LP_120116

36 | December 1, 2016 | The Lockport Legend sports
lockportlegend.com
Alumni Spotlight
Porters football alum wraps up accomplished wide receiver career at Southern Illinois
Reed ranks among
university’s greats at
position
Erin Redmond
Assistant Editor
When Billy Reed arrived
at Southern Illinois University
five years ago, he had
never caught a pass for the
college.
Now, after his final game,
he is leaving as one the greatest
wide receivers in school
history.
Reed, a Lockport Township
High School alum, became
just the 13th Saluki
player with 100-plus receptions.
He finished with 118
catches for 1,474 yards and
nine touchdowns in his collegiate
career.
Last season, he pulled
down 14 passes against Illinois
State to set an SIU and
Missouri Valley Football
Conference record for the
most receptions in a single
game for 2015. He amassed
805 receiving yards his junior
year, the fifth-most in SIU
single-season history.
“Nobody really expected
that out of me, so I’m glad I
could show that I could play
receiver and transition,” Reed
said. “I think I owe a lot of it
to my coach [wide receivers
coach Ashton] Aikens, because
he worked with me a
lot. He kind of saw that I was
a raw athlete and transformed
me into a receiver.”
For Reed, his experience
at SIU has been surreal. Despite
playing quarterback for
the Porters, he was recruited
as an athlete and was uncertain
where he would fit in,
but it did not take long for
him to find his stride. As an
experienced outfielder, Reed
quickly showed how all those
years of baseball would pay
off on the gridiron.
“When I got to SIU, I went
back to return punts one day
at practice, and coach saw
that it was kind of natural to
go from catching a fly ball to
catching a punt,” said Reed,
who set the Porters’ singleseason
stolen base record at
36 his junior year.
Despite playing baseball
most of his life, Reed chose
to forgo his senior year in order
to focus on football. He
began playing for the Homer
Stallions in junior high and
instantly fell in love with the
sport, he said.
“It’s the ultimate team
game,” the 6-foot-1,
207-pound receiver said.
“There’s 100 guys in the
[SIU] locker room who all
have different stories about
where they come from …
and we all meet in the middle.
It has been cool to meet
those guys and develop a relationship
because that’s kind
of what you miss most when
you’re done playing.”
Reed said he also misses
some of his former LTHS
football coaches, especially
former head coach Bret Kooi
and assistant coach Adam
Decaire. He said the duo
gave him some much-needed
tough love that led to him
playing for a Division I team.
Decaire said he and the
other coaches knew that
Reed would be successful
wherever he landed. The
Lockport wide receivers
coach even joked with Reed
a couple weeks ago that he
wished they had him at wide
receiver in high school.
“From the lower levels,
we knew he was a special
athlete,” Decaire said. “We
knew he could play anywhere
you put him on the
field … He’s a great young
man; he made our jobs easy.”
Reed’s skills extend into
the classroom, too. On Nov.
3, he was one of only two
wide receivers to be named
Billy Reed recently finished his senior season as a wide receiver at Southern Illinois University and played football prior to
that at Lockport Township High School and for the Homer Stallions. Photos by Tom Weber/Saluki Media Services
to the 2016 Academic All-
District 5 team by the College
Sports Information
Directors of America, earning
the honor for the second
straight year. District 5 is
comprised off all Division I
football teams from Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
The accolade also means
Reed is eligible for the Academic
All-America team,
which is announced in December.
Graduating in May with a
3.72 GPA and a degree in finance,
Reed is unsure where
he will go next.
The team finished 4-7 this
season, with a 2-6 mark in
conference play. Nonetheless,
when Reed put on his
SIU helmet and shoulder
pads for the final time Nov.
19 when SIU hosted Western
Illinois and the team won 44-
34, it was a special moment.
Reed went out in style in
his last collegiate game, tallying
eight receptions for
138 yards and a touchdown.
With stats like that, he remains
hopeful there can be
more playing days ahead.
“If I have a chance to play
football after this, I think
I’ll take it,” Reed said. “It’s
weird. You’ve kind of had
your whole life planned out
playing football the last five
years, and now it’s all up in
the air ... I’m kind of ready
for that next chapter and to
see what happens.”
Billy Reed catches a touchdown pass during a game with
the Salukis.