By Robert Wilson
MADISON – Madison-Ridgeland Academy’s No. 12 number – the one that was worn by the player who scored most points in a high school career than anyone in Mississippi boys basketball history – was fittingly retired Friday night.
MRA’s Josh Hubbard – who scored 4,367 points during brilliant career from 2018 to 2023, breaking a record that stood for 37 years – is the first player in MRA’s boys basketball history to have his number retired. Hubbard, now in his senior season playing for Mississippi State, was also recognized Friday night as MRA’s 2026 Distinguished Alumnus, the youngest person ever to received the award.
Hubbard received his award and had his jersey retirement presentation at a ceremony with about 100 family and friends at the Thompson Board Room, overlooking Patriot Field prior to the MRA-Hartfield Academy football game. Also, Hubbard was honored at halftime with a presentation at midfield along with his family.
“Josh is a great athlete, but people need to know how hard he has worked,” MRA head of school Termie Land said. “He spend a lot of time in that gym practicing daily, in and out of that gym, and worked hard in the weight room, and conditioning. The best thing about Josh is not that he’s a great athlete and basketball player, it’s the person that the is. He’s genuine, he’s authentic, he’s special. Josh comes to school here and interacts with all of the students just like he was one of these students still. He goes out on the elementary playground and plays with those students and makes them feel like they are ten feet tall because of the type person that he is.”
“Josh was a special player, but what I’ll remember most is the person he was,” said former MRA coach Richard Duease, who coached Hubbard and is the winningest basketball coach in Mississippi history and a member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame before retiring earlier this year after 51 seasons, the last 44 at MRA. “Getting to coach him, watch him grow, and see him accomplish things most players only dream about was a privilege. His jersey belongs in the fathers, but more importantly, Josh’s impact will always be a part of MRA basketball.”
“Josh’s ability to score is what helped him gain notoriety, but having had the privilege of watching him be a classmate of my son Sam from third-12th grade, I can say that the man Josh has become is more impressive,” said Ross Hailey, who has been a part of MRA basketball as an assistant coach and athletic director since 1998 before moving to the MAIS as Director of Athletics his summer. “He’s a great player. He has a great family and he has as heart for helping others that is unmatched. Josh was a quiet kid at MRA, but in a good way. He never had to have all the attention, but he handled well the attention he did receive. Josh helps others and he checks in on teachers and coaches at MRA whenever he’s in town. He has an eye on his future, but he appreciates the past stops of his journey very well.”
“Before I coached Josh in 2022-2023, I knew him as Jordan Hubbard’s little brother back when I was playing (at MRA),” said MRA first-year head coach Harper Hudnall, who was an assistant coach under Duease and was promoted to head coach when Duease retired after last season. “Josh was in the fourth or fifth grade my senior year and he would always come into the gym when the elementary school let out and watch our practices. At the end of each practice, he’s always get out on the floor and start shooting around with us. And even as a little elementary kid, he was still letting it fly from deep. Fast forward seven years and I get to coach him as part of that 2023 6A state championship team. So that was really special. His relationships, not just with me, but with everyone involved with our program runs deep. Whenever he’s back in Madison, he’s always asking if he can come to practice. It usually starts off as him participating in some shooting drills, but soon it turns into him coaching and encouraging our guys as they compete the rest of practice. It’s always so cool to watch the way he pours back into the program that the’s left such a huge mark on.”
Hubbard averaged 27.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.1 steals and led MRA to a 34-8 record and the MAIS Class 6A state championship and was named the Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year as senior in 2022-2023.
He has continued his success at Mississippi State. Hubbard has won the Bailey Howell Award, given to the best college player in Mississippi, each of his three seasons at MSU, the first player ever to do this. He has been an All-SEC selection each year. Hubbard has 1,947 career points, fourth best in school history, and has the school record with 311 3-pointers made and an SEC record with 69 consecutive games with a 3-pointer made. He was in the Top 10 in the SEC in scoring (third at 22.1), 3-pointers made (second at 2.97 per game), and 3-point percentage (eighth at 34.7 percent).
