Homeless Football Recruit With Texas-Sized Heart Gets Scholarship

FORT WORTH, TEXAS — The number of prized college football recruits coming out of Texas can often be too numerous to count. But when one of those scholarship recipients finds a college home without ever playing a down as a varsity player in high school, he is likely to be in a class by himself.

But that — and more — is exactly what happened to Leslie Adindu, who on Wednesday signed a National Letter of Intent to play football at Southwest Baptist University in Missouri. Adindu, who attends Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, isn’t your typical Texas high school recruit, however.

Adindu, who moved to Fort Worth from Nigeria in 2019, became homeless during the coronavirus pandemic following a dispute with his father. His father moved to New Orleans and left his son alone, according to a story chronicling Adindu’s journey to a college scholarship, which appeared on Texasfootball.com.

Unbeknownst to the coaches at Arlington Heights, Adindu moved into a shelter when he had nowhere else to go. After he played on the school’s junior varsity team when he first arrived in Fort Worth, the 6-fooot-1, 190-pound defensive lineman as a high junior, Adindu moved into the shelter after his father left and where he continued living throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Arlington Heights coaches lost track of Adindu after the pandemic began, according to the story on Texasfootball.com. Because no one had seen him and coaches couldn’t reach him on the phone, it was assumed that Adindu had returned to Nigeria, where his mother still lives.

But when coaches next saw Adindu, he had grown into a 6-foot-3, 285-pound man child when he showed up for the first day of football practice last September. Coaches couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw Adindu and were convinced he was actually someone else before learning what his life had become over the previous five six months.

“I mean, you hear something like that and your heart just breaks,” Arlington Heights football coach Phil Young told Texasfootball.com “He’s a good kid and he’s out there all alone. It just guts you.”

While other Arlington Heights football players were putting in work off the field, Adindu was just putting in work. According to the report, because of his age, Adindu was required to hold down a job in order to stay at the shelter. But with school during the day, Adindu found a job working from 3-7 a.m. before he turned around and reported to school.

But his age also created another issue. According to Texas high school football guidelines, Adindu was 2 ½ weeks too old to play varsity football in the state. He filed an appeal, but was denied, keeping him off the field.

Young made Adindu a deal. If he showed up and practiced, he would be allowed to participate in scrimmages and Young promised to bug college recruiters to take a look at the defensive lineman's film. Young then convinced coaches from Southwest Baptist to come to Fort Worth and see Adindu up close and personal. They made the trip and visited the shelter where Adindu had been staying. They saw a player full of potential who – despite never playing at the varsity level –could fit into their program.

On Wednesday, Adindu signed with the school, making him the most unlikely of scholarship players in program history.

“The thing that makes this so special is Leslie had so much working against him, at any turn he could have given up," Young told Texasfootball.com. "He totally trusted his coaches and never waivered, he did his part 100 percent and is such a humble kid. It’s the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had as a coach; we get victories on the field and those are great, but this win is bigger."