Fela Olaniyan’s impact has been immense.

A powerful player on both sides of the ball for Pleasant Valley’s football team, Olaniyan always made a big impression on the field.

But his biggest influence has been felt off of it.

Olaniyan’s commitment to excellence as a student athlete was honored this past Sunday, as he was selected the Big School scholarship award winner at the recent Lehigh Valley Chapter of the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete banquet.

“It means everything,” said Olaniyan. “It’s the culmination of all the work that I put in outside of the football field and in between the white lines. And just for it to kind of leak into football and be acknowledged for that is just kind of amazing.”

So is Olaniyan.

The senior ranks in the top 3 percent of his class. He is an Honor Roll student, National Honor Society member, and is a state qualifier in the Supply Chain Management test for FBLA.

He is the Future Business Leaders of America Vice-President, Key Club Treasurer, and Red Cross Blood Drive Host. He has performed over 500 hours of volunteer work.

On the football field, Olaniyan carried the ball 227 times for 1,170 yards and 13 touchdowns while also playing stellar defense at his outside linebacker position.

His efforts on and off the field have been undeniable, though he never imagined being in such a position for an award.

“I was kind of just thinking about it, ‘What’s this really going to be like?’” Olaniyan said after learning he was nominated by his coaches. “I looked it up, and I saw all of these past winners and then when we finally got there, I started to shake hands with them and seeing the people who had won it back in the 1960s and things like that.

“And then I was able to spend time with all of the other nominees and I got to talk with them about their excellence in their extracurricular activities. I didn’t think I was going to win. I was talking to everyone and I saw how impressive they were, too.”

Each one deserving in their own right, Olaniyan relished the opportunity to spend time with his peers and those who have come before him.

Those are the type of connections Olaniyan strives to make on a daily basis as an active member of his school and community.

“It’s extremely important, and the aspect I really enjoy the most is just meeting new people, people outside of football, that you would have never even spoken to if not for joining Key Club like I’m in, or hosted a blood drive, or things like that,” said Olaniyan. “Being able to see people from different facets of life, and learn from them.

“I’m doing tennis now. I wouldn’t have met so many of them (otherwise), and we have a great relationship. It’s just great to expand your horizons and meet new people and expose yourself to different things.”

Olaniyan has been a catalyst for a culture shift within the Bears football program. His senior class, which included 21 players, is the first to go all four years with head coach Blaec Saeger and his staff.

They produced the program’s most wins since 2016 (seven) and once again qualified for the district playoffs after going 0-10 as freshmen.

“The first time I met Coach Saeger was in a middle school cafeteria, so I was still in eighth grade,” Olaniyan recalled. “Just to evolve with him, to see how he’s evolved and how I’ve grown with his leadership and his triple option, it’s amazing to see what he’s done for the culture of this team. And I think it’s just going to keep getting better, to be honest with you, because we’ve all accepted what Coach Saeger is about, everything that he’s brought here, the respect, and it’s just not going to end.”

Neither will his journey. The son of Olayide Olaniyan and the late Babatunde Olaniyan Sr., Fela has been accepted to Georgia Tech, though he was still waiting to hear from other schools, and said he will make his choice by the end of the month.

For his field of study, he intends to pursue his passion in chemical engineering.

“I love helping people, and I feel like as a chemical engineer you can help people on a broad scale,” he said. “If you’re making vaccines, or medicines. I want to go into the medical field with chemical engineering, so being able to help people on that large scale is kind of what drew me in.”

Wherever he is and whatever he might be doing, Olaniyan will make the most of it, just like he’s done on and off the field at Pleasant Valley.

“I’m just happy that I’ve been given the opportunities,” said Olaniyan. “I just thank God, and I thank my mom and my late father. They’ve given me the opportunity, they’ve put me in the right position to succeed, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.”