Emporia State, Kelly Moten came together at right time

Jory Collins has been all over the country recruiting.

He’s been to big cities, small towns and everything in between while trying to find players for Emporia State’s women’s basketball team —first as an assistant coach, then after he was hired as head coach in 2010.

But he’d never been to a place quite like where he went to recruit Kelly Moten three years ago. Or had an experience quite like he had when he got to Gary, Ind.

“It was the roughest neighborhood I’ve ever been to in my life,” Collins said. “And, when I got there, Kelly’s mom wouldn’t let me in the house. We laugh about it now, but at the time it kind of took me by surprise.

“We did the visit right there, on the porch, for about 45 minutes. It’s just not a place where they let strangers into their homes. I’m close with her mom now, because she’s always calling to check up on Kelly, but it was an interesting start to our relationship.”

That fortuitous visit would be the start of bridging two very different worlds for Moten, who enters her junior year as one of the best players in the nation for Emporia State, ranked No. 1 in the nation in the NCAA Division II preseason Top 25 and coming off their first NCAA Division II Final Four appearance under Collins.

“I think, for me, my ability to adapt to different environments and different customs has been really helpful,” Moten said. “Where I’m at is totally different than where I’m from. Mainly that it’s probably 90 percent African-Americans in Gary and here, it’s the opposite. I didn’t even have a white friend until I came to Emporia.”

Moten’s world view is unique in that perspective. But what the people closest to her describe as a quick wit, intelligence and charisma that draw people in almost automatically makes her unique as a person, regardless of where she’s from.

She can also do just about anything on a basketball court. She averaged a team-high 14.9 points, 3 assists and 1.5 steals last season on her way to All-MIAA honors. She was named the Most Outstanding Player at the MIAA Tournament after scoring 20 points and grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds in a championship game win over Fort Hays State.

“In my opinion, being No. 1 is just fuel to the fire,” Moten said. “We still have to work, we still have to get better every day. This team hasn’t proven anything yet. A lot of what that ranking is based on is what we did last year.”

Collins heard about Moten through a player he’d recruited out of a junior college several years ago and told him that there was a player at her old high school, Roosevelt, that wasn’t getting many looks.

“I watched some tape and just loved what I saw,” Collins said. “Her athleticism, at our level, is above and beyond anybody else out there. Her speed with the ball is as good as I’ve ever seen … she’s intelligent, unselfish and seems to always make the right play at the right time.

“The first couple of years, she would get sped up and turn the ball over too much, but that’s getting better.”

Getting Moten out of Roosevelt and to Emporia would be the biggest challenge. The state took over control of the school from the Gary School District in 2013 after consistently low academic performances. Missouri came in with a late offer, but Moten would’ve had to go to summer school to qualify just five days after graduation and didn’t want to leave home right away.

“That was a dark time for the school, and Kelly and the girls basketball team were kind of a shining light throughout all of it,” said Bridgette Kelly, an assistant girls coach at Roosevelt during Moten’s junior and senior seasons. “She has always wanted to be the best she could be, in the classroom and on the court.

“She’s a great kid with a huge heart and somebody that makes sure everybody in her circle is taken care of … and she’s tough. Real tough.”

Not so tough that she can’t try new things. Teammate Kathryn Flott, from Olpe, has got her to like “some” country music, Moten said.

“Because it’s pretty much all (Flott) listens to,” Moten said, laughing. “So I guess I’m coming around.”

Not unlike she came around to her new surroundings.

“I feel safe here, I feel at home here,” Moten said. “It’s pretty cool to be in a place where you don’t have to worry about things you have to worry about in Gary, where you don’t have to look over your shoulder all the time.

“My hometown changed over time ... things used to be a lot nicer, but the gangs and the violence started to tear the place down. You don’t worry about those things here.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 9:06 AM with the headline "Emporia State, Kelly Moten came together at right time."