The Stuckman family has built a rich sports pedigree at Quincy University.

Ryan Stuckman played basketball at QU from 2011-13. Ryan’s older brother, Kurt, played volleyball for QU in the 90s. Kurt’s son Tanner recently concluded his redshirt junior basketball season, during which he was an all-Great Lakes Valley Conference performer and averaged nearly 19 points and 6 rebounds per game.

Kurt said watching Tanner grow and develop as a player has been one of those ‘proud dad’ moments.

“I always knew he had the desire and skills to get better,” he said. “It’s been fun watching the hard work he’s put in every day in the gym. He’s made a lot of sacrifices in his life just to get to where he is today. That’s what it takes for any of us to be successful; it takes sacrifice. While many people were out having fun and doing whatever, he was in the gym grinding, working on his skills and just working on being a better player. His dream is to play professionally, so it’s been fun taking a back seat and watching him pursue his dreams.”

Not only has Tanner grown physically and skillfully over the course of his basketball career, but he has grown mentally, as well, which he said was evident this past season.

“The biggest thing has been maturity and just letting the game come to me and not freaking out like I did when I was younger,” he said. “You know, you’re playing against bigger, possibly better guys, and they might be bigger, but I can still use my skill set to score over them.”

Ryan said he sees a little bit of his game in Tanner’s…minus the fact that Tanner is about seven inches taller than Ryan.

“I think he picked up a lot of things when he used to come watch me play,” he said. “There are little things he does on the court, just smart things, things that the layman’s eyes don’t see, but I can sit up in the stands and be like, ‘That might be something I would have done back in the day.'”

Another future athlete will enter the Stuckman family tree very soon. Ryan and his wife Rachel will become parents to a baby girl in June.

How are the preparations going?

“Honestly, with this being our first, I have no idea,” he said. “I like to think we’re prepared, but that could be something where once the baby comes, we might look around and be like, ‘Do we have everything? I don’t know.’ Obviously, my family on my side has had kids, and Rachel’s sister has two young ones, so we’ve gotten a good deal of information from them. I’m not too worried.”

Ryan and Rachel haven’t officially decided on a name for baby Stuckman quite yet. They have kicked around a few names (no pun intended), but, of course, that is confidential information.