Kabiru Adewunmi, a 16-year-old in the Chicago Fire youth program, was killed in a shooting after celebrating a playoff win Tuesday night by the Chicago Bulls.
Investigators believe that the shooting may have been gang-related, though Adewunmi was not involved in gangs and had only recently moved to the Chatham neighborhood.
“[Adewunmi was a]fantastic kid,” said Sole Antonijevic, who coached the Adewunmi’s U-18 team at the Chicago Fire Academy and believed the Nigerian immigrant had pro potential. “The type of kid anyclassical sports organization would love to have him be a part of.
“There (were) numerous emails from Division I colleges asking about his situation and saying they would like torecruit him and for him to be part of their programs. It doesn’t happen very often that you have 10 or 15 Division I schools calling me and asking for that information.”