Plano’s Rider Larson, once a competitive bike racer, now finds his fire through football

PLANO – Rider Larson is well-versed in the rush of competition in varied athletic pursuits.

His brother and father run Mudslinger’s Bicycles in Plano, and Larson and his siblings raced pedal bikes growing up.

Now Larson’s competitive fire is quenched on the football field. The Plano senior is a standout two-way lineman. He’s a leader of a Reapers’ team that graduated 24 seniors off of last year’s playoff roster and is feeling their way under first-year coach Kyle Tutt.

“I just love the thrill you get when you get a tackle on defense, or help someone go for a 48-yard touchdown run,” Larson said. “It feels great.”

Larson gave up football for several years while he raced bikes for close to a decade. He’d race pedal bikes over hills and designated areas.

“Winning one of those competitions is great,” he said. “There are three rounds, there are like 30 people you would have to beat to get to the last race of the day. If you won that race you would have to beat eight people. It was the best feeling.”

He raced at the Rockford National bike race, the biggest bike race in Illinois. He was in first place at the 2018 Rockford Nationals going into the final straightaway when Larson crashed and broke his elbow.

“I crashed, healed, went through recovery, went back and crashed again,” Larson said. “After that, I never went back.”

He found an outlet back on the football field. A middle school friend from science class, Amari Bryant, encouraged Larson to try again. Larson admitted he was getting a little overweight and football helped. But it took time to reacclimate.

“I just acted like I didn’t know a single thing because I didn’t. I had to learn from scratch and it was a process,” Larson said. “My freshman year didn’t go great. I played a couple snaps during the year, mostly special teams. I think I just needed to be the best person I could be on the team.”

He got better, and bigger.

Larson didn’t really know how to lift as a freshman, but he lifted a lot. He could only lift the bar as a freshman, but now can bench 155 pounds and deadlift 415.

“It’s great how much the improvement has been,” he said.

Larson came into his own as a stellar defensive lineman last year for Plano with close to 40 tackles and seven sacks. In a shutout win over Johnsburg, he had seven tackles, two for a loss, and a sack.

“I think I play pretty low and aggressive and coach would say I have a motor,” Larson said. “I can keep going over and over again.”

It didn’t take long for Tutt to notice.

Hired as an assistant in June, the former Streator head coach was promoted to Plano head coach in July when Rick Ponx left to become an assistant at Benedictine University. Tutt didn’t know Larson’s history as a biker, but he does know of him as a heck of a football player.

“His physicality is what stands out,” Tutt said. “He has an ability to throw his body around and disregard himself. He is always doing what is best for the team. He is a guy that will take on a lot of double teams. Some guys will shy away from that. He is excited about it. He knows if he beats a double team, he may not be free himself, but somebody else is free. He takes a lot of pride in that.”

Larson said that the rush of competing individually in a big bike race, and getting a big sack and tackle in football are two distinctly different circumstances.

“In football you have two hours of just going against the person. You can keep tackling them and you can keep getting the rush,” he said. “I like that you can get that feeling multiple times. Racing, it takes a while to get good. You have to beat 30 other people for one spot. And you have a team behind you with football so if you do something wrong somebody has your back. In racing you’re by yourself.”

Plano graduated quite a few all-conference players, including Record Newspapers Player of the Year Waleed Johnson, but Tutt is excited about this group. Dan Hoover will be among the leaders on the offensive line, with Quinn Lyle – the lone sophomore up – also finding a spot on the line.

Larson is among the members of Plano’s leadership group that Tutt has established.

“That is a testament to himself and what he brings to the table,” Tutt said. “He is someone that when he is committed to it will go 100% all in. That’s why he’s part of our leadership group.”