Playing high school football and baseball keeps Lyons senior EJ Kuhlman pretty busy.
But what does he do in his downtime?
“I love playing pickleball with my friends,” Kuhlman told the Sun-Times. “I think that’s actually got me on my toes.”
There’s no doubt the 5-9, 177-pound Kuhlman’s footwork is elite.
He’s in his second season as the lead running back for the Lions (5-1, 2-1 West Suburban Silver), who have clinched their sixth consecutive IHSA playoff berth.
Last year against York in the regular season, Kuhlman ran 43 times for a program-record 246 yards. Some other records could be in play this season, but he’s not interested in talking about them.
“My main goal is just winning conference first,” he said. “I don’t really care about the stuff that comes with it.
“I mean, it’s awesome to get those records at the end of the season, see what you’ve achieved. But you can’t really put all that credit on yourself . . . because you know a lot of that comes from coaches and O-linemen.”
He had 1,104 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns last fall and has scored at least one touchdown in every game this season with multiple 100-yard rushing games.
It’s a culmination of everything Kuhlman has been working toward.
“I always played flag football growing up, but I didn’t start tackle until seventh grade,” he said. “I was with the LFC [Lyons Football Club] program, and it was with a lot of my same buddies I play with now.”
Like most kids, Kuhlman tried a variety of sports growing up: soccer, basketball, tennis and wrestling in addition to the ones he’s still doing.
“You kind of play whatever your parents put you in,” he said. “Sports has always been part of my life, and it’s a big part of me and who I am.”
Until last year, Kuhlman didn’t really favor one sport over the other.
“Honestly, I was always split between baseball and football,” he said. “But junior year, I think I took football a lot more serious. I think I started to appreciate it a lot more. The amount of effort that goes into football is kind of what took me to love football more than baseball.
“But I still love both sports, very close to equal. But football is just a little different for me.”
That meant an extra level of preparation for his final high school season, focusing primarily on getting faster.
“Speed’s the biggest factor with a running back,” he said. “So you drop a couple of pounds to gain that extra point-one or point-two on that 40 [yard dash time].
“But I think this year, my goal is just to try not to get down — always break that first guy.”
The season of experience has paid off in other ways.
“What [is] different this year is kind of [being] comfortable,” Kuhlman said. “And I feel like [it’s been] to slow the game down and just realize that you kind of control it.”