Fola Adeleke To Eastern Wyoming

Former Barking Abbey School and Basketball Academy student, Fola Adeleke has accepted a scholarship to attend Eastern Wyoming Community College next season.
 
Fola attended Barking Abbey from 2005-2007 and was a vital member of the Academy boys team that reached the National Schools final in 2007 and the final of the Interperformances Cup in both 2005 and 2006.
Fola enjoyed a highly successful junior career with the dominant East London Royals Program under coach Hump Long in which he won a number of Junior National League titles and was selected for the England Junior National Team at both the U16 and U18 age groups.  He has since played in the Senior Men's leagues with the Eastside Eagles, London Leopards and briefly with the Hackney White Heat.
 
It was with the London Leopards in the English Basketball League Division One with which Fola enjoyed his most productive season in 2007-08.   Averaging 10.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game on the year, Fola was a vital part of the team that finished in 5th place before losing in the first round of the EBL Division One playoffs to the Bristol Flyers.
 
Fola AdelekeHis best game of the season came against a since promoted Worthing Thunder side in January in which he scored 26 points keeping a short handed Leopards team in the game before they finally went down 107-99 to the South Coast Team.
 
Eastern Wyoming College has a strong tradition in the National Junior College Championships, with 8 region IX Championship appearances since 1989 and 5 regional championships (1989, 1991, 2003, 2004, 2008).  The 2004 championship resulted in an eigth place finish at the National Tournament.
 
Barking Abbey Academy Coach Lloyd Gardner commented
"Fola is perhaps the hardest working and most committed player that we have ever had at Barking Abbey.  Through out his time with us as a student and then also through the hours that he has spent at the school working out since his graduation, Fola has never taken a moment off from trying to improve himself as a basketball player.
 
Fola deserves this opportunity of fulfilling his ambition of playing college basketball in the States and we at Barking Abbey wish him nothing but success for his future career.  He is a shining example to all our future students of what is achieved through determination."
 
Fola left Barking Abbey in July 2007 with a BTEC National Diploma in Sport and Exercise Science.