A three-sport athlete at Newaygo High School, Dennis Adama competed in football, basketball and track for the Lions. An All-Newaygo County Athletic Association basketball player, he is best remembered for his performance as a high jumper for the track team.
Adama established a new Class C state record with a jump of 6-5 in his junior year. On April 9, 1970, the senior set a school record with a 6-7½ jump against Morley-Stanwood. Dennis competed in the prestigious Mansfield, Ohio meet, showcasing the nation’s top prep high school athletes. He finished second in a field of 75 jumpers with a jump of 6-6. In May, Adama jumped 6-8 in the Class C regional, and then broke his previous best with a 6-8½ leap at the state meet. Named to the Detroit News All-State track team, Dennis was invited to compete in the Golden West meet in Sacramento, California in the summer of 1970. He finished third in a field limited to the nation’s top six jumpers.
Heavily recruited, he selected Indiana University, where he became the school’s first freshman to qualify for the National Collegiate Athletic Association finals. As a sophomore he jumped 7-1¼ while competing against Nebraska. In his senior year, Adama set a new conference mark in the high jump with a 7-2¾ leap in the Big Ten Outdoor Track meet in May 1974. It marked the third consecutive year that Adama swept the conference’s indoor and outdoor titles.
The Newaygo graduate capped his collegiate career with a third-place in the NCAA indoor meet and a second-place finish in the NCAA outdoor championships. The second-place finish qualified him for a trip to China as a member of the United States’ AAU track team. Following college graduation, Adama jumped 7-3 during the 1975 indoor season to qualify for the Olympic Trials. However, at the Olympic Trials in June of 1976, Dennis failed to clear the opening height of 7 feet.
In 1977, Adama moved to competition in the decathlon, with the hope of making the 1980 Olympic squad. However, in 1979, he announced that he had given up on the Olympics. Citing the difficulty of trying to remain competitive as an amateur athlete once an individual is out of college, he joined the staff of Indiana University as an assistant track coach.