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Overcast. High 57F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..
Cloudy skies. Low around 40F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Updated: May 2, 2023 @ 3:07 pm
The Moreno family, from left: Michael, Malachi, Sarah and Enelio. Michael enters his senior year at Scott County High School as one of the nation’s top basketball recruits.
The Moreno family, from left: Michael, Malachi, Sarah and Enelio. Michael enters his senior year at Scott County High School as one of the nation’s top basketball recruits.
Michael Moreno makes it all look easy.
He shines on the basketball court, where his game is a textbook blend of power and finesse, precision and creativity, tireless work and disarming effortlessness.
He excels in the classroom, to the extent that recounting the details of his first-ever ‘B’ — in a junior honors biology class — makes him wince as if he’s been clotheslined on a drive to the basket.
He thrives socially, as evidenced by the rapid-fire manner in which he signs autographs for adoring, young fans, or crowds the fence at tennis matches and baseball games to support his Scott County High School friends.
Local stardom and national attention are a breeze for Moreno to embrace when he looks across a kitchen table at his father, Enelio, and considers his roots.
“If he’d started out here playing basketball in the United States at six years old, with his work ethic and everything, I feel like it would have been a little different for him,” Moreno said.
Basketball was Enelio’s escape route from an impoverished, rural outpost in Amaime, Colombia.
Until his late teens, the elder Moreno played Colombia’s pastime, soccer, when he wasn’t busy working at the family’s sugar cane factory.
Coaches from the national basketball team showed up at the field one day (“out of nowhere,” 6-foot-7 Enelio said) and gently informed him that he was playing the wrong sport.
“That’s where everything started,” Enelio said. “I played for the local team, for the state, and then I went to the city (Cali).”
He was named the nation’s player of the year in 1997, which triggered the answer to his prayers — an invitation to play in the United States.
After one denied visa application, Enelio received approval to accept a scholarship at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. He stayed two years, during which time he fell in love with his English tutor, Sarah Flewwellin.
Shortly after the birth of their older son, who would grow to his father’s height by his sophomore year of high school, Enelio transferred to Georgetown College.
Enelio became fast friends with a team manager named Daniel-Taylor Wells, a Scott County graduate and now athletic director in the school district.
“I was lonely at Christmas. D.T. brought me to the house,” Enelio recalled. “His family embraced me and made me feel like I was home. They took me over there like another brother.”
A young couple and infant son had found their home.
The rest is rapidly becoming Scott County history.
“It’s awesome,” Enelio said of Michael’s exploding career. “It was one of my dreams since he was 7 or 8 years old.”
Making his mark
Michael Moreno is one of the most coveted recruits in Kentucky’s ballyhooed Class of 2019. He enters his senior year with 17 NCAA Division I scholarship offers and counting.
In addition to recent tournament action in New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas with his AAU team, Indiana Elite, Michael was invited to the Adidas All-American camp.
He’s on track to eclipse SC’s career record for rebounds before Christmas. If he matches last year’s average of 20.2 points per game, Michael also will shatter the school’s all-time scoring mark.
“The great thing is that all his (points and rebounds) are at Scott County,” Sarah Moreno said.
Like his father before him, Michael was a natural when he took up the game in first grade.
The family fondly credits Dave Long, father of senior classmate and teammate Bryce, and Steve Page as coaches who helped his development. Under Page’s leadership, Michael’s middle school team won 134 games and lost only five in three years.
Michael didn’t specialize in one sport until high school. He recalled with a laugh that his youth soccer team, featuring current baseball standout Trace Willhoite and baseball/football double threat Rylan Reed, went undefeated for three years.
He also played football and participated in track and field in middle school before focusing on the court, where his ceiling was highest.
“It helps me with never really losing my feel for the game,” Moreno said, “Looking at Cooper (Robb) as an example, all his other sports helped him, but the first couple games each season he was a little rusty in basketball and baseball. (Playing only one sport) kind of helps me keep my touch and stay game ready.”
Michael also is fueled by his desire to take advantage of childhood blessings that eluded his father.
Visits to Enelio’s homeland have given Michael a special appreciation for the creature comforts of his family’s home in Georgetown’s Canewood neighborhood.
“It’s hot and humid, kind of like Kentucky right after a rainstorm, only without all the perks,” Michael said. “To sleep, you’ve go to have a fan. You’ve got to have a mosquito net or they’ll eat you alive.”
Enelio advised his son to carry any cash inside his shoe, to avoid the risk of having his pocket picked.
“Always watch your back. It’s way different,” Michael said. “It’s just a whole different lifestyle you have to get used to. It makes me really thankful to be able to come home at night with a bed, TV, hot water, showers and drinking water.
“He knows that better than anyone. living with five kids in one bedroom until he was 13, to where he is now living a two-story house making great money at Toyota.”
A different world
While Michael and Sarah recently embarked on his national AAU tour, Enelio visited his homeland.
