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M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L PSU is next stop on Akosa Maduegbunam's journey from tragedy to triumph A BRIGHTER DAY T N A T E B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M wo weeks before beginning his col- lege basketball career at Penn State, Akosa Maduegbunam de- cided there were some thoughts he needed to share with his moth- er. These were deep thoughts, the deepest of all, and they called for more than a moment of conversation. So he took pen to paper. Gina Maduegbunam (pronounced Mah-doo-way-boo-numb) had raised him, his younger brother Duby and his older sister Judy by herself since the sudden passing of their father, Ofili, in 2002. She needed to know ex- actly how he felt about her. She need- ed to read his own words, handwrit- ten, to understand how much he ap- preciated her tireless work and ded- ication to her children. And she need- ed to know, 10 years later, his thoughts on the tragedy that changed their world forever, and how she helped the family overcome it. "I'm just blown back by how much my mom does for me. We don't have much, but she finds ways to make it happen," he said from the kitchen table at his family's house in Boston where he was composing his letter. "I just wanted to tell her about my point of view and what happened when my fa- ther passed. I'm telling her how every- thing happened through my eyes." The first son of Nigerian parents, Akosa was 9 years old when his father went to the doctor for a checkup. The physical led to a follow-up appoint- ment, and by the weekend, Ofili was in the hospital, telling his son things would be OK. "Don't cry," Ofili said. Akosa wasn't reassured. "No kid wants to have their parent in the hos- pital, so it was just like, 'Man, what 42 A U G U S T 2 1 , 2 0 1 2 happened with the checkup?' " he said. "It was confusing to me." Confusion turned to disbelief when Ofili went into cardiac arrest and died. Akosa said he "didn't know how to feel about it" at first, didn't under- stand the permanence of what had happened to his father. "They say God doesn't give you any- thing you can't handle," he said, "but for me, at that age, it was a very long process. "After finding out that he passed, my emotions were just like in shock. It did- n't really affect me. It didn't really hit me. It's just so random, like, how could this happen?" Gina was in a state of shock herself. Her healthy, hardworking husband had just died without warning, and now she had to find a way to keep her young family together. "[Ofili] wasn't really sick. He just physically dropped dead on us. He was sick today and then the next day he was dead," she said. "That changed everything – for me, for the kids. "But we are a very close family." And so, as a family, they forged ahead. Gina worked at a hospital to put the kids through private schools, and Akosa began playing basketball as a fifth-grader at his tiny, all-boys middle school for middle- and low-in- come families. The sport gave him a way to channel his athletic gifts, handed down from a father who had once qualified for the Olympics as a runner. Akosa loved the game, and he found immediate success. When he was in middle school, he believed he was headed straight to the NBA. By the time he reached high school a few years later, his goals were more real- istic but still ambitious: He began to see basketball as an opportunity not only for himself, but as a way to help his mother financially while earning the education she wanted so badly for him. "It's all about the education," he said. "That's what my mom harped on, and I just put two and two together, us- ing my God-given talent as a vehicle to get me where I'm trying to go. "I used all the motivation in terms of my father passing, me getting into some trouble at a young age, seeing my mom struggle. I told my mom that I don't want her to pay for college and I was going to try to get a scholarship." Courted by Patrick Chambers while he was still head coach at Boston Uni- versity, Akosa grew into a talented 6- foot-3, 185-pound three-guard, first at Charlestown High School and, during his senior year, at Winchendon School, a college-prep boarding school in a highly competitive league in which he averaged 18 points, six rebounds and four assists per game. By that point, Chambers had moved on to Penn State and wanted Akosa to be his very first verbal commitment, only three weeks after taking the job. Akosa obliged, picking Chambers and the Nittany Lions over offers from Tem- ple, Drexel and a few other midmajor schools. When asked why Penn State was his choice, Akosa replied, "You know Coach Chambers, right? That's all that needs to be said." His admiration and respect for Chambers run deep. He said he feels lucky to be coached by the Lions' en- ergetic leader, who is getting set to be- gin his second season at the school. "He reminds me of a loving parent," Akosa said. "He loves hard, and every- thing he does is with passion. Every- thing he does, as he likes to say, is with attitude. Coach Chambers loves my work ethic, and he can only make me better. He will look after me long after W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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