How One Family's Financial Ruin Uncovered an Athletic Gift

Sitting in his office waiting to sign the exit interview papers, Richard Banks had no idea what the future would hold. After 13 years with a major retail chain and moving all over the United States, recent structural changes had forced him to make a life-changing decision. He was stepping out of corporate America and leaving behind $100,000 a year. The financial price was high, but the personal ruin caused by a life of 65-hour work weeks and months without a day off was far more expensive.

"It was the hardest decision of my life," Banks explains. "We had moved more than 7,000 miles; supporting my career along the way. My wife had given up her career for the betterment of our family and now I was leaving my paycheck behind."

The struggle to climb the corporate ladder is one many families are familiar with. With a higher paycheck and better financial stability at the end of the road as a huge incentive, mothers and fathers leave children and family life behind with the sole thought of making a better life for everyone involved. That better life is often measured in dollar signs, but Banks wasn't willing to accept the fact that more money made for a better life.

"One day I told my children I would be finally taking a day off after weeks of working long hours. My oldest looked at me with an emotionless face and said, 'Okay, dad'. I knew the time had come to make a change before it was too late."

That change meant giving up the 5,000 square foot home and all the luxuries that came with a $100,000 a year paycheck, but Banks understood the risk. "We were at a crossroads of life. Do I continue beating the corporate monster in hopes of giving my children more things or leave that life behind and give my children more time?" Time won in the end and that decision could have changed the lives of his four children; one in particular, Heaven-Leigh Summer Rayne Banks, his middle daughter.

At 5'8" tall, Heaven-Leigh Summer Rayne Banks is taller than most of her 6^th grade classmates. Her desire to play basketball was put on hold due to constant moving and sheer lack of time. With three other children in the household, taking Heaven-Leigh to practice and games was something her mother simply did not know how to fit in with homework, housework, budgeting personal finances and other struggles of running a large family with a father that worked all the time.

After leaving corporate America, the family moved to a small city just 30 minutes south of Wilmington, NC. Nestled on the Atlantic Ocean, Oak Island seemed to be the perfect spot. Little did anyone in the family know that the move would be the one to uncover an athletic gift suppressed by financial success.

The Next WNBA Star?

With the newfound freedom from corporate America, Richard embarked on fatherhood with a whole new vision. Basketball season was the first athletic season of the school year, so he signed Heaven-Leigh up for a parks and recreation basketball league and started practicing with her every day. The first three games were a horror and after three losses, Heaven-Leigh walked off the court with tears running down her face.

People from the opposing team flocked to her side. Strangers gave her hugs, and then one man flipped the switch that could have changed her life. Heaven-Leigh turned around to see a complete stranger waiting with a fist pound. His words? "The only thing you did wrong on the court young lady was that you did not shoot the ball enough."

Heaven-Leigh vowed not to lose another game and that is exactly what she did. The next three games she scored an average of 20 points or more. She twisted her body under the net like no other 6^th grader could. She practiced at home with mom, dad, sisters and brother.

What's In the Future for Heaven-Leigh?

She tried out for a traveling basketball team, like her idol LeBron James, and she made the team. She will be traveling all over the state of North Carolina playing basketball. Then she is attending a summer basketball camp through the local community college. Next year, she is trying out for the middle school basketball team and if you ask her, that is just the first step in a long journey to the WNBA and she owes those dreams to a leap of faith into financial ruin by a father that was tired of being a paycheck and not a dad.

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