From his neatly cropped Afro to his on-court game and off-court attitude, everything about Sean Mosley shouts “old school.”

At a time when people tend to direct the spotlight toward themselves, Mosley is a throwback to the quiet, confident type.

That was apparent during the sixth annual summer conference of the NCAA’s First Team program, at which Mosley and more than 200 other basketball prospects learned skills to help them succeed in life without – or beyond – basketball.

Rather than Xs and Os, the First Team conference offers advice and counsel from former NCAA student-athletes and NBA players like Jimmy Jackson, Michael Curry and Charlie Ward on how to use basketball to succeed while pursuing a college degree.

Mosley, who lives in Baltimore, is a three-time summer conference participant, and while the messages are the same year after year, the way he hears them improves with age. “They stick in my mind,” he said. “It’s like listening to a new song. The first time you really don’t catch it, but you keep listening to it and you start to remember the words. This is sort of like that with the type of information you receive at this camp.”

First Team targets elite basketball prospects with education about college academic eligibility, core courses and recruiting practices, as well as lifestyle tips. The goal is to advise participants on how to make the best decision about where to attend college and to make sure they are prepared for the rigors of the recruiting process and life after enrollment.

Mosley understands he must perform well in the classroom to be eligible to compete in intercollegiate athletics. Right now, his favorite subjects revolve around math – he took pre-calculus in the fall – but he is leaning toward majoring in business management when he enters college.

His father, Richard Mosley Sr., is playing an active role in his recruitment. The elder Mosley goes online to research the quality of the business schools at the universities his son is considering.

Mosley, the youngest of five children, receives off-the-court advice and on-the-court tutelage in pick-up games from NBA standouts Carmelo Anthony and Sam Cassel, who both grew up in Baltimore.

In fact, the 18-year-old Mosley played on a summer travel team Anthony sponsors. Syracuse, where Anthony attended college for a year before going to the NBA, was among the schools to recruit Mosley. A few days after the conference, though, Mosley gave a non-binding commitment to attend Maryland.

The St. Frances Academy senior displayed his independent thinking and leadership throughout the conference. He also discovered those skills could be required at any time. A couple of hours before the final banquet, for example, too many First Teamers entered an elevator, which subsequently became stuck. Conference organizers said Mosley helped keep people calm until the problem was fixed about 30 minutes later. He was the last to leave the elevator after it was repaired.

His character throughout the weekend in Tampa led to him being recognized with the Mario Brown Award, named for the father of a former First Team member who died in 2002. The conference’s highest honor goes to the participant who best displays team spirit, sportsmanship, citizenship and adherence to the First Team Code of Ethics.

“You heard other kids murmur his name before we announced who the winner was,” said the NCAA’s Anne Little, director of the First Team program. “That was validation from his peers that they recognized what is special about Sean.”

For Mosley, the award capped three fulfilling years in the program.

“It’s all about leadership,” he said. “When I come here, I want to show what kind of leader I can be, and part of that is doing well in school. I could see myself doing something similar to this, and maybe one day they will ask me to come back and talk to a senior class.”