Basketball
Favorite athlete: NBA point guard Brandon Jennings
Favorite team: Kentucky Wildcats
Favorite memory competing in sports: Playing for the Upper Merion Vikings
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When I was six, I scored in the wrong basket three times in one game.
Music on iPod: Drake, Wale, Meek Millz, Kendrick Iamar
Future plans: Go to college and play basketball and earn a degree
Words to live by: ‘You only live once.’
One goal before turning 30: To have my own home
One thing people don’t know about me: I like to watch golf sometimes.
Francis Bowe took one look at James Mobley at his first open gym after taking over the helm of the Upper Merion boys’ basketball program last year and knew he was onto something special.
“He steps on the floor, and I’m thinking, ‘This is a special kid. This kid has the right skills – he can go inside, and he can go outside,’” Bowe said.
Bowe’s ‘oracles’ – as he calls his veteran assistants – filled the rookie coach in on the fact that Mobley also has a good pedigree. His father, Jimmy Mobley, had a prolific career at Norristown High School and went on to excel at Ursinus College
“I could tell right there that his heritage and his bloodline were strong,” Bowe said. “From then on, I knew I had something special.”
Mobley has not disappointed. He was a captain and Upper Merion’s leading scorer last year as a junior, but his story took an unexpected twist when – because of family circumstances – he moved out of the district and was forced to miss the team’s final two games of the season.
“It was real hard not playing with my teammates and not being around my coach,” he said.
It looked as though Mobley’s career at Upper Merion was over, and even when his family moved back into the district for the start of the current school year, it appeared that Mobley might not have the opportunity to play for the Vikings due to PIAA eligibility issues.
“I got phone calls all summer – what school is he at?” Bowe said. “I knew they were tough times. He didn’t pick up his phone.
“His family got a home in the school district – they loved the Upper Merion School District, but the problem was that the PIAA was worried it was just for basketball reasons, which was totally understandable. I just felt so bad for James.”
The situation wasn’t only difficult for Mobley but also for his teammates and coaches.
“The worst part was with my boys,” Bowe said. “I know as a coach anytime you lose a kid that good, you say, ‘I lost my stud,’ but when your own players are saying, ‘Coach, we’re really going to miss James,’ and it wasn’t just because of basketball. It was just his presence in the locker room.
“It felt empty that first day of practice when we knew he couldn’t play, and everyone felt it from the players to the staff. I knew it was devastating to James.”
Mobley, however, never lost faith and had worked out with the team in the fall. He also spoke with his teammates every day.
“I do give the boy credit,” Bowe said. “He called me the day after tryouts and said, ‘Coach, don’t worry. I’ll be in uniform soon enough.’ What can I say? He called it.”
Two games into the season, Mobley received word that he was eligible to play for the Vikings.
“My dad called me on the phone and said (the PIAA) ruled that I could play,” he recalled. “My dad said he would handle it for me, and I always believe in my dad.”
“(The PIAA) said, ‘He deserves it. He lives in the school district. He’s allowed to play,’” Bowe said. “All the I’s were dotted, all the T’s were crossed.
“I remember getting the phone call from him, and he said, ‘Coach, can I come to practice?’ I couldn’t be happier for the kid.”
Mobley received a warm welcome upon his return.
“The minute he stepped into the gym – my starting point guard Justin Lewis screamed at the top of his lungs, ‘You’re back,’” Bowe said. “The kids were so happy.
“One of the things we stress on our team is we always say, ‘Family,’ and we believe it. We’re a small family, and we welcomed him back in the family. It’s been great.”
“They were excited to see me,” Mobley said. “And I was happy to be back.”
Interestingly, Mobley got his first taste of competitive sports playing football.
“I really didn’t like it,” he said. “It was something I didn’t want to do. I didn’t like getting beat up every day.”
Football fell by the wayside in fifth grade, and by that time, basketball had entered the picture.
“My dad had worked with me,” he said. “I had shot around and stuff, but I really wasn’t serious about it. My dad signed me up for a little rec league.
“I played in that, and I started doing pretty good. I took it serious and started playing AAU the summer of my eighth grade year with the Keystone Blazers.”
By the time he was a sophomore, Mobley was seeing varsity minutes. As a junior, he became an emerging star.
“If you look at him, he has a 5-10 stature, a big chest – he looks like a grown man,” Bowe said. “You can tell my freshmen and sophomores look up to him – wow, that’s James.
“He’s not going to the NBA. He’s just that presence in the locker room. We were missing him. You have to do it by the rules, but if you live in the school district, you deserve to play there. Let’s be honest – James wanted to go to Upper Merion from the minute he was a freshman. He wanted to get his diploma from Upper Merion. That’s what makes him special.”
Mobley will get his diploma from Upper Merion in June, but for now, he has some business to take care of on the basketball court. In his short stint back, he already has turned in 27-point, 33-point and 37-point performances.
Those big numbers don’t just happen. Mobley estimates that he takes at least 500 shots a day, every day. His time away from the team has given him a new perspective.
“It makes me want to play harder,” he said. “You don’t know what can happen tomorrow.”
It’s hardly a surprise that he is attracting the attention of more than a few college coaches.
“He’s played three games for us, and already he had eight schools in the gym for him,” Bowe said. “The last game against Marple-Newtown, (a college coach) was there, and I overheard him say, ‘You make this easy for us. Your grades are great, and you’re a great kid.’ That’s James.”
Just as Mobley excels on the basketball court, he also excels in the classroom. He says it wasn’t always that way.
“My freshman year I did poorly in school,” he said. “I wasn’t really focused, but if you can’t get your grades right, you can’t play basketball, so I say – student before athlete.”
Since he was a sophomore, Mobley has been an honor roll student.
“He has all A’s and B’s,” Bowe said. “What more can you ask for? Good things happen to good people, and he’s one of the best kids.”
Mobley plans to major in business and also play collegiate basketball, but for now, he has sights set on a final high school season to remember.
“Hopefully, we will go to districts, win a district title and go to states,” he said.
Whatever the outcome, Mobley is just happy to be back on the basketball court with his teammates, and his coach is ecstatic to have him back.
“In the long, long career that I have, I probably will not get more than two more kids like him or even one more kid like that,” Bowe said. “It’s just so neat to have it happen early in my career. It’s a lot of fun.”
