Yolonzo Moore II shows vocal leadership on and off the court. Courtesy of HartfordHawks.com

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: “I was born in (Washington DC), lived the majority of my life in Austin, Texas, probably since I was probably four years old and have been there from then on out.”

Q: Have any siblings?

A: “I have five, I’m the oldest of six.”

Q: What’s it like being the biggest brother of the group?

A: “It’s a lot of responsibility, they look up to me, so everything I do has to be positive. I can’t let them see any negative coming from me or else they’ll think it’s okay. Important to be a positive role model.”

Q: How active are you in their lives?

A: “I’m real active in their lives. I have three sisters with my dad and a brother and a sister with my mom.”

“My mom is a single mom and it’s really me that gets them going in the right direction on my mom’s side, since they don’t really have a father figure, as opposed to my dad’s side.”

Q: Was it hard at all trying to balance time with both families?

A: “I would try my best to balance my time with the both of them, trying to not play favorites with either one, so I was there equally with both. I have four sisters and one brother, so that one brother isn’t my favorite, but he’s that special one because he’s my one brother, so he’s the one I can relate to.”

Q: What was it like growing up in a house full of girls?

A: “It’s ridiculous, now that they’re getting older, they’re getting to that age where they go on Facebook and Twitter, so I tell them to stay straight and keep their business off of the internet.”

“I don’t have a Facebook, Twitter or none of that stuff, I keep my business to myself.”

Q: Is that how you go about your business on the basketball court? 

A: “My teammates will tell you. Some of them don’t even like me on the court. I’m just all business, so on the court I have to do what I got to do, but in the locker room they’re all my boys, my family, so I’m all business on the court.”

Q: I’ve seen you in press conferences before using sign language where did that come from?

A: “Well, when you grow up in a house with a mother who’s deaf and a father who’s hard of hearing you just grow up with it.”

“I mean, that’s the only way I communicated with my mom, she’s never heard me talk, so it’s something that I picked up and it was kind of like my first language. I learned the sign language than the English meaning behind it verbally.”

Q: That seems very normal to you, but it’s so hard for someone who’s never experienced that before to understand what that’s like. 

A: “It’s tough for someone looking from the outside, but I’ve had a lot of friends whose parents are deaf also, so to us it’s kind of normal. Where from the outside looking in, it’s not this crazy situation, it’s just how we communicate.”

Q: How does being so far from home effect your relationship with your mom?

A: “Basically, our conversations are through texts. She can’t just pick up the phone and talk to me, so it’s a lot of texting going on and we have our Skype sessions too. It’s a little different, but I talk to my mom all the time.”

Q: Have you tried teaching your teammates any sign language at all?

A: “[laughs] I try and teach them some stuff here and there, but not too much. It’s not very useful for them.”

Q: So, where did basketball come into play?

A: “I was just an athlete growing up. My dad was an All-American football player at Gallaudet University in DC, so growing up with a father who’s an athlete, he just puts you in everything. I found basketball, that’s what I wanted to do, so I just played it.”

Q: Did he push you at all to play football because it’s what he knew?

A: “Not really. I mean, football is my favorite sport, I love it more than basketball. It just so happens that I came out to be a basketball player, my frame and size didn’t go well with football, so basketball it is. He drove me into sports and I kind of did whatever I wanted to do from there.”

Q: How did basketball pan out in high school?

A: “Going into my sophomore year of high school, I wanted to play football and I did along with basketball. I talked to my (basketball) coach and he said ‘you’re a Division I basketball player at this age right now, there’s no looking back,’ so I had to become a basketball player.”

Q: Was it disheartening at all leaving the sport you loved?

A: “It was rough. I didn’t want to quit playing football, but the question around school was whether I was going to play football or basketball and it was too tough during the off season watching my teammates play, so I had enough and joined halfway through the football season.

Once the football season was over I knew this was enough, I need to focus on basketball and let football go. It sucked because I couldn’t play my favorite my sport, but I was a basketball player.”

Q: What was your dad able to pass down to you from his sports background that you took with you?

A: “He was all about ‘if you’re going to do something, do it 100 percent. If you’re going to do it, then do it.”

Q: What brought you from Texas all the way to the University of Hartford?

A: “I wanted to try something new, I lived in Texas almost all my life and Texas was Texas, so I had the choice to come out to the East Coast and my dad came out here for school.”

“He told me he became a better person as a result and I think I have become a better person being more independent and figuring out more things on my own.”

Q: What else attributed to you attending UHa?

A: “I wanted to be a part of a turnaround within the program.

We weren’t really anything before I came here, the program has struggled and I wanted to be a part of changing the program into a powerhouse.”

Q: How have you done thus far?

A: “We’re heading in the right direction. I mean, we’re not there yet, but I’m also not done yet playing basketball, so only time will tell.”