Meet Otandeka Laki, the RU junior on the Ugandan National Football team

A.K.A soccer for you Americans

With professional sports in the back of our minds since the Olympics have come to an end, it seems rare to have the opportunity to play a sport for a country other than your own. Otandeka Laki, a junior majoring in journalism and media studies with a minor in cinema studies, got the opportunity to play competitively on the Uganda National football (A.K.A soccer for you Americans) team this past summer.

“When I was a senior in high school, they were trying to qualify for the World Cup qualifiers, and they hit me up because, at that time I had some videos online of me playing and they saw them.”

Though she is originally from New Jersey, this wasn’t Otandeka’s first time in Uganda. She has a lot of family there and visits as often as she can. However, this was her first time going alone. She was a bit nervous to go by herself and because she had been out of soccer conditioning for three years. Otandeka notes that they got her back into shape within a week and a half.

“I was really excited this time and nervous…this was the first time I was going by myself and not meeting up with family. and I don’t speak the language. I only understand a little bit.”

Photo by Aloysius Byamukama

Although the team wanted to recruit Otandeka during her senior year of high school, money was an issue for the team, and it didn’t end up working out until this year. Otandeka trained intensely everyday for a month, and competed against African countries like Kenya and Tanzania.

“After we finally solidified the team, we had training twice a day for nearly three hours in the morning and two hours at night. We would wake up at 7am and training was from 8-11am. We had a break and then we had training from 4-6pm. We had training everyday. It was so intense the whole time I was there.”

Since training was rigorous and frequent, Otandeka and her teammates didn’t exactly have a lot of free time. But this only seemed to strengthen their bonds.

“Once we went to the camp, we weren’t allowed to go out and go shopping or anything. It was just strictly business. But it helped us bond because we got to hang out with each other.”

Otandeka has a unique perspective on how competitive soccer works in the United States versus what they focus on in a country such as Uganda. She found that the U.S. concentrates more on strategy, while her team in Uganda fixated on overall strength and fitness.

Photo by Aloysius Byamukama

“My training sessions in Uganda were mostly focused on fitness, like strength. We would be running and doing a lot of agility stuff for a while. and then here it’s more about tactical ways to take down a team. I think it’s more structural here. Over there it’s more the physicality of the game. That’s why I think they could be better if they planned their strategies better.”

As for her future, Otandeka plans to compete on the Ugandan team next summer since they just qualified for Africa Cup. For her post graduate life, she hopes to combine her three primary interests of journalism, film and soccer.

“Listening to people’s stories about anything…I just think it’s so interesting how everyone has a story that you’ve never heard of. There are some things I just wouldn’t have learned if i had stayed here. I like talking to people and meeting new people. I was thinking about doing something like Humans of New York, except not pictures, videos. Just going around and talking to people.”

More
Rutgers University