About Us
At Born2Lead, we strive to build leaders through sports. Our mission is to aid in the academic, emotional, and physical development of the player through the promotion of teamwork, sportsmanship, and leadership. Our goal is to help build self-discipline and self-confidence by working with the player to improve the mind, body, and overall game.
I started putting my dream together a few years ago, and now Born2Lead exists in order to provide additional support, knowledge, and training to youth athletes in the area. My name is Devonte Maymon and I started my journey playing basketball when I was 9 years old and continued to play through the High School and Collegiate levels. Throughout my journey, I always had various mentors such as my parents, Timothy and Latanya Maymon, who have always been my biggest supporters. While my father played football and my mother played basketball in their early years, they were never really given the opportunity to solely focus on their playing careers due to starting a family at a young age. My parents always pushed my brother, Jeronne Maymon, and I to always have perseverance and a hard work ethic when it came to playing sports, our education, and every day life Born2Lead was created to provide youth in the area the support they need to excel in their playing careers through the lessons I learned over the years from my parents and other supports in the community.
I started my playing career with the Spartans, an AAU program in Madison, WI, when I played for Coach Tony Jones. He was always a tough Coach and the rest of the team consisted of a lot of young competitive athletes. While playing for this team, I wasn't the best athlete on the team and he always was very honest with me about this. Other than my father, there weren't many other people that pushed me to be my best on and off the court. I never took criticism well when it came to playing a sport and often times left practices frustrated, instead of taking the opportunity to listen and improve my game. I later understood the importance of being coachable and trusting the process. Many times as players we feel entitled, instead of being willing to listen and learn.
During High School, I played for James Madison Memorial High School in Madison, WI. As a Freshman I played Junior Varsity and really started to progress in the game, leading to me playing Varsity starting my Sophomore year in 2006. Our team was runners up in the state final in 2006 and 2008. During my senior year (2007-2008), I started 25 of the 26 games and averaged 11.8 points and 3.2 rebounds per game. My shots averaged 45% from the field, 34% from the 3-point range, and 72% from the free-throw line. On February 8, 2008 I had a career-high of 22 points in a 80-48 win over Beloit Memorial and later that year during the Division 1 state quarterfinal I scored 19 points in our win over Lake Geneva Badger. At the end of the season, I had earned the second-team All-Big Eight Conference honors.
I spent two seasons at John A. Logan College in Carterville, IL. As a Freshman, I averaged 6.0 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.1 steals in 26 games. I shot 42.9% from the field, 34.4% from the 3-point range, and 69.3% from the free-throw range. As a Sophomore, I averaged 4.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.0 assists, and 1.0 steals in 23 games. I shot 51.3% from the field, 47.8% from the 3-point range and 70.4% from the free-throw range. At the end of the season, I helped led the team to a 25-6 record, a Great Rivers Athletics Conference title, a trip to the NJCAA Region 24 semifinals, and was offered a Division I scholarship to Youngstown State University.
I spent one season with Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. I started 14 out of 20 games and became the third leading scorer at 9.2 points per game and fifth in 3-pointers made with 29 makes on the season as a Junior in 2011. I averaged 1.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 23.8 minutes while shooting 36.5% from the field, 36.3 from 3-point range, and 62.7% from the free-throw line. I scored in double figures 12 times and recorded single games high of 16 points at UW-Milwaukee. I posted 13 points on four-of-seven shooting including a perfect three-for-three from 3-point range and two of three at the free-throw range against 2011 Final Four participant Butler at Indianapolis. At the end of the season, I transferred to eight-time NCAA Division II National Champion Kentucky Wesleyan College where I was recruited by Todd Lee.