Eley Aces Recovery

Ayinde Eley and Anthony McFarland met at midfield in the fall of 2016, two high school seniors who were on their way to play football at the University of Maryland. They were future teammates, but both would have had this game circled on their calendar.

Good Counsel was playing host to DeMatha in what should have been one of the final home games of Eley’s high school career. The early November clash was one of the most anticipated  games locally and nationally of the year, enough for ESPNU to lock it into its schedule before the season started.

But neither of the future Terrapins would play on this night.

McFarland missed his senior year with a broken leg, an unenviable injury but one with a clear recovery path. Eley was 11 months removed from a far less predictable health scare he still doesn’t completely understand.

It was just weeks after his junior football season concluded when he started experiencing headaches, then suffered a seizure at school. He went to the hospital and underwent tests, but doctors couldn’t determine what was wrong.

Two or three days later, he was feeling good and went to a Good Counsel basketball game to cheer on teammates, staying on the sideline as a precautionary measure. Then it happened again— another seizure, this one even more severe.

“The next thing I remember, I was in the rehab center working my way back,” Eley said.

By that point, he had spent a week in a coma at Children’s National Hospital in Washington. He also received a diagnosis: Encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. Eley doesn’t know how the condition developed, though it is often caused by a viral infection.

One thing was apparent quickly: As jolting as it was for Eley, it was every bit as terrifying for his parents.

“It was probably the scariest time I’ve been through in my life,” Donald Hill-Eley said. “After the weeks we were in the hospital, he had to go to a rehabilitation center just to learn everything all over again. It was just a tough time.”

It was a gradual road back. He first had to learn to walk again before graduating to treadmill work. His basketball season was over, and doctors soon said he should sit out football his senior season as well.

Teammates, coaches and family were supportive of the guy they affectionately call ‘Ace’ throughout the rehab. Every now and then, Eley said, he just needed to talk to someone about how badly he wanted to play.

“I really can’t explain it to you because it’s so crazy,” Eley said. “I was bad one day and then the very next day, I started making progress. From that day on, I just kept making progress and working my way back, gaining control of my body back. It’s a miracle, really.”

Soon, he was ready to take a step forward with his career. He was already well on his way to regaining his strength after falling to 180 pounds during his hospitalization. He would get to between 215 and 220 pounds by the summer, on the off chance he could play again for Good Counsel.

But college beckoned as well, and Maryland remained in the picture for the hard-hitting linebacker even in the midst of his recovery. On April 9—about four months after his seizures­—he committed to the Terrapins.

“When I got sick, I wasn’t going on visits anymore, I wasn’t at workouts, so a lot of coaches stopped seeing me and stopped contacting me,” Eley said. “Maryland... they stuck by me. They did as much as they could in recruiting, and they were there for me the whole time. That’s why I committed to Maryland. It was the family environment. They were with me at my lowest, so I knew they would always be with me.”

The summer prior to his senior year, Eley started feeling even better and he was grateful he was allowed to come out and help at practice even if he wasn’t cleared to participate. Sometimes, he skirted that line. Hill-Eley recalled getting calls about how his son had donned a helmet and shoulder pads to “assist” during one-on-one drills.

The itch was undeniable, but his divorced parents—his mother Songhai Barclift, a physician in Maryland, and Hill-Eley, the football coach at Alabama Stat—were having none of it.

Eley settled for basketball as his competitive outlet in his final year but he was eager to resume his football career. He arrived in College Park the following fall and redshirted his first season. This was also a wise decision, allowing Eley to continue to get back into shape.

But one thing stood out even that year. Energy can ebb over the course of a football season, especially for someone who doesn’t get to play. However, Eley left little doubt he was excited to run around a practice field, even if there wasn’t an immediate reward waiting that Saturday.

“I love to play football,” Eley said. “I always tell myself, ‘Ace, you’ve been where you can’t wait to get back on the field. This could be over the next period. You have to take advantage of the time you have now because you know how it feels to almost lose it.’”

The attitude helped Eley make a strong first impression for the second time on coach Mike Locksley, who was hired in December 2018 after Eley’s redshirt freshman season. Locksley was responsible for helping to start Eley’s recruitment to Maryland when he was the Terps’ offensive coordinator in 2015, and he’d heard about the linebacker’s health issues through his daughter, who also attended Good Counsel.

By the early stages of his first spring ball as head coach, Locksley couldn’t help but notice Eley’s efforts.

“The big thing was his passion and his energy,” Locksley said. “There are some guys that bring energy to your team and to your program. Ace was a guy who did that every day and was really consistent with it.”

That, coupled with Eley’s play, has helped him emerge as one of the most vital figures on the Terps’ defense. He finished second on the team in tackles last season with 79, while starting nine games. After learning from the likes of Jermaine Carter Jr. and Tre Watson earlier in his career, Eley is now one of Maryland’s veterans.

He’s also established himself as a tough, smart and reliable voice in the locker room, one Locksley has come to rely upon in communicating with his team.

“From the day I got here, he’s a guy we identified early on that had natural leadership ability, the ability to take people where they don’t want to go,” Locksley said. “He’s a stalwart on our leadership council. I lean on that group to be the voice of our team and kind of be the connector or conduit from coach to the players. They bring me the issues players may have and he’s a leader that’s a leader amongst that group.”

Hill-Eley doesn’t get the chance to watch many of his son’s games in person because of his own coaching duties, but did make it to Maryland for last year’s opener, when Eley had six tackles in a rout of Howard. He also keeps tabs on games on his phone whenever possible.

He marvels at his son’s determination after having the game taken away for a year.

“It gave him time to heal, but more importantly, it gave him an opportunity to create a drive that’s unreal,” Hill-Eley said. “I watch him play now, even as his dad, he plays every play like it’s his last. You never want to tell a football player to slow down, but sometimes he just goes. He’s just overhyped and goes all out. He’s made a commitment to the game.”

It’s one Eley intends to maintain during his time in College Park as he takes another step forward in a career his experience has taught him is far from guaranteed.

“It was definitely a scare,” Eley said. “It was the grace of God. God gave me a second chance to play football, a second opportunity. I just try to make the most of it every day.”

Patrick Stevens (Maryland ‘02) has covered Maryland football and other local college sports for several outlets over the last 20 years.