When North Dakota State University senior Ben Woodside was a young boy in Albert Lea, his parents told him he could play whatever sport he wanted.

He started out playing hockey in fifth grade and then added basketball in sixth. For a while he played both, but then he decided to stick with basketball.

Basketball is sort of a family tradition with the Woodside family. Ben’s parents, Robbi and Paul, both played basketball, and both sets of grandparents were also involved with the sport, Paul said in an interview Friday. But they always made sure to give Ben the option to let him pick whichever he wanted to do.

The proud parents reflected on their son’s journey from a young Albert Lea boy who played basketball in his neighborhood park to a standout point guard at North Dakota State who has attracted the attention of the American sports world, from ESPN’s “SportsCenter” to fans who root for Cinderella teams.

The parents showed pictures of Ben shooting a basketball into a plastic toy basketball hoop before he was even 5.

When he got a little older, Ben could be found practicing at what is now called Valley Park, which is just a block or two away from his house on Sheridan Street, his mother said.

“He had the ability to dribble, to go to the basket,” said Paul, a physical education teacher at Halverson Elementary School. “We kind of taught him that. But to become good, you have to practice. He practiced a lot.”

In fact, Paul and Robbi said, they never had to tell him to go practice; they just had to tell him to come home. He’d practice for hours at a time.

“In high school, I used to say, ‘Don’t you think you need to get a job?’” said Robbi, a dental hygienist. “He said, ‘No, this is my job.’”

From graduation at Albert Lea High School in 2004 — where he was the first-ever three-time recipient of the Tribune’s Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year — Ben went on to North Dakota State.

The college team is now in its first season as a NCAA Division I competitor and has made it to the NCAA tournament.

Ben has set numerous records, including the career scoring point record at the university, NDSU’s career record for free throws, and the most points scored in nine years in a single game by a player in a Division I game.

“I actually play basketball, too,” Ben’s seventh-grade sister, Bryn, said. “It motivates me to want to do better.”

The family said they were in the stands during the Summit League title game Tuesday. The game was the deciding factor in whether the team would play in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in its first year of eligibility.

When Ben scored the game-winning basket, Bryn said, “I started crying, I was very excited.”

At least one person from the family has been there in person for about two-thirds of Ben’s games, Robbi said. She figures the family puts about 10,000 miles on their car during a basketball season.

The family said they were leaning toward staying home to watch the tournament selection show tonight, though they had talked about going to watch it in person.

While there’s “many things in the works right now,” as far as recruitment to the NBA or another professional basketball team is concerned, right now Ben is just going to concentrate on the end of the season and the games at hand, Paul and Robbi said.

“Ben always had dreams about this stuff,” Robbi said.

The parents joked they were each going to fill out at least one tournament bracket with NDSU going all the way to the finals.