Ross Osborne with Somerset quarterback Kaiya Sheron, a UK commit. (Sara Osborne Photo)
Looking for a young Kentucky high school quarterback to maybe start watching. Then try 6-foot freshman Ross Osborne of Shelby Valley. He was sixth man on the varsity basketball team last year and even played some varsity basketball as a seventh grader. He will be the starting quarterback when Shelby Valley open the season September 11 against Knott County Central.
“Coaches have told me he could play college basketball if that’s what he wants to do but I have coached football as long as he can remember and he’s been on the field with us. Football is the sport he likes best,” said David Osborne, the quarterback’s father.
“He is a dual threat kid. He is pretty hard-nosed and will run almost to a fault. He will learn early not to do that as much in high school. I think he throws the ball well on the run, has a nice touch and is pretty accurate. He doesn’t realize how strong his arm is and doesn’t always trust it to cut it loose.”
He’s been to several national competitions and was the 2019 Future 4 Winner and is the No. 88 player in the nation according to QBHitList. He was selected to play in the Diamond Elite All American game in Las Vegas 2020 but could not participate due to basketball.
“He has done national showcases and competitions. We like getting out and competing to let him see where he is at,” David Osborne said.
His father says his son need to get more weight because his “metabolism never stops.” Also COVID-19 kept him from working out like he wanted.
“He also got sick in basketball and lost 12 pounds in two weeks last season but never missed a game,” David Osborne said.
Some freshmen already have Division I offers and Ross Osborne has been in touch with several schools and had others following him on social media. The family has UK football season tickets and the plan had been for him to attend camp at UK — along with several others — this summer before COVID-19 stopped that.
“For him Alabama could sit down and if (UK coach Mark Mark) Stoops calls, that is where he would want to go to school,” David Osborne said. “But he knows coaches really are not going to talk to him until he can put some high school film out there for them to see.”
