The images play through Osawese Agbonkonkon's mind, flashing of all the things he’d done since that fateful moment the trajectory of his life changed. His first time competing in the high jump as a raw junior varsity athlete whose best height was good enough to win the varsity competition. The first time he told the high school track coach “No” after being spotted dunking a basketball in the warm-up line -- and all the subsequent "Nos" before finally giving in. The NCAA Div. I outdoor track and field championships. The SEC and Pac-12 championships. The ongoing press hits to promote his sci-fi novel. How much different would his life be if not for that high school coach’s persistence? "If I never picked up track and field, I'm never here. We're never having this conversation," Agbonkonkon told For The Win in a recent interview. "More than likely, I'm not at the University of Texas competing as an athlete. I mean, the book still would have been a thing because I've been writing that since long before track and field was ever in the picture. But the response, the way that it's changed the whole story around me as a person who is an athlete, who's an author, who does all these things, I don't think any of that happens if I don't take him up on that offer." Now that he’s here, Agbonkonkon isn’t leaving the rest up to chance.
If becoming a student-athlete with increased visibility as an author was the result of the Texas native’s good fortune -- being in the right place at the right time -- the rest of his story won't be. Agbonkonkon has it all mapped out from here. He’s attempting to build a world on the foundation of his self-published 2024 debut novel Psychic Suit, a sci-fi thriller about an enhanced group of humans called The Psychics. "I'm out here planning strategies," Agbonkonkon said, detailing his masterplan of building a universe around the book. "I have dozens of documents open of the strategy we're executing. This is how I expect it to go." Part of that strategy is bringing The Psychics to Hollywood. Agbonkonkon said a TV bible for Psychic Suit is being shopped to studios. If picked up, it'll be the next item checked off from a dream that’s been years in the making. Before he was a collegiate high jumper, Agbonkonkon was being prepped for the opportunity ahead of him without knowing it. He caught the writing bug in the fifth grade from a standardized test question he couldn't get out of his head when he went home and wrote his first cohesive story. Inspired by Marvel’s Captain America movies, James Bond and the Fast & Furious series, Agbonkonkon had the idea for a Psychic Suit series a couple of years later. In 2018, he finally put pen to paper, churning out the first three books of the series, which left plenty time for revisions before his 2024 debut. Now a rising college senior, Agbonkonkon is targeting the end of 2026 to release the second book. But there's plenty on the bulletin board before then. Acting as his own publicist, Agbonkonkon is still doing legwork to increase visibility of the first book. He’s also still a student… and an athlete. And he’s not happy with how last season ended, even after making it to nationals in June. "I was injured essentially the whole season, so it did not go as planned," said Agbonkonkon, who placed 16th in the NCAA high jump championships. "But going into next year, I definitely want to get healthy and am working on that right now. So I’m confident that if we’re healthy that we can have a nice offseason going into this senior year and make some waves in the NCAA." And yes, he plans to go pro as a high jumper too. If it sounds like Agbonkonkon is doing a lot, it's because he is. But none of the many hats he's wearing takes priority over the other. He believes he can do them all, because of the support of his family, coaches and athletic staff, along with -- as he put it -- "Why not you? ... There's really not a reason you can't." That's not to say the balance is easy. Sacrifices are necessary, and often those are the parts of the college experience others might enjoy most. But Agbonkonkon wouldn’t have it any other way. He's been given an opportunity to build the world he always imagined. "I’ll tell myself, 'Why am I partaking in other people’s universes when mine is still yet to be built?'" Agbonkonkon said. "Just having that mentality of: These are the things that I want to achieve, these are the things I’m willing to do to achieve it. The investment I put in now is going to pay dividends in the future." This article originally appeared on For The Win: How Texas high jumper Osawese Agbonkonkon wants to clear the bar as a sci-fi author