Friday Night Drive Team of the Week MVP: Wilmington running back Ryan Kettman

Wilmington is the defending Class 2A state champion, but the Wildcats won’t get a chance to defend that title. That’s because they are participating in the Class 3A playoffs this season.

The move up in class didn’t seem to bother Wilmington or junior running back Ryan Kettman. In the opening round of the playoffs, Kettman ran for 157 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries in a 42-7 win over Stillman Valley.

For his efforts, Kettman was selected as the Friday Night Drive Team of the Week MVP. Here is his Q&A with Sports Reporter Rob Oesterle.

FND: Your offense is known for grinding out three yards at a time early in the game and eventually popping a long run or two. Is that the game plan?

Kettman: Yeah. I mean, I know that we are going to pop some big plays, especially playing with a bunch of great players like we have up front. The plan is usually to start off getting three yards or so a pop, but we know that three will eventually lead to 70. We just go out and play every play for each other and know that something big is coming.

FND: Your team won a state title last year. Is that the goal again?

Kettman: That’s the goal for every Wilmington team. We lost a lot of seniors from last year, but we also have a lot of guys coming back that played a lot. And, we’ve had quite a few sophomores come in and step up for us this year.

FND: You won in Class 2A last year and are in Class 3A this year. How do you feel about that?

Kettman: Our conference [Illinois Central Eight] is basically full of 3A and 4A teams, so we feel ready for it. We don’t see ourselves as a 2A team. We are a 3A team and we want to win 3A. We want to play the best teams we can and prove ourselves.

FND: What’s the music you listen to pre-game?

Kettman: I am a country music fan, so I have a random playlist of country songs. And, there are some girlie songs on there, too. Justin Bieber, Katy Perry. Stuff like that.

FND: Any pregame rituals or superstitions?

Kettman: I like to get to the field about 20-30 minutes early and just give myself time to get mentally prepared for the game I’m about to play.

FND: What is lt like to enter your field through that big tunnel of fans and Harley Davidsons?

Kettman: Oh, man. That’s the best entrance in the state. It’s so much fun to come out and run through with all those motorcycles going and all the fans lined up and the fireworks over the baseball field. I was one of those kids lined up when I was younger and the players were my heroes. It feels pretty cool to think that we are the heroes for some of those younger kids.

FND: What’s the ultimate goal this year?

Kettman: Same as it is every year. We want to win a state title. But we break it down to where we want to be 1-0 every week. We were 1-0 last week and we want to go 1-0 this week.