Ruben Rodriguez forging legacy as the ultimate winner
Ruben Rodriguez didn’t think he was all that good a basketball player in junior high. Sure, he dropped a bunch of points, 30 at a time, but it didn’t resonate with him.
He didn’t see the big picture. Didn’t realize there would be the opportunity to play at a high level in college. Didn’t envision winning a state championship. Didn’t picture himself as an All-State pick or potentially as a Berks Player of the Year candidate.
Others did.
Muhlenberg coach Tyrone Nesby saw it right away. He was in the early stages of building something special with the Muhls, prepping for his second season after going 9-13 in his first.
Nesby spied the spindly eighth-grader and knew almost immediately he had the point guard to make his open offense hum.
“He saw I was killing them,” Rodriguez said of the junior high competition. “Next thing you know, I’m working out with the varsity team.
“Him just telling me and showing me what I could be, and then finally playing (as a freshman), it showed me what I could do. It was just crazy to see. That really made me more like determined.”
Rodriguez’s reputation as a winner and clutch shot-maker was born during the Muhls’ dramatic run through the 2020 postseason. The freshman hit a pull-up 15-foot jumper with two seconds left to beat Boiling Springs in a District 3 Class 5A semifinal. He acted as if he’d been doing that kind of thing his whole life.
“(Coach) said (during a timeout) look for the best shot possible,” Rodriguez calmly told the Reading Eagle moments after that game, “and that was the best shot.”
“To see a freshman come down, make a big shot like that, that’s huge,” Nesby said. “That’s freaking huge. Unbelievable. That showed a lot of stones.”
A few games later he rescued the Muhls again, scoring on a clear-out with 2.5 seconds left to send a second-round PIAA Tournament game against Shippensburg to overtime. He scored seven points in OT to keep Muhlenberg alive.
| Players of the Year | ||
| 2022 | Ruben Rodriguez | Reading High |
| 2021 | Stevie Mitchell | Wilson |
| 2020 | Stevie Mitchell | Wilson |
| 2019 | Wesley Butler | Reading High |
| 2018 | Wesley Butler | Reading High |
| 2017 | Lonnie Walker IV | Reading High |
| 2016 | Lonnie Walker IV | Reading High |
| 2015 | Lonnie Walker IV | Reading High |
| 2014 | Nana Foulland | Berks Catholic |
| 2013 | Nana Foulland | Berks Catholic |
Little seems to rattle Rodriguez. No moment seems too big. He seemed unaffected by the size of the stage as he led Reading High to the PIAA championship last year. In the most intense game of that entire run he scored 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds against Wilson in the district final.
“He wants the ball at the end,” said his father, Ruben Rodriguez senior, an assistant coach at Reading High. “He’s just so confident in the way he plays. He’s always had that killer instinct.”
Ruben Jr. appears as laid-back and easy going on the court as he is off it. He smiles frequently and genuinely seems to be having a good time, even when the stakes are elevated.
He says he gets more nervous playing a video game against one of his friends than he does in a championship game. He admits he got nervous before taking his driver’s test, but that’s about it.
“Before the game, I’ll have a little nerves, but it is not really because of who we’re playing,” said the 6-1 junior guard. “It’s more, I know what I have to do and I just don’t wanna under-perform.”
That rarely happens. He enters the district tournament as the top scorer in the Berks Conference at 19.4 points per game and as the Player of the Year, an honor accorded earlier this week by the league’s coaches.
He came up big, as he usually does, in the Red Knights’ highest-profile game of the season, against Vertical Academy and national sensation Mikey Williams Jan. 21 at Santander Arena.
He was an All-State pick as a sophomore and has generally been regarded as the best player in town since but was compelled to show something special.
“I felt I needed that game to prove like that I could perform at a high level, in the pressure, against good teams,” said Rodriguez, who scored his 1,000th point in that game. “I feel like I knew I could always compete with them. It was more to show (others).”
Following his freshman season, which ended abruptly because of the COVID-19 outbreak, Rodriguez began to better understand his place in the game and started to take the sport more seriously.
He ran up against more talented players during his AAU season, playing for Team Final Red in Philadelphia, and had an awakening.
“I saw how good people really are,” he said. “It’s not easy to go against someone who’s 6-5, 6-7. So I knew I had work out and work twice as hard to get to be like them.”
During the early days of the COVID shutdown, with gyms and playgrounds closed, he began training with his father: Early morning runs, lifting, working on explosion, speed and balance.
“After (his freshman season) he flipped a switch,” said Ruben Sr. “It was: ‘Whatever you want me to do, I’m gonna do it.’ He was dedicated to it. (Basketball) is his passion; this is what he lives for.”
It shows on the court. The Red Knights play a relentless style, attacking and running the floor for 32 minutes, yet he appears tireless.
Rodriguez made the mistake once of telling Red Knights coach Rick Perez he was fatigured and needed to come out of the game.
It was last year’s county championship against Wilson, a true knock-down, drag-out battle. Perez assured him in no uncertain terms that he was not tired and would stay in the game. That discussion hasn’t come up again.
“He’s not like your typical kid,” Ruben Sr. said. “He wakes up at 4 or 5 in the morning (in the offseason), works out, goes to school, comes back (home) and works out again.”
Rodriguez grew up in Reading, playing in the KTB youth program with current teammates Myles Grey, Amier Burdine and Aris Rodriguez (no relation). He moved to the Muhlenberg district in eighth grade when his father took a job as a police officer in Muhlenberg Township.
While the move benefited him from a basketball standpoint, and he thrived in Nesby’s system, he missed playing with the kids he had grown up with. He and his father moved back to the Reading district for his sophomore year.
“I just felt like this was always where I’ve wanted to play,” he said.
He begins his second playoff run with the Red Knights Friday, when they host Wilson in a District 3 Class 6A quarterfinal at the Geigle. He’ll have a chance to add to his legacy as a born winner. In his first two seasons he has gone 12-0 in district and state play, with a Class 5A district championship in 2020 and a 6A championship in 2021.
The Red Knights are the No. 1 seed in the tournament and considered a top contender for a state title. More trophies could be on the way.
“I’m trying,” he said when asked if he can go 3-for-3, or possibly 4-for-4, in District 3 title games. “I’m trying. Hopefully, we get there.”
