JOLIET – Kyle Kurdziolek has two years of eligibility remaining as a University of St. Francis linebacker.

Although nursing a torn labrum most of last season, he still played in all 11 games and made 45 tackles, fifth on the team. By all accounts, he is an ideal teammate.

He is an excellent student, sporting a 3.6 grade-point average on a 4.0 system as a criminal justice major, with emphasis on forensics and cyber security.

He lives by the principle that other people’s needs come before his own. Always.

And he is gay. In fact, he is believed to be the only active college football player on any level who has come out.

His story was detailed by Erik Hall, a reporter who is a regular contributor to OutSports.com, a sports news website focusing on LGBT issues and personalities in amateur and professional sports. It can be seen at the OutSports.com website.

“I actually was going to the OutSports website to see about other athletes who had their stories published,” said Kurdziolek, a former all-state linebacker at Streator High School. “I contacted Erik Hall and told him I would like to have my story told.

“I never looked at this to be about me, though. It was never meant for that. I always try to impact the community in a positive way. I tried to help others who are in a similar situation so they would be comfortable with who they are. I want to be an inspiration to others.”

COMING OUT

If it sounds as if telling his story was an easy decision for Kurdziolek, it was anything but. The inner struggle lasted for years. Meanwhile, he concentrated all of his efforts on football and academics.

“I’ve known I was gay since middle school,” he said. “But I felt I had to suppress it. I’ve played football all my life. Football is very masculine, and everyone conformed to that.”

It was last May, about nine months ago, when Kurdziolek told a few of his co-workers at Buckle (a clothing store at the Louis Joliet Mall), a few teammates who are close friends and his mom that he is gay. He told some other teammates during the season last fall.

“I had kept it bottled up for so long,” he said. “Even when I came out just to immediate friends and family, I felt so much better.”

In November, shortly before his 21st birthday, he and USF linebackers coach and graduate assistant Josh Mander, a former standout linebacker at Joliet Catholic Academy and USF, were walking toward the library together.

“Kyle told me then that he was gay,” Mander said. “It was a very relaxed conversation. There really was nothing strange or unusual about it. I told him I will support you no matter what, I’ll help you succeed any way I can.

“But I didn’t realize at first how much he had struggled with it.”

Kurdziolek contacted USF head coach Joe Curry in December to let him know.

“I told him this is my first experience with an openly gay player, and I just want to make you happy and give you 100 percent support,” Curry said. “I’m glad he told me. Our team is a family. If he isn’t able to come to me with anything, what kind of family have we got?

“I said, ‘Kyle, that’s great for you. We all desire to feel whole and wanted.’ “

ALMOST SURREAL

That’s the same sort of reaction Kurdziolek has gotten from teammates and other supporters who have turned his life into a whirlwind since his story came out.

“The reaction I have received has been almost surreal, it’s been crazy,” he said. “It’s been a very heart-warming experience, all the support I have gotten from all walks of life. High school teammates and my teammates here at St. Francis, my coaches, close friends, family, everyone.”

Kurdziolek shares a house with four USF teammates.

“They’re all very supportive,” he said. “Not a lot of teammates in other places would support me like that. I have teammates who are very Catholic, and they support me, too.

“St. Francis as an academic institution is open to all walks of life no matter who you are.”

Mander has seen the positive reception from Kurdziolek’s teammates.

“The guys on the team have responded great,” he said. “Some are from backgrounds where they never experienced anything like that. But they know Kyle is still a great human being and an amazing friend. He definitely is what we want in our program.”

Michael Sam and a few others since Sam came out in 2014 notwithstanding, “you really don’t hear of this at all,” Mander said. “That’s one of the things that’s taboo within the football world. Even with how big LGBT is now, you still don’t hear about it in football.

“I didn’t realize at first that Kyle is the only active gay college football player who has come out across the nation.”

What his coaches at USF and his teammates are telling Kurdziolek is they are happy he is happy.

“He’s a great kid, prototypical of what St. Francis is all about,” Curry said. “He lives his life right. He does a great job in football and academically. I know he did struggle with it for years, and he told me how relieved he is to know he can live his life and still be a football player.

“On the field, he’s been a key guy for us the last couple of years. He filled in at the position Mike Passo played when he was battling injuries, and he was a force in there. He’ll keep doing that for us the next couple of years.”

Kurdziolek guarantees it.

“Football has been a part of my life since preschool,” he said. “My passion for the game has not changed one bit because my story has been told. I still will attack practice drills, weight lifting and studying films the same as I ever have.

“I want to help lead lead our team to a conference championship in this season coming up. My personal goal is to earn all-conference and be a team player and a leader for my teammates, where they would look to me to be that for them.”

A GOOD PERSON

Kurdziolek had surgery in January for the torn labrum that hampered his 2016 season.

“It’s a bit of a setback, but come fall, I will be ready to go,” he said.

On the field and off.

“Kyle makes plays, he’s a good person and he represents our program very well,” Mander said.

Being a good person is something that cannot be omitted from any discussion about Kurdziolek.

“I always put other people before myself,” he said. “I’m a believer in God. I believe in a greater power, which has affected the way I lead my life. I live, first of all, to help others. And like the Bible says, I pass no judgment on others.”

St. Francis Director of Athletics Dave Laketa said he is happy for Kurdziolek that he has found peace.

“I am so glad that Kyle no longer has to fight his inner self and live in a world where he was trying to conform to the way that others in today’s society might have wanted him to be,” Laketa said. “Kyle can now be Kyle and not have to be someone else or feel guilty for who he is.

“This is a win-win for Kyle. He can now live his life free of a perceived burden, while at the same time helping other people – which he likes to do most – who face similar overbearing pressures brought on by our society today.

“Life is difficult enough these days. Why add more internal pressure to oneself just to please others?”

Asked what the next chapter to his story may be, Kurdziolek said, “What I’d like to have happen now is just see where the story goes. I just want to be an advocate for LGBT athletes. I want to help break social norms. I feel now that this is just another step for the LGBT to be more accessible across the nation.

“Coach Mander said it best. Being a gay college football player is taboo. Maybe I can help others overcome that who are in the situation I was in.”

That is what Kyle Kurdziolek wants more than anything else. He says helping others is the reason God put him in this world, and he does not intend to fail.