Columbus product Adeniye ready to begin college hockey journey

Growing up in central Ohio, there were a lot of obstacles that could have prevented Ayo Adeniye from reaching his goal of playing college hockey.
There's the simple fact that as an African-American in a sport with a dearth of them, there weren't a whole lot of role models whose path he could follow to the sport's upper echelons.
Even as his skills progressed to the point that dream could become a reality, more roadblocks were thrown in the way. He committed to play collegiately at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, the South's lone Division I program, two summers ago only to see the leadership at UAH announce its plans to eliminate the hockey program in May.

A quick round of fundraising saved the Chargers, but the coronavirus pandemic continued to loom over life in general as well as the college hockey world through the summer.
But now, on Saturday night, the Chargers will take to the ice for their season opener at Robert Morris, and Adeniye's dream will be a reality. And as you might imagine, he can't wait to get started, especially given how tough the road was to get there.
"I'm super excited," the freshman defenseman said recently. "Honestly, it's a dream come true. I've sacrificed a lot. I've worked toward this. More than anything, I like being able to be a role model and someone that people around the Columbus community can kind of look up to. There's not a whole lot of African-Americans that come out of Columbus -- well, I'm the first African-American to come out of Columbus and play Division I hockey. I'm just trying to be the face and provide some representation to show other kids they can do it, too. That's what I'm most excited about."
As you can tell, Adeniye's big dreams are about more than himself. His path is a road less traveled but one that he hopes can be followed by others down the road, and it started when he first laced on the skates with the Columbus Ice Hockey Club.
Since John Haferman --
a finalist for the NHL's Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award
this past summer -- co-founded the club in 1999, it has helped introduce approximately 30,000 boys and girls from ages 5-18 from underserved neighborhoods in central Ohio to the game of hockey.
On average, the programming for 3,000 youth through CIHC's Learn to Play Hockey, Learn to Skate, and hockey team programs are made up of more than 65 minority participants and more than 25 percent female.
The club boasts a family atmosphere that makes just about anyone who's gone through it feel at home, and there's little doubt Adeniye's success is celebrated throughout the community.
"He's one in 30,000," Haferman said. "It's an absolutely huge thing. He's just taken every single challenge that he's ever had and done the most he could possibly do with it. The adversity that he's faced, the challenges that he's accepted, there's no doubt in my mind why he is where he is. He's quite the young man."
In fact, Adeniye is the first of the program's tens of thousands of alums to make it to the Division I level. While Haferman said every player who has stuck with the Columbus Ice Hockey Club through high school has graduated, Adeniye will be breaking new ground by playing at college's top level.
"It's just really humbling, honestly," Adeniye said. "I've always dreamed of getting this far but I never thought I'd actually get this far. The fact that I am here makes me want to work harder. More than anything, I can prove our motto (at the CIHC), which is 'Hockey is for Everyone,' but also just to show everything going on with the changing hockey culture, the Hockey Diversity Alliance all that, the grassroot programs, it's important to show they actually help.
"Everyone where I grew up was like, 'You play hockey?' I was like, 'Yeah, I play hockey. It's just like football, it's just like basketball. You can get an NCAA scholarship.' Getting more African-Americans into hockey has obviously been one of my big goals. To be able to showcase that they can do it is amazing."
Adeniye was able to parlay his talents as a youngster coming up in the capital city to earn a spot with the Ohio AAA Blue Jackets, the local high-level junior program that has produced NHLers like CBJ prospect Kole Sherwood as well as such standouts as Chicago's Connor Murphy, Winnipeg's Jack Roslovic and Boston's Sean Kuraly.
From there, the athletic 6-foot-5 defenseman suited up for programs across the country before spending the past two seasons with the Carleton Place Canadians, a junior team in Eastern Ontario. Over those two campaigns, he totaled 11 goals, 36 points and 241 penalty minutes in 107 games while working to get ready for the D-I level.
"I'm smiling just talking about him," said Ed Gingher, president of the AAA Blue Jackets who coached Adeinye with the program. "He's grown up to me a fine young man and somebody that I think is excited to help our game grow.
"I think his best hockey is in front of him, but for his size, the way he moves is pretty special. I think he enjoys all aspects of the game. He loved to have the puck on his stick but I think he also enjoys defending. He plays physical, but for his size, the way he moves, not a lot of guys have that gift."
While Adeniye committed to Alabama-Huntsville in 2018, the latest roadblocks made for an interesting summer. It didn't take long for UAH to restore its varsity program after the cancellation announcement, but it was a bit of a worrisome time, as Adeniye was scrambling to find a place to play this upcoming season and even had some leads before the opportunity to stay with the Chargers materialized.
The pandemic has also made things interesting. He spent spring with his parents, who now live in Mississippi, before returning to Columbus when rinks reopened to get back on the ice. In addition, he bought a pair of Marsblade roller blades and skated wherever he could, from roller hockey rinks to tennis courts and neighborhood streets. He also worked with the CIHC teaching youngsters with illnesses and disabilities as part of its theraputic rec program.
He reported to Huntsville -- which has a robust hockey community given the history of the Chargers program as well as being home to a Southern Professional Hockey League team since 2004 -- in August, but even then the pandemic made things a bit more difficult than usual.
"It's just been weird," he admitted, noting that the athletic department facilities were closed when he first arrived to school. "Coming here as a freshman, I was trying to play games as quick as possible and have fun playing the game that I love. With all the protocols and stuff we have to go through, it's just now how I envisioned how it would go, but I'm glad and thankful that I'm here."
Already a pioneer in the Columbus community for what he's accomplished, Adeniye hopes to continue to spread the sport of hockey. He said UAH was a dream program because, in addition to being close to his parents' home in Mississippi, he can be at the forefront of trying to build the sport in the South.
The team has a brand-new look with many of its players from a season ago moving on given all the uncertainty, though the program got good news last week with the announcement of a long-term funding agreement. To Ayodele, continuing to build one of college hockey's most unique programs is challenge that he's willing to take on, just like all the other ones he's been able to navigate to this point in his life and hockey career.
"You never know what the possibilities are, so it would be cool to be able to start something, grow something and watch it flourish when you're like 50 or 60 and see how far it's come," he said. "Our motto this year is 'Delete the past.' We lost 13 guys from last year, we have 13 incoming freshmen this year, we're hoping to change the tides and not start the program over again but give it a little rebuild so we can have a really good culture here."

