End Tries to Be Example on Defense and at Home

There’s much debate about the most exciting moment in football. Is it a 99-yard kickoff return? An 80-yard pass play? Or is it a 70-yard interception return?

For Tobi Umodu of Covina South Hills, sacking a quarterback tops everything.

“It just feels good,” he said.

The jolt of energy Umodu unleashes when he goes on a speed blitz to bring down a quarterback is something to behold.

“He’s relentless,” Coach Steve Bogan said. “He goes so hard. He has that X ingredient. He’s not going to quit.”

As a sophomore defensive end, Umodu had 17 sacks. As a junior, he also had 17 sacks. This season, at 6 feet and 230 pounds, he has seven sacks while facing double- and triple-team coverage.

Every offensive lineman must keep track of Umodu on the field because taking him out of a play will protect the quarterback. Then again, putting too much emphasis on stopping Umodu could allow others to break through and disrupt the play.

That’s the benefit of having Umodu on your side. If he’s not making plays, he’s serving as a decoy.

“He’s unbelievable in terms of energy and the force he brings to the field,” Bogan said.

As the oldest of six children born to parents from Nigeria, Umodu is under the microscope on and off the field.

His parents, strong proponents of education, expect him to be a role model for his younger siblings. But he needs no reminders.

“My mom and dad stress getting good grades no matter how well I do in football,” he said. “They have to deal with six kids and all kinds of screaming and running around the house. There really isn’t a day when someone isn’t bugging my mom about something. I admire them for just putting up with us.”

He has three younger brothers, all of whom play football, and when Umodu is home and serving as the baby sitter, they have learned to follow his orders.

“I don’t try to be mean, but they’re my brothers, and I can act a little different around them,” he said. “You know how boys are. Sometimes they try to act tough.”

Toughness is not a concern for Umodu, who enjoys the dirty work of being at the bottom of a pile after stopping a ballcarrier. It’s not easy because he’s small for a defensive end, but he’ll be switching to linebacker next season after committing to UCLA.

“I have confidence I’m going to get stronger, faster and bigger,” he said. “I’ve been taking on 300 pounders right now. I should be able to do it in college at a different position.”

What’s admirable about Umodu is that everyone, from classmates to teachers to the South Hills principal, have the same comment: “He’s a great kid.”

His mother, Vicky Oguro, a registered nurse, said, “I can’t ask for any other child. He’s very obedient. I don’t have to tell him to go to church or Bible study. He’s a caring person. Any way he can help people, he doesn’t mind doing it.”

It’s a genuine way Umodu lives his life.

“I try to put myself second,” he said. “It’s just what I do.”

There are teenagers playing football because they think one day they’ll make it to the NFL and become millionaires.

Umodu wouldn’t mind reaching the professional ranks, but it has nothing to do with the money.

“I know it sounds a little crazy, but I’d play even if there wasn’t that much money,” he said.

It’s exactly what anyone who knows Umodu would expect him to say.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

T.J. Simers has the day off.