Very early the next morning, they were off to the airport. Soon, Adu was back at RFK Stadium, an hour before his teammates began arriving.
As practice neared, staff members wandered into the locker room to find Adu's 5-foot-6, 145-pound frame curled into his locker stall. He was fast asleep.
Adu, with his arm around Ray Trifari, D.C. United's director of team administration, draws a crowd as he exits the tunnel for an exhibition game in Rochester, N.Y., where 14,000 turned out.
(Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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A Coach's Perspective
Nowak, who has served as coach, mentor and father figure to Adu, has shown concern about the demands on his young star.
"Sometimes it's too much, but I think it's all right," said the Polish-born coach, who began his professional career at age 16 but without media attention. "Sometimes he is tired and we understand. But I have to say to all these people who criticize him and say he is overrated, 'Put yourself in his shoes and spend so much time doing the other stuff and try to concentrate on soccer, which he loves to do.'
"You can see the kid is coming to practice and working hard, and whatever he's going to do the rest of the time -- commercials, interviews, everything else -- every single day he shows up and trains like he did nothing yesterday. He does fantastic stuff. It's not an easy life."
Perhaps the most important day of Adu's rookie season came far from a soccer field. On May 21, in Bradenton, Fla., he donned a cap and gown and received his high school diploma, three years ahead of most of his peers. As an elite athlete, Adu had been placed in an accelerated academic program at a private school while he was in the U.S. Soccer Federation's under-17 national team residency program at IMG Academy. At the insistence of his mother, he finished his course work before joining United full time in March.
"He's my guy," said his mother, who attended the ceremony with her youngest son, Fro, and other family members and friends.
Following a reception, most of the group headed back to Washington. Freddy, however, got on a plane to Denver to rejoin his teammates. After the 2-1 loss to the Rapids, in which he nearly scored on two occasions, Adu was ushered to an autograph area for an hour-long session. While he was signing, the team bus pulled out of the Invesco Field tunnel for a trip to the ranch owned by the team's investor, billionaire Phil Anschutz.
When he finished, Adu and a staff member hopped in a private car for the long ride into Colorado's high plains and two days of golf, horseback riding and skeet shooting.
The following weekend was the start of the Memorial Day getaway for many Washingtonians. For United, it was just another road trip. The team was booked on a flight to Boston for a game against the New England Revolution in Foxboro, Mass. The terminal at Reagan National Airport was jammed. As usual, Adu was quickly recognized and surrounded by travelers.
The plane is usually a safe refuge for him because passenger mobility is limited, but on this day, a private emergency door would've come in handy. With the jet stranded on the runaway because of bad weather, the pilot announced that passengers were free to walk around. For a group of schoolgirls on vacation, this was their cue. Adu and his neighbors were quickly buried in a tangle of arms and pigtails reaching across the aisle and over seats for the next hour.
Once the team arrived in Massachusetts, there were more crowd-control issues. The suburban hotel where the team was going to stay also happened to be headquarters for a big youth soccer tournament -- Adu wannabes everywhere. Word spread that United would be arriving soon. As the bus neared the hotel, team staffers, tipped off about the fans, were on their cell phones trying to figure out the best way to get through the mob. Both the front and rear entrances were swelling with kids. The solution: Call the police and have them form a human passageway into the lobby.
Adu made it through the crowd and quickly got to his room. A pair of security guards monitored the team's wing. Adu, however, felt bad that he had been whisked past his young admirers. So with a security official at his side, he made his way back to the lobby unannounced and spent a half-hour greeting fans.
"He's the prince of Tiger Beat Nation," said Hicks, the team's communications expert, who has accompanied Adu to many appearances. "I've seen girls crying, one girl almost fainted. It's like that everywhere we go. Everyone wants a piece of Freddy."
