The sisters were afforded the spectrum of childhood activities -- dance, soccer, softball, volleyball, track, piano, saxophone and drums. But it was basketball, their father David's sport of choice at Ferris State, that stuck with Morgan Tuck so much that she'd pull on a hat and gloves in the middle of winter to shovel the snow from the family's basketball court so she could play.
She started as a 7-year-old on an 8-year-old team and played up a club level or two every year until 8th grade. That meant she was one of the smaller players on the four state-champion summer-league teams coached by her father and often took a back seat as her skills developed. While she coveted the post position occupied by her sister, she was kept at point guard.
"I remember her once coming home from practice meltdown-angry at her father because Taylor could play center and she could not," said Lydia Tuck, her mother. "She took her lumps for a while."
Those lumps turned out to be stepping stones. As Tuck began to grow into a bigger build by the 7th grade, the experience of playing against older opponents began to pay off. By the summer before 8th grade, while Taylor Tuck and Bolingbrook prepared for what would become a 2008 4A runner-up finish, Morgan led her team to a 12-under national title.
"She was always playing two years up," Taylor Tuck said. "Now that she's playing older girls, it just comes natural to her. She's not nervous. She's comfortable playing against anybody. I think it's a big part of why she's so good now."
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