Solomon Elimimian made a wise choice.
Dyshawn Davis realized there’s more to sports than being a superstar.
Stephen Adekolu wasn’t a great student until he was introduced to the trades.
The trio persevered and came together as teammates with the Canadian Football League’s B.C. Lions, sharing their stories with Grade 4 to 7 students at Vernon’s Ellison Elementary Wednesday, part of the Lions In the House winter tour.
The initiative is focused on the power of the choice and being the best you can be. Students are challenged to examine their choices as it relates to their own personal safety and the opportunities available in the trades.
Elimimian, 30, the CFL’s reigning defensive player of the year, and the only defensive player in league history to be named most outstanding player (2014), is a native of Los Angeles. He told the students he got into football because “it was cool to hit somebody and not get in trouble.”
He was always the smallest in his class until he started to work out everyday in the gym and got bigger. He accepted a scholarship to the University of Hawaii and had NFL stints with the Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings before becoming a perennial CFL all-star linebacker.
Those things would not have happened, said Elimimian, had he continued hanging out with his best friend, Ivan.
“Ivan started skipping classes, doing drugs and hanging around with gang members,” said Elimimian. “Ivan got arrested and got sent to the state prison for five years.
“Ivan wasn’t a bad kid. He just made bad choices. We’re still very close but I’m thankful for my life. He will be affected forever because he made bad choices.”
Davis, 24, was born and raised in Camden, N.J. to parents who were 16 and 15. His uncle introduced him to football, he ended up playing at Syracuse University, and had an NFL tryout with the Washington Redskins before landing in Vancouver.
He told the kids that when he started playing football, he didn’t understand teamwork.
“I always wanted to be the one to score the touchdowns and even if we won, I’d be upset if I thought I didn’t do enough,” said Davis, also a linebacker. “It was a couple of years down the line that I began to understand the concept. A team is a group of people coming together for a common goal. Our common goal is to win the Grey Cup.”
Adekolu, 28, grew up near Toronto and played college football in Canada at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Que. The wide receiver told the students that he wasn’t the best in school classes but “I enjoyed going to school to see my friends.”
He enrolled in a tech class. Whereas his peers were sketching designs, Adekolu said he “drew a circle and it looked like a triangle.”
“I asked a teacher what else I could do and he said why didn’t I try a construction class?” said Adekolu, who ended up winning a school award for best construction worker.
His love of cars then led Adekolu to try an automotive class which led to an apprenticeship at a Mississauga BMW dealership.
“Before I knew it, I was finished,” he said. “I got to go to university and play football, but I used the apprenticeship and trade classes to get through high school.”
The Lions also got the students involved in athletic competitions during the one-hour assembly.
Ethan Pope, 13, a Grade 7 student, took part in an event where he was blindfolded with a Lions’ scarf and had to rely on the cheers and boos from the audience to let him know if he was close to his goal.
“It was a very fun presentation, fun to participate,” said Pope, whose brother, Jason, in Grade 4, took part in a push-ups/sit-ups event. “I got the message about teamwork and how we have to stick together. It’s important to always be the best for your team or your friends.”