Also in college hockey

The Blue Jackets have two draft picks that are playing college hockey this year. Peter Thome, a goalie who was chosen in the sixth round of the 2016 draft, is in his senior season at North Dakota, while 2017 seventh-round pick Robbie Stucker is in his junior year at Minnesota.
Thome, who is coming off a season in which he took over as the Fighting Hawks' starter in the second half of the season and posted a 1.37 goals-against average, and top-ranked UND will begin their season Dec. 2 against Miami (Ohio). The NCHC, the conference in which the Fighting Hawks play, has chosen to start its season by quarantining teams in a bubble in Omaha, Neb., where UND will play 10 league games from Dec. 2-20 to start its season.
Meanwhile, Big Ten teams will play in their home buildings, with Stucker and No. 14 Minnesota slated to begin the season with home games Thursday and Friday vs. Penn State. A stay-at-home defenseman, Stucker had two goals and eight points in 35 games a year ago for the Golden Gophers, who have been picked to win the Big Ten.
In the Buckeye State, No. 10 Ohio State will open the season Nov. 23-24 at Minnesota, while Bowling Green will first face D-I opposition when it takes on Robert Morris on Nov. 24 and Miami will begin vs. North Dakota in the NCHC bubble. Five AAA Blue Jackets alums play for those teams, including three on Bowling Green -- Eric Dop, Trevor St-Jean and Alex Barber -- as well as Austin Pooley for OSU and Grant Valentine for Miami.