Three-Instrument Musician from Fairhope Named 2024 Board of Trustees Scholar

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Posted on September 20, 2024

Michelle Matthews

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An interest in medicine and music brought Noah Sugg to the University of South Alabama, where he is this year’s Board of Trustees Scholar.

The honor is bestowed upon an entering freshman with the highest academic achievement. Consider Sugg’s qualifications: A graduate of Fairhope High School, he arrived at South with a perfect 36 on the ACT, a 4.56 GPA, National Merit finalist status and 39 credit hours from International Baccalaureate and AP classes.

With plans to go to medical school, he is majoring in biomedical sciences. An early curiosity led to his minor in music.   

Sugg, the oldest of three brothers, grew up in Madison, Mississippi, before moving with his family to Fairhope when he was in seventh grade. Early in life, at barely four years old, he pointed to a double bass and told his parents, “I want to play the big one.”

He started out with a de-tuned cello because he was too short for the instrument he really wanted to play. He added French horn in sixth grade and mellophone in ninth grade. Today, Sugg is a classically trained contrabass (also known as double bass or string bass) musician with 14 years of experience. He plays double bass in the USA String Ensemble, French horn in the USA Wind Ensemble and mellophone in the Jaguar Marching Band.

He first became familiar with South’s marching band at Fairhope High, where he played in the band all four years. The school’s band director, Meredyth Petersen, is married to Dr. Will Petersen, South’s director of bands, who led a few rehearsals at the high school.

South was one of the colleges he toured. “I liked the presentations more here,” he said. “It’s close to home and accessible. I like the area, too. It also has a medical school, and I’m going into medicine, so that’s always a plus.” The University is constructing a new Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine building, set to be completed in late 2026. 

Sugg also was impressed by the Honors College and its rigorous application process.

Over the summer, he shadowed Dr. John Amburgy at USA Health University Hospital, where he had an opportunity to observe the neurosurgeon in the clinic, operating room and on rounds. “I enjoyed working under him,” he said. “I’m glad I found that program.”

The transition to college life has been “really smooth” so far, he said. He plans to join a lot of clubs, but he’s waiting until the spring semester to do so because of the marching band schedule. “Our first halftime show went really well,” he said. “I really like our music this year.”

In addition to band practice — five days per week for marching band, one day a week for String Ensemble and three days per week for Wind Ensemble — he tries to play each of his three instruments for at least 30 minutes a day.

When he does have free time, Sugg likes to go paintballing on Saturdays that aren’t game days at Hancock Whitney Stadium. He also likes to read, kayak and climb the rock wall in the Student Recreation Center after band practice.

But academics always come first. As a child, he could only play games after he was finished with his schoolwork. He learned that “if you do it right the first time, you don’t have to do it again,” he said. “After that, it’s just something I did. I held myself to that standard.”

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