Everyone knows the feeling of being hit by one of life’s curveballs. Sudden loss and unexpected challenges are often destabilizing and overwhelming. Yet for innovator, speaker and ex-professional footballer Ziggy Odogun, they are also an invitation to build a non-profit foundation focused on personal training, storytelling, and community.
“2015 was probably one of the worst years in my life. I lost my uncle…I nearly lost my life in a car crash…and then in July, my father died. I lost my auntie to sickle cell anemia in September. In November, I first lost the ability to play football (soccer) – my Achilles tore. So that was all in the space of 9 to 11 months of just head trauma, and then I started therapy,” she recalled. Reeling from these losses, Odogun leaned into one of her lifelong passions – athletics.
Odogun’s love for sports, and her appreciation for the support that team environments provide, began in childhood.
“I reckon [my participation in] sports started at 7. I played rugby. I was actually a really good rugby player – I was county national until the age of 11,” she shared. Yet her rugby career was disappointingly short-lived.
“I was born and raised in Southeast London. The gang crime there was very high, and [my mother] didn’t want me to get stuck within that realm. So, she shipped me out to my auntie’s house in Kent and I went to an all-girls’ school,” Odogun recalled. While the new school did provide a better environment, it did not have a rugby team. “I’m like ‘damn, I don’t have my team sport anymore. What am I going to play? I had football, and I wasn’t great at football. But I played on the team, and I was just a natural-born leader.”

Odogun’s experiences playing football and her innate leadership abilities eventually led her to coaching. This interest stayed with her when she moved from England to the U.S. several years later. The transition was challenging, though, and Odogun did not immediately jump back in.
“I experienced extreme racism and prejudice here and I was very tired,” she said. Eventually, she circled back to coaching through another avenue – her friendship with her partner’s son.
“What got me back into football was my partner’s son. I volunteer at his coaching club in Monona Grove. I was reliving a lot of my childhood with him.” Odogun said.
The experience inspired Odogun to reach out to her former English football coach, Mick Northwood, in 2024. Northwood played an instrumental role in guiding Odogun’s journey. He even invented the nickname “Ziggy,” in reference to the hairstyle she wore when they met.
“He was hard on me. He demanded great things from me. He saw my potential. He pushed me, but at the same time gave me a balance of nurture and love,” Odogun said.
Yet the experience of reconnecting was bittersweet.
“He let me know he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October of 2024. I was very angry the day that he told me. I didn’t know how to process everything. But then the next day when I woke up, I was like, ‘he can’t die in vain. This guy has poured so much into me. I am who I am because of this man.’ I had this thought, and I said to my partner, ‘You know what? What if I start a foundation?’ Now it’s the Zinovae Foundation, highly inspired by Mick Northwood.”
In mid-February of 2024, Odogun channeled her years of coaching expertise, her ability to navigate change and loss, and her desire to honor her roots into the creation of her non-profit foundation, Zinovae. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, the organization focuses on personal training and public speaking as tools for building resilient minds, empowering organizations and fostering genuine connection.
Odogun’s personal experiences, combined with her bachelor’s degree in sports coaching and allied health and her master’s degree in organizational leadership and change, all inform the mentorship and advice she provides.
“I do believe humans are capable of rapid evolution,” Odogun said. She goes on to emphasize that self-knowledge and personal responsibility are at the core of her coaching philosophy. “Society will tell everybody what to be. But they are not the dictators of my life. They are not the dictators of anybody’s life. No one has the right to tell you who you are or who you can be…your healing, your journey, your growth starts when you take accountability for how you think, how you breathe, how you live your life and who you are.”
The benefits of Odogun’s philosophies are also apparent in her attitude towards navigating social and political challenges. When asked for her advice on handling the pitfalls of a polarized and xenophobic political climate, Odogun gave a massive smile.
“I personally am not shaken by it. Many people say, ‘Ziggy, you’re Black, you’re a female, you’re an immigrant and you’re gay. You’re all of the demographics that they’re trying to deport from this country. How come you aren’t scared?’ But fear truly does not sit within my being. I have worked so hard to eradicate that part of myself, that kind of thinking…through therapy, having good people around me, community and sometimes being alone.”
Odogun ended the interview on an inspirational note, encouraging readers to focus on personal growth in the face of large-scale stumbling blocks.
“Hate is everywhere. It’s never going to be abolished. Darkness will always take over the light, but light is a little more powerful. Light is there … in the darkness, you do your work, you ask for help, you dig into who you are,” she said.
Hear more about Odogun’s inspiring journey and hear her speak in-person at the 2025 Wisconsin Student Government Legislative Seminar, Feb. 16-18, at the Madison Concourse Hotel.
For more information about coaching opportunities with Zinovae, visit Zinovae.com.