When Jack Elway ran off the field at All-City Stadium on Thursday night after his smash debut, throwing for 114 yards and a touchdown and rushing for another score in Cherry Creek’s 56-20 win over Montbello, most folks probably felt he did a fine job of living up to his daunting moniker.
But as good as Baby Biff might have been, he only ranked second on the familial accomplishment scale.
While young Elway certainly drew a pair of parental aces, he wouldn’t dare go all in against the royal flush of Creek’s kicker. On the fraternal side, there’s grandpa Vince Boryla, who starred at the University of Denver before going on to a creditable NBA career with the New York Knicks, also serving a turn as the team’s coach and later, the Nuggets’ general manager.
Nice, but the maternal side says don’t bring that weak stuff in here – the other grandfather is one George Ratterman. All he did was letter in four sports at Notre Dame, play on a football national championship team, lead the NFL in touchdown passes one year – and help bust organized crime in Kentucky.
Elway accounted for 12 points in the Bruins’ victory, but Kaylee Boryla, playing her first football game, was a perfect 8-for-8 on extra points in a performance that would make even Gary Barnett stand up and yell “Brava!”
And, according to Greg Critchett, there’s no doubt Boryla could launch a few 3-pointers of her own. Creek’s coach says he would feel comfortable sending her out for a 42-yarder with the game on the line.
Perhaps that attempt would come after young Elway marched the team out from its own 2-yard-line.
Call it The Drive II.
“Hey, I’m just trying to make it all work,” Critchett said of cornering the market on impressive legacies.
For her part, Boryla just wants to shut up and play ball – perhaps a wise choice, given the history in these here parts between ol’ Mr. Return to Dominance and female kickers.
Interestingly enough, rumor has it that Boryla, a member of the Olympic Development Program when she’s not creasing the uprights at Creek, would actually like to go to CU, but team officials, thinking the local kid is a sure thing, are holding out on scholarship money.
Better ante up, Buffs. Mason Crosby, who’s probably already regretting passing on the NFL, is a senior. And, having already recently lost another member of the family – cousin Lindsay Ratterman, who led Arapahoe to the Class 5A state girls soccer championship last spring, is a freshman at Vanderbilt – I’m not sure missing out on Boryla would constitute the exact meaning of “going for two.”
Critchett certainly didn’t get caught up in politics. When Aric Goodman went off to kick for Wyoming, the coach looked at the potential of the team, ranked No. 4 by The Denver Post, and realized the Bruins were perhaps one good leg from taking it all.
“I told them to keep their eyes open for someone,” Critchett said of his players. “I was talking to kids in the classrooms and hallways to see if anyone was interested.”
Turned out all he had to do was send someone into the girls’ locker room. Throughout the spring and summer, Boryla had been working out, ostensibly for soccer, but with a secret hope that someone would approach her about the gridiron.
When her friends did, impressing upon her how much the team needed her, they took her to the gym to meet with Critchett, who was impressed by her athleticism and competitiveness.
However, even after she passed all the physical requirements at school, she still had to face her toughest test – Mom.
“She loves football,” Julie Boryla said. “She’s been wanting to do this for years, but I always said it was the one thing she couldn’t do.
“But she came home one day and said, ‘Well, Mom, you’re wrong – I made the team.”‘
Instead of marching Kaylee down to the principal’s office, Julie relented, but only after drawing a pair of promises. One was that she wouldn’t do kickoffs. The other was that she keep her helmet on for the entire game – which sent her sizable rooting section into convulsions during the Montbello game.
Boryla couldn’t negotiate squeezing the water in between the bars on her face mask and into her mouth.
If that’s the only trouble Boryla gets into on the field, Mom will be happy. But everyone else in the clan is hoping Kaylee will be called upon to make a tackle or throw a pass on a botched field-goal attempt. Should she get through the season with her uniform clean, they say, she’ll be required to do something for the linemen who do all the dirty work up front.
Timexes, anyone?
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
