NFL draft: Inside Elic Ayomanor’s viral evening, journey from Canada

Nearly everybody in Elic Ayomanor‘s life remembers the place they had been on the evening of Oct. 13, 2023.

The vast receiver from Medication Hat, Alberta, Canada — now an NFL draft prospect — had waited greater than a yr for his breakthrough at Stanford. That evening, he would face Colorado and Travis Hunter, the two-way star who would win the Heisman Trophy the next season.

At halftime, Stanford trailed 29-0 and Ayomanor had zero receptions. Then, one thing magical occurred. After Stanford received on the board and compelled a Colorado punt, Ayomanor caught a fast in-route, lower upfield and ran 97 yards for a landing. Following one other Colorado punt, Ayomanor caught a back-shoulder cross in entrance of a bewildered Hunter and sliced throughout the sphere for a 60-yard rating.

The ball saved going to Ayomanor, and Stanford saved scoring. The Cardinal despatched the sport to extra time, then prolonged it after Ayomanor’s 30-yard landing. Stanford prevailed 46-43 within the second extra time, finishing the biggest comeback in staff historical past.

Ayomanor’s remaining stat line: 13 receptions, 294 yards, three touchdowns. He set a Stanford single-game receiving yards report and got here inside 51 yards of the Pac-12 mark.

“I bear in mind being actually drained due to the altitude,” Ayomanor instructed ESPN. “Like, after each single play, I am coming again to the sideline and I am like, ‘The place’s the oxygen? Whoever has the oxygen, let me know proper now, as a result of I would like it.'”

The efficiency reached the group of people that helped Ayomanor get to the large stage.

Kwame Osei, who helped practice Ayomanor in Canada, watched the sport from a bar on the Las Vegas airport.

“I actually received up, I am screaming, I am cheering,” Osei stated. “I used to be crammed with pleasure. I had tears in my eyes, simply because I knew that that is it, that is the second that is going to set him up for the subsequent stage.”

Justin Dillon, the scout who had helped recruit Ayomanor to the U.S., watched in an Ontario bar that grew to become glued to an American school soccer recreation.

“Nearly all of these folks, they did not perceive,” Dillon stated. “I saved saying, ‘He is doing this towards [who] they are saying is the most effective athlete within the NCAA.'”

This was the end result of an odyssey that started in a spot the place hockey guidelines. It continued with Canadian All-Star groups and prep colleges in New Jersey and Massachusetts and, lastly, Stanford.

Canada has produced NFL gamers earlier than. Thirty gamers from Canada appeared in an NFL recreation final season. Latest draft picks embrace John Metchie III, Chase and Sydney Brown, Chuba Hubbard, Jevon Holland and Chase Claypool. Within the Canadian Soccer League, Doug Flute gained league MVP a number of occasions and parlayed it into an NFL profession. However these round Ayomanor, a possible Day 2 choose subsequent month, assume he has an opportunity to be particular — and assist pave the trail for these after him.

“Elic may be the face for soccer in Canada,” Dillon stated.

Though Ayomanor’s mom, Pam Weiterman, did not push her youngsters into sports activities, she inspired them, with a caveat: In case you begin an exercise, you should end it. Elic cried via his first time in hockey as a result of he hated skating. He switched to soccer at 13 and was hooked.

Osei, a former CFL participant who has coached at a number of ranges in Canada, first heard about Ayomanor whereas teaching receivers for Soccer Alberta’s under-16 staff in 2018. When he arrived in Edmonton for coaching, everybody was buzzing in regards to the receiver from Medication Hat.

“I noticed immediately that he was a baller,” Osei stated. “He was quicker than the opposite youngsters, he had tender palms, jumped out of the fitness center. He simply regarded the half.”

Ayomanor’s inquisitiveness satisfied Osei he might have a unique kind of trajectory.

“Every little thing I taught him, he actually soaked in, and simply requested the subsequent query,” Osei stated. “… What units the great from the nice aside is the urge for food to be taught extra.”

Ayomanor shined as Staff Alberta gained the Western Problem, a contest towards groups from different provinces, scoring three touchdowns within the third quarter of the championship towards Manitoba. Osei pulled Ayomanor apart afterward, and Ayomanor instructed him he wished to play within the NFL. When Osei instructed Ayomanor that it might imply ending highschool within the U.S. to generate recruiting consideration, the 15-year-old did not flinch.

“Our nation is hockey,” Dillon stated. “The most effective soccer gamers play within the U.S., they usually have colleges on the market which can be good educational colleges that may facilitate worldwide youngsters. So why are we not utilizing this to assist and make it simpler for NCAA colleges to recruit you?”

Weiterman did not know something in regards to the path to main American school soccer or the NFL. Osei contacted Dillon, whose 730 Scouting service helps place high Canadian gamers with U.S. excessive colleges. Every week after the Western Problem, Dillon referred to as Weiterman and made his case.

The opposing argument got here by way of a “six-page e-mail” Weiterman acquired from members of the Alberta soccer neighborhood outlining why Ayomanor ought to keep in Canada. Promising Canadian gamers had moved immediately from their dwelling nation to main school packages.

