Thomas Sorber, a former Archbishop Ryan star, enjoyed a meteoric rise. Up next is the NBA and a family dream come true.

Thomas Sorber often needed to be out the door by 4:30 a.m. to head to the train station for his trip from Trenton to Philly.

The young teenager would wait for more than an hour, sometimes in the cold or rain, before the sun rose. And once Sorber arrived in the city, coach Joe Zeglinski or a classmate would pick him up and give him a ride to Archbishop Ryan High School.

Sorber’s former school, Trenton Catholic, was in danger of shutting down, prompting the transfer to Ryan. But his mother, Tenneh — who had been raising two sons by herself since their father died of colon cancer when Thomas was 6 years old — needed to be at work by 6 a.m. And Thomas was not yet old enough to drive himself into the city.

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That was one of several sacrifices the Sorber family made to chase Thomas’ basketball dream, which will pay off at this week’s NBA draft. The agile 6-foot-10 big man rapidly morphed into a projected lottery pick during his one season at Georgetown, honing skills as an offensive hub and defensive force inside the practice gym with legends Dikembe Mutombo, Patrick Ewing, and Alonzo Mourning adorning the walls. The 19-year-old — who still wears braces but possesses old-school music tastes that became the soundtrack for the Hoyas’ practices — is described by coach Ed Cooley as an “energy-giver at the highest level” around his team and on the court.

Tenneh marvels that her son has always possessed this quality, that she “can’t give anything that Thomas ever said that he was going to do, and he didn’t do it.” Yet Thomas proudly assures that the motivation to push toward the NBA stems from his mother.

“I would play like there was a target on my back,” Sorber told The Inquirer. “ … At the end of the day, I just want to make my mom happy, [to] not have her work another day.”

Saturday mornings for the Sorber boys, Thomas and Peter, would begin at the park, where their father, also named Peter, taught them how to shoot a basketball.

Their parents had fled Civil War-torn Liberia to move to the United States in the late 1990s. And while Dad was a soccer aficionado and coach, neither son fully took to the sport. Track and field also did not land. But both boys — plus their older sister, Regina — loved basketball. So Thomas began playing in Trenton’s Catholic Youth Organization league, and tagged along to Peter’s summer camps and workouts in Northeast Philly with well-known trainer Jimmy Dillon.

“Thomas would always be crying, because he was so little,” Tenneh said. “They’re not giving him the ball, or it was just too much. … Gradually, Thomas started picking up.”

On the elder Peter’s deathbed, he asked Tenneh to keep their sons in Catholic school — and playing basketball. She worked two or three jobs at a time, with paychecks immediately going to groceries to feed her growing boys while she sometimes went to bed hungry. She candidly told them she could not also save for college tuition, and that a basketball scholarship would be their path to continuing education.

“I tried to keep a good face, because the kids were looking right into my eyes,” Tenneh said by telephone last week. “If they see me crying, they ask me why. … It’s like they’re afraid to lose me, so I said to myself, ‘I’ve got to be strong for these kids,’ because I was going through a lot.”

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So Mom drove Thomas to and from Delaware each weekend for club-team practices, and zipped between both sons’ games. Peter, who is about five years older than Thomas, played for local AAU power Team Final, then for Morgan State before transferring to Lincoln University. Regina, who is more than 15 years older than Thomas, played for Alabama A&M.

So Tenneh naturally wanted Thomas to follow his brother to Team Final, but Thomas did not want to leave his friends. Mom slipped $20 to program director Rob Brown, telling him to coax Thomas with a post-practice fast food run for chicken nuggets and a milkshake.

The incentive worked. So did the intensified training.

“When Thomas came back,” Tenneh said, “oh my God, he was unstoppable.”

Thomas, though, did not get as much playing time as the family anticipated at Trenton Catholic, because a coach told Tenneh he wanted the older players still hoping for college looks to receive the bulk of the minutes. Meanwhile, rumors swirled that the school had lost funding and would close (it eventually did in 2024).

A friend notified Thomas that he would transfer to Ryan, and suggested that Thomas join. So the early-morning wake-up calls began, until he was old enough to (swiftly) pass his driving test. He pushed through rigorous workouts with Team Final and Ryan to transform his body, allowing his athleticism to thrive while running the floor and operating as a versatile big man. He relished the “grit” of Philadelphia Catholic League basketball — and was so gutted when Ryan lost in overtime to Roman Catholic in the 2024 PCL title game at the Palestra that he stayed in his room for a couple of days, Tenneh said.

Still, Sorber put up monster numbers — 18.8 points, 11.2 rebounds, 4.8 blocks, 2.5 assists, and 1.3 steals — and received more than 20 scholarship offers as a top-50 recruit, according to 247 Sports’ composite rankings. The first time Georgetown assistant coach Jeff Battle watched Sorber practice, he immediately noticed the natural feel and passing ability. Then when Sorber met Cooley in person, the coach was impressed with the teenager’s mature-yet-personable demeanor.

