August 28th Fort Mill SC - The ECBL Board announced the addition of the Fayetteville Panthers to the league lineup for the 2019 upcoming season. The team will be owned and coached by China Bethea who is a disabled veteran that grew up in the Fayetteville area having played Middle School, High School, AAU, and Semi Pro throughout the surrounding area over the years. The team will be lead by the back court of Steven Williams and Xavier Bethea who also are founding members of the team along with Coach Bee, as well as the teams co-captains. The team has already been participating and winning in local tournaments since the beginning of the year and also took the ECBL Champions the PrimeTime Players to double overtime before falling 121-122 last month in a local charity game. Chris Thomas the founder of the ECBL stated "The ECBL are fortunate to have someone that is already working so hard in their local community and building a team over the last several months that it made it easy to vote them into the league. We as a league are looking to improve each year and when you have teams working as hard as the Panthers to be apart of our league it shows us that they are serious about being a lasting member of our league which is what we are looking for. The Panthers are already thriving in the local community by serving the community by hosting and participating in events around the community and its surrounding areas. They have already been doing Meet & Greets with businesses in the local community to figure out what they can do to help make the environment safe and to increase relationship building within the community. The Panthers have also hosted events where they have donate food, clothes, electronics, and basic life necessities to shelters, GoodWill Foundations, Salvation Army, and those who are in need. Coach Bee stated "They are looking to take home the 2019 Championship, but more so looking forward to bringing something new to the ECBL competition wise. We are a fast paced team that will force the pace on both offense and defense. "