2021 Player of the Year

In most years, my State of Illinois Player of the Year would more often than not would have crowned off an amazing season with an IHSA State Title trophy, but that didn't happen in this case.

Win, lose or even draw....no one in my eyes had as much of an impact on every game he played in this past season than East St. Louis senior wide receiver Luther Burden. Burden, a Rivals.com 5 star ranked wide receiver who is verbally committed to Missouri joined the Flyers roster last spring and became an immediate impact player for the already stacked East St/ Louis Flyers roster.

The stats in many cases don't tell the entire story. Sure, Burden caught 77 passes for 1,280 yards and 22 touchdowns along with setting an IHSA state record this past season by returning 9 punt returns for touchdown. If teams decided to kick anywhere near Touchdown Luther, and in more cases than not they regretted it.

Cary Grove head coach Brad Seaburg when asked about his game plan for keeping the football away from Luther Burden after the state title game said, "Don't kick it to #3 (Burden) and try to get the ball. When we kicked it to #3 it didn't work well..and when we didn't kick it to #3 it worked out pretty well for us."

Burden's game is just at a higher level than anyone I've seen in this state in many years. Burden's ability to just catch everything thrown his way, along with his highly impressive speed and burst, his quick twitch explosiveness along with having an extra gear or two in the open field was at times jaw dropping. Burden was also able to shed opposing defenders in a phone booth, again Burden was able to just escape oncoming tacklers and defenders in an instant all along making it look easy.

So what sets Burden apart from so many others?

According to longtime East St. Louis assistant coach/recruiting coordinator Harith Mitchom it starts with Burden's determination.

"Luther is just very determined.He's just very determined to do everything he can to win and it's a family trait. Everyone in his family is determined to fid a way and he plays with a chip on his shoulder and that he feels he needs to prove something on every single play."

Does Burden compare to any of the recent great East St. Louis standouts?

"I really can't compare him to anyone specifically, he's more of a mix of a few different guys. His determination and drive is similar to Terry Hawthorne, but Luther right now is also a much bigger and stronger kid right now compared to Terry at the same age."

Yet no one anytime soon will forget Touchdown Luther including Harith Mitchom.

"I remember when Luther's Mom told us when he first started with us that his nickname was Touchdown Luther. At first I thought it was kind of corny, but once we saw him play then it was like...ok...I get it. Touchdown Luther it is."

Touchdown Luther Burden is the 2021 EDGYTIM/Rivals.com Illinois High School Football Player of the Year.