About Us
Located in Charlotte, NC the Charlotte ACES (Achievement, Culture and Education through Sports) Basketball Club is one of the Queen City’s longest running youth sports programs. Since our beginning in 1991, the ACES program has helped a countless number of student athletes and their families in the greater Charlotte area.
The ACES began its journey on Beatties Ford Road as the first Midnight Basketball League at the McCrorey YMCA. ACES founder, Kevin Ligon presented the idea of the league to his colleagues at the State of North Carolina Juvenile Services Division (now DJJP). The program was created to provide inner city urban youth an opportunity to play a sport that required very little monetary need, keeping them productively occupied. The coaches were volunteers – and not just any volunteers. Lawyers, police and probation officers as well as local government officials, coached the teams.
Over time the league evolved into a grassroots program aimed to improve our members basketball skills, push for the GPA necessary for them to participate on their high school teams as well as assist them in their pursuit of scholarships to college by competing in regional tournaments. This is the Charlotte ACES.
At the core of the ACES is over 30 years of encouraging our student athletes to have discipline in the classroom and providing experiences that support personal success. We seek to build lifelong relationships and have alumni that have played sports professionally, are currently working as medical doctors, as well as several holding positions in banking, finance, and insurance.
We now plan to expand our scope of services to include academic tutoring, strength training and conditioning, as well as educating students and parents regarding the new NIL opportunities.
We brand our organization as being more than just a sports program, focused more on the overall success of our student athletes versus collecting trophies.