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Luke Ruggery Talks About Love for BG, Basketball, and Future in Business
Some people know him as @ruggzzz on the popular app Tik Tok. To be exact, 617,500 plus people recognize this handle because of his dance videos among a few other videos he creates with his brothers and friends. However, few of those followers likely know the impact Luke Ruggery has had on Bishop Guilfoyle boys basketball along.
As many know, Bishop Guilfoyle is a football school. The Marauders have consistently been one of the top football programs in the state over the last decade, and the program has won multiple state titles in that time frame. Like many of his good friends and classmates, Ruggery did grow up playing football, but stopped playing in middle school because he saw more of a future for himself in basketball.
Each of his parents (Gina and Jay) were standout basketball players for Bishop Guilfoyle, and his father was a college basketball player for some time at Penn State Altoona. His parents were supportive of his desire to train all year long for basketball, and the results paid off. Ruggery began training with Doug West and played for the Doug West Defenders in middle school, and this is when he started seeing some personal results from spending the extra time in the gym. Ruggery did not always see the results on the scoreboard, however. “I remember playing in some of those AAU tournaments, and we just got our butts absolutely kicked. We got stomped. It pushed us and motivated us, though. We eventually got good enough and beat a good portion of teams we lost to before after some time.”
While Ruggery grew up in Duncansville, there was never any doubt he was going to Bishop Guilfoyle. Ruggery lettered four times and saw consistent improvements over his high school career. His personal contributions and improvements were also helping build something special in Altoona. Ruggery eyed a state championship, and seeing his classmates win one in football was the visualization he needed to prove to himself it could be done.
Going into his senior season, Ruggery trained harder than he ever had before. He worked out three times a day, but he pushed himself a little bit too hard. In fact, he missed the first half of the season in his senior year due to a fracture in his back. He used the rest of the regular season and early postseason play to get back into the full swing of things, but he admits he did not feel like himself till late in the District 6 playoffs or early in states. Regardless, Ruggery made his presence once again felt in his senior season. He scored 20 points per game for the second consecutive season while also locking up the opponents best guard on defense. He helped the Marauders win the D6 title over rival West Branch, and this started “the run”.
The Marauders entered the state playoffs winners of fifteen straight games, but they would not stop there. After a 100-64 wholoping of Sto-Rox in the first round of states, the Marauders were tested a little more by Coudersport. They still came out on top by double-digits, and the fun really started to begin. After a three point victory of Farrell in the state quarterfinals and then a one point victory over Our Lady of Sacred Heart, Ruggery and the Marauders found themselves in the state title game against Math Civics and Sciences.
The Marauders were winning in the fourth quarter, but fell just short of capturing gold in Hershey. Ruggery had the ball in his hands at the end of the game, but a full court press stopped his momentum and did not allow him to get a look. It is a moment that bothered him for some time, but a moment that has motivated him to keep getting better and improving his game. As a sophomore in high school, Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania offered the local product a full scholarship. It was his first Division I offer, and it was the only offer he needed. He verbally committed not longer after, and remained loyal to his verbal commitment. He officially signed his national letter of intent a few weeks before his final high school season, and the Marauders officially had their first Division I basketball players in forty years. Everyone is quick to see the run to the state title game and him signing his national letter of intent, but few know how much work went into him getting there.
For most of middle school and all of high school, Ruggery had a trainer to help him develop his shooting ability and range. The result was Ruggery setting the program record for points in a high school career along with the school record in three pointers made. His shooting ability is a huge part of his game, and when you are an undersized guard, it is a part of a players game that needs to be spot on.
Most of his life, he was told he was small, but he has done what he could to combat that by putting in the extra work, playing with great energy, and also hitting the weightroom harder during high school. He has been a regular at Core Competitive Sports Academy since 2015, and he has seen great results from the workouts he gets done there. Working out consistently with Doug West in the gym has also meant a great deal to him, and West has helped push him to become the player he is today.
In his first college season at Saint Francis, Ruggery accepted a redshirt. It was a good option for him as now he can pick up a master’s degree and get four full years of playing. The Red Flash had four senior guards on the 2019-2020 squad, and Ruggery will be one of the few returning guards on the team next year.
The former Marauder is majoring in accounting and finance and hopes to pick up a masters in business administration during his fifth year of school. He also has interested in becoming a certified public accountant in his future, but truly has his eyes set on making basketball a part of his career post college. Whether it is playing professionally or coaching, he never wants to give up the game that has given him so much.
While there have been many people mentioned previously, Ruggery wanted to give special shoutouts to his lifelong friends who he made from playing travel basketball and at Bishop Guilfoyle. Several of his high school teammates are or soon will be college athletes and they all left their individual marks on the program. To this day, he will regularly get together with his high school friends to hang out, and their run to the state title game is a common topic of conversation still.
Ruggery also wanted to give a mention of the incredible coaching staff at Saint Francis University for pushing him to become a better person and for always believing him. Ruggery has known some of the coaches for several years because he was a regular at the Saint Francis basketball camps in the summer months. He wanted to also mention the appreciation for his parents and his brothers (Kurt, Kyle, and Troy) for pushing him and supporting him in his journey.
Before he got to Saint Francis, Ruggery was blessed with a great coaching staff at Bishop Guilfoyle, including his head coach Chris Drenning. “The staff at BG helped me out tremendously by moving me to varsity as a freshman. They always believed in the work I put in and my abilities as a player.”
For the rest of his college career, Ruggery has his eyes set on bringing back a NEC title to Laretto. The Red Flash have been close in recent years, but fell just short of their goal in making the NCAA Tournament. He hopes to experience the NCAA Tournament as a player, and few things would mean more during his time as a college player.
The Duncansville native has left his blood, sweat, tears, and even some teeth on the court in his time as a basketball player, but he keeps coming back for more. He is an incredibly resilient and driven individual, and has made sure that if Tik Tok gets shut down that he has other ways to stay connected with his followers. If the NCAA allows athletes to make money off their likeness in the coming years, Ruggery will certainly be a highly sought after free agent for product endorsements. Nothing in life worth having comes easy, and becoming the player he is today has surely not been easy for this small town kid.
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