by Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
Sue Guevara knew she had a gem when she saw one in Presley Hudson. Guevara, the Central Michigan University women’s basketball coach, also had a pizza.
“It seems like yesterday I was sitting at the dinner table having pizza with the (Hudson) family trying to convince her to come to Central,” Guevara said.
The pizza is long forgotten. Hudson? She’s been the entrée of Guevara’s Central Michigan women’s basketball program as it has blossomed into the best in the Mid-American Conference and ascended to national prominence.
A spitfire point guard with a steely intensity, Hudson committed to CMU before her junior year of basketball at Wayland Union High School.
Now on the eve of her final year as a Chippewa, Hudson has delivered. And then some.
Hudson has been named the Dick Enberg Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award winner, one of the highest individual honors a Chippewa student-athlete can achieve. The award goes to a Chippewa who epitomizes athletic and academic achievement and is considered a leader of his or her team.
Such is the case with Hudson, who is studying to be a physical activity specialist and carries a 3.7 grade point average. She joins a prestigious list of former Chippewa student-athletes, some of the very best and brightest to have ever worn the Maroon and Gold.
“I’m just really blessed to get the award,” said Hudson, who will be introduced and presented the award Saturday during the CMU-Ball State football game at Kelly/Shorts Stadium. “To be in this group of people is really amazing. To think that people think that of me, that they recognize my hard work on and off the court.”
Hudson has started every game – an even 100 – since setting foot on campus before the 2015-16 season. She has been the point guard since day one, averaging 16.4 points and 4.5 assists per game. She is fourth in program history with 1,635 career points and, barring injury, should supplant Crystal Bradford at the top of that list (Bradford scored 2,006 from 2011-15) when it’s all said and done.
Hudson’s name appears on nearly every game, season and career top-10 list in the program record book.
Yet her influence far exceeds the numbers.
“She is a program changer,” Guevara said. “Our players saw all the work she put in. They started showing up a half hour early because they saw how much it pays off. When your best player is your hardest worker, you’re living the dream. She carries that into the classroom.”
The Chippewas have reached unprecedented heights since Hudson’s arrival, culminating last March in a program-record 30 victories, a Sweet Sixteen appearance, a second consecutive Mid-American Conference regular-season championship, and the Chippewas’ first league tournament title since 2013.
Hudson, the MAC Freshman of the Year in 2015-16, has been named to the All-MAC First Team in each of the past two seasons. She should, without question, draw serious MAC Player of the Year and All-America consideration this season.
“All the bigger schools (have) asked me, ‘Where was she?'” said Guevara, reflecting on recent conversations with her coaching contemporaries. “And, you know, it’s like ‘You don’t understand the size of her heart, her brain, or her work ethic.'”
Hudson drew interest from just one other Division I school, Eastern Michigan. Today, she is unquestionably on the short list of the best to have ever played at CMU, and, perhaps, the MAC.
More titles and another NCAA Tournament run are on Hudson’s immediate radar, and those of her teammates. Long term, she wants to play professionally and, eventually, do for others what others have done for her.
“I just always have had a passion for basketball and once I’m done playing, if I get that chance I want to be involved in basketball, help other kids succeed as well and share my knowledge of the game,” she said. “I think a lot of (my success) is the coaches. They’ve helped me grow a lot through my years here. Teammates have helped me grow, giving me advice on what I need to work on, what I need to get better at.”
Guevara, who is in her 12th year in charge of the Chippewa program, is keenly aware that as Hudson has grown, the program has followed. Though both coach and player are quick to point out that contributions have come from several corners, including 2017-18 MAC Player of the Year and All-American Tinara Moore, rebounding machine Reyna Frost, ascending guard Micaela Kelly, and the recently graduated Cassie Breen, the 2017 Enberg Award winner.
Still, Hudson has been the catalyst.
“I’ve watched Pres grow as a young woman, and watched her take more responsibility,” Guevara said. “I always told her, ‘Yeah, you work hard, but look who’s following you?’ The team.
“She’s going to be one heck of a coach when she grows up. She’s a role model. I’m so happy she got the Dick Enberg Award. That speaks highly of the student-athletes we have on the team. My heart could not be smiling harder because her work is paying off.”
Hudson, daughter of Wayland High School varsity basketball coach Mike Hudson and sister of girls’ varsity coach Wes Hudson, was all-state at Wayland in 2015 and was runner-up in the Miss Basketball balloting that year.
