Sidney High School senior Ryan Sullivan is the youngest child in a family of basketball players.

His oldest sister, Ashley, played basketball for two years at Miles Community College and is currently the head coach of Culbertson High School’s girls team. His brother, Jace, played for two years at South Dakota Tech and his other sister, Jordan, is currently a sophomore on the University of Montana women’s basketball team. All three left a mark at Sidney High School, where each played on teams that qualified for the state tournament.

Sullivan hopes to follow in his siblings’ footsteps. He is one of nine seniors on this year’s team, and he believes their combined experience will help them get to the state tournament for the first time in his career. Last year’s team was close, finishing the season with a 16-4 record, but it failed to qualify for the state tournament after losing to Billings Central in the divisional round. Many of Sidney’s seniors have been playing together since they were in third grade. That familiarity makes them a loose, confident bunch, who share the burden of leadership by rotating the co-captain roles on a game-by-game basis.

“It’s something where we can all go to each other,” Sullivan said. “If there’s a conflict, no one’s really scared to say we’ve got to get this done.”

Sullivan helps keep the team relaxed with his silly personality. Described by head coach Dan Strasheim as a “goofball,” Sullivan is known to dance along to music before games. Last year “Stereo Love” by Edward Maya was the team’s go-to pregame anthem. They haven’t settled on a particular song this year, but Sullivan said he’s sure they’ll find something.

Teammate Josh Torgerson describes Sullivan as a “ginger elf” because of his strawberry blond hair and pale complexion. Standing 6-foot-3 with long arms and a strong, athletic 205-pound frame, he is a difficult matchup for opposing defenses because he can post up smaller defenders and attack bigger players off the dribble. “He’s an all-around player,” Strasheim said. “He’s not just a rebounder, he’s not just a scorer. He’s our best defender, and he handles the ball a lot.”

“I’m versatile,” Sullivan said. “I guess that’s the right word to describe me.”

While he has plenty of fun before the game, Sullivan’s competitiveness kicks in at tip-off. He often dives on the floor, and occasionally into the stands, in pursuit of loose balls, and he leads the team in four major statistical categories, averaging 14.1 points, 9.5 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 3.4 blocks. Numerous times he has nearly recorded a triple-double, finishing two blocks shy of the accomplishment in one game this season and two assists shy in another. Should he finally reach double figures in three different categories, it would be the program’s first triple-double since his brother, Jace, accomplished the feat in 2004.

Sullivan began playing basketball in third grade after he came home from school with a wrestling brochure. He told his parents he wanted to wrestle, but his dad Rollie, who was the high school boys basketball coach at the time, wanted his son to play basketball, so he organized a traveling basketball team for Sullivan and his friends.

Sullivan grew to love basketball, and playing in the NBA became one of his childhood aspirations, along with his dream of becoming Spiderman.

His favorite basketball player is Lebron James of the Miami Heat, something that became obvious to everyone when he was hypnotized at last year’s after-prom activities. “The hypnotist asked who’s your hero, and I guess I was going nuts for Lebron,” he said.

As a freshman, Sullivan was a gangly 6-foot, 135-pound beanpole who saw some varsity playing time as a substitute. He began to fill out his frame as a sophomore, becoming a starter and a defensive specialist. As a junior, Sullivan earned all-state honors, finishing second on the team with 12.0 points per game, and leading the Eagles in four other categories as he averaged 8.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 2.3 blocks and 2.3 steals.

“I just started being more aggressive as a junior,” Sullivan said.

Strasheim attributes Sullivan’s improvement to his work in the weight room. “As a freshman he was pretty thin and got muscled around a bit,” Strasheim said. “He’s gotten a lot stronger.”

Sullivan has continued to improve this season, leading the Eagles to a 6-2 record overall, with a 2-1 record against conference opponents. After winning their first three games of the season, the Eagles stumbled in a non-conference contest against Wolf Point. They rebounded with a win against Plentywood in their first game after Christmas, before losing a conference game to Billings Central. With seven conference games remaining, they have plenty of time to secure a high seed for the divisional tournament, where they need to finish among the top two to reach their goal of qualifying for state.

“That’s the expectation,” Sullivan said. “That’s what we want to do.”

Away from the basketball court, Sullivan also plays football and is a high-jumper on the Sidney track team. He was a second-team all-conference selection at outside linebacker and an all-conference honorable mention at quarterback this fall and he finished sixth in the high jump at the Class A state track and field meet last spring, clearing 5-feet, 6 inches. In his free time, he enjoys playing “Call of Duty” on his Xbox, and occasionally gives in to his guilty pleasure and watches “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” with his mom, Sandy.

Sullivan would like to play basketball in college and has received interest from the University of Montana-Western and Dickinson State University. His long-term goal is to teach history and coach high school basketball. “You know you’re not going to go pro, but being around the game for as long as you can is something that I want to do,” he said.