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CONCORD, N.C. – Long before the night the Cabarrus County basketball landscape tilted on its axis, two weeks before Concord High had one of the most emotional celebrations of a single Spider in school history, there was a tranquil meeting in Chapel Hill that led to it all.

Sure, the boisterousness that followed when Concord 10th-grader Rechon “Leaky” Black walked onto Coach Bo Court donning North Carolina Tar Heels gear will long be remembered by the hundreds of people who were in attendance Friday night. And Black’s commitment to play for UNC arguably is the biggest high school basketball news in county history.

But according to Black and his family, his decision was about so much more than the Tar Heels’ overabundance of TV time and championship pedigree. As it turns out, other programs with similar histories, such as UNC archrival Duke, came calling for Black’s services, albeit it late in the process.

But for the Blacks, it became about a relationship that was solidified just after the start of the new year, in a much different setting than the party he created Friday night at Rimer Gymnasium when he made his announcement.

“That’s the night I knew,” Black said. “That’s when I just knew I wanted to be a Tar Heel.”

A date in the Dean Dome

It happened in the bowels of UNC’s Dean E. Smith Center, where Black and his parents, Chon and Carla, met in Tar Heels coach Roy Williams’ office.

That night, on Jan. 2, the Tar Heels had defeated fellow Atlantic Coast Conference squad Georgia Tech, and the iconic facility was nearly empty.

The venerable coach, an icon himself, didn’t start out talking basketball with the 6-foot-7 point guard. Instead, for more than an hour, Williams spoke with a homespun charm that resonated with the Blacks, discussing everything from his own western North Carolina roots to his love for his grandson to life in general.

“He shared a lot about his family,” said Carla Black, who also is the principal at Concord High. “He showed us pictures of his time in Kansas, he showed us pictures of some of his former players that weren’t necessarily (famous) but were just as important to him today. He showed us about 200 pictures, and he had a story about every person in each one.

“It was just kind of getting to know him,” Carla continued. “He talked about how his grandson is the light of his life. What I got from that meeting is family is important to him, and that made us feel so comfortable.”

After a while, Tar Heels assistant coach Steve Robinson came down and joined in the meeting. Robinson, who had been with Williams when Williams was the head coach at Kansas, had made UNC’s first contact with Leaky last summer. The Blacks were sold on him, too. And before the family walked out of the “Dean Dome” that night, Leaky knew what he wanted to do.

“I wanted to commit right there on the spot, but we had to talk it over a little bit,” Leaky said with a smile. “But it was hard.

That meeting meant so much to me. I felt like I got really close to Coach Roy that night.

“Going up there, I did not know I would be committing to them. But everything he said, I was on board with it.”

Chapel Thrill

The Blacks have been to Chapel Hill several times this season. Chon and Carla wanted to delve into the academic aspect of the school, find out about professors, learn how the players are treated when they’re not on the court.

Each time they went to UNC, a life-changing experience occurred.

As the college basketball season dawned, UNC held its “Late Night with Roy” festivities, for which Leaky was one of several high school players on the Tar Heels’ recruiting radar who had been invited.

It was the experience of a lifetime for the soft-spoken Leaky, and he gleefully took in the environment among rabid fans kicking off another season of championship aspirations for the Tar Heels.

But once more, as the Dean Dome was nearly empty and cameras no longer were rolling, something magical happened.

As Leaky exited the building, a gaggle of fans was waiting outside for Tar Heels leaving the locker room. A little boy approached Leaky.

“Can I have your autograph?” the boy asked.

At first, Leaky didn’t know what to think. He felt himself getting slightly light-headed at the request. Then, he just did it.

“I started signing it,” he said. “It was the first autograph I had ever signed.”

Months later, the slender 16-year-old with the braces still seems to struggle to grasp the gravity of the moment. He shakes his head as he describes what happened next.

“As I was signing for the little boy, I looked up and there were a whole bunch of other people waiting,” Leaky said. “It was unbelievable. It was a blessing, because I never thought I’d be in that situation.”

His dad was just as shocked.

“The first thing I thought was, ‘What are you doing? This is LEAKY! He’s really not anybody!’” Chon Black recalled. “I didn’t know if I should tell people that they didn’t want his autograph. I didn’t want to be rude, so I just sat back and absorbed everything.

“They were taking pictures of him, he was signing sweatshirts and peoples’ necks and taking pictures with everybody. It just showed that, potentially, this could be his life in the future if he continues to work hard and stay humble.”

Then, on Dec. 9, it happened. During a phone conversation with the Blacks, Williams offered Leaky a scholarship. He would have the opportunity to go to Chapel Hill and experience the atmosphere on a daily basis.

Black hadn’t yet heard from what once was his dream school, Duke University. And even after that night, he still loved Duke. Even now, he maintains that he still has a great deal of respect for coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff.

Slowly but surely, though, Leaky’s favorite shade of blue was becoming lighter and lighter.

The recruit

Earlier this week, Leaky tweeted that he would be making his college choice after Friday’s home game against Hickory Ridge. His final list of schools was Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Clemson and, of course, the Tar Heels.

Here’s how big of a recruit Leaky had become: Shortly after he tweeted that a decision was coming, he logged out of Twitter and went to bed to prepare for an exam Thursday morning.

