Adrian Woliver sat in his living room as an impressionable 8-year-old and gazed at the deer heads adorning the walls.

His father, Chad, is a hunter. Mom, Angel, loves fishing. So it’s not surprising that Woliver — who received a criminal justice degree from the University of Toledo — wants to be an officer with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

But the path from childhood to college graduation was anything but conventional for Woliver. The journey was circuitous, twisting, and, at times, tortuous. He endured poverty and an unstable home life, ultimately thriving despite immense barricades and hindrances.

“He wanted it, and he worked hard for it,” said Angel, Woliver’s adoptive mother.

Today, he’s a 6-foot-2, 260-pound defensive lineman for the 23rd-ranked Rockets, whose regular-season finale is noon Friday at Central Michigan. When Woliver was born in Akron, it was the beginning of eight years of dysfunction with his biological parents, each of whom dealt with substance abuse.

He mostly lived with his dad, who struggled with alcoholism. His mom, a victim of domestic violence, left the family when Woliver was 6. Woliver and his siblings — brother Chad and sister Melanie — would go to bed hungry and brave sleepless, chaotic nights. (Adrian and Chad rarely drink because of their family history.)

Acting as a caretaker for his brother and sister came naturally to Woliver, who would walk to the supermarket and buy groceries with the family’s food stamps when he was in first and second grade. 

“Me taking care of them, I didn’t know what else to do. I wasn’t going to let them get hurt,” he said. “I knew what was going on more than they did, so I was always trying to get away.”

Woliver and his brother eventually moved in with an aunt. (Melanie lived with their grandmother.) During the summer, they would venture a few houses down to swim and have cookouts.

“The connection was instant,” said Angel, the house’s owner. “I told my husband the first time the kids came over to play in our front yard, ‘I think we’re going to have these kids someday.’ They gravitated to my husband, especially Adrian. All the kids wanted that input of a father, that input of a momma. They wanted that connection. They would wrestle in the front yard. And we hadn’t even met Melanie yet. They just continued to come over and play, and one day they were at our house.”

The aunt’s husband was deported to Mexico. With two kids of her own, she could no longer care for Adrian and Chad. With their possessions in garbage bags, Adrian and Chad walked to the Woliver’s 800-square-foot house and settled in. At the request of her brothers, Melanie joined six months later.

Chad and Angel decided years earlier that they were going to be foster parents. By the time Adrian and Chad came into their lives, the Wolivers were foster scholars. But that doesn’t mean it was a seamless transition.

All three kids were severely undereducated. Adrian was in third grade and had the reading level of a kindergartner, which was compounded by dyslexia. He also grappled with his role as a brother. It took years of counseling for Woliver to drop the protective shield he possessed for his siblings. He still worried about where they would get their next meal and if they would have clothes to wear.

“The trauma never goes away,” Angel said. “The triggers don’t go away. They just learn how to cope with them and deal with them.”

Angel sympathizes with Adran, Chad, and Melanie, and continues to express compassion because she’s walked in their shoes. Her mother gave her up when she was 7.

“I understand what my kids are going through because I had a very traumatic childhood myself,” Angel said. “A lot of their trauma triggered my trauma.”

The day that changed the entire dynamic was July 25, 2011, when the Wolivers officially adopted Adrian, Chad, and Melanie. It was an instant stress reliever, as there was no longer the specter of the unknown hanging over the family.

Adrian testified in front of a judge that he wanted to stay with his foster parents, having appraised Chad and Angel’s caringness, stability in their lives, and relative calm.

“We were ecstatic,” Adrian said.

The introduction of sports brought a sense of normalcy to Woliver’s life. He finally had an outlet for the suppressed aggression and energy. It gave him a purpose and an activity that enlivened him.

Soon, Woliver began spreading that zeal in the classroom, where he became a laudable student.

“We told them, ‘Look, we’re a stepping stone for you guys. You have to want to do better. We’re hoping you break the chains. We’re here to help you break the cycle. But you have to decide that you want to,’” Angel said. “They decided early on that their lives were going to be different. I worked so hard with the kids on reading and math.”

