“Definitely got her mid-range (game),” Hudson said. “That was her bread and butter. She was a little bit more of a traditional post where I like to get out and run a little bit. She taught me the value of the elbow mid-range jumper and how most people don’t want to guard it.”
Over the last four years, Hudson has been a staple in the Lions lineup and a key cog on this year’s Metro Buckeye Conference champion and district finalist squad.
He’s averaging 17.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game en route to being named MBC Player of the Year this winter. He’s also shooting 38.1 percent from behind the 3-point line for the Lions (22-1), who advanced to the state’s round of 32 for the third time in program history. They also advanced in 2017-18 and 2019-20.
“You just know what you’re going to get production wise out of Nate, whether that’s 23 points like tonight (against Twin Valley South), or if he’s held to less than 10, he’s going to supplement it with assists and rebounds. He’s just a great player,” said Lions first-year coach Nick Morgan.
This season, Hudson has joined the ranks of the elite players in Lions program history. He’s one of six Lions to score 1,000 points, joining Ryan Reep, Fred Shropshire, Adonis Davis, Jason Channels and Nathan Reep.
Hudson ranks third all-time in scoring, third in steals and fourth in rebounding.
“The thing that gets me about Nate is that everything he has, he’s worked for,” Morgan said. “He’s not that 6-foot-6 athletic beast that can just walk into a gym and put up 25 points. He’s in the gym at 6 a.m., he’s in there before we are, working on his game.”
The love of the game was instilled in him by both of his parents early in his childhood, he said.
“It’s just from an early age, as far as I can remember, watching basketball, my mom playing with me in the driveway,” he said.
The Hudson family’s roots run deep at Emmanuel Christian.
Nate’s father, Jeremy Hudson, was one of the school’s early athletic directors and later served as the Lions soccer coach.
Julie Hudson also served as girls basketball coach in the program’s infancy. She recently joined Karalee Lawrence’s staff at ECA where she helps coach her twin daughters, Abbey and Macey.
Nate’s parents have played a key role in his success, he said.
“They’re not pressuring me, but tell me what it’s going to take to be great and to achieve the goals that I said as a young (child) that I wanted to achieve,” Nate Hudson said. “They’ve helped me every step of the way, just believing.”
The Lions will attempt to reach another milestone against Fort Recovery at 8 p.m. Friday night at Fairborn’s Skyhawk Arena — bringing home the first district championship trophy in program history.
“We don’t need to feel like strangers here,” Morgan said. “We earned the right to be here and to be in this position. I think he’s been at the forefront of that. Everybody in the area knows his name. They’re trying to take him away.”
As a junior, Hudson joined the football team at Springfield High School where he served as the team’s place kicker and punter (he was able to participate because non-public ECA does not offer football). He went 21-of-24 on extra points, made three field goals and had a 31.4 yard punting average in 11 games. He hit a 39-yarder that briefly gave the Wildcats the lead against Hilliard Bradley in a first-round playoff game, but they eventually fell to the Jaguars.
He was set to return to the Wildcats football program for his senior year, but opted to spend the fall preparing for basketball season.
“It was hard,” Hudson said. “I love those guys, and I had a bunch of fun my junior year, but just with the time commitment and realizing that basketball is what I want to play at the next level, I just had to make the hard decision of stepping away. I love those guys. I love that team. It was nothing against the program. I just had to focus on my end goal.”
The hard work paid off as the Lions’ end goal included a MBC championship and a district final berth — none of which he could’ve accomplished without his teammates, he said.
“They believe in me every step of the way,” Hudson said. “You know, the player of the year, that stuff I’ve gotten, it really would not have happened without them being selfless and being able to let me play my game.”
A game built around his mother’s trademark mid-range jumper.
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