Reunion with father helps Adesanya reach new heights

Adetayo Adesanya got back to his roots this summer. Way back.

Competing in high jump at the Nigeria Mobil Trials track and field championships in July, the 2005 Naperville North graduate, now a senior All-America at Purdue, returned to the country of his parents' birth.

His mother, Caroline, lives in Naperville with "Tayo's" siblings, Naperville North students Abi, Bukky and Lexley. He hadn't seen his father in more than a decade.

Adesanya - known as "Junior" in high school - said his father, Adebola, had been deported back to Nigeria years ago after he got arrested on charges of fraud. He believed the last time he'd seen his father was in a Chicago jail cell.

"He tries to call every once in awhile," said Adesanya, back in West Lafayette, Ind., to cap an electrical engineering degree and compete in track next spring.

He'd contacted his father before flying to the Nigeria meet.

"I didn't know how I was going to be," said the long and lanky Adesanya, who was born 21 years ago in Washington, D.C., and arrived in Naperville 10 years later. He attended Waubonsie Valley three years, then transferred to Naperville North for his senior year.

"The only word that comes to mind was speechless. I mean, yeah, it's been awhile."

During a team meal at the hotel in Abuja, his father called and Adesanya left the building to meet him outside - just as the electricity died, which Tayo said happens over there.

"I couldn't really make out who he was," he said.

Once they found each other, "he gave me a huge hug," Tayo said. They spent the next two weeks together in and around the Abuja National Stadium.

"We spent quite a little time going around the city, sightseeing or even visiting some of his friends around the area. We spent most of the time together," Adesanya said.

That meant time around the high jump, which was held two days after Adesanya's plane landed.

Adesanya, who placed fifth in the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Championships in a personal-best 7 feet, 21/2 inches, shook off jet lag to end the seven-year meet title streak of Obiora Arinze, jumping clean until 6-103/4 and winning at 7-01/2.

"Now I'm not just trying to do well in the Big Ten or in regionals, but I'm trying to do well nationally and internationally, take it to the next level," he said.

He took it to a higher level with his dad, and he's trying to succeed at a level his family never had - his family's first college graduate.

After Caroline and Adebola Adesanya moved from Lagos, Nigeria, she attended three Washington, D.C.-area colleges before quitting in 1989 to start her family. Her husband's troubles eventually put them all in a tight spot. She's worked in a variety of places and odd jobs to feed and shelter her kids - post office, bank, gas station, housekeeper, car auctions.

"I'm just waiting for them to be something they want to be. I'm tired of this stress," she said.

"She does what she can in order to pay the bills," Tayo said. "I don't know how she does it."

18-year itch scratched

John Shurna, captain of the 2008 DuPage County All-Area Boys Basketball Team while at Glenbard West, helped the USA Under-19 national men's basketball team win the world championships for the first time since 1991.

"I'd say that was a focal point for us from the first day of practice," he said from his Glen Ellyn home, sophomore year at Northwestern still two weeks away. "At the end of practice, when we'd put our hands in, our cheer was 'Gold medal, on three.'"

In the title game of the U19 tournament held in Auckland, New Zealand, Shurna hit a free throw to slow a third-quarter run by Greece, and the United States went on to win the title 88-80. The U.S. team, coached by the University of Pittsburgh's Jamie Dixon, swept the competition 9-0.

In the semifinal win over Croatia, Shurna felt the edgy thrill of foreign crowd support.

"I felt like I was at a soccer match," he said. "Flags waving, whistles blowing. All the heckling."

In New Zealand Shurna roomed with Butler University's Gordon Hayward, a versatile 6-foot-8 player like himself. Shurna hopes to turn things around this year after Hayward outscored him 13-5 in a 57-53 Butler win last season.

The happy-go-lucky Shurna will obviously answer the call if he ever gets to represent his country again.

"I don't know what happens from here, but if there's another opportunity I'd definitely love to do that."

Fly with the Eagles

Benedictine University is hosting a pair of reunions this month surrounding Eagles football.

The first comes this Saturday when former Benedictine coach Bill Barz - who also led Mt. Carmel to a state title in 1980 and took St. Francis to the state quarterfinals in 2000 - and his defensive coordinator, Dave Egofske, will be toasted along with their teams and players of the 1980s.

Arriving at the Lisle institution in 1984, the Barz-Egofske duo lifted the Eagles from 0-9 in 1983 to national rankings in 1986 (9-1) and 1988 (8-2).

A tailgate complete with memorabilia and old game films will be held at 4:30 p.m., before the Benedictine-Elmhurst game. The good times roll right into a postgame party.

Former Benedictine coach Tom Beck and his players from the 1970s - invited to sit for a team picture at halftime - will be saluted Sept. 19 for Benedictine's homecoming, a 1 p.m. game against North Park. This one has pre- and postgame parties as well.

You don't have to be an old Eagles footballer to join in. To RSVP call assistant athletic director John Morris at (630) 829-1812 or via e-mail at jmorris@ben.edu.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com