“The first thing you notice with him, when he’s around his family,” Battle added, “is how proud he is, and how he wants to make everybody proud of him. [That is] how he carries himself, and what he does on the floor.”

That comfort with the staff was reciprocated by Thomas — and, perhaps more important, Mom. She also did not want her son’s college destination to be too far away from home.

“He listened to me,” she said, “and that’s where he ended up.”

Sorber’s skill set — the instincts, the playmaking, the scoring, the at-the-rim impact — immediately translated to Georgetown’s first summer practice.

“I think we got one here, fellas,” Cooley told his staff back then.

“Not your average freshman,” added former teammate Micah Peavy, who was a senior this past season.

So Cooley built the Hoyas’ offense around Sorber’s “honey spots” on the floor, trusting him to initiate with his court vision and passing while looking for his shot. They aimed to leverage his mobile frame that “looks like a colt,” Cooley said, while putting the 30 pounds he had lost in high school back on as the muscle required to protect the rim and shoulder contact during Big East play. Sorber felt himself playing less rushed and more relaxed, with a knack for drawing fouls against overzealous defenders or finding teammates for backdoor cuts in a way the NBA now often requires of its big men.

Sorber became an “everyday player” with “everyday ‘it,’” Cooley said, even while skyrocketing to the top of opponents’ scouting reports and becoming the face of a historic program trying to revitalize itself. He averaged 14.5 points on 53.2% shooting, 8.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 2 blocks per game — including a 13-point, 11-rebound performance on Feb. 8 against Seton Hall that Sorber punctuated with a “Go Birds” during his postgame news conference the day before the Super Bowl.

“He is reliable, dependable, and produces,” Cooley said.

Added former teammate Caleb Williams, who was also a freshman this past season: “He brings the same energy every day. It definitely rubs off on me, as well as in other teammates. I don’t know if he’s more confident about himself now … but it just seems like he doesn’t back down from anything.”

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That was apparent during a game against Providence, when Cooley said that Sorber got “blasted” in the back but still got up and made two free throws. Or when Sorber attempted to play against Notre Dame with a 102-degree fever, scoring six consecutive points after being pumped with IV fluids. He blended that determination with an affable off-court personality, which made it easier for the Hoyas to hand so much responsibility to the freshman.

Sorber was the kid letting his shoulders groove to Boosie’s “Wipe Me Down” during his pregame shooting routine, then dancing in the middle of his teammates’ huddle before heading back to the locker room. And the young man who seamlessly picked up two special-needs children during a charity event, bringing smiles to their faces. And the player whose hip-hop and R&B playlist featuring The Notorious B.I.G., New Edition, and Usher became the Hoyas’ go-to music on the road — with Cooley cranking it even louder to mimic crowd noise.

“I just try to have all the songs that everybody could relate to,” Sorber said. “ … Sometimes you’ve got to have some joy in your life. I choose that.”

When could he let his vulnerabilities crack through that outward demeanor? During the phone calls every other night with Tenneh. When Thomas would reveal that, “Mom, I’m so tired,” she would respond with the reminder that “what he puts in is what he gets out.”

Draft buzz fully swirled around Sorber by February, when Cooley acknowledged his star would face “some hard decisions” after the season. The coach believed Sorber could be one of college basketball’s best players in 2025-26, yet understood the lure of entering the draft. Evidence: Twenty NBA representatives were credentialed for Georgetown’s Feb. 8 win over Seton Hall at Capital One Arena, the last full game he played for the school.

Sorber’s season — and, ultimately, his Georgetown career — ended prematurely, when he broke his foot in a Feb. 15 game against Butler. Tenneh accidentally missed the play because she had left the television to use the restroom. The news broke her heart.

Even after surgery, that “scary” choice about Sorber’s future loomed. Tenneh wondered if her son was mature enough to play against professionals. But she got the comfort she needed during a car ride with Thomas, when she asked how he felt about the whole situation.

“Mom, one day at a time,” Thomas told her. “I’m not worried about it. What will be, it will be.”

Fabulous news interrupted Tenneh’s work shift last Monday, when she learned Thomas had been invited to the NBA draft’s green room. Both sons came home later that night and shared a family hug.

Then, Mom went upstairs and cried.

She thought about how Thomas’ father would not see their son live out this goal, yet also about the dreams that all three of them have had about the elder Peter since his death. Hers arrived about a year later, when the elder Peter said he was about to turn on the living-room television to watch Thomas play. Both sons later shared that they had an identical dream, when their dad sat between them on a bench, put his hands on their knees, and said “it will be all right.”

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It will be far more than all right when Sorber hears his name called Wednesday night.

Because of his lifelong mindset, Tenneh would say.

Or, because of his mom.

“She tells me almost every day that she’s proud of me and she wants me to keep doing what I’m doing,” he said. “Just keep being me. Don’t let anybody bring you down. Don’t let anybody change who you are.

“I just stay by that, and I just try to give it my all every time I step out on the floor.”