One of the most momentous days for Angel, perhaps second only to adoption day, was when Adrian called her “mom” for the first time. It didn’t happen until he was 13. But five years after moving in with Chad and Angel and two years after they adopted Adrian and his siblings, he finally grew comfortable with reality: Chad and Angel were his parents.

One day Adrian walked out the door and hollered, “Bye, mom!” Angel was in disbelief. Did she hear that right? Did he mean it?

“I analyzed it to death,” Angel said. “But then I cried because he was my holdout child. Later on that night, he asked if I heard what he said. I told him, of course. He asked, ‘Are you OK with that?’ I told him that, of course, I was OK with it, are you OK with it? And he said, yeah. So I said, ‘OK, son, I’m your momma.’ And he calls me momma to this day.”

At Stow-Munroe Falls, Woliver developed into a 6-foot-2, 230-pound, three-star recruit. And it came with a literal cost, as in $1,500 a month in grocery bills for the Wolivers. As a freshman, coach Mark Nori nicknamed Woliver the Beast.

He helped lead the Bulldogs to three appearances in the Division I state playoffs. As a senior, Woliver — who was an edge rusher, linebacker, tight end, fullback, and kick returner — finished with 51 tackles, including five tackles for loss, 34 receptions for 438 yards and four touchdowns, and 345 returns yards with two touchdowns. He was a three-time All-Ohio defender and the Division I All-Northeast Ohio Inland defensive player of the year in 2018.

“You know the opportunities that our children can achieve. I know the opportunities that our children can achieve. You know who didn't know? Adrian,” Angel said. “One day I asked him, ‘How does this all feel?’ And he told me, ‘Mom, I didn’t even know there was something called football when I met you guys. I didn’t even know what sports were. I didn’t know these things existed.’”

Originally, Woliver planned on joining the military after high school. But scholarship offers from Toledo, Akron, Kent State, and Eastern Michigan changed the trajectory of his career, a life-changing circumstance that was not unprecedented for Woliver. He visited Akron and Kent State, located just a few miles from his home, and didn’t feel a connection.

During Woliver’s UT recruitment, with offensive line coach Mike Hallett initiating contact, Jason Candle told him that the right school was where you lay your head down at night and feel like you’re at home. On his visit to Toledo, Woliver called his mom in the middle of the night, causing a brief moment of panic.

“Are you OK?” Angel asked.

“Yeah, mom,” he told her. “I just want to let you know that I’m home.”

He committed to Toledo the next day and canceled a visit to Eastern Michigan.

“I instantly knew this was where I was coming,” Woliver said.

“I was thrilled that he was going away,” Angel said. “I didn’t want him to stay home. I wanted him to leave and go explore. I wanted him to experience life.”

But first, the Wolivers encountered another cruel roadblock. Angel received a cancer diagnosis, with an uncertain prognosis. She told Candle to never let Woliver quit and to make sure he earned his degree.

“He gave me his word, and thank God, there’s no more cancer,” she said. “It’s been an amazing ride. I’m sad that it’s coming to an end. We’ve been very happy and proud of Toledo.

“Adrian wanted this dream, and we’re the support. It feels amazing watching my kids grow and seeing them discover that there are things out there for them to achieve. It’s been my greatest joy.”

In 53 career games for the Rockets, Woliver has 10 tackles for loss, including 7.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery. He has three sacks in the past four games and forced the game-clinching fumble at Miami. 

“Adrian is just an awesome story of perseverance,” Candle said. “Sometimes young people get a hand dealt to them that’s unfair and unwarranted. He is a shining example of somebody who has taken what could be seen as a negative circumstance and turned it into a positive. He’s come here and become a great student and a great football player.”

The early childhood unrest isn’t top of mind for Woliver. But he recognizes how unlikely his story is and that Chad and Angel may have literally saved his life. Sometimes he wonders what he would be doing if they hadn’t entered his life.

“It definitely clicked in my mind that I have an opportunity to change my life, so I took it and I ran,” Woliver said.

It all started on the day Adrian and Chad went down the street to the neighbor’s house.

“I remember sitting on the couch and they had deer mounts on the walls,” Woliver said, “and I’m staring at them thinking, oh, boy, what did I get myself into?”

First Published November 23, 2023, 5:00 p.m.