2024 Kane County Chronicle football Player of the Year: Geneva wideout Talyn Taylor

GENEVA — There’s no question that Geneva wide receiver Talyn Taylor is good at the game of football.

From his ability to always find open space with his speed and route running, to his ability to always manage to secure a catch, to his craftiness to elude defenders find the end zone. It’s always been there for the Georgia commit.

It’s part of the reason why head coach Boone Thorgesen told him as a freshman that he had a chance to walk out of Geneva as the best player to ever put on a Vikings uniform.

And in his senior season, he made sure that his coach’s prediction came true. And all he had to do was stay true to the mindset he’s always had.

“I just wanted to put together the best seasons that I could at Geneva,” Taylor said. “That’s something I tried to do every time I played a game. I just tried to go score the ball every time. In my mind, that’s how I got these stats.”

That always-scoring mentality was put on full display in his final high school season, as he finished with 84 catches for 1,617 yards (19.3 yards per catch) while adding 24 TD scores and two kickoff returns for touchdowns. Taylor was also named to the llinois High School Football Coaches Association Class 6A All-State team, and was named the DuKane Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year.

Considering the accolades and positional , Taylor can add one more award to his list — the 2024 Kane County Chronicle football Player of the Year.

“You would think as a coach who’s seen him over the last three years, you would wonder how much better he could be,” Thorgesen, who became Geneva’s head coach back in 2021, said. “But he just really came into his own this season, and he showed everyone both inside and outside of the state the type of player that he is, and I’m just so happy to see him have a senior year as special as he did.”

Taylor’s offensive prowess was a big factor in Geneva’s deep run throughout the season, even with all eyes being focused on him. In his 14 games throughout the season, he found the end zone in all but one contest and had over 100 receiving yards in nine games.

“I just had that dog mentality where I just said ‘You’re not going to stop me no matter what,' ” Taylor said. “Didn’t matter if they put two people in front of me or however they schemed, I was going to get open at the end of the day.”

And even when defenses focused in on making sure the ball didn’t get to Taylor, it opened up Geneva’s offense immensely, and they made sure to take full advantage of it.

Besides Taylor, The Vikings offense finished the season featuring players like first-year quarterback Tony Chahino (3,600 passing yards, 55 total touchdowns), wide receivers Finnegan Weppner (1,037 receiving yards) and Bennett Konkey (548 yards), and even running back Michael Rumoro (1,049 rushing yards).

“The kids kept getting better and better as the season progressed to the point where when the playoffs began, we were just a well-oiled machine,” Thorgesen said. “Kids were making plays all over the place. And when they start doing that, that’s contagious.

“When they saw Talyn make those big plays, it was contagious, and that was the culture that we established throughout the year. We expected Talyn to make those big plays, so everybody else upped their game and made those plays as well. And it was just awesome to be a part of.”

Taylor arguably played his best in the playoffs, when he knew that all eyes were going to be put on him. The senior averaged 128 yards a game and tallied eight touchdowns to help the Vikings reach the state championship game for just the third time in school history and the first since 2008.

“It’s hard for high school kids, or anybody for that matter, to perform when when the lights are on you and everybody expects you to do things,” Thorgesen said. “But he performed on the biggest stage, and I think his run in the playoffs is something that we’re going to talk about for a long time.

“He wanted that challenge of taking the team on his back, and he wanted that opportunity to make plays and help us win. And as a coach, it’s pretty easy to keep feeding him the ball.”

While Taylor enjoyed a magical run with the Vikings, which included defeating long-time rival Batavia for the first time in 13 years, his run with the Vikings could have never happened.

Taylor was reached out to by Florida’s IMG Academy on two separate occasions during his high school career to play for them.

But he never wanted to do that. Instead, he wanted to establish himself alongside the players he had been building bonds with in Geneva since his middle school days.

“My first couple of years, I was playing with the Class of 2024, and they were the ones that really built up my passion for football and got my stuff for that,” Taylor said. “And when I got to play with my own class starting junior year, it was the best thing I could have asked for. And this year was great too because I got to play with more of my people in a great Geneva atmosphere, and that’s just a great thing.”

Taylor plans to enroll early at Georgia, participating at the spring practices in hopes of sharing the field against Southeastern Conference opponents as soon as he can. But as he leaves his high school chapter behind, he hopes that he left a lasting impression on the Vikings of the future — a sentiment that his coach is also hopeful for.

“I just hope kids can look up to me and say that I was a great player who was a great person too,” Taylor said. “And I just hope that kids want to be in my shoes in the future.”