Don't let the charm, soft features and kindly smiles fool you.
They're teenage terrors, these two.
Chezla Self and Aiwekhoe Okungbowa are all manners and good cheer in just about all settings at Monterey Trail High School, except deep inside the paint on the basketball court, where interior play is not for the meek.
For these two seniors, the very thought of inside play has them suddenly baring fangs and flexing muscles.
Self and Okungbowa (pronounced oh-CAN-bowa) especially seek rebounds, and they will fight and scratch and claw for every available board.
And sometimes with each other, too.
"We'll have to yell out, "Same team!" Self said.
Self and Okungbowa are four-year varsity starters who thirst for loose basketballs and playoff success for an Elk Grove Unified School District program still relatively new to this sort of thing. Okungbowa and Self are the top rebounding duo in the Sac-Joaquin Section. Okungbowa grabs 13.1 rebounds a game, Self 12.4.
But how?
Neither is particularly tall at 5-foot-7, and both are slender. But they're fierce. And more.
"Rebounds, those two get it," Monterey Trail coach Paris Kidd said. "Rebounding is pure want and pure desire, and those two have that. We have a motto, an ongoing theme that rebounding is pure insanity. Get crazy in there and get the ball, and those two are crazy."
Said Self: "Rebounding, it's just heart. I mean, look at how small we are. We play girls who are 6-2. I know I try to box out, and I got a little bounce in my step, too."
Added Okungbowa: "You have to want the ball. We want it."
They do, so much so that when they watch basketball games on TV, they're the type to lean forward in their seats and implore – loudly – "Get the darn rebound!"
Self and Okungbowa use quickness, positioning and desire to gobble up missed shots. They are also effective scorers, with Okungbowa averaging 17.6 points and Self 11.8 to lead the Mustangs.
They will need to score and rebound plenty to keep the Mustangs in the Delta River League title hunt. The DRL includes Sac-Joaquin Section power St. Francis and longtime formidable foe Sheldon.
Self and Okungbowa also can talk like coaches. They broke down exactly why the team is 6-6 – a need to put four quarters together, to play as one, to make free throws, to score on the break, to defend.
"They're great kids, phenomenal, and they're great leaders," Kidd said. "They are goofy, and they grow on you. When it comes game time, they can really turn on their game. The rest of the team just follows."
Self and Okungbowa are also superb students, taking Advanced Placement courses in Spanish, statistics and biology. Self, who has a 3.8 grade-point average, aspires to be a psychiatrist – "everyone shares their problems with me," she said. Okungbowa (4.0 GPA) wants to be a physician. She also wants to return to her native Nigeria, where her parents are from.
"We are planning to go next year for the holidays," she said.
Self said "chez" in her first name means "house" in French, and she giggled in saying she loves her name. Okungbowa said her name means "nobody knows what I am thinking."
That may not be entirely true. In the paint, one knows exactly what Okungbowa is thinking.
Call The Bee's Joe Davidson, (916) 321-1280.
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