rowing up, Olu Fashanu never ex-
pected football to be the sport he ulti-
mately fell in love with. When he was just
a kid, he would learn about sports by
seeking out YouTube clips of his favorite
athletes. More o>en than not, he found
himself watching some of the world's
greatest basketball players. But instead of
scrutinizing LeBron James or Kobe
Bryant, he would o>en search for a player
who started his career before Fashanu was
even born: 12-time NBA All-Star Hakeem
Olajuwon.
"I tried to [build] my game around Ha-
keem Olajuwon because I was also a cen-
ter," Fashanu said. "I tried to center my
game around him because of how great
his footwork was in the paint."
Fashanu started playing basketball just
about as early as possible, joining a local
recreational league in ;rst grade. When
that wasn't enough, he took his game to
another level a few years later, joining a
travel league in the fourth-grade. But once
he got to high school, his feelings started to
change. Fashanu still loved basketball, but
he also began to realize that his size and
athleticism may be ideal in another sport.
"I decided to try out football for my
freshman year and I just liked it a lot,"
Fashanu said. "I actually liked it a lot more
than basketball my freshman year, so I just
decided to completely stop playing bas-
ketball and just focus on football. I could
kind of guess at the time that I could go a
lot further in football than basketball, but
I also just liked football more."
Even though he mostly played on the
junior varsity squad as a sophomore at
Gonzaga – one of the best football pro-
grams in not just Washington, D.C., but the
entire Mid-Atlantic region – schools still
showed interest in Fashanu in the months
leading up to his junior season. Halfway
through the 2018 season, Boston College,
Rutgers, Syracuse and Virginia had all seen
enough to prompt o campus
that day, the Nittany Lions were the team
to beat.
"Before they even oer
that [trip] and getting an oer those visits, it was really between
Michigan and Penn State," Fashanu said.
"There was just something about Penn
State. They just had a lot more pros than
cons compared to Michigan. So honestly,
by then, I kind of knew that Penn State
was going to be the school. I didn't com-
mit then, but I was pretty sure that it was
going to end up being Penn State."
Fashanu took two more months to think
it over, but in the end, Penn State's coach-
ing sta< and proximity to home were two
major factors that helped the Nittany
Lions beat out Michigan. The 6-foot-6,
315-pound lineman o=cially announced
his decision on June 3, 2019.
For his senior season, Gonzaga wasn't
able to repeat its Washington Catholic
Athletic Conference championship from
2018, but the Eagles still ;nished a re-
spectable 8-3 in one of the most compet-
itive high school football leagues in the
nation. Overall, he helped Gonzaga go 17-
6 in his last two seasons.
The ;rst half of 2020 was supposed to
be about two things: training for his ;rst
summer of college football and enjoying
the ;nal months of high school with his
friends. But those plans have been up-
ended, as the COVID-19 pandemic has
le> him stranded at home. With plenty of
time on his hands and gyms closed, he
said he's been doing his best with the
workouts Penn State has provided him.
"It's mainly a bunch of bodyweight
workouts," Fashanu said. "We also have a
bunch of backpack workouts. It really just
depends on the day. One day might be a
bodyweight day, then another day might
be a backpack day."
He went on to add, "I don't have an entire
set [of weights] or anything, but I do have
some dumbbells at my house. I also have an
Decision to focus on football
leads Fashanu to Nittany Lions
|
G
CLICK HERE to see video of Fashanu in action.
U P C L O S E & P E R S O N A L
THE FASHANU FILE
STATS Helped Gonzaga College High
go 25-10 during his three seasons as a
letterman. Finished with 28 pancake
blocks during the 2018 season, in
which Gonzaga won the Washington
Catholic Athletic Conference title...
Had 52 pancake blocks as a senior
HONORS Named a four-star re-
cruit by Rivals.com, as well
as the No. 5
prospect in Wash-
ington, D.C., and
the No. 32 o/en-
sive tackle nation-
ally... Won All-Met
honors from The
Washington Post and
was an All-Washing-
ton choice by
USA Today
