Annual Report Letter

By Mac Kennedy ’76

This past July, Duke University’s 6-2, 265-pound defensive end Victor Dimukeje ’17 was named to The Maxwell Football Club’s preseason watch list for the Chuck Bednarik Award, which is presented annually to the most outstanding defensive player in college football. This was Victor’s second career selection on the Bednarik Award Watch List.

Football was not always on Victor’s mind. Boys’ Latin’s head football coach Ritchie Schell reported that Victor came to BL his sophomore year and played three years of varsity football for the Lakers. Prior to enrolling at BL, he had only played two years of organized football. According to Schell, when Victor left Lake Avenue for Durham, North Carolina, his upside was “tremendous.”

He was a three-star recruit and the No. 4 senior defensive end in Maryland coming out of high school. The former first team Baltimore Sun All-Metro performer received nearly 40 scholarships to play college football - receiving more scholarship offers than any other player in Boys’ Latin School football history.

Victor seriously considered attending Virginia Tech, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame but eventually chose Duke University. The Blue Devils were pretty much in “the lead” the whole way and his official visit to Durham sealed the deal making his final decision an easy one. “The relationship between the coaches and the players, just the overall environment and the people surrounding you, was important,” he told The Baltimore Sun. “I had a chance to talk with teachers and I just loved everything I saw.”

According to his BL coaches Victor told them that Duke just felt like “home.” Other factors were the academics as well as playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference against other good programs, where he could showcase his talents.

Victor is a defensive menace for Duke’s football team opponents. In 38 career games (38 starts) for the Blue Devils, Victor has 122 tackles, 14.0 sacks, one interception, three caused fumbles, and two fumble recoveries. He has played 2,043 career snaps and owns 24 games with three or more tackles and eight outings with five or more stops, including a career-high eight tackles against Wake Forest in 2019. He currently sits tied for sixth alltime in Duke’s career sacks chart and is nine sacks away from breaking the record.

Victor is majoring in evolutionary anthropology while pursuing a certificate in markets and management.

The NFL is on his radar and so far he’s received feedback from many interested teams. Coach Schell and the BL coaching staff believe he has a good chance to continue his football career playing on Sundays!