Columbus Valley - In The Game High School Sports Magazine

Revanna Sudberry was eight months pregnant with her first child when she attended an Atlanta Hawks game and saw the famed Michael Jordan display his talents on the basketball court. The experience made such an impression on the Columbus native that she decided to use the celebrity athlete’s name when naming her own child.

“It was almost, like, magical watching Michael Jordan play. I can just remember thinking that he put on a show and I thought it would be good to name the baby after him,” she recalls.

Today Revanna and Richard Sudberry’s son, Tre’Vione Jordan Sudberry is a student at Midland Middle School. Known to his friends as Tre, the soon-to-be 14-year-old is a two-sport athlete at Midland. Apparently, his mom was on to something when she chose to name her son for perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time. Sudberry just came off his last season as a member of the Jaguars football team, but the eighth-grader grins when talking about his favorite sport.

“I don’t know why really, but I just love basketball. It comes natural to me,” he says.

Sudberry was about five years old when he first began playing Columbus Youth Basketball. Even before then, his parents had bought him a basketball goal and started him on the fundamentals.

Right from the beginning, Sudberry was cast as a shooting guard or a point guard. That held true through youth ball right into playing with the local chapter of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), first with the Hoop Stars and later the Blazers.

Not long after Sudberry began playing youth basketball, his parents exposed him to football through the local recreation league. He started off with flag football when he was five years old, and he kept playing through the different levels until he reached middle school age.

When Sudberry began attending Midland in the sixth grade, students were not allowed to participate in athletics until seventh grade. Sudberry played basketball with both the Columbus Youth League and AAU in the sixth grade. His CYL team won the league championship that year.

When seventh grade rolled around, he tried out for the Jaguars football team. Sudberry was the back-up quarterback in 2010 and the team’s starting quarterback this year. In December, Sudberry began his second season on the MMS basketball team as a starting shooting guard.

Both sports have offered the young athlete the opportunity to become more serious about his athletic endeavors. He learned valuable lessons in middle school and decided that while he enjoys playing football, basketball is his passion.

Sudberry is quite serious about his game. He hits the gym often, in season and out, to work on his accuracy as a shooting guard. He also watches sports tapes and lots of basketball highlights to model himself after those who are already “there.”

“I watch Austin Rivers a lot,” Sudberry says of the Duke University freshman and son of Boston Celtics coach, Doc Rivers.

While Sudberry has more years ahead to hone his talents, Midland athletic director Terry Gaines foresees a bright future for the rising star.

“Tre has been an excellent player and leader in both football and basketball. He has shown great progression in his skills from the seventh grade to the eighth grade and I expect this progression to continue,” says Gaines. “I believe he has excellent potential to be both a football and basketball player in high school.”

During his first basketball season on a school sports team, Sudberry found out he could hang with his peers, his highest scoring game coming against Veterans Memorial Middle School when he posted 15 points on the Jaguars tally. But the newbie also found out things are a little different on the court in middle school.

“It’s faster,” says Sudberry. “It’s a faster pace and everything is just a lot faster.”

The Jaguars record for 2010 was 6-6 but Sudberry says this season is going to be better because more players will have experience playing together. His mother also mentions Sudberry has a longtime friend on the team.

“Armon Prophet and Tre have been playing together for a while. He lives in our neighborhood so when you see one of them, you see both of them,” she says.

Sudberry adds that he and Prophet have been playing together since the fifth grade and often just sense the play that needs to be made when they are both on the court at the same time. They hope to be a dual threat this season against their opponents.

Over the years, Sudberry has kept up with his AAU basketball play and has participated in several Adidas Phenom Fundamentals camps in Atlanta in the summer. According to his mother, the 5’7”, 150-pound Sudberry was selected for one of the Adidas’ Junior Phenom Camps in San Diego, California, this past summer because of his hard work and talent but was unable to attend. He plans to continue his schedule of summer basketball with the local AAU team before he moves to high school in the fall.

The decision as to where that will be is not final. Sudberry wants to enjoy basketball season before making plans. He wants to play sports at the next level but he knows academics are important. He is a solid A and B student with aspirations to follow in Austin Rivers’s footsteps by attending Duke to pursue some field of sports medicine. His dream is to play for the Blue Devils while studying at the North Carolina school.

Perhaps one day an expectant mother will be watching a talented athlete play basketball and be impressed enough to add Sudberry to her child’s name.