Unexpected Offer: Mahomet-Seymour’s Ryken Kirby to play football at Aurora University
By FRED KRONER
A scholarship to play a sport in college is the goal for many high school athletes.
For some, that invitation occurs during a campus visit.
For others, it may happen when the coach makes a trip to the student’s home.
At times, it takes place with a late-night phone call.
Sometimes, it never happens and the athlete either puts the dream aside or accepts a chance to join a team as a walk-on.
In some of those cases, after the athlete makes an impression, a scholarship is awarded after a year or two in a program.
Mahomet-Seymour senior Ryken Kirby received his offer from Aurora University in a manner that is not usual.
“The scholarship offer came as a bit of a surprise,” Kirby said. “It was while I was warming up for a basketball game (in November).”
He was following his typical pre-game routine.
“I had my AirPods in and heard my phone go off while I was warming up,” Kirby said.
He didn’t need a lot of time to make a decision.
“I visited a couple of other schools just for actual schooling and then I also visited Monmouth for football,” Kirby said. “Aurora seemed super easy to choose because the football program is outstanding along with their options for housing and it’s only two hours away, making it easy to travel.
“It was pretty easy for me to decide on what school I wanted to go to. I heard from a few other schools in Illinois, but Aurora University was the best fit for what I wanted to study and the best opportunity for football.”
Kirby plans to major in criminal justice.
“I want to be a firefighter or paramedic or a cop,” he said.
It was all part of a recruiting process that he found more enjoyable than stressful.
“The recruiting process was pretty easy,” Kirby said. “I was a bit surprised because I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it actually was.”
Kirby was one of the unheralded players as a senior on the Bulldogs’ 7-3 Apollo Conference championship squad.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pounder was third on the team in rushing (178 yards) and got at least six carries in five different games. Defensively, as a backup linebacker, he had a high game of four tackles and one sack.
“Ryken had probably the most outstanding ‘under the radar’ career that any player has ever had,” M-S football head coach Jon Adkins said. “Unfortunately, he was behind Luke (Johnson, also a senior) in the running back position, but that never took away from the fact that Ryken was always ready to go.
“His stats excelled at the JV level over his career, and he truly showed that we could count on him to give us valuable carries in a varsity game, if we ever needed him.
“He was an outstanding special teams player for us, using his speed to always be one of the first guys down the field on kickoffs. Lastly, he is one of very few players that we have in our program that played both ways.
“When Ryken wasn’t getting carries on offense, he was playing some linebacker for our defense. Again, Ryken worked incredibly hard on our scout defense, putting himself in a great position that if we needed him to get in there for a few plays, he was ready to go.”
His versatility made him a more appealing recruit.
In his younger years, Kirby has also played on both the offensive and defensive lines, in addition to sharing time as a ballcarrier and as a linebacker, though he added, “I’m definitely the best at running back.”
Limited playing time in high school didn’t diminish Kirby’s desire to play in college.
“I’ve always had the goal of playing football at the next level,” Kirby said. “It got more serious for me starting freshman year.
“I was able to start achieving my goals and making progress on and off the field. It has been a lot of hard work with lifting and making sure I am able to be in the best shape possible and studying the game to see what I need to improve on.”
He recognizes there’s room for more development before he can get on the field regularly for Aurora.
“I think for improvement more than anything I just need to keep putting on more muscle,” Kirby said. “I also do feel like I can step right into a spot as long as I play strong and fast.”
His early years in the sport didn’t predict his ultimate impact.
“I’ve been playing football for as long as I can remember,” Kirby said. “I grew up around my dad (David) who was coaching football, which was always fun to watch and learn from older kids.
“I was pretty bad when I first started playing football on a team in third grade.”
At the time, he had a simplistic concept about the game.
“I loved hitting people and trying to outrun others,” he said.
Kirby gradually worked himself into a contributing role with the M-S varsity.
“I think the most important key to my development as a player was working off the field just as much as on the field and being able to use my off-the-field work on the field,” Kirby said. “Being able to practice with older kids definitely made a huge leap of improvement on my skills and confidence as a player.”
In his three years as a football letterman – for teams which had a cumulative 29-5 record – Kirby averaged 4.4 yards per carry and scored touchdowns all three seasons. Despite his backup duties, he was called upon 101 times to carry the ball in his prep career.
Adkins has no doubts about Kirby’s ability to land a role in college.
“I think Aurora is getting a great kid that works really hard and is going to do whatever the team needs or the coach asks of him,” Adkins said. “He truly was a joy to coach for four years and I’m going to miss him.
“I wish him nothing but success in his future and love the fact that he will be close so I can watch some of his games when he takes on a few of his former teammates.”
Moving forward, Kirby is confident.
“I think I’m going to fit in pretty well at Aurora University,” he said. “I went to a game of theirs and was able to talk to some of the players and they were all very welcoming.”
He believes he might be in for another position change.
“I want to try and play wide receiver, but I may end up playing running back or linebacker,” Kirby said. “The coaches have talked to me some and decided they will put me where I fit the best with the team and where I can use my skills the best.”
Aurora, which qualified for the Division III playoffs last fall, had an 11-1 record in 2023. Fifteen different squad members carried the ball from scrimmage. Two of the top three rushers were seniors.
Of all of his sports – basketball, track and BMX racing – football is his favorite.
“I always keep football as my number one priority,” Kirby said. “I find the appeal of football is just being able to leave it all out on the field and being able to preserve and overcome challenges.
“I think my biggest strengths are my speed and my ability to find a way to overcome any challenges I am faced with.”
The distance from Mahomet to Aurora is about 150 miles by car. For Kirby, the distance is not concerning.
“I think that it will be pretty easy for me,” he said. “I’m not home that often because of sports and work already, so I don’t feel like the transition will be very hard.
“I am only two hours away from home, which also helps make it easy to transition to college.”