Prior to each visit, family and friends gather discounted or gently worn clothing for him to distribute.
“There are many things we take for granted,” Sarah said. “I had never been there when Michael was born, but I’ve been twice now. It can bring tears to your eyes when you’re bringing used items — shirts, hats — and people are just so excited.”
Basketball is another slice of Americana that puts a smile on the locals’ face.
Two decades since he left to play the game and build a new life in the United States, Enelio remains a folk hero in the area.
“We walked in, and he had people surrounding him,” Michael said. “It was crazy. You wouldn’t realize it until being there that he was such a big deal.”
You also might not expect such fervor for the indoor sport in which the participants are allowed to use their hands.
The atmosphere of an University of Kentucky game sounds like a poetry reading compared to what goes on at Colombia’s national championship series.
“Even when you’re shooting free throws, it’s loud. It’s awesome. People are sitting on top of you. Your chest is right against their back, and everyone’s watching the game at all times,” Michael described. “You go to a game here and there are 5,000 empty seats and you still think it’s packed. There you won’t find an empty seat.”
Michael’s AAU journeys from coast to coast already provided him with an understanding that the world is a small place.
His visits to Colombia advanced that perspective and inspired him to obtain his dual citizenship in 2017. He sees it both as a way to serve as an ambassador of the sport and to increase his options for when his playing days are over.
“It makes me a lot more marketable, maybe not now but years down the road,” Michael said.
“People don’t understand the value of a dual citizenship. Someone will see that, and maybe I don’t speak great Spanish, but they think I can reach that market. That could be the difference of maybe my making, who knows, another $30,000 a year.”
Michael hopes to play in a tournament in Colombia this fall. It takes place after school starts, however, and would require special dispensation from the KHSAA. The style of play in South America is much more physical, he said, something his entire family agrees will be a benefit to Michael over the long haul.
“I know he can play better than what he does. I try to back off a little bit and he’ll find it on his own. I think right now he’s got it,” Enelio said. “Everybody expects Michael to be the best, but you can’t just (rely on) your name and just show up. Last year in the (Lexington Christian) game, he finally got mad. I’ve never seen him mad. I told him you play like that every game, nobody’s going to stop you.”
The next move
Colleges continue to clamor for Michael’s services, although he admits to frustration that many major conference schools have yet to extend an official offer.
He is regarded as a “tweener” in recruiting parlance. Always the biggest player on the court while growing up, Michael was made the center out of logic and necessity.
Players who top out at 6-foot-7 rarely play that position in college. The younger Moreno has spent much of his high school career trying to hone his perimeter shooting skills.
“What made me good when I was younger was my footwork from playing soccer and baseball,” he said. “I have to get quicker and tighten up my ball handling.”
While fellow Class of 2019 blue-chip recruit Bryan Hudson made his commitment to Virginia Tech for football and track and field in the spring of his junior year, Moreno said there is a chance his decision won’t be made until after his senior basketball campaign.
He will take whatever is the best path to avoid distractions for his Scott County team, which enters 2018-19 as one of the favorites to win the KHSAA state title. SC lost to Covington Catholic in the championship game this past season.
“If I’m sure of it before the season I’ll make it then, but if not, I’m going to wait until after,” Michael said. “I don’t want to make it in the middle of the season and have everybody cause drama over it. I’m sure I’ll probably make it before the season, but at the latest it would be April.”
Iowa, Bradley, Northern Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, Miami of Ohio and Evansville were among the schools to throw their hats into the ring early. Moreno also has attracted attention from Ivy League schools, although they are not explicitly allowed to offer athletic scholarships.
Other SEC and Big 10 schools have been in steady contact. Moreno said he doesn’t want to interfere with the process by putting out a list of his “top” schools.
“I’m kind of keeping everybody on the same level, just so I go in without any bias,” He said. “I tell people if I gave them a top three or top five and another school reached out, I’d go in biased toward the schools that I’ve been focusing on.”
With the majority of Scott County’s roster returning from a team that went 37-2, anything that happens on the court is likely to only enhance Moreno’s appeal at the next level.
“I have big goals for this year. It’s always been about taking it a few steps further, and there aren’t many more steps to take than what we did last year,” he said.
“It’s our last year. It’s the last year for Scott County as a school, so it’s like, how are we going to leave our legacy?”
That goes for on the court and off.
Michael’s younger brother, Malachi, enters middle school this year. He’s a tall, budding athlete in his own right.
Enelio watches the boys’ games when he can, but his vigorous work schedule — 60 to 65 hours per week, between quality control at Toyota and security at GC — often take precedence.
“He has a very strong work ethic, and hopefully we’re passing that along to our children,” Sarah said. “I don’t think you’ll find a person that works harder than Enelio. That’s what we’re trying to instill in Michael and Malachi. You’ve got to work hard to get what you want.”
Kal Oakes can be reached via email at sports@news-graphic.com.
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