Former Flathead quarterback Mike Reilly’s phone was full of text messages after he and the Edmonton Eskimos won the 2015 Grey Cup.

One, from his former high school coach Grady Bennett, eventually led to Saturday night when Reilly was the featured speaker at the Boys & Girls Club of Glacier County’s signature event, the Great Futures Gala at the Glacier Jet Center.

Reilly graduated from Flathead in 2003, and while he now makes his home in Seattle, he drives through Kalispell annually on his way up to Edmonton for the start of each Canadian Football League season. With the start of Eskimos training camp just 10 days away, the timing was perfect for Reilly to coincide his visit with the event.

“I’m always happy to do any event that I can for a good cause and this is certainly one of those that fits that criteria, so I was happy to find out it was going to work out,” Reilly said.

“Mike has been really impressive,” Alan Sempf, Boys & Girls Club director, said. “One of those guys that doesn’t have to go out of his way but he has.

“We didn’t expect a lot, but from the beginning he’s been willing to work with us. He was just right there the whole time. We’ve tried other people, too, and it’s not always this easy.”

Reilly was joined at the podium by Glacier runner Annie Hill, the two-time defending state cross country champion. Hill, just a sophomore, was named the Gatorade Montana cross-country athlete of the year in January.

The pair were presenting on their own great futures, a play on the Boys & Girls Club’s tagline, “Great futures start here,” as part of an evening that was put together to raise funds for the organization through a dinner and auction.

“Myself, I came from an incredible family where my parents were extremely committed to us as kids. They had the means to take that time and invest it in us and not all kids are that lucky,” Reilly said.

“Some kids don’t have that opportunity from family or friends or anything like that and the Boys & Girls Club is a surrogate for that and the only way that they’re able to do that is through the donation process that the people that are here (Saturday) are involved with. I think it’s extremely important that they get the funding that they need to be able to help kids that need that help.”

Reilly signed a two-year extension to remain in Edmonton last month, keeping the 31-year-old with the Eskimos through the 2018 season. After spending time with four different NFL teams and toiling as a backup in the CFL, Reilly is thrilled to have found a football home in Edmonton.

“It was a big-time roller coaster earlier in my career,” Reilly said. “There were some tumultuous years and then when I finally got my opportunity in Edmonton it was a bit of a sigh of relief because it’s like ‘OK, finally I’ve gotten my opportunity,’ but then it’s just that much more stressful because you know how long that you’ve waiting and this is sometimes going to be your only chance to make it work.

“So things worked out well and, yeah, I do feel settled now. Edmonton has become by home away from home for me and my wife and it’s been a great community to play for.”

Reilly was named the Most Valuable Player of the Grey Cup, capping a terrific season in which he threw for 2,449 yards in 10 regular season games and added 324 yards on the ground. Lightly recruited out of high school, Reilly played his college football at Division II Central Washington, setting a mountain of school passing records in four years as a starter, but went undrafted before working his way onto a handful of NFL practice squads and eventually earning his CFL opportunity.

Despite his far-from-easy path to football stardom, Reilly still encourages Flathead students to dream big when he does find himself back in town.

“I go to the high school to work out when I’m here for an extended stay,” Reilly said. “I see the kids in there and I always stop and say hello and just let them know that if they’re interested in sports and they want to make a career out of it, whether it’s having it pay for their college or doing something beyond that, it’s definitely doable.”