The next day, he had about 700 new Twitter followers.

“It has been crazy,” Leaky said of the recruiting process. “Thankfully, I had my dad handling all that. He’s been a big help.”

At one point in the recruiting process, Leaky was genuinely conflicted. He had started leaning toward Carolina, but he and his family had developed close relationships with every school that had pursued him.

And there were always people contacting Chon, a former Spiders standout who’s also a coach with Leaky’s AAU organization, the CP3 All-Stars. At times, it got to be overwhelming for the family.

“It’s something you can’t describe unless you’re in it, and we were blessed enough to experience it on the highest level,” Chon said. “I took correspondence probably 10 times a day, whether it was a (college) coach, somebody wanting an interview or (questions about) where Leaky’s going to play AAU ball.”

Said Leaky: “It’s hard to say no to all these other schools, but my family has built strong relationships with these other schools that will last a lifetime.”

So much so that, before Leaky made his announcement Friday, the Blacks called each coach who had offered a scholarship and personally thanked him.

The Blacks acknowledge that there is a lingering question they have received since Leaky announced he would pick a college Friday: Why now? Why do it when he doesn’t actually graduate high school until 2018?

Chon Black said it’s all about the type of person his son is.

“There are a lot of kids who really love the recruiting process,” Chon explained. “They love the attention, they love to put on Twitter that they were offered by 25, 30 schools. We could have done that. We could have waited until Leaky’s junior or senior year and have this big shindig about where he is going to school.

“Our thing as parents was, he’s mature enough to see that, ‘If I already know in my heart where I am going, I want to be fair to the other coaches and schools. I don’t want to mislead them or waste their time if I already know where I’m going.’”

Chon nodded his head.

“I definitely can respect that,” he said. “That says a lot about Leaky. I think that’s one reason that he’s going to be successful.”

Party like it’s 2018

Even though he knew where he wanted to go, Leaky struggled to figure out exactly how he would reveal his college choice to the nation.

As a quiet kid who largely despises public speaking, he didn’t want to personally say anything. But he did want to make a lasting impact.

Finally, a plan came together.

Shortly after the Spiders defeated Hickory Ridge Friday night, Leaky disappeared into the locker room. Legendary Spiders coach Bo Brickels was given a microphone, and he stood before the large gathering of fans and began reading a prepared statement from Leaky that thanked the many people who had been a part of his life and his recruiting process.

As she stood around the corner, waiting to make The Big Reveal with the family, Leaky’s sister, Jada, began to weep. She wasn’t crying out of sadness; she simply was happy to see her baby brother have his moment after he had spent years as a younger player competing with and against athletes two to three years his senior as he accepted his position as a role player.

“I’m so proud of him because he’s been through a lot,” said Jada, a senior who’s one of the top players on Concord’s girls basketball team. “Leaky, he wasn’t the best growing up, but he just kept working. He was always consistent with that, and it just finally paid off.

“It’s kind of crazy seeing all these people here now,” Jada said. “I was like, ‘Really? Leaky?’ I’m with him 24/7, and he’s just like any other person. But I feel like he deserves this. I love my brother.”

The plan the family devised was for Leaky to emerge from the locker room, surrounded by family members as they all sported UNC garb, just as Brickels finished reading the statement.

Instead, Leaky accidentally stepped out seconds before Brickels was done, and the crowd began to roar. Leaky, who had initially tried to go back after noticing Brickels was still speaking, went ahead and used his long legs to step onto the court.

Leaky was immediately engulfed by well-wishers. His Spider teammates woofed and banged on him in support in uber-macho style. Girls squealed. His grandmothers squeezed their way into to hug him and pose for pictures. So many more people simply held up their cell phones and filled up their cameras with memories.

“That crowd shocked me,” Leaky’s mom, Carla, said. “He came out before Bo was finished speaking, but it didn’t matter. It was perfect.

“He was surrounded by his friends and people he’s in class with everyday – people who he laughs and talks with and probably gets in trouble with every day, quite honestly. Those are the people that you want to share that moment with.”

This moment, the pomp and circumstance, was a big deal – for Leaky, for Spiders past and present, for Cabarrus.

“I think all this is a testament to the type of kid he is,” said Spiders coach Jason Stowe. “This is not just for Leaky; it’s for the whole Concord community.”

“It’s everything I imagined it would be,” Leaky said as he stood among people waiting to pose for pictures with him. “It’s the best day of my life. I’m locked and loaded for Tar Heel Nation.”

How will this night rank in the history of a tradition-rich high school that, this year, is celebrating its 100-year anniversary of athletics?

The black-and-gold school along Burrage Road has enjoyed state championship nights, in an assortment of sports. Just last week, the school celebrated an overtime basketball win over Jay M. Robinson – thanks to a game-winner by Leaky -- that was aired on Time Warner Cable.

But one night, for a single Spider athlete?

“It’s going to be tough to beat,” Stowe said. “You’ve got a new floor, Bo Brickels was here, I played here, his dad played here, and so many people who know and love Concord were here to celebrate him going to a school like Carolina.

“Yeah, it’s really going to be tough to beat this night.”

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