The first time that Akbar Waheed II arrived in Niagara Falls, he was fresh out of high school and entering a brand new world.
He was a freshman basketball player at Niagara University and ready to make a name for himself on Monteagle Ridge. After his playing career ended, his coaching career began with the Purple Eagles.
It was during his time in the role where he met a fellow Niagara alumni and Niagara Falls native, Nicole, and his life changed forever.
After meeting Nicole in 2000, the two had three kids, Infiniti, Akbar III and Jahlil, and lived and worked in the area until 2010 when Akbar II accepted a coaching job at Boston College.
Sixteen years after leaving, the Waheed family is back in Western New York as Akbar Waheed II has accepted a job as the lead assistant coach on the St. Bonaventure men's basketball staff and the kid nicknamed "Bakkie", has transferred to the Bonnies from Boston College.
"I have dear friends there in the community," Waheed II said. "So I try to get back there, my mother in law is there, so it was just nice home cooked meals. It's good to go see, and hear a family member and get a hug at times. I'm sure Bakkie, he's doing that more now that's closer to her. We try to get back there as much as we can, especially in the summer time when we can get away."
Nicole and Akbar's relationship started when Waheed was graduating from Niagara and starting his coaching career and it has continued as the family has moved four times to follow his career.
But she knows what she signed up for as a coach's wife and everything that goes along with it.
"In this business, you have to pivot easily as a coach's wife," Nicole said. "He was in the NBA for several years before that, which afforded him some flexibility and once he said he wanted to get back in the game, I wholeheartedly supported him because I know that it's something he's really passionate about."
The family's connections to the Falls extend beyond just Nicole's family, as Akbar has become close friends with Niagara Falls High School coaches Carlos Bradberry and Sal Constantino. His relationship with Bradberry started in the mid-1990s, when Bradberry was transferring away from Niagara and Waheed was starting at the school.
Despite the fact that the two never played together, the two became close friends and regularly communicate and reminisce.
"We shared a lot of the same teammates that when I was leaving that he played with," Bradberry said. "So a lot of times, we do have some stories about some of those guys and the staff and stuff like that. So it comes up every now and then for us."
When Waheed was coaching at Niagara, he and Constantino met and it meant a lot to Constantino that he could take his kid from the YMCA to Niagara camps.
The friendship between Waheed II and Constantino also grew during the time that the eldest Waheed child, Infiniti, was playing her eighth-grade season for Constantino at Niagara Falls High School.
Now, Bradberry and Constantino are both planning on making the trip down to Olean to watch St. Bonaventure play and spend time with Waheed II. While the group does not see each other very often, whenever Waheed II comes back to Niagara Falls, the three spend time together.
"I certainly hope so. When Timmy Winn went there, I worked at the Y and we would get the Y van and load it up with kids and his family and I think I missed two games in four years," Constantino said. "So I know it's such an exciting place to watch a game. I'm hoping that maybe Carlos and I can get down there."
Waheed II's time at Niagara lasted from 1995 to 2010. Since leaving, he has stayed in contact with former Niagara head coach Joe Mihalich and many of his former players and Niagara maintains a special place in his heart.
"I have very fond memories of Monteagle Ridge and it wasn't just winning games. It was the type of people too, that we brought into the program that I stay in contact with to this day. … So no matter where I was in the world, we always had an eye on what the Purple Eagles were doing."
While the decision to leave Niagara was a difficult one for the family, Nicole joked that the homesickness subsided when she got used to the way people drive in Boston and when she changed her license plates from New York plates to Massachusetts plates.
Since he left Niagara, he has worked at Boston College, Georgetown, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Brooklyn Nets. In his return to the college ranks, he is coaching alongside Mike MacDonald, a coach he used to face when he was at Niagara and MacDonald was the head coach at Canisius.
"I've always had the itch," Waheed II said. "… I've known Coach Mac for years. I have always admired what coach Mac has done as a coach. … I wouldn't have got back into this with just anyone and I always said that. It would have to be someone I align with, someone who really, really is doing these things for the right reasons."
Now that her son and husband are closer to her hometown, Nicole is excited to have them closer to her parents and family and near a place in Niagara Falls which impacted her life tremendously.
Despite the fact that both Akbar and Bakkie are in Olean, Nicole will not be joining them, at least immediately. Instead, Nicole will be staying in the DMV as Jahlil plays his last two years at Gonzaga College High School.
Nicole has used her upbringing to teach her kids about the value of hard work. She learned what it takes to survive in Niagara Falls and get out and get to college and she is instilling that into her kids.
"It's my upbringing, blue collar town, it taught me to work really hard, to have multiple jobs at one time and to really appreciate everything you have," Nicole said. "… That's definitely the foundation that I have passed on to my kids, because life gets hard and if you don't know how to deal with the hard then you're going to struggle. So I'm very grateful to the community to have taught me that."
When Bakkie was a three-star prospect in the Class of 2025 with offers from schools like Boston College, Florida State and Iowa, he decided to commit to Boston College. However, after a year of redshirtting at the ACC school, he decided it was time to leave in search of more playing time.
He was happy to go to Boston College and learn from the staff before joining his father in Olean. When Bakkie announced he was leaving Boston College and entering the portal, he was in communication with multiple schools, but St. Bonaventure stood out because of the possibility of playing for his dad.
The two both announced their arrivals in the same week. Bakkie's commitment was announced on April 13, while his father's hiring was announced on April 22.
"It just happened naturally, I would say," Waheed III said. "The idea was brought up to the both of us, but ultimately it was a couple of places by me and I feel like this was the best fit for me."
