BANNER ELK, N.C. – Director of Sports Broadcasting,
Dallas Renzi, talked with former Lees-McRae Men's Basketball Player, Darius Malbon on this week's episode of Bobcat Banter Alumni Spotlight.
Question: Talk about your time at Lees-McRae and what were your favorite memories in Banner Elk?
Malbon: "Lees-McRae was an interesting journey for me, but you know, coming from a small city, I was pretty used to being at a smaller town, but I'm not going to lie to you having one traffic light was definitely different being in Banner ElK. So it did take me about a year to get used to that in the smaller environment, but I learned to grow and love it. Personally, having a smaller community was better for me. I had time to wake up, adjust to the scenery, get to class. I didn't have to worry about taking two buses to get to class because I probably would have been late every day. Having that small community allowed me to find myself and mature, so that was great. In terms of memories, I would say again, small campus, having the just the interactive spirit behind the different people that I met on campus. I did like the Wildcat Lake having that beach vibe and having to cook out the hot dogs, the hamburgers, and just enjoying each other's time. I wish we would have did that a little bit more, but the times that we did do it, we definitely embraced it. I will also say the Wooly Worm Festival was definitely unique. I never knew that was a thing until I did go to Lees-McRae, so going to that, experiencing the thousands of people that was there to watch the worms race, and then the food and everything involved was special, but overall a great experience. Banner Elk Cafe, gotta give you a shout out where I had a lot of good food. I had good memories there, and then of course just walking campus, seeing the scenery. I would definitely say that, especially as you get more season in your time at Lees-McRae, you appreciate the agriculture a little bit more, the scenery that you really have. There's not too many campuses out there where you can go to a field or, the track and be able to see the mountains in the background. That's a very unique feel and experience, so I definitely will say appreciate that as much as you can while you are on campus."
Question: What lessons or things will you carry on from your time with the team?
Malbon: "Absolutely, I'll say the first thing is perseverance and endurance. The reality is I came from Hickory and came from a pretty good high school when it comes to basketball. We won a couple conference championships, made it to the state championship when I was a junior in high school. So coming from a winning program was great, and then coming to Lees-McRae, we had to turn it around. My first year at Lees-McRae, I remember we won our first three games, but it was a roller coaster. We won three games, and then we lost like nine or ten in a row. Having to overcome the wins, the losses, and just the emotional roller coaster was definitely different for me, but just perseverance was great because, like you said, the second year and then my junior year, we was able to break the school record of wins multiple times, so that just shows that if you continue to work hard, build the program, make sure that you have the right pieces in place, then you still can be successful. I would say another experience that we had was, this was my junior year, we had an opportunity to go to Puerto Rico and play and that was very fun. That was my first time going to Puerto Rico. The weather was great, as you can imagine that the food was great, but being able to just experience that with my teammates was great. Just seeing them in a different light, being able to see them outside of, quote-unquote, the school environment was definitely nice, and then we had an opportunity to play against two Puerto Rican teams, and it was a phenomenal experience, and the best way I can explain it is it was almost like we had to learn a different language because the way that they played, the style of play was different. Of course, they passed the ball, they would shoot the ball, they would play defense just like we did, but their style of play was unique, and I can see why if you come from the U.S., playing overseas in Europe can sometimes be a challenge because the style of play is definitely different. So, I believe overcoming adversity, overcoming styles of play, and just overcoming challenges in general is something that you will see in sports, and that's something you're going to have to do in life as well. You're going to have to adjust, you're going to have to always be ready to learn, and that's something that I can definitely take from what I learned in basketball as well."
Question: What have you been up to over the last few years away from the college?
Malbon: "I definitely want to give God the glory. I appreciate the staying humble with this because this is not about me. This is about helping other people, and being a youth leader was something I honestly did not want to do, but the Lord basically directed me to do it, and I've been a youth leader for probably about six, seven years now, and honestly, it's one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life. A lot of them, I started off when they were probably in middle school or early high school, but now seeing them at the college level and seeing how mature they are now and how far they've grown is very rewarding. So, I'll definitely say giving back to the community and giving back to youth is a great experience. When it comes to the books, I have read or I have written three different books. One's about suicide awareness. It's called From Darkness to Life. Very important topic. A lot of people know that's a very heavy topic. People don't talk about it, but the reality is many people do take their life. In America, over 130 Americans take their life each day on average. So, this is a very important topic. This book is a little bit about my testimony and story. So, it's a great way just to get in the mindset of what people may be struggling with when they are going through those dark thoughts. Thank goodness I don't have to worry about that anymore, but going through that experience has allowed me to connect with a lot of different people and be able to shed light on that and give people some hope. The second book is Purpose. What is your meaning in life? Because the reality is most people do take their life because they feel like they have no purpose. So, writing this book was a great way to just show you how to find your purpose in life, how to ask questions, how to interact with different people. So, that's definitely a great book as well and then my third book is called Racial Bridges Unify the World. That's probably my favorite book in terms of the way it came about in terms of writing, because I had to interview multiple different racial groups. I had to interview white people, black people, Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Native American, so different groups of people. So, I had a lot of different perspectives all in one book. It wasn't just me. It was different people from different cultures and different ethnicities all in that book. So, it's just a great way to understand that we as humans, sometimes we might have some differences, but in reality, we're more similar than we think. And it's okay to embrace people's differences, because that's what makes us unique. So, I believe all three of those books are very important for all people. They kind of go hand in hand to a certain extent and you can definitely get those books on dariusmalbon.com or Amazon as well."
For more information on Lees-McRae Athletics, follow the Bobcats on X (@LMCBobcats), on Facebook (Lees-McRae Athletics), and on Instagram (leesmcraeathletics).
