River Forest’s Ayden Silver appears poised to become a well-known name.
Even if virtually no one calls him by either one of those names.
Not his family. Not his teammates. Not his coaches. Not other students saying hello as they walk by.
To his circle, the sophomore quarterback/defensive back is “Turtle.”
“Everybody knows me by it,” Silver said. “Some teachers didn’t even know my name when I got here. They just knew me by ‘Turtle.'”
Silver said his mother and aunt came up with the nickname. They were watching the HBO series “Entourage,” and the character “Turtle” and Silver were wearing the same cap.
The moniker was born.
“We stuck with it,” Silver said.
Second-year River Forest coach Demetri Blanco joked that it doesn’t even match Silver’s athletic ability.
“It’s pretty weird how fast he is and his nickname is ‘Turtle,'” Blanco said. “It’s kind of an oxymoron.”
By any name, Silver sparked the Ingots to a significant season-opening win, a 22-15 victory against Wheeler.
He scored all three of their touchdowns, including the go-ahead 31-yard run with 1:19 left. Filling in late in the game with top cornerback Kaleb Short cramping, Silver, who typically plays safety on defense, then sealed the victory with an interception in the end zone.
“He does a little bit of everything,” Blanco said. “But when we need a play, he’s the guy we turn to. The ball just always seems to find him, whether he’s on offense or defense.”
River Forest beat Wheeler for the first time since 2001, ending a 16-game losing streak in the series.
Silver said he was especially happy to “do our job” for his brother Ethyn Silver, who graduated in the spring and never experienced a win against the Bearcats.
“Part of my job coming here was to get us over that hump,” Blanco said. “I’ve been told River Forest collapses in big games. … You have to instill that belief in these kids that you can win — we’re here to win, we’re not here to play around — then you can actually win, and that carried into Week 1. Winning a big game like that, a game you haven’t won in 21 years, it’s huge.
“We came in this whole season with a chip on our shoulder. We take it one week at a time — that’s been our motto. We were all invested in Week 1, and we’ll be all invested in Week 2, and so on. That’s our mantra. I told them they could celebrate all the way through Monday to 3 o’clock, and once 3 o’clock hit, we’re on to the next.”
Blanco had the utmost confidence in Silver to be River Forest’s next quarterback.
Silver played outside linebacker as a freshman last season. He had 56 tackles, including seven for loss, with an interception and a fumble recovery.
He played a limited role on offense. He had a 60-yard touchdown catch against Bishop Noll, and he backed up Joey Ondo at quarterback.
“Joey was a senior, and it was tough to beat him out because of how smart Joey was,” Blanco said. “But we knew how athletic ‘Turtle’ was. We knew he was the quarterback of the future. So what we did all offseason, we tried to bulk him up a little bit and correct his throwing motion. He’s been tearing it up because he’s been putting in the work and reaping the benefits of it now.
“I knew last year — we all knew — when we had ‘Turtle,’ he had to be behind center because of how great a playmaker he is. We want the ball in his hands every play. That’s why we ultimately decided to put him at quarterback. It’s paying off early in the season. We knew going into this year we had to put the ball in his hands.”
Silver embraced the challenge. He said he was nervous “just warming up” for his first game as the starting quarterback, “but then I knew I had it.”
He added, “It was just in me. I knew we had it. We’re getting everything down. We can accomplish a lot.”