Growing up, Charles Mitchell saw the recognizable faces of his family every day, at home, at school and at his basketball games.

Living in Marietta, Georgia, just north of Atlanta, the forward had the support of his mother, grandparents and other family members in his life and at his basketball games. Mitchell became a star for Wheeler High School but spurned Division I offers from in-state schools, choosing to play for Maryland.

Despite having an integral role and leading the team in rebounding, something was missing during his sophomore year. His aunt and godmother passed away, and once his grandmother, a key part of his youth, became ill, he decided to transfer closer to home.

“She basically raised me with my mother since I was a little kid,” Mitchell said. “I lived with her in elementary school and middle school.”

After spending his first two seasons with the Terrapins, Mitchell chose to transfer to Georgia Tech to be closer to home and specifically, his grandmother, Ella Mitchell. The junior was granted an immediate eligibility waiver due to his grandmother’s declining health before the season and has since started all of the Yellow Jackets’ games. He’s averaging 10.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game for GT (9-4, 0-1 Atlantic Coast).

“It was really hard for him going (away for school) and when my mother’s health started declining and he decided to come home it was a relief to have him because he is extremely close to his grandmother,” Mitchell’s mother, Harriett Mitchell, said.

When Mitchell and his siblings were growing up, Harriet Mitchell worked 60-hour weeks as a single mother to not only provide for her children but also to try to save enough money for them to go to college.

While she was working, Ella Mitchell was taking care of Mitchell. She cooked him breakfast and drove him to school every day, he said.

As he grew as a basketball player, Mitchell said his grandmother provided mental advice and encouragement when things would get tough.

“She always kept me grounded, talked when I felt down, kept me motivated to keep playing,” he said.

Before games, she would remind him to play for his grandfather, who passed away when he was a high school sophomore. She told him his grandfather was always watching, and to make him proud.

Now that Mitchell is back in Atlanta, his grandmother, who hadn’t seen him play in college before this season, can come to his home games with his mother and brother.

“If he turns around at a game and she’s not there, he’s mouthing to someone, ‘Call my mom to see if my mom and my grandma are coming,’” Harriett Mitchell said.

“It makes me happy just to look up and see her there to watch me,” Mitchell said. “She’s proud of me.”

Off the court, he tries to help his grandmother whenever he can.

He goes to her house between classes and practice, Harriett Mitchell said, to talk and watch TV with her. He also takes her to the market and helps with things around the house, he said.

“For 18 years she changed her life for me and my mother and my brothers and my family,” Mitchell said of his grandmother. “Sometimes you have to make a sacrifice. I love our family and I want my family to be around me.”

Now that they’re around, his family members get to see him lead the Yellow Jackets in rebounding and boast a career-high points per game average. They get to watch him make a difference in a season he didn’t expect to play.

Due to NCAA transfer rules, players must sit out a year after transferring unless they get a waiver. Mitchell petitioned for one, citing his grandmother’s health and his move closer to home as reasons.

One day before practice in September, Georgia Tech head coach Brian Gregory announced to the team that Mitchell had been granted an immediate eligibility waiver.

“I cried because I know some people don’t get the opportunity,” Mitchell said. “I was just blessed with the opportunity.”

Gregory said he didn’t recruit Mitchell with the expectation he would be granted a waiver, but is “very glad” that he was.

The coach also praised Mitchell for his character and ability to adapt quickly to his new situation and role.

“Not only are we benefitting, but his family is as well,” Gregory said.

Mitchell said his main reason for transferring was his family as he starts to give back what they gave to him growing up.

But his grandmother, he said, is the most important.

Said Mitchell: “She’s everything. Just making her happy every day. I know hopefully in a couple years, I can provide for her.”

Published on January 6, 2015 at 9:36 pm