The first time St. Charles East runs its short-yardage running play Friday night, 6-foot-2-inch, 250-pound blocking back Tim Ainsworth could collide with a St. Charles North cornerback named Ryan Ainsworth, a 5-10, 150-pound sophomore.
Oh, brother!
“I’d like to run straight at him and have this huge collision,” said Ryan Ainsworth. “But I’ll probably end up trying to shed his block and keep my containment.”
Big brother said he will be looking at little brother as just another player. Little brother has a different view.
“I’m really going to be psyched up to go against him,” Ryan Ainsworth said. “You never get a chance to go against your brother in a real football game.”
Ryan said he looks up to Tim, who plays mainly at defensive end and is being recruited by Illinois, Navy, Western Michigan and several Ivy League schools.
“I like to watch him working out in the gym, and I watch his game tapes all the time,” Ryan Ainswoth said. “I wanted to work real hard and become good enough to start on varsity as a sophomore so we could play on the same team.”
But that was before the St. Charles split. Last year’s junior class was allowed to stay at East, despite where those students lived, while freshmen and sophomores were dispersed to North and East. Ryan Ainsworth was the freshman team quarterback at North but lost out in his bid to start at that position this year and was switched to cornerback.
Steve Ainsworth, who played cornerback in Connecticut during his high school days, is so proud of his sons that he invited family and friends from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Indiana to the game.
“Dad has been giving me a hard time all week,” Ryan Ainsworth said. “He told me Tim is going to be coming after me.”
Dad has decided to sit in the more comfortable home bleachers at St. Charles East.
His wife, Kim, will be perched in the visitors’ bleachers to support Ryan.
“We haven’t done much to antagonize each other this week,” Tim said of his brother. “But I’m pretty sure after the game there will be a little trash-talking.”
