Neumann Goretti forward Sultan Adewale ‘stayed the course’ while coping with losing his mother

Neumann Goretti’s Sultan Adewale opened his senior year with one of his most dominant basketball performances.

The 6-foot-8 forward erupted for a team-high 20 points and was named most valuable player during the 72-51 win over Eagle Academy of New York on Dec. 3.

But in the days leading up to the game, one would have never known what the 18-year-old was going through.

Adewale, who moved from London to play basketball in America at age 16, received news he had been dreading. His host family, Saints coach Carl Arrigale, and a few assistant coaches asked him to come into the school’s gym. Adewale immediately sensed something was wrong. He was informed that his mother, Titilope Dawodu, had died suddenly.

“I was just crying,” Adewale said Wednesday. “I sat down, head down and was crying. ... Time just stopped, everything froze. I didn’t really know where my head was at that point, because it didn’t feel real.”

Adewale is still grieving the loss of his mother, but he knows she would want him to continue the pursuit of his basketball career in the United States with the plan of heading to the collegiate level and beyond. Some days are tough. Adewale said there isn’t a day that goes by when he doesn’t think about her.

In some ways, though, basketball has been an outlet to cope with the emotional pain. Adewale wants to leave his Neumann Goretti family with a state title — the Saints (24-3) took on Bishop Shanahan in the PIAA Class 4A quarterfinals on Friday — and amid the grieving, he is trying to honor his late mother each time he steps on the court.

“I’m staying dedicated,” Adewale said. “Knowing what my end goal is and never let things distract me, like, getting into unnecessary fights, hanging around the wrong people, and [instead] being the good player everyone knows me to be. That’s what I thought was the best thing to do. I stayed the course.”

» READ MORE: ‘Meant to be’: Sultan Adewale from England is working at Neumann Goretti toward his D-I hoops dream

Before Adewale found out the news, he couldn’t get a hold of his mother for two days. It was uncommon for the two not to speak and he thought her phone was broken. When he had the chance to talk with his uncle, Adewale was informed that Dawodu was sick in the hospital, though Adewale didn’t know the severity of it.

As an only child, it was difficult for him to pack his belongings and leave his mother in London. But his mother, Adewale said, wanted this because she understood her son’s goals and the barriers that came with them.

Adewale, whom the team refers to as “Sully,” came to Philly during his junior year. When he first left England, he enrolled in St. Louis Christian Academy, a boarding school that later closed down. The school’s closure, however, gave Adewale a chance to join Neumann Goretti, where he became Arrigale’s first international player.

» READ MORE: Neumann Goretti’s Carl Arrigale sells washing machines. He’s also one of Philly’s greatest hoops coaches.

Arrigale and other coaches on the staff comforted Adewale that day in the gym and told him to take whatever time he needed away from the court. Neumann Goretti’s head coach of 25 years also shared the mourning he went through in his young adulthood, when Arrigale lost his mother unexpectedly.

“She wanted him over here following his dream; that’s what she wanted for him,” Arrigale said. “My mom was similar. She was sick and she tried not to act sick or tried to be as normal as possible.”

Arrigale added that he understood his player’s focus when Adewale performed in the season opener: “He wanted to play in honor of her. He played awesome. He had a really good game, and his teammates, everybody that kind of knew what was going on, was really happy for him. He was smiling. It was nice to see him just breathe for a moment.”

Before Adewale traveled back home for the funeral, he competed in the ‘Iolani Prep Basketball Classic in Hawaii, playing on a national stage. He had a career-high game against Lake Oswego of Oregon, where he finished with 23 points, 14 rebounds, and three blocks in the Saints’ 75-59 win.

Afterward, though, he went to the bathroom of his hotel room and cried. Following any previous big game, Adewale would call his mother to tell her about his performance. The realization that he could no longer do that started to settle in.

“Nothing else can get worse than that,” Adewale said. “Nothing else can break me.”

Going back to London gave Adewale some time with family and friends to help find closure. And now he’ll recall the words from his uncle during those moments of sorrow when he questions why he’s doing this: “The only reason I’m crying is because of the past. But if I look at the future, I know it’s bright.”

The three-star prospect remains uncommitted, though he has received offers from Division I programs, including Memphis, West Virginia, Oral Roberts, and Rutgers, among others. Adewale, who is 247Sports’ No. 10 recruit in Pennsylvania, plans to settle on a school in April with the hope of finding a program that shows confidence in him.

“His best days are ahead of him,” Arrigale said. “He could have a chance to go back to London and play professionally at some point, if that’s where it takes him. But I just want to see him follow through — get the education and play at a four-year university; I think that’s what his mom always wanted.”