Kirby sprinting near the top of the pack at Benedictine University

    After looking around for colleges that would allow him to run, Ryan was contacted by Benedictine. After plenty of consideration, he decided that it was just the place for him to not only compete, but further his education.

    “It reminded me of Paris,” Kirby said. “They treat everyone like family.”

But that wasn’t the only similarity Ryan found between his soon to be college and his hometown.

    “Their (Benedictine) mascot is an Eagle, and the school colors are red, black, and white,” Ryan began. “So you get the Eagles from Crestwood with the Mayo colors.”

     A four hour drive away from Crestwood and Mayo found Ryan in a completely new environment that took some adjustments.

    “The first adjustment is that you have to try and fit in with the other athletes,” Kirby said reflecting on his first year. “But the first year was alot of fun,” he continued. “I met my roommate and the campus is breathtaking.”

    The campus isn’t exactly the only thing taking Ryan’s breath away. Plenty of practices, competitions, and classes keep him busy from before sunrise to after sunset.

    “High school definitely seemed easier,” he joked.

    The main reason college seems more difficult to Ryan, and to a great deal of students, is that most of what you do is your own personal responsibility.  And when you examine the workload of a student athlete, there are plenty of reasons to get exhausted just looking at the schedule.

    A typical day during  the season begins at 5 a.m. Ryan and his teammates head to a morning practice until 7:30 a.m. Ryan usually begins class around 8 a.m., and has several scattered throughout the day. Then, he has a regularly scheduled evening practice. This isn’t counting in the individual practice and workouts the athletes have to do, and not to mention that other thing: homework.

    “Everything is very independent,” Kirby said. “Sometimes it’s tough. But I went to every Study Zone that was offered and kept up on my homework.”

    It isn’t lost on Ryan that the key to his athletic success hinges in large part to his success in the classroom. If you don’t keep a respectable grade point average, you can be put on athletic probation, or even dismissed from the team.

    Ryan doesn’t see that happening to him.

    “I have academic goals,” he said. “I would like to make it onto the Dean’s List by my junior year.”

    But that isn’t all he’s running towards academically.

    “I want to be on the President’s List when I’m a senior.”

    Ryan Kirby is the kind of student athlete that doesn’t fall short of his goals. He shatters  them.

    Ryan’s high school track coach Mike Brouwer has often stated that one of his favorite memories in his coaching career was watching Ryan set his goal and achieve it. Brouwer likes Ryan so much that he allowed him to come back and parlay his experience and knowledge to the Tigers this past season.

    “It was great to be able to go back and help my former teammates and friends,” Ryan said recalling his brief coaching experience with the Tigers Track and Field team.

    The opportunity Coach Brouwer gave to Ryan is valuable for plenty of reasons. Ryan is a Physical Education major, and he intends to use that degree to eventually become a teacher and a coach for young athletes. He wants to instill in them at a young age that their success is in their own hands, and that through hard work and staying on the right path, you can achieve every one of those goals.

    Too often Ryan saw teammates or classmates headed down the wrong path, and he vowed to himself that he wouldn’t let that happen to him.

    “It’s all about working hard and not doing anything stupid,” he said. “If you focus on your grades and give one-hundred and ten percent everyday, you can succeed.”