The number of times Joseph Ojo made something positive happen on the football field are too many to count.
While they were often productive and spectacular, it wasn’t the moments when the former Sherando High School All-State running back had a football in his hands where he was at his best. When the people close to Ojo think about him, what they’re going to remember most is the positive impact he made on the people in his life with his words.
On Oct. 6, Ojo, a 2012 Sherando graduate and a resident of Woodbridge, died at the age of 26. In a phone interview, his 23-year-old brother Josh declined to discuss Joe’s cause of death.
As for his life, Josh and Joe’s former football coaches expressed that Joe’s was one that made a great impact. Josh said nearly 200 people attended Joe’s funeral service on Saturday at Omps Funeral Home and Cremation Center in Winchester.
“He believed in himself and worked really hard, but he was very optimistic about other people,” said Josh, who also starred in football at Sherando before graduating in 2015. “He was a great encourager, especially with me. Anytime I had problems, he would always pick me up and always tell me the positives of things. He was super optimistic.”
Joe was one of the best running backs to ever come through Sherando. A two-year starter, Joe ranks third all-time in the program’s 27-year history with 3,184 rushing yards and fourth with 246 points scored.
As a junior, he rushed for 1,663 yards (the No. 3 total at Sherando for a single season) and scored 21 touchdowns on 255 carries (6.5 yards per carry) and earned Second Team All-Region II and First Team All-Northwestern District honors. As a 6-foot, 185-pound senior, Joe was The Winchester Star and Northwestern District Offensive Football Player of the Year after rushing for 1,506 yards and 19 TDs on 242 carries (6.5 ypc). He was also selected to the Region II First Team and the Virginia High School Coaches Association All-State Second Team.
In the summer of 2012, Joe’s Sherando career was finished, but he played an integral role in launching the career of another player who would go to earn All-State honors — his younger brother Josh.
During the early stages of Josh’s sophomore season, he was a backup quarterback and defensive back. He was working hard, but he was frustrated by the prospect that he might not get to play.
“He was playing a video game while I was telling him this story, and he turned the game off and he looked at me and he kind of got mad,” Josh recalled. “He said, ‘Josh, what you need to do is not worry about anybody else except Josh Ojo. If you worry about Josh, I promise you, good things will happen to you.’”
Josh earned the starting cornerback job by the second game of the 2012 season, which saw him earn all-district honors. He starred three years for the Warriors. Josh’s senior year included selection to the Virginia High School League Class 4 All-State Second Team as a cornerback and receiving a scholarship to play at NCAA Division II West Liberty University.
Joe’s words helped lift Josh whenever he felt down at West Liberty, and Josh rewarded Joe for his faith in him. Josh earned Honorable Mention All-American honors as a junior and received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from West Liberty, earning the latter degree this summer.
“That forever changed my life,” said Josh about his 2012 conversation with Joe. “I will never in my life be more thankful for that. I didn’t understand how my older brother had so much faith in a kid that was 130 pounds. It was crazy. He already knew what was going to happen.
“That motivation, I took that with me forever. I’ll never forget that day, me and him in our room.”
Joe cared about his teammates considerably. During an interview after the 2011 season, Joe spoke about how much he and the offensive linemen spent time together, whether they were lifting at school or playing video games together. Joe routinely praised his offensive linemen after games during his career.
“I know that they’re my brothers, and they’re going to have my back,” said Joe in 2011. “I could run through the holes as fast as I can, and I know they were going to do their job.”
Sherando head football coach Bill Hall noticed that the players who paved the way for Joe’s rushing totals were all sitting together at the funeral.
“The fact that they were all there showed the respect that they had for Joe, and that’s because of the respect that Joe had for those guys,” Hall said. “He understood there was a lot of hard work going into the success that he was experiencing. He was doing a lot of hard work, but so were they.
“Joe was such an appreciative young man. Very respectful, always sincere. He was just such a gentle soul. He was very warm and had a smile that would brighten up the room.”
Sherando assistant T.J. Rohrbaugh was the first coach to build a close relationship with Joe after he transferred to the school from Heritage High School in Leesburg in the middle of his freshman year. Time and time again, he saw Joe’s warm spirit.
“He always respected his teachers, always respected adults, always respected his coaches,” said Rohrbaugh, who was the Warriors’ running backs coach during Joe’s two years as a starter. “He had an easygoing personality, and he got along with everybody.”
