Southern Miss senior Ola Akinniyi has made the rare transition of becoming a two-sport athlete. Akinniyi has been on the Southern Miss soccer team for four years, but at end of her final season decided to take up her previous high school sport and joined the Southern Miss track and field team.
Joining the track team had been something Akinniyi wanted to do since coming to Southern Miss. However, since she was on scholarship for soccer, Southern Miss soccer Mohammed El-Zare wanted Akinniyi to focus on soccer.
“Since freshman year I wanted to run track but [Coach El-Zare] wanted me to focus on soccer and get better for fall and be better prepared,” Akinniyi said.