During his St. Norbert pee-wee football career, current senior David Burnside said he was not that good at football, but the Loyola Academy and GBN coaches begged to differ.

By the time Burnside was going into high school he had a big decision to make: whether he would play football for GBN or Loyola Academy.

Associate Head Coach Matt Purdy said he had heard about Burnside when he was in eighth grade and had hoped he would come to GBN. His wish came true.

Four years later, Burnside is playing football as the starting wide receiver and free safety for the GBN football team. Purdy said one of the main persuasion tactics used to convince kids to come to GBN is the fact that the team plays Friday night football under the lights, while Loyola plays on Saturday mornings.

Burnside has played in varsity games since his sophomore year. As a sophomore, he was named to the Central Suburban League All-Conference team.

“When he came up [to varsity] as a sophomore, his very first game we threw a pass to him and it was a beautiful catch he made and he caught it for a touchdown,” said Purdy. “Right then you knew he was going to be a very high-quality player for us.”

At the end of last season, Burnside tore his PCL and MCL during a playoff game against Niles North. He was playing offense and got twisted up while being tackled. After Burnside went down, Purdy said the coaching staff knew they had lost one of the team’s best players.

It took about four months for Burnside to fully recover so he could start this season’s opening game against Hersey.

“[When he came back this year] there wasn’t one sign of timid in him,” said Purdy. “The first time I saw him catch a route this summer I was like ‘Okay this is the same kid that was here prior to his injury.’”

This year, Burnside is one of the captains for the varsity team. He thinks the team chemistry this year is stronger than it has been in previous years. He hopes to continue to be a positive leader for the team.

Burnside and senior Matt Tedeschi, another captain of the football team, regularly go to Tedeschi’s house before games to eat pasta and chicken. The two have been playing football together since freshman year.

“Burnside has good hands,” said Tedeschi. “He always knows what to do and on defense he finds the ball [to make the tackle].”

As of Oct. 1, Burnside has helped the team win two games.

“He is very hard on himself, as he expects amazing levels of perfection,” said Purdy. “He’s a very good leader for us because of his level of perfection.”

Burnside and Purdy said that the team hopes to win a conference title.

Burnside said he is looking at different colleges to possibly play either football or baseball at after high school.

“I definitely made the right choice playing football for Glenbrook North,” Burnside said.