“I have been telling him for years to assume outdoors the field,” Weiterman stated of permitting her son to go to the U.S. “No dad or mum desires to overlook any years of their child’s life, however you’ll sacrifice that if it is for the betterment of that baby. You need them to observe their goals.”

In 2019, then 16-year-old Ayomanor enrolled at The Peddie Faculty in New Jersey, the place Metchie performed. Ayomanor performed the primary half of his sophomore season earlier than breaking his collarbone. After a training change, he transferred to Deerfield Academy in western Massachusetts, one other prep faculty. Then, COVID-19 worn out his junior season.

He did not let the time go to waste, although. He tried to grasp each receiver spot, even coaching with a 5-foot-8 teammate.

“That is extraordinarily uncommon for a highschool child to lean in and say, ‘I wish to do the issues perhaps I am not nearly as good at proper now,'” Deerfield coach Brian Barbato stated. “He is not simply going to sit down there and catch deep balls as a result of that is what he does finest. He was a sponge.”

Ayomanor was set to play in 2021, however sustained a season-ending knee damage in Deerfield’s second recreation. His American soccer odyssey had yielded 9 video games over three years.

“I needed to go to a couple camps and submit some observe movie,” he stated. “It was enjoyable. I like competing, so I used to be tremendous blissful and desperate to go wherever I needed to go to compete and show my price.”

Though Ayomanor lacked recreation movie, he had a exercise video the place he regarded the a part of a Energy 4 recruit.

Ayomanor had greater than 20 provides by late spring of 2021, however he wished to listen to from his dream faculty: Stanford. Dillon reached out to Bobby Kennedy, then Stanford’s vast receivers coach, who had coached Tevaun Smith, one other of Dillon’s Canadian prospects, whereas at Iowa. Kennedy stated he began digging into Ayomanor’s background and preferred what he noticed, even with restricted movie.

Kennedy wished to increase a proposal, however then-Stanford coach David Shaw required Ayomanor to attend the staff’s camp. Kennedy nervous about whether or not a participant with provides from Notre Dame, Tennessee and others would wish to try this.

“He goes ‘Coach, I will come to camp. If that is what I have to earn a scholarship at Stanford, then I will do it,'” Kennedy recalled.

About 10 minutes into Ayomanor’s exercise at Stanford, Shaw approached Kennedy with the scholarship inexperienced mild.

His journey from Medication Hat to main school soccer was full, however the wait to showcase his abilities would proceed. He redshirted his freshman season in 2022 after tearing his meniscus, and commenced the autumn of 2023 training with a brace on his knee.

It might come off the week of the Colorado recreation.

Weiterman normally watches Ayomanor’s video games alone. She will get too labored up.

By halftime of the Colorado recreation, she began preparing for mattress. She got here downstairs in her pajamas for the third quarter and noticed Ayomanor streaking throughout the TV. Her cellphone started blowing up with each large catch and landing.

She did not get to mattress till 4 a.m., after talking together with her son.

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Stanford’s Elic Ayomanor makes 97-yard home name

Elic Ayomanor takes benefit of Colorado’s defensive miscue and takes the ball 97 yards to the home for a Stanford TD.

“I used to be similar to, ‘You confirmed them, Elic. This was your day, this was your time,'” Weiterman stated. “And what higher day? Like, prime time! It was in his playing cards, it needed to be in his playing cards.”

Ayomanor’s breakout recreation lit a spark. Two weeks later, he had 146 receiving yards towards Washington and, later within the season, put up 122 yards towards No. 12 Oregon State and 116 towards Notre Dame. He completed with 1,013 yards on 62 receptions, and earned honorable point out all-league honors. He acquired the Jon Cornish Trophy, given to the highest Canadian school soccer participant.

This previous season, Ayomanor had comparable numbers — 63 receptions, 831 yards, six touchdowns — and was a second-team All-ACC choice. Stanford as soon as once more missed the postseason, and after solely 24 school video games, he elected to enter the NFL draft.

“For me to determine to go to the NFL, it is much like the rationale why I left my hometown within the first place,” he stated. “I’ve all the time wished to pursue tougher and difficult environments, so I can develop quicker.”

The 6-foot-2 Ayomanor has spent the previous few months immersed in NFL draft prep. He had stable numbers on the mix earlier this month, operating a 4.44-second 40-yard sprint and placing up a 38.5-inch vertical, which ranked seventh amongst all wideouts within the class. Scouts consider he has the flexibility to see early taking part in time as a rookie. In ESPN analyst Matt Miller’s current seven-round mock draft, Ayomanor was projected to the New England Patriots at No. 69 general.

Wherever Ayomanor lands it will likely be the subsequent mile marker on his journey and a vacation spot many round him knew he was able to.

As Dillon left the bar in Ontario properly after midnight the evening of the Colorado recreation, he thought to himself, “You are going to the NFL, younger man. You punched your ticket.”