Athens Bible School basketball captain Molly Chumbley has had a special path to success, beginning in China where, as a baby, she was found in a basket on the side of the street.

Now, she is the point guard of the Athens Bible School Lady Trojans, where she is a two-time team captain, two-time leading scorer, the current leader in assists and was even the rebounding leader one season.

For someone who is “five-feet tall on a good day,” according to her father, Buc, being the rebounding leader is no small task.

That’s what happens when you grow up in a basketball family.

“When she was little, during halftime, she would go up and down the court pretending to play ball,” Martha Chumbley, her mother, said.

Molly was found in the Guangxi province in China’s city of Qinzhou on the side of the road on the way to a school.

The only writing on the box was her birthday: April 13, 2004. She was less than a month old when she was found.

While it is not known why she was left where she was, Molly’s parents believe it has something to do with China’s one-child policy that was in place until around 2015.

The one-child policy is a population control initiative that gained traction in China in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The official start date of the policy was September 25, 1980. It limits households to one child per home and began as a suggestion for families before becoming a stricter policy as the years went on.

After she was found, she was taken to a police station and her name was put in the newspaper, along with about 30 or so other children with no known homes.

What happened next was a 17-month process of the Chumbley parents, Buc and Martha, beginning the adoption proceedings to travel to China and bring Molly back home.

During those 17 months, Molly spent time at an orphanage, went to a foster family for a short period of time, before going back to the orphanage.

However, during this whole time, she had a family on the other side of the world making arrangements to bring her home to America.

On September 19, 2005, they celebrated their first “gotcha day” and became Molly’s official parents, according to Buc.

“We had friends that had adopted before from China,” Buc said. “So my wife one day said ‘I really would like to adopt.’ Almost to the day that we decided we wanted to was the day Molly was born.”

The Chumbleys went through the adoption agency American World, based out of Virginia. They went through the process of fees, paperwork, traveling to China with money and eventually meeting with the relevant parties in China to bring Molly back.

Once they arrive in China and the date is set to pick up the new member of the family, the family gets a night to think about it. For the Chumbleys, bringing Molly into their family was an easy decision.

Therefore, September 19 was the day they officially chose her and September 20 was the day they confirmed their interest in keeping her.

“It’s a big process. They take you in a room and a person gets up and you are assigned a number,” Buc said. “We are number 19 and what they do is they call your number out. ‘Number 19, here is your daughter.’ I take Molly and I hold her, and she says ‘baba,’ which is ‘daddy.’”

They brought Molly home from China, after spending 16 total days there, and immediately she became a part of the family.

Molly has grown up loved by Buc, Martha and her three older siblings, David, Will and Catherine. Friends, coaches and peers of Limestone County have always welcomed her with open arms.

“She has always been accepted by everyone in our family,” Buc said. “We have never experienced any type of discrimination at all. Never.”

Now, the little girl found in a basket in China is “Miss ABS” at her school, on Homecoming Court, respected by her teammates and friends alike and is a three-sport athlete of basketball, soccer and tennis.

If that is not enough, she is also “smart as a whip,” says Buc. Molly has aspirations of attending Auburn University to study engineering.

She also plays guitar and has been involved in robotics with ABS.

Molly has been playing basketball since she was in first grade. She has been on the varsity team for Athens Bible since she was in eighth grade and has been a starter since she was a freshman.

With her two brothers playing basketball at Florida College and Buc being from right outside Champaign, Illinois, where the basketball-craving University of Illinois is located, basketball has been engraved in Molly her whole life.

“There was a lot of talk about working hard to get better. They would tell me to go outside and shoot the ball,” Molly said. “I have two brothers who played some college ball down in Florida, too.”

With her favorite athlete to watch play basketball being former Illinois star Ayo Dosunmu, who is known for his hard-working, high-energy style of play, Molly has developed her own reputation for being fearless, passionate and gritty.

“She gets after it. She’s all over the floor,” Athens Bible girls head basketball coach David Cox said. “Sometimes she’s too much all over the floor. She will drive down the lane with two girls waiting in the middle.”

However, at the same time, she is a good teammate, being named team captain twice and being known for getting her teammates involved in the action.

“I like to get my teammates involved, especially for the future of our team. I don’t want to try to score all the time; I want us all to work together,” Molly said.

With Molly being the light of the Chumbley’s life and a star on the basketball team, Buc and the rest of the family have worked hard to ensure she has a better life in America than what she would have if she had stayed in China.

“Me and my wife talk about what would she be doing if she had stayed there,” Buc said.

With a bright future ahead, in the midst of a successful season, Molly will continue to be a success story representing Limestone County.

Not only that, but her stock is still rising. In her most recent outing, she scored 17 points to go along with nine assists, seven rebounds and four steals.