BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Jamestown native Bryan Hodgson and Niagara Falls native Roddy Gayle return to Western New York as the NCAA Tournament begins at the KeyBank Center.
To understand what this opportunity means to Hodgson, you also have to understand where he comes from.
Hodgson is the head coach of the University of South Florida men’s basketball team. On Thursday, he’ll coach in his first NCAA Tournament game as a head coach. And it just so happens to be up the road from his hometown.
“(I’m) very fortunate to be back home in Western New York,” Hodgson said. “I see a lot of familiar faces. I'm going to have 38 family members at the game. It's amazing. This is home.”
Hodgson graduated from Jamestown High School before playing basketball at Jamestown Community College. He fell in love with the game while going to St. Bonaventure basketball games with his brother and spending countless hours on the court behind his house.
But before any of this, Hodgson went through serious trauma. He was placed into the foster care system after being abused as a two-year-old.
“I was set on a burning wood stove in Olean, New York, at two years old as a punishment for wetting my diaper,” Hodgson explained. “It left me with burns down my entire leg. But it's, it's also a memory. I still have those scars on my legs. I've got one on each leg, and they used to take up my entire back thigh, and now they're about the size of a 50-cent piece. It serves as a reminder of where I come from and the people in my life that have provided me this opportunity.”
When his team takes the court on Tuesday, he’ll have more than three dozen family members rooting him on. It’s a safe bet there will be plenty of South Florida fans inside KeyBank Center.
WATCH: 'This is home': USF men's basketball coach reflects as he returns to WNY to coach in NCAA tournament
In the later session, plenty of Western New Yorkers will be cheering on the Michigan Wolverines and Niagara Falls native Roddy Gayle. The Wolverines' senior went to Lewiston-Porter High School and has been a key player for Michigan.
“To play for the University of Michigan and being a No. 1 seed playing in Buffalo, it's like a dream come true,” Gayle said on Wednesday. “Like so many people dream of this moment, and for it to be in my hometown in my senior year, it's just a storybook ending.”
Like Hodgson, Gayle will have plenty of fans in the building. He’s hoping they can watch him and his teammates start a deep Michigan run that ends with a National Championship.
“I'm just super excited that the 716 is coming out and supporting a guy like me," Gayle said.
WATCH: NCAA tournament dreams begin in Buffalo for WNY natives Bryan Hodgson and Roddy Gayle