Hubbard, as expected, was humble as he received the award and recognition of having his jersey retired.
“It means a lot and is a surreal moment of all the pain, sweat and tears I put in,” Hubbard said. “Me mentors like Coach Duease and Dad (Jason Hubbard) are huge reasons why this happened because they pushed me daily to become what I am now.”
“I’m often reminded our conversation when Josh was only an eighth grader,” Jason Hubbard said. “I would tell him if you don’t cheat the system and stay humble and hungry, your rewards will be endless. Only God can do this. This moment in time makes us grateful for all the long nights and hard days of commitment to reach milestones such as this. I’ve been blessed with an amazing family, especially my wife, Betty, and our five amazing children, Jay, Jasmine, Jordan, Jada, and of course, Josh, for all of us supporting him even when it was really tough times, but we endured it all with God being our help.”
There is so much more to Hubbard than basketball and why he was honored as such any early age for MRA’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Hubbard was chosen as the 2026 Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup winner for his exceptional leadership, character and commitment to community service, the only male college athlete to win this award in the country. He hosts the Josh Hubbard Showcase, a basketball camp, which has more than 250 aspiring athletes and awarded around $75,000 in scholarships money over the last three years. Hubbard has partnered with Make-A-Wish Mississippi and launched a “Buckets for Wishes” campaign where every 3-pointer he made in 2025-2026 resulted in donations from sponsors and donors that directly funded wishes for children in Mississippi. The Buckets for Wishes campaign granted 12 wishes for children and raised more than $75,000. Hubbard handed out 100 holiday gifts in December 2025 that he purchased at Blair Batson’s Children of Mississippi hospital in Jackson, the same hospital where he was a patient for 19 days when he was nine years old. As a child, Hubbard was diagnosed and treated with Kawasaki disease, which is a condition causing inflammation in the walls of some blood vessels in his body. He teamed with his shows, Aerus, and US Foods to provide food and donations to Ballas Family Community Kitchen, which serves 200 meals a day to the less fortunate in Greenwood. He worked closely with Mississippi Lieutenant Gov. Delbert Hosemann on a public awareness campaign to reduce rates of chronic absenteeism among school children in the spring of 2025.
“Josh came to MRA as a third grader, and over the next ten years, we had the privilege of watching an extraordinary story unfold,” said MRA chairman the board of trustees Alan Hart, as he recognized Hubbard at the ceremony Friday night. “Certainly, we watched one of the greatest basketball players our state has ever produced. But even more importantly, we watched a young man grow into someone who represents MRA in the most exemplary way—through his humility, his integrity, his work ethic, his faithfulness to others, and his commitment to using his gifts to make a difference. The portrait of an MRA graduate asks us to think beyond what our students accomplish and instead consider who they become. We want graduates who lead with integrity, serve others, use their gifts well, and understand that true success carries with it a responsibility to make life better for those around them. Josh Hubbard is doing exactly that. That combination – extraordinary achievement paired with extraordinary character – is what makes Josh such a fitting choice as our Distinguished Alumnus. There is something especially meaningful about honoring Josh while his story is still being written. We don’t know yet all that he will accomplish, where basketball will take him, or how many lives he will ultimately influence. But we already know something much more important about him. We know who he is. He is a competitor and a champion, certainly. But he is also humble. He is generous. He remembers where he came from. He understands the influence he has on young people, and he has chosen to use that influence for good. That is why, despite his young age, there could not be a more deserving recipient of this honor. One honor recognizes what Josh accomplished in a Patriot uniform. The other recognizes the man he has become since taking it off. He have represented his family, his university, his home state, and his alma mater with distinction. Josh reminds us that greatness is not simply about records broken, points scored, or trophies won. It is about what you choose to do with the opportunities and influence you have been given.”
