One of our favorite stories around the magazine involve Reggie and Cheryl Miller. Reggie Miller, of course, played all 18 of his NBA seasons for the Indiana Pacers before enshrinement in the NBA Hall of Fame. In college, Reggie played at UCLA. Cheryl played at cross-town USC and is, likewise, enshrined in the women’s basketball Hall of Fame. Both of the Millers played basketball for the US National team.
It was 1982 and Reggie and Cheryl were both in high school and playing basketball. Reggie came bounding into the house all excited exclaiming he had scored 39 points and that everything he threw up went in the basket on that particular night. Everyone at the table started laughing.
Reggie looked at his big sister and asked how many she had scored that same night. Was it 40, was it 50, Reggie prodded? Cheryl looked at her younger brother and admitted she had dropped 105 points that same evening. That certainly put Reggie’s 39 in perspective. The whole story may be found on-line here for anyone who wishes to read it.
We hope the Hodges are prepared for the same type of rivalry between their two boys. We believe there will be similar nights around the dinner table, though we can’t be sure either Cole or Connor will ever score 105 points in a single game like Cheryl Miller. Truthfully, Connor has already had a Reggie Miller type outing, hitting 13 threes in one game for the Kentucky Kings as one of Kentucky’s very best 6th grade basket-ballers, so who knows? Can’t say a 105 point outing is completely out of the question for either.
At KPGFootball, we don’t know what is in the water around the Hodge home; but, if we could bottle it, we are confident our online publishing days would be numbered. We could flat make a fortune selling the stuff.
Why? Well, because Connor is definitively the best QB in Kentucky’s Class of 2025 and his older brother, Cole, is bracketed at the same slot (with Joshuah Keith) as a No. 1 QB in the Class of 2024. Together, they are the best brother tandem at the QB position, maybe, in any present two classes of Kentucky middle or high school football.
Connor is a winner, that is the QB’s most important trait. He’s an athlete who wants the ball in his hands when the game is on the line. He is that way in basketball where he delivers time after time. He is that way on the gridiron too, where he also delivers.
We could give you Connor’s height. We could give you his present weight. We could tell you what he ran at the Future Stars’ combine. While we could give you all of that information, at the QB position at least, who knows how important that is for a player who just left the 6th grade. Whatever he is anatomically now, has little to no bearing on what he will be physically in a few years. His mother is tall and that is generally a good sign for a kid’s future height.
All of his physical development aside, suffice it to say Connor Hodge, like his brother Cole, is the guy who the coach wants to have the ball when the game is hanging in the balance. He’s poised, he’s accomplished, he’s played basketball at high levels of competition and knows how to perform in the spotlight.
These traits are about to be tested this summer in football at a position (QB) which most often has to deal with game changing situations. How will the younger Hodge do? KPGFootball feels early indications are he will handle it and perform like his brother both has and continues to do. He will handle it like a Hodge. For Team Kentucky-6th grade Future Stars, that is the very best of signs for success against their Tennessee counterpart this summer.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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