Instructor Okeoma Ogbodo
Okeoma Ogbodo
Okeoma Ogbodo was born in Oakland, CA, and was raised in the Bay Area. After a short stint of studying abroad as a child, he returned to the U.S. to finish high school and graduate from Cal State East Bay with B.S. in Accounting and Marketing.
He was always interested in martial arts but never pursued it as a child. That changed after being introduced to ADCC, a no-gi grappling tournament sought out by the best-grappling fighters in the world. He became inspired to learn more. In 2011, he looked for a place to learn and found Crosley Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Brentwood.
Okeoma enrolled immediately after his trial class. He earned the blue belt in 2013 and purple belt in 2016. He has remained consistent with his attendance, earning the Best Attendance Award at our year-end Belt Ceremonies in 2015, 2017, and 2021. He remained in the top three all the other years!
After being promoted to purple belt, he was invited to assist with the Teens Jiu-Jitsu Program (12-14-year-olds) and found out that teaching is something that he had the passion and talent for.
In 2019 he was awarded the rank of Brown belt and is currently the Assistant Instructor of the Adult Co-Ed Beginners program on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, as well as the Teens' class on Saturday mornings.
Okeoma believes that Jiu-Jitsu is an excellent tool for personal development in life and is always willing to share the knowledge he has gained over the years the same way others did for him when he started.
He’s one of the most selfless students in our Academy and can be seen helping his lower-rank training partners daily at the end of each class he attends as a student. If you see him around the Academy, say hello and introduce yourself!