The question posed to Eastern Connecticut Conference football coaches:

So who do you think is the 2009 Player of the Year?

The answers were not unanimous.

But this was: When the subject of Montville High School senior linebacker Ricky Fort arose, they said, "We couldn't block him."

Indeed, they could not. Fort averaged nearly 10 tackles per game and led the Indians with five sacks. He is The Day's 2009 Football Player of the Year.

Fort and the Indians won the ECC Medium Division, won the first home playoff game in the history of the program and played St. Joseph of Trumbull in the Class SS finals.

"I admire him," Montville coach Tanner Grove said. "He's been through a lot."

It began with his mother's illness when Fort was a student and football player at New London. Fort was on the field for the Whalers during their 35-0 loss to Ansonia in the 2007 Class S finals. But when it became evident that his mother would be unable to care for him, Fort had to make a decision about his future.

He moved to Montville to live with his aunt, who was already raising three kids.

"It wasn't easy on my family," Fort said. "Half agreed, half disagreed. It's a big change to your lifestyle."

New London and Montville, close geographically, are quite different in virtually every other way.

"New London is just busy all around. There's more people and more roads," Fort said. "Montville, you can walk around anywhere and not get lost."

Fort's first foray with the Indians featured a memorable game at New London in November 2008. Montville was one play away from winning a huge regular-season game when a freak bounce gave New London a last-second victory. The rest of the season didn't go so well either. The Indians lost to St. Bernard-Norwich Tech and then to New London, again, in the playoffs.

Fort, however, decided he needed to stay at his new school.

"I didn't want to let my teammates down," he said, "and I love coach Grove."

Fort and the Indians had a solid senior year, a win away from the program's first state championship.

"As I got to know him as an athlete, he's as talented a linebacker as we've had in the ECC in years," Grove said. "He's in a small, elite group.

"As I got to know him as a person, it's an even better story. His grades have gotten better, his attendance has been tremendous. I admire that as a 16-year-old kid, he understood he might have been heading down the wrong path and fixed it."

Fort said he would like to play college football. But for now, he leaves a legacy that would make all of his family proud.

"I'm proud of my team," he said. "Nobody really expected us to beat New London last year and we just about did. This year, we made the playoffs and got to the finals. We'd love to have a state championship, but we just couldn't win it."

M.DIMAURO@THEDAY.COM