It Runs In Her Blood

Senior West Ashley Soccer extraordinaire and Varsity Co-Captain Oluwaremilekun “Remi” Olalere is following in her father’s footsteps. Although she’s been a key asset on the Varsity girls’ team for the past four years, this year was one of her most impressive seasons yet; she led WAHS in scoring with 12 goals and five assists. Olalere was very excited when she found out she was named the West Of’s Athlete of the Week. “I feel like I’ve earned it. It wasn’t easy, but I feel like I’ve accomplished what I wanted to,” says Olalere.
Assistant Varsity Coach Mike Jackson agrees that Olalere definitely earned this title. “Remi has been a tremendous asset to the women’s soccer program,” says Jackson. She is second in all-time scoring at WAHS with 64 goals and 19 assists. This is out of more than 130 players that have been in the West Ashley Women’s Soccer program since its inception.
Olalere also started every single game and had the most playing time of any West Ashley player with 1,408 minutes on the field (93 percent of all the games). She led the Varsity team in scoring every year she played, including her freshman year when she tied the previous freshman scoring record set by Julie Bolt back in 2002.
In addition to her other impressive accolades, Olalere was selected as Best Offensive Player and Most Valuable Player; she was on the All-Tournament team for the Viking Cup Tournament; and this year she made the All-Region team and was selected to represent West Ashley in the annual North-South All-Star game.
“In addition to all of her on-the-field success, Remi is also an outstanding young lady,” says Jackson. Olalere has maintained all As and Bs throughout her high school career and she makes a conscious effort to support other WAHS student athletes. “I try to go watch other sporting events,” she says. “I’m trying to go outside the box this year and catch up on things I’ve been missing.”
Olalere started playing soccer when she was only three years old; since then soccer has been a major part of her life. Even though it’s time-consuming, Olalere says she enjoys it because it runs in her blood. Her brother plays soccer and her dad played soccer professionally. “My dad has gotten me where I am today because of how much hard work and effort he put in,” says Olalere.
In the fall Olalere will be attending Spartanburg Methodist College on a full soccer scholarship. The University of South Carolina Upstate offered her a soccer scholarship too, but Olalere liked Spartanburg’s campus and educational offerings better.
She plans to major in psychology and minor in exercise science for her undergraduate degree. Then she wants to get her Master and Doctorate degrees in order to become a sports psychologist who works only with athletes. “I had a lot of downfalls in my soccer career and I want to study how I can help [other athletes] overcome their obstacles,” says Olalere. “I feel like we need more people in the world like that.”