by Nick Morgan, Sports Editor
Owen Sigey landed in Lexington, Kentucky at 11:00 p.m. on a Sunday night — two weeks after the start of preseason training. Issues with his Visa delayed his trip to the states from Nairobi, Kenya. He got off the plane and went straight to his dorm room and right to bed because he had class the very next morning.
Sigey grew up in Kenya playing all kinds of sports, but in his freshman year of high school at a British boarding school, he decided that soccer was his love and that he would dedicate himself to becoming a better player. He needed to switch schools to an American system a bit closer to home, but that required him to retake freshman year due to the system change. The American school did not value sports as highly as the British school, but that did not deter Sigey from his training. “We would train hard in the morning, you know, coach training and serious practices, but in the afternoon, we would get some of our friends and play 5 v. 5, either indoor or outdoor,” said Sigey. “We would have fun, but we would also be serious.”
Sigey developed into a stronger player as he went through high school. He competed at a club level, often playing with or against members of the Kenyan national team. In his senior year of high school, he knew he would like to play soccer at a university somewhere but didn’t know how or where he would go. A current member of the Asbury men’s soccer team, Isaiah Okesson, came to Kenya to visit a friend who was graduating from the same school as Sigey. A mutual friend introduced them, and he was invited to play soccer with some friends. Okesson saw Sigey’s skill and technical ability and immediately got in contact with coach Ben Andrews. Andrews emailed Sigey all the pertinent information and application forms, and before he knew it, he was on scholarship to play for AU.
The sophomore has been nothing short of excellent for the men’s soccer team, scoring 11 goals and racking up five assists in his short career. Sigey and the Eagles will be playing Indiana University East Saturday, Nov. 3 in the first round of the River States Conference tournament.
