Riley Bugg – Basketball  

Riley Bugg is no stranger to hard work. In fact, that's one of his favorite things about his sport. 

"Ever since I was little, I was bigger than everyone else," he said. "I used to love baseball, but once I got a basketball in my hands, I didn't want to stop playing. I didn't really like working at baseball as much, like before and after practices on my own, but at basketball, I love getting better. I love going out and working at it." 

The rising sophomore will be the shooting guard for the Skippers' men's basketball team again this season and he's got big goals as he prepares for what's next. 

"I'm not sure where I'll go next. It'll depend on the degrees and programs, but I'd like to still keep playing," Bugg said.  

Currently, Bugg is studying business at SC4 and will graduate with a general business associate's degree. He said he'd like to either pursue a career in construction management or agriculture from there.  

"My dad is a foreman at a construction company, so I've been working with him the last two summers. It's something he's always done, and I like it too," he said. "And I love being around farms. I pretty much grew up on a farm. I love being in the middle of nowhere and not having to deal with people." 

Graduating from the smaller, rural school that North Branch is, moving to Port Huron was an adjustment for Bugg. He stayed on campus in the dorms, which he said he like, although it was very different from home. 

"The first year in the dorm was nice. You get a feel for the area and get to know what's around. My friends would come over and we'd play video games, and there are a lot of restaurants, so we'd go out to eat," Bugg said. "But I'm not used to being in an actual city. It was a big difference from the small farm town. Instead of walking out in the morning and looking at the woods, I would walk out and see a parking lot full of cars."  

Another adjustment Bugg had to make was the level of competition, but he was more than willing to rise to the challenge with the help of his teammates.  

"It was a big transition from high school. The competition level was a lot better, but it was awesome to see how hard we worked in practice and pushed each other to get better each day," he said. "Everybody loved each other, there was no singling someone out and that opens to accept everybody in the locker room that first week made it feel like family."  

He said chose SC4 because the program would allow him to play right away, rather than waiting a year as a redshirt freshman.  

"The biggest thing was that I wanted to play. A lot of the other schools talked about redshirting me because I was so young for my grade," Bugg said. "But SC4 said that we love the talent you have right now, and we can still use you to help us win." 

And that's just what he did with his average of 15.5 points per game, ending the year with a season-high of 23 points in the Skippers' final game against Wayne County Community College.