Naperville Central senior linebacker Christian Kuta is part of a family that has been heavily involved in basketball.

His father and all of his uncles played the sport, as did his older brother Brad.

Kuta also played basketball until his sophomore year, but he’s really making a name for himself on the gridiron.

“No one really played football,” Kuta said about his family. “I liked basketball because there was a little bit of physicality in it.

“I started to fall in love with football just because I wanted to hit people.”

The 6-foot-4, 235-pound Kuta is exceedingly good at hitting opposing players, regardless of where they are on the field. If a player has the ball, chances are Kuta will track them down.

The lucky ones merely get tackled. The unlucky ones also lose the ball.

Kuta had 58 tackles, including 12 for loss, and six sacks last year. Through five games this season, he has already racked up 45 tackles, six sacks, six hurries, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.

“I don’t know how he does it,” Naperville Central senior quarterback Jack Cook said. “If you look at his stats, you don’t think it’s real. You’d think it would be for nine games, not for four or five games. It’s unbelievable.”

Cook isn’t the only one who thinks so. Naperville Central coach Mike Ulreich sometimes is amazed by the plays Kuta makes. Kuta had a fumble recovery in a 27-0 win against Waubonsie Valley on Sept. 15, but Ulreich didn’t think that was his best play of that game.

“Christian was on an interior blitz,” Ulreich said. “Waubonsie throws a screen pass to their best player, their running back, and we tackle it for a 5-yard gain.

“I assumed it was one of our other linebackers who made the play, and then Christian pops up off the ground. How the heck he was the one who made that play — it’s unbelievable. I told him that might have been my favorite play of that game.”

The Redhawks (4-1, 2-0), who lead the DuPage Valley Conference heading into a game against rival Naperville North (3-2, 1-1) at North Central College on Friday, run a 3-4 defense that plays to Kuta’s blend of size and speed perfectly.

“It fits my strengths because I’ve got a big frame and I’m lengthy,” he said. “I’m fast enough to drop back and get in coverage, but I’m also fast and strong enough to be able to rush the passer and strong enough to be able to take on blocks and get guys in the backfield.”

That allows Ulreich to line up Kuta in multiple spots and keep offenses guessing.

“A majority of the time, he’s our fourth rusher, but when he drops into coverage, he’s so long and so disruptive,” Ulreich said. “Then he’s very physical at the point of attack, taking on blocks. He’s an instinctual player.”

Kuta’s instincts have been honed by 12 years of football and his strength by dedication in the weight room. But his drive to make tackles isn’t merely to slake his thirst for contact.

“I go out there and I want to give 100% effort on every single play,” Kuta said. “If you don’t give 100% effort, you’re letting your teammates down and I’m also letting myself down. If I let those guys down, it’s one of the worst things you can do.”

Kuta hasn’t let his teammates down. He also contributes on offense as part of the Redhawks’ “heavy” package, which features him as a tight end. He has caught one touchdown pass.

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Ulreich plans to use the heavy package more in upcoming games. It will give college scouts a chance to see Kuta’s versatility.

So far, Kuta has an offer from Roosevelt and a preferred walk-on offer from Central Michigan. Ulreich said Kuta could play defensive end or tight end in college.

“He’s just a freak,” Cook said. “He can play any position. He could play quarterback if he wanted to.

“He just trains so hard in practice. He never lets a play off. To see how good he does in games shows us that we could do the same thing if we never let a play off in practice.”

Kuta does all that work so he can continue hitting, but that’s not the main reason he gets so much joy from football.

“One of my favorite things is a lot of the people I met,” he said. “I made a lot of new friends with kids and a lot of the coaches too. They mean a lot to me. They helped me be the person I am now, and without football, you never know how I would have turned out.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.