LeVelle Moton sits behind the desk in his office at North Carolina Central University’s McDougald-McLendon Arena, surrounded by dozens of photos of his smiling wife, Bridget, and their two children – Brooke, 7, and LeVelle Jr., 3. You’d have no idea that the men’s basketball head coach’s own childhood was far from this picture. The man he is today is completely foreign from the child growing up in a rough southeast Raleigh neighborhood with his single mother, Hattie McDougald, his brother, Earl Moton, and a nearby grandmother, Mattie. To honor his mother, Coach Moton started the Velle Cares Foundation to help families in at-risk situations.
ONE DAY AT A TIME
Before LeVelle was the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference coach of
the year, a teacher, high school and middle school basketball coach, professional international basketball player or star N.C. Central student-athlete, he was a kid who knew only the four-block radius of his housing project, the Boys and Girls Club and school. “One hundred percent of who I am as a person was instilled in me by my mother and grandmother,” LeVelle says. But his mother didn’t outline the dream he’s currently living so specifically.
“I grew up in the crack era of the ’80s,” LeVelle explains. “My mother did not talk to me about the future, but about survival for that day. She did let my brother and I know we could be more than we desired; we just didn’t know what that was.”
As a young boy, college wasn’t something LeVelle considered as a possibility for his future. “In the 40 years of our housing project, only six kids ever went to college,” he says. “Two were my brother and me.”
Because his mother cleaned houses every day, LeVelle spent afternoons after school and summer days at the Boys and Girls Club in his neighborhood, “which kept me off the street.” But it did more than that: It’s where he met his mentor, Ron Williams, director of the club, who helped LeVelle in numerous ways. The most substantial was showing him the world is a much larger place.
THE JOY OF PEPSI
“When I was 11, I saw a big Pepsi truck outside the Boys and Girls Club one day in the summer,” LeVelle says. “I had no idea they were not just stocking the vending machines.”
That day, Pepsi was holding the “Hot Shot Competition” inside the gym, where kids had the chance to see how many baskets they could make. “The prize was a two-liter bottle of Pepsi,” LeVelle explains, “and I wanted that.” He was late to the game and was one of the last to attempt the shots. He scored 52 points, beating the record; spectating kids swarmed around him.
“I had no idea that winning that contest led to a similar contest in Charlotte for the state championship, then Atlanta for the regional and lastly to Washington, D.C. I just wanted the Pepsi.” Ron took him to each of those contests as he won one after another. “It was the first time I had stayed in a hotel or flown on a plane,” LeVelle says.
The final contest in D.C. was televised at the halftime of a Washington Bullets (now Wizards) and Chicago Bulls game, where Michael Jordan patted him on the head and wished him luck. LeVelle was moved: “I came in second, but my world had been changed.”
PAYING IT FORWARD
Knowing that not every kid who grows up with a single mother has a chance to expand his or her world vision is one of the reasons LeVelle created his foundation. “We do three things right now: We have a lunch recognizing people in the Triangle who have been in adverse situations and overcome them; we have a community day the week before school to give kids in the Boys and Girls Club back-to-school supplies and a fun day; and the largest event is the Single Mothers Salute and Celebration.” Last year, LeVelle honored 100 single mothers. Four received special awards in his mother’s name: for perseverance, strength and courage, as well as the mother of the year, who received a car.
Hattie may have been raising her boys alone, but she shaped the future of a man who not only makes her proud, but who is helping children in our area – the ones who need it most – see past any limitations that stand in their way to a world of opportunity beyond.
