Believe it or not, George Reidy used to be the little guy on the basketball court.

The Cedar Park Christian senior now stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 185 pounds, but it took a while for him to get there.

With a laugh, Reidy noted that he stood 5-9 as a freshman and “I didn’t grow till really my sophomore, junior year. I kind of just steadily progressed.” In his elementary school years, he played a grade or two up and began immersing himself in the point-guard position.

These days, the fourth-year Eagle varsity guy possesses the height of a forward, but still thrives in that point-guard role. He’s the tall guy, but still the small guy in a way.

Reidy is making a huge impact for the Eagles by averaging 26 points per game — about 11 more per contest than last year — and lit up the scoreboard with a season-high 41 points against Seattle Christian.

Last year, he was a first-team 1A Cascade Conference player, a few steps up from his honorable-mention spot the year before — so he continues to move forward over time. He credits Cedar Park coach Adam Lynch for pushing and motivating him to succeed.

Reidy and Lynch spent tons of time in the gym in the offseason, including 5 a.m. training sessions.

“Just getting in the gym every day, just staying faithful to it and trusting the process and finding ways to get it done,” Reidy said of his progression up the hoops ladder.

They worked on Reidy’s 3-point shooting and furthered his ball-handling and decision-making skills to apply to his point-guard position.

“I try to make as many good decisions as I can per game and limit the bad ones,” Reidy said. “Your job is to orchestrate an offense, be able to read the defense (and) distribute. I love that analytical process and decision making about it.”

Even if he’s guarding the perimeter, Lynch’s game plan gives Reidy opportunities to box out and crash the boards to snag plenty of rebounds.

“Physicality and playing with a fire has always been something I’ve been coached to do,” Reidy said.

Lynch, whose squad was 8-11 overall and 4-7 in league at press time, said that Reidy is talented, coachable and a joy to talk about with coaches and others.

“He’s getting a lot of interest in terms of college coaches right now, and I tell every single one of those guys he has the best motor of any kid I’ve been around. Day to day, just plays max effort all the time — and that’s defense and offense,” Lynch said.

Reidy got some big-time experience playing with the AAU Eastside Basketball Club’s 17U squad in spring tournaments in Oregon, California and Nevada. He battled it out against bigger players and was also in awe watching coaches Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University and John Calipari of the University of Kentucky checking out the talent.

The Eagle hasn’t decided on a college yet, but plans to lock one in during the spring after he feels out some programs to see what works best for him on the basketball and academics levels.

“That’s been a dream of mine ever since a little kid, and hearing my dad’s stories about him playing college basketball really motivated me to get where I am right now,” said Reidy, who sports a 3.7 grade-point average at Cedar Park and plans to major in business management in college.

Reidy remembers shooting a ball through his Little Tikes hoop starting at 4 years old and taking his game from inside the house to the basketball court as he got older. As for family athletes who helped pave the way, his dad played college ball at Pacific Lutheran University and his uncle still holds running records at Meadowdale High and also ran at the University of Montana.

As a baseball player, Reidy helped lead Cedar Park to a second-place 1A state finish last year. He hit about .400 and notched a .500 on-base percentage as the Eagles’ leadoff hitter. He mainly played third base, and the year before, he tried his hand at seven of the nine positions.

For now, though, Reidy is all about basketball and helping guide his fellow starters — Trenton Lynch, Luke Allen, Dawson Drews and Ryan Baker — through their early years with the Cedar Park squad.

“We have a lot of really skilled freshmen. Down the road, I think our team is gonna be scary good, especially with the experience all the freshmen and sophomores are getting right now in playing in these varsity games,” Reidy said.