom.

“He walked up to me a couple of weeks ago and said he wanted to go to prom,” Quick said. “It’s bigger than football at times. He’s getting to live the American Dream of a high schooler. It can be a once in a lifetime thing. I asked what he was going to wear, and I was like ‘no man, you can’t wear that.’ He was trying to wear one of those silk Migos shirts. I showed him my suit from my wedding. I told him he had to wear a suit (laughs). Years from now, I’ll remind him of the time he first started wearing suits.”

Mupoyi may need one of the NFL Draft in the near future.

While his hoops dreams are over, Mupoyi now has the chance to be the next David Ojabo. A native of Nigeria, Ojabo initially moved to the United States and played basketball before transitioning to football. Ojabo had a breakout season as a pass rusher for Michigan in 2021 and was selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the second round of last month’s draft.

Mupoyi has the same type of upside. Just ask Harbor.

“He’s a great player,” Harbor said. “We all talk about Ojabo and how he had only been playing for so many years. Joseph hasn’t been playing for so long. He only played for five or six months and had a 10-plus sack season. He didn’t even know that much about the game. That’s really inspiring. You can see he has the passion. He knows he has to do something for his family and his country.”

Ranked as the No. 191 overall prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, per On3, Mupoyi has offers in hand from Miami, Michigan, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Penn State and others. Playing at Michigan, just like Ojabo, is certainly a possibility. But right now, Mupoyi is simply soaking in the moment.

And those around him couldn’t be prouder.

“Proud may be an understatement,” Harris said. “To see the resiliency and the commitment in this kid and his whole work ethic offers a bit of nostalgia. You don’t see that too often from kids in his generation. He understood the opportunity to come to America to get an education and scholarship. He cried when he got his first offer. He kept crying after every offer. I had to tell him ’there is going to be many more, and I can’t keep crying with you. (laughs)’ It was touching.”

Mupoyi is attacking each day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind and now has a new dream he’s working towards.

“Super Bowl,” Mupoyi said. “That’s where I see myself in the future. I want to win a Super Bowl.”