Meet the Hobbs: Charlotte area’s XL, top recruited, fun-loving, brother-sister duo
Athletics — and high-dollar grocery bills — are kind of a thing in the Hobbs’ household.
The father, Dennis Hobbs, is principal at Jay M. Robinson High School. He was a Division III basketball star at Kings (Pa) College about 20 years ago. Today, he’s 6-foot-5 and solid. And if Hobbs told you he played defensive end for the Panthers, you wouldn’t think twice.
Hobbs’ oldest daughter, Ella, is a 6-4 sophomore at Robinson who is the No. 16-ranked women’s basketball prospect in her class nationally by ESPN. His oldest son, Daevin, is a 6-6, 240-pound junior already getting Power 5 recruiting attention.
And waiting in the wings is Camri, an eighth-grader who is already 6-feet tall, quickly chasing her sister down in height and ability. The youngest is Reason, a 5-6 third-grade boy who may end up being the best of the bunch.
But having that many large athletic people in the same household means that the grocery store is your friend.
Or is that the other way around?
“Man,” Dennis Hobbs said, “our average grocery bill is probably 250 to 300 dollars per week. Big people eat a lot, and that youngest one probably eats more than all of us.”
The trade off for all that cash spent at Harris Teeter? Hobbs and his wife, Adrianne, are housing a wealth of future college talent.
“As a parent,” Dennis Hobbs said, “you always think your kids are good, but still you don’t really know. Then people start saying ‘You’ve got something special going on.’ I guess it begins to hit you then.”
That Tennessee trip
Ella has been on the national radar for a long time. She got her first college offer, from Vanderbilt, during the summer after her eighth-grade year. As a freshman, she averaged 21.3 points for the Bulldogs.
Daevin, who plays football and basketball, was good enough to play on the Team United Nike-affiliated travel hoops team last summer after a solid two-sport season in high school as a sophomore.
And football coaches were starting to become enamored with his size and natural skill as a defensive end. Hobbs picked up offers from Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina and N.C. Central, but the Power 5 schools soon began to take notice, including Louisville, North Carolina and Wake Forest.
On an unofficial visit to Tennessee in September, Dennis Hobbs looked at his family sitting beside him in the stands, and he said “it” finally hit him for real.
“You’re sitting there,” he said, “and you’re like, ‘This is the SEC.’ ”
The Talented Teens
Sometime after this high school basketball season started, the family decided it was best for Ella to leave Robinson High School, as a player, to join LaMelo Ball’s new startup, 1-of-1 Prep, which is a basketball-only team that is not affiliated with a school. Her sister, Camri, also plays for the program.
“It was a hard decision,” Ella said, “but it was best for me. The competition here isn’t that good and it was going to be a better schedule. I like the coach better. So it was good for me.”
Said Daevin: “I like it. She gets to play on a higher level, and it’s fun to watch and you want your sister to do good.”
And Ella is thriving, regularly turning out games like she had last week against Charlotte Christian — 23 points and 18 rebounds — and she’s making more than 40% of her 3-point attempts.
Daevin is having a good basketball season, too. He made the all-tournament team at the Leroy Holden Classic at North Mecklenburg earlier this season, and he had a terrific year in football. As a tight end, he had 30 catches for 621 yards and nine touchdowns. As a defensive end, he had 50 tackles, with 10.5 sacks and three forced fumbles. More than half of his tackles were for a loss.
Daevin and Ella both say playing against each other at home has helped them improve.
Sort of.
Said Ella, whom her brother says has a secret crush on a younger Leonardo DiCaprio: “Going against him definitely gets me better, especially when I’m going against the better girls. Playing against him helps.”
And here’s Daevin, whom his sister says is a mini-conspiracy theorist who will sometimes answer to the nickname “Daevin 2 Woke”: “I always beat her at everything. So it’s not much help for me, but I like helping her out some.”
Ella interrupts.
“Well, he does win,” she says with a sly grin.
“Sometimes.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
