THERE’S NOTHING THAT KILBURG CAN’T DO
Three-year varsity starter kilburg looking to lead maine south on deep playoff run in senior season
Maine South star helps Hawks in all three phases, but he’ll focus on defense at Western Michigan.
Ryan Kilburg remembers hearing the news the summer before his freshman year at Maine South: You’re going to skip freshman football and start your high school career on the sophomore team. Truth be told, it shook him a little. The last snaps Kilburg took before that were as a seventh-grader. He didn’t play football in eighth grade because, he said, “there wasn’t a team available.”
“So having a year off and being told I’m playing with older kids, I mean — I was scared at first,” Kilburg said. “I want to see how my body is going to hold up, see how I do.
“Then after a couple weeks, I just forgot about it and I knew I was good enough.”
That’s something Maine South coach Dave Inserra and his staff figured out much earlier.
“We knew back in third grade, fourth grade,” Inserra said of the three-year varsity starter. “You could see the speed, the football sense on the field.”
Others have noticed, too. Kilburg, a 6-1, 187-pound, is a three-star prospect ranked 25th among Illinois seniors and 86th nationally among safeties according to the 247 Sports composite rankings.
He sifted through 17 scholarship offers — including Kansas State and Ivy Leaguers Brown, Columbia and Cornell — before committing to Western Michigan in June.
Though he’ll be focusing on defense at the next level, Kilburg is an impact player for Maine South (7-2) in all three phases of the game. Besides leading a defense that allowed 11.1 points per game during the Hawks’ seven-game winning streak, he’s a favorite target of quarterback Luke Leongas. And
Kilburg ran a kickoff back 98 yards for a touchdown against Glenbrook South.
“The thing that separates him from some other guys we’ve had is just all-out speed,” Inserra said. “That’s what makes him a D-I player . . . . He could be a big-time receiver, but he likes defense. He likes to hit, he likes to be back there.”
Being compared favorably to players who came before him means a lot to Kilburg. Like many Park Ridge kids, he grew up on Friday night lights.
“I could remember plays from Matt Perez and Matt Alviti like it was just yesterday,” Kilburg said. “I mean, I thought they were a professional team. When I would watch, I’d be like, ‘I want to be like that.’
“It just leaves an impact on us as little kids. They’re out here under the lights, all the fans watching, it’s like, ‘You want to do that? You want to be like that?’ ”
Kilburg and his teammates, including fourstar Northwestern commit Peter Skoronski, want to write some history of their own in a program that has four state titles and three runner-up finishes since 2008.
This season started with losses to Glenbard West and Mount Carmel that only sharpened Kilburg’s focus.
“As a team, I don’t think we were ready,” he said. “I don’t think the kids, including myself, knew what to expect. The first game we got punched in the mouth and we didn’t really know how to react . . . .
“We just had to play tougher. That’s what it came down to . . . . So we stepped up and showed what we’re made of.”
Much like Kilburg did when he skipped right past freshman football three years ago. ✶
“The thing that separates him from some other guys we’ve had is just all-out speed. That’s what makes him a D-I player . . . . ” Dave Inserra, maine south coach