As a quarterback trio, the Hilinski brothers go the distance

In an era when families are torn over what schools to attend and what sacrifices are needed to succeed academically and athletically, the Hilinski brothers have embraced their life of long-distance traffic-congested car pools and early morning wake-up alarms.

It started two years ago when Kelly Hilinski was a tall, gangly eighth-grade quarterback living in Claremont. His parents, Mark and Kym, went to great lengths to research what high school he should attend, because his younger brothers would one day follow.

They visited nearby La Verne Damien. They came close to enrolling at Santa Ana Mater Dei. But in the end, they picked Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, more than 40 miles from their home.

Two years later, Kelly is a 6-foot-6 junior starting at quarterback for Notre Dame’s 5-2 varsity team. Brother Tyler is a 6-3 quarterback starting for the unbeaten freshman team. And brother Ryan is a 10-year-old starting quarterback for the Burbank Vikings youth team while attending grammar school in Sherman Oaks.

The family still lives in Claremont on weekends, because as Kym says, “We love our town,” but they stayed in an apartment in Pasadena during the week to reduce their commute and only last week moved to Sherman Oaks to finally end their daily freeway adventures.

There are no regrets.

“It’s just right for us,” Kym said. “We haven’t looked back.”

The boys are straight-A students who could be on a path to becoming the most decorated brother trio to come out of Southern California at the quarterback position since the Clausens — Casey, Rick and Jimmy.

The family is not taking any shortcuts. Kym, who is an attorney, and Mark, who owns a software company, pay full tuition for their two oldest sons to attend Notre Dame. The boys are dedicated students and the two oldest earned their starting positions with hard work.

Kelly received recognition from his workouts under private quarterback guru Steve Clarkson, but he quickly learned he wasn’t ready to play immediately at the varsity level.

He was Notre Dame’s freshman quarterback, then backup on varsity last season. He has since begun to develop into someone who Clarkson believes will have “20 to 25 scholarship offers” by next season thanks to better strength and physical maturity.

“Kelly has made remarkable improvement since he began here,” Notre Dame Coach Kevin Rooney said.

Tyler, also a promising pitcher in baseball, is more mobile than Kelly and has a knack for getting passes to his receivers. He has thrown 17 touchdown passes for the 7-0 freshman team.

And then there’s Ryan. “He’s going to be great,” Kelly said.

What’s clear is that Kelly has been an invaluable big brother in guiding his two younger siblings.

“They pushed me as I was growing up and I pushed them,” he said. “We’ve become better because of each other. It’s out of love but it’s competitive at the same time. We love each other to death. I couldn’t ask for anything else.”

Kelly accepted the major burden early on, going back and forth from Claremont as a freshman, rising sometimes at 4:30 a.m. to make it to Notre Dame for 6 a.m. workouts. The brothers rarely got to spend much time with each other because they were attending different schools and playing on different teams.

“It taught me a lot about patience and how to value your family and education and being a good person,” Kelly said.

Now they’re back together, with Ryan attending his brothers’ games, and when he sees them throw a touchdown pass, he said, “It gets me fired up.”

There was one weekend this month in which Ryan and Tyler each threw four touchdown passes.

The biggest winner of all is Rooney, in his 32nd season as coach. He’s likely to have a Hilinski playing quarterback at Notre Dame through 2018.

Asked if he’ll be staying that long, Rooney said, “I’m encouraging them to have more kids to see if I can go longer.”

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

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