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Gunner Kiel wasn’t ready for his senior football season to end when Columbus East fell to Cathedral in the Class 4A semistate.

But not long after the Olympians were knocked out one game short of the IHSAA state finals, the senior quarterback was ready to move on with his promising career. The 2011 Indiana Mr. Football enrolled at Notre Dame for the spring semester, and he hasn’t looked back.

“To get up here as soon as possible and get a semester under my belt, at first, I thought it was awful because I missed home a lot,” said Kiel, the 2011-12 Republic Male Athlete of the Year. “But now that I got through it, it was definitely smart. I’m building bonds with guys on the team.”

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Kiel capped a banner high school career with a stellar senior season. He threw for 2,517 yards and 28 touchdowns, with only four interceptions, in leading East to Hoosier Hills Conference, sectional and regional titles.

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