And he gave everything he had to Sherando’s football team. Rohrbaugh said Joe told him he had never lifted weights before he arrived at Sherando. He weighed about 130 pounds as a freshman, but he molded himself into a runner who would routinely punish defenders with his hard-nosed style in addition to being elusive.
“He was a hard-working kid who always did what you asked of him,” Rohrbaugh said. “He was a phenomenal athlete.”
Josh said he couldn’t have asked for a better person to model himself after in football.
“His first year playing Little League, that was all I had to see,” Josh said. “After that, I fell in love with the game of football. If it wasn’t for him, I would have never played football.”
Most recently, Josh said Joe had put his energy toward the automobile industry. Joe moved to Woodbridge in November of last year, and in the last couple of months he had been working as a car salesman.
Joe is survived by his parents Tony and Anna Ojo; his adoptive parents Rick and Mary Diamond; his siblings Stella and Josh Ojo and Jessica, Sarah, and Jacob Neer; and adoptive siblings Angel, Ricky, and Shavon Diamond. Joe and Josh were adopted by the Diamonds in 2010, two years after they were placed in foster care. Rick Diamond is a pastor who officiated Saturday’s funeral.
Josh said both he and his brother Joe have always been grateful for what the Diamonds have done for them. It meant a lot to Josh to have Rick preside over Saturday’s service, and it meant a lot to Josh to see how much the community appreciated his brother.
“I knew a lot of people liked Joe and I knew a lot of people that supported our family, but that love was overwhelming,” Josh said. “I’m so thankful for the town of Winchester, I’m so thankful for the town of Stephens City. I want to thank them so much for all the support they’ve given me and my family these past couple of weeks, and all the support they’ve given us over the 10 years we’ve lived in Stephens City.”
He’s also thankful for Joe.
“He was just such an inspiration,” Josh said. “It was the biggest blessing to have Joe as my older brother. He still is my big brother.”
Based on the life that Josh has had, Rohrbaugh feels Joe did well in the inspiration department.
“I’d say Joe and Josh have had to overcome more obstacles than anybody in our program has had to overcome,” Rohrbaugh said. “They both always motivated each other to be successful. I think Joe’s biggest legacy is going to be Josh, and the success that Josh has had and continues to have. Joe was a big part of that success.”
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at
rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1
While they were often productive and spectacular, it wasn’t the moments when the former Sherando High School All-State running back had a football in his hands where he was at his best. When the people close to Ojo think about him, what they’re going to remember most is the positive impact he made on the people in his life with his words.
On Oct. 6, Ojo, a 2012 Sherando graduate and a resident of Woodbridge, died at the age of 26. In a phone interview, his 23-year-old brother Josh declined to discuss Joe’s cause of death.
As for his life, Josh and Joe’s former football coaches expressed that Joe’s was one that made a great impact. Josh said nearly 200 people attended Joe’s funeral service on Saturday at Omps Funeral Home and Cremation Center in Winchester.
“He believed in himself and worked really hard, but he was very optimistic about other people,” said Josh, who also starred in football at Sherando before graduating in 2015. “He was a great encourager, especially with me. Anytime I had problems, he would always pick me up and always tell me the positives of things. He was super optimistic.”
Joe was one of the best running backs to ever come through Sherando. A two-year starter, Joe ranks third all-time in the program’s 27-year history with 3,184 rushing yards and fourth with 246 points scored.
As a junior, he rushed for 1,663 yards (the No. 3 total at Sherando for a single season) and scored 21 touchdowns on 255 carries (6.5 yards per carry) and earned Second Team All-Region II and First Team All-Northwestern District honors. As a 6-foot, 185-pound senior, Joe was The Winchester Star and Northwestern District Offensive Football Player of the Year after rushing for 1,506 yards and 19 TDs on 242 carries (6.5 ypc). He was also selected to the Region II First Team and the Virginia High School Coaches Association All-State Second Team.
In the summer of 2012, Joe’s Sherando career was finished, but he played an integral role in launching the career of another player who would go to earn All-State honors — his younger brother Josh.
During the early stages of Josh’s sophomore season, he was a backup quarterback and defensive back. He was working hard, but he was frustrated by the prospect that he might not get to play.
“He was playing a video game while I was telling him this story, and he turned the game off and he looked at me and he kind of got mad,” Josh recalled. “He said, ‘Josh, what you need to do is not worry about anybody else except Josh Ojo. If you worry about Josh, I promise you, good things will happen to you.’”
