<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">LATTA, S.C. - Raymond Felton began giving back to his hometown years before he became an NBA lottery pick of the Charlotte Bobcats. Led by the wondrous Felton, Latta High's basketball team traveled to such places as Myrtle Beach and Charlotte to play powers such as Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha, Durham's Mount Zion and N.C. 4A champion Winston-Salem Reynolds. Latta -- a school in South Carolina's smallest classification, located amid the tobacco fields and poultry farms of the state's Pee Dee region -- won its share. "We knew we had something special about us," says Andrew Grissett, a guard and forward on those Vikings teams that won S.C. 1A titles in 2001 and 2002. "We'd go off to these big tournaments on a national level against these elite schools, and I'd say, `Hold up, now, we can compete athletically on a national level. So I know we can compete on an academic level, too.' We all gained so much confidence in ourselves." The Vikings were swept along by the irrepressible Felton, an unstoppable guard whose immense talent and generous personality transformed Vikings basketball into a regional phenomenon. Felton's star, of course, continued to climb in college at North Carolina before the Charlotte Bobcats took him Tuesday with the No. 5 pick in the NBA draft. Most of the other seniors on Latta's 2002 championship team also went to college or are holding jobs.</div> Source
