Roughly 120 aspiring athletes from ages eight to 12 jogged with a smile around Chaparral Stadium at Austin Westlake High School, a swarm of burnt orange shirts hopping from drill-to-drill in the searing June heat coached by one of their Texas Longhorn heroes after another. 

On one end of the field, Roschon Johnson demonstrated how to plant and cut through a running back drill with the precision he’d displayed over a stellar four-year career that earned him a contract with the Chicago Bears. Defensive lineman Moro Ojomo, recently drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, slapped high fives. Five-star freshman quarterback Arch Manning warmed up his arm tossing with campers. 

Peter Mpagi bounced all over the turf with a whistle in his mouth, overseeing his brainchild that had come to fruition. Before Saturday, the kids running with Johnson and throwing with Manning probably hadn’t known who Mpagi was. But he'd provided them this opportunity. Mpagi had connected with his 18 other teammates to coordinate a time on Saturday, June 24 when they could all give back to the community like this. He had circulated the camp’s flier all over social media and decided all proceeds from the $50 entry fee would go straight to the American Heart Association.

Mpagi was around these kids’ age when he first fell in love with the University of Texas. He spent his preschool years in Uganda and knew next to nothing about football at the start of elementary school. But his childhood best friend had recruited him to play on his dad’s team, and that dad happened to be a UT graduate. Mpagi spent every Saturday after his little league games watching the Longhorns on TV at his friend’s house until he adopted them as his team. 

Then he grew up into a star football player at Richmond George Ranch High School, a coveted four-star defensive end with offers to play Division I football all over the country. He earned a scholarship in the summer before his senior year to Texas and committed on the spot, a lifelong dream fulfilled.

“Playing football at Texas was my true passion,” Mpagi said. “Putting Texas on your chest and running out and playing in front of everyone, that was my true goal.”

He never played a down in a Texas jersey.

Mpagi is 22 years old and still has the frame at 6-foot-5-inches, 230 pounds that made him a once-future college football star. At first glance, it’s impossible to tell his journey over the past four years didn’t include Big 12 football games. Those years were spent in and out of the hospital, on a ventilator, walking around for nine months with an IV drip hooked to his arm, undergoing a heart transplant and learning how to eat, walk and breathe again.

“I think the hardest thing is giving up a dream you never got to achieve,” Mpagi told KVUE in Austin. “I’ve had a lot of goals that I’ve planned for myself. I can’t go to the NFL anymore. I can’t play football anymore. That was pretty hard on me. I think staying near the game is what keeps a smile on my face.”

Mpagi had provided triple-digit kids with a core memory. For him, it was the beginning of his new relationship with the sport he still loved.  

…

Most Division I football prospects have a reputation that precedes them even in their early high school years, a dominance on the sub-Varsity level that signals greater things to come. Before Peter Mpagi’s sophomore year, he wasn’t even on George Ranch defensive coordinator Anthony Davis’s radar.

“I’m dead serious; I don’t remember his freshman year much at all,” Davis said. “But then it’s like, ‘Who’s this 6-foot-5-inch kid?”

Mpagi started the year on JV, but Davis’ defense struggled as the season wore on. After an opening-game shutout against Weslaco, George Ranch surrendered an average of over 26 points in the next four contests. The coaches couldn’t overlook the hulking sophomore defensive end any longer. 

“We ended up bringing him up to varsity after a few games, and it was strictly passing situations,” Davis said. “If it was third-and-long, Peter knew he was going in and some other kid was going out. I think he ended up getting three sacks in that game.”

Despite the breakout performance, Mpagi and Davis knew the sophomore had to refine his technique. Mpagi’s sister was a long and triple jumper at Texas, and his inherited athleticism was evident. But he was raw as a player, having always relied on his superior size to overpower defenders throughout peewee and middle school football.

“As a kid, I never practiced anything outside of practice,” Mpagi said. “I wasn’t that kid that would go get extra work in by myself. If anything, when I was a kid, I just wanted to be a punter to be honest. I just liked kicking the ball. I never really did any of that technical stuff.”

Davis taught Mpagi how to use his hands to build a repertoire of pass-rushing moves and flip his hips to unlock the explosion necessary to blow past an offensive tackle. The defensive coordinator even crafted Mpagi’s sophomore year highlight tape and started connecting him to college coaches and high school prospect camps where he could get exposure. 

“I went to a lot of camps during the summer and that’s what got my name out there,” Mpagi said. “Because any time I went to a camp, I would make sure to go against the flashiest dude to catch a coach’s eye.”

He boasted over 20 offers in the summer before his senior year following an explosive junior campaign where he recorded nine sacks. But there was only one school he wanted to go to. Mpagi’s bedroom was painted burnt orange, and there was a Texas Longhorn sticker he’d placed next to his bed where his head would rest every night. It was a constant reminder of where he wanted to play football and the effort required to reach that point.

Ironically, Mpagi was visiting Texas A&M when he got a call from Oscar Giles, then Texas’ defensive line coach. Giles told him the coaching staff was going to meet and decide whether or not to offer him. Mpagi would soon have an answer on if the technical work with Davis, the camp performances and the dominant junior season had been enough to achieve his dream.

“I prayed that I’d get the offer because I really wanted it that bad,” Mpagi said. “I got home and they called me and they said they’re going to offer me and I was literally on the phone with them for an hour talking about it, and I remember I committed on the spot. There was no thinking about it. It was probably the happiest day of my life.”