Josh earned the starting cornerback job by the second game of the 2012 season, which saw him earn all-district honors. He starred three years for the Warriors. Josh’s senior year included selection to the Virginia High School League Class 4 All-State Second Team as a cornerback and receiving a scholarship to play at NCAA Division II West Liberty University.
Joe’s words helped lift Josh whenever he felt down at West Liberty, and Josh rewarded Joe for his faith in him. Josh earned Honorable Mention All-American honors as a junior and received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from West Liberty, earning the latter degree this summer.
“That forever changed my life,” said Josh about his 2012 conversation with Joe. “I will never in my life be more thankful for that. I didn’t understand how my older brother had so much faith in a kid that was 130 pounds. It was crazy. He already knew what was going to happen.
“That motivation, I took that with me forever. I’ll never forget that day, me and him in our room.”
Joe cared about his teammates considerably. During an interview after the 2011 season, Joe spoke about how much he and the offensive linemen spent time together, whether they were lifting at school or playing video games together. Joe routinely praised his offensive linemen after games during his career.
“I know that they’re my brothers, and they’re going to have my back,” said Joe in 2011. “I could run through the holes as fast as I can, and I know they were going to do their job.”
Sherando head football coach Bill Hall noticed that the players who paved the way for Joe’s rushing totals were all sitting together at the funeral.
“The fact that they were all there showed the respect that they had for Joe, and that’s because of the respect that Joe had for those guys,” Hall said. “He understood there was a lot of hard work going into the success that he was experiencing. He was doing a lot of hard work, but so were they.
“Joe was such an appreciative young man. Very respectful, always sincere. He was just such a gentle soul. He was very warm and had a smile that would brighten up the room.”
Sherando assistant T.J. Rohrbaugh was the first coach to build a close relationship with Joe after he transferred to the school from Heritage High School in Leesburg in the middle of his freshman year. Time and time again, he saw Joe’s warm spirit.
“He always respected his teachers, always respected adults, always respected his coaches,” said Rohrbaugh, who was the Warriors’ running backs coach during Joe’s two years as a starter. “He had an easygoing personality, and he got along with everybody.”
And he gave everything he had to Sherando’s football team. Rohrbaugh said Joe told him he had never lifted weights before he arrived at Sherando. He weighed about 130 pounds as a freshman, but he molded himself into a runner who would routinely punish defenders with his hard-nosed style in addition to being elusive.
“He was a hard-working kid who always did what you asked of him,” Rohrbaugh said. “He was a phenomenal athlete.”
Josh said he couldn’t have asked for a better person to model himself after in football.
“His first year playing Little League, that was all I had to see,” Josh said. “After that, I fell in love with the game of football. If it wasn’t for him, I would have never played football.”
Most recently, Josh said Joe had put his energy toward the automobile industry. Joe moved to Woodbridge in November of last year, and in the last couple of months he had been working as a car salesman.
Joe is survived by his parents Tony and Anna Ojo; his adoptive parents Rick and Mary Diamond; his siblings Stella and Josh Ojo and Jessica, Sarah, and Jacob Neer; and adoptive siblings Angel, Ricky, and Shavon Diamond. Joe and Josh were adopted by the Diamonds in 2010, two years after they were placed in foster care. Rick Diamond is a pastor who officiated Saturday’s funeral.
Josh said both he and his brother Joe have always been grateful for what the Diamonds have done for them. It meant a lot to Josh to have Rick preside over Saturday’s service, and it meant a lot to Josh to see how much the community appreciated his brother.
“I knew a lot of people liked Joe and I knew a lot of people that supported our family, but that love was overwhelming,” Josh said. “I’m so thankful for the town of Winchester, I’m so thankful for the town of Stephens City. I want to thank them so much for all the support they’ve given me and my family these past couple of weeks, and all the support they’ve given us over the 10 years we’ve lived in Stephens City.”
He’s also thankful for Joe.
“He was just such an inspiration,” Josh said. “It was the biggest blessing to have Joe as my older brother. He still is my big brother.”
Based on the life that Josh has had, Rohrbaugh feels Joe did well in the inspiration department.
“I’d say Joe and Josh have had to overcome more obstacles than anybody in our program has had to overcome,” Rohrbaugh said. “They both always motivated each other to be successful. I think Joe’s biggest legacy is going to be Josh, and the success that Josh has had and continues to have. Joe was a big part of that success.”
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at
rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1
