Forged By Adversity: Bilhal Kone Is Determined to Honor His Family

After his first football practice at Iowa Central Community College, Bilhal Kone remembers about 70 players quit the team.

The excessive running. Getting cussed out. This wasn't where football was meant to be fun.

"They shred you all the way down to all you have left to think about is what you really want out of football," Kone said. "Are you willing to do this?"

The answer is Kone is willing to do whatever it takes – not just for himself, but for his family.

Adversity? From poverty, the death of his younger brother, and via three different colleges, Kone has been through it. Now the Ravens' sixth-round cornerback is carrying it as motivation into the NFL.

Kone was born in Minnesota, but because his family was struggling financially, he was sent to live with his grandmother in Ivory Coast. That's where he discovered his love of sports, playing soccer on a cement field all day until it got dark.

He came back to the U.S. at 6 years old and learned English (his first language was French) and football. His mother didn't want him playing, however, so he didn't start until sixth grade.

Times were tough in Apple Valley, Minn., as the family was struggling to make ends meet even before major health issues piled up. Kone's younger brother, Hamza, was sick from pretty much birth and developed childhood lymphoma (cancer).

Hamza was a charmer. During Bilhal's football games, he would go around the stands making friends – and money. He would proudly report to his brother at the end of the game how much money he had somehow secured.

"He was just a kid that had energy wherever he was. When he was in the room, you knew he was there," Bilhal recalls. "Everybody loved him. When they saw him, they saw me, they saw my older brother. We were really tight and always together."

Hamza idolized LeBron James and got a Make-A-Wish day with the NBA superstar in James' hometown of Akron. James flew the whole family out. Hamza played basketball and football, just like his older brothers, until doctors told him he couldn't anymore.

So when Hamza was living in the hospital, he turned it into his own mini basketball arena. When he wasn't in the hospital, he went on long bike rides all over town and stayed out till night, savoring being a "normal" kid as much as possible.

"He was someone who just had so much perseverance to him," Bilhal said. "Adversity was never something he looked at. He always made the best of everything."

Hamza beat cancer once, but his fight tragically ended at 11 years old in 2016. Bilhal and his older brother, Mohamed, who now plays professional basketball in Australia, have written "Ball For Hamza" on their cleats and sneakers ever since. It's the family mantra.

"Me seeing him go through all of that and fight through everything that he did, it just pushed me even harder than I can," Bilhal said.

While Hamza is Bilhal's primary motivation, it's not the only source. Bilhal grew up watching his mother, Amy Camara, do everything she could to keep the family afloat. Camara owned a hair styling business until being forced to close it because of COVID. She then picked up an office cleaning job that kept her out of the house from 4 p.m. till 1 a.m.

After Hamza's death, with the family struggling, Mohamed made the difficult suggestion that Bilhal should move out again to find more stability.

The Apple Valley High School basketball coach and older brother of NBA players Tre (Chicago Bulls) and Tyus Jones (Phoenix Suns), offered to take him in. The move allowed Bilhal to focus on school and sports, and came with nights out to watch Tyus play for the Minnesota Timberwolves, but Bilhal's heart hurt.

"That was the toughest time for me, not being around my mom and her not having her son, or anyone, home," Bilhal said. "I'm a mama's boy, so you don't ever really want to be away that long.

"That's honestly why I keep working as hard as I do, because of that and wanting better for her. That keeps me going every day."

First a wide receiver, Bilhal started playing cornerback during his junior year of high school. His soccer background also made him the team's kicker and punter. A no-star recruit, he went to a camp at the University of Minnesota, where he caught the attention of graduate assistant Donald Celiscar, a former Indianapolis Colts cornerback.

"It was awful," Celiscar recalls with a laugh. "You could just tell he's just a raw athlete, to be honest with you. You could tell nobody really worked with him. He was just trying to figure it out."

Kone landed at Iowa Central Community College with athletic tools and a drive to make it to Division I football – two important ingredients. But he wasn't alone in that pursuit. Whether it was players that bounced back from higher levels of college football, or guys from tough backgrounds like his, players at that level scratch and claw to get to the top.

Coaches plan to make kids quit, Bilhal said. That's how they weed out those who are, as he says, "willing to go through the process before they see the outcome."

"You have to have a real strong mentality about yourself and why you're doing this," Bilhal said. "Cause if you don't, you'll fold real quick. You learn to be tough. You learn to be resilient."

Bilhal spent two years playing in community college before moving on to Indiana State. He spent one season there, finishing on the injured list and a month-long liquid diet after a ball carrier's knee hit him in the throat.

Bilhal then entered the transfer portal and made the jump to the FBS, landing at Western Michigan after being recruited by Celiscar, of all people, who was their cornerbacks coach. By this point, Celiscar saw a player who was ready to flourish with the right guidance.

Celiscar said Bilhal was still guarded. He didn't trust easily. He still had some maturing to do and habits needed to be formed. After Bilhal's junior season, Celiscar challenged him to put it all together. From that point on, Bilhal was around the building more, breaking down tape before Celiscar would even dive in.

"B.K. is a hell of a kid," Celiscar said. "When we put that plan together and he stuck to the plan over the summer, I saw a different human being. When the scouts started coming and guys I reached out to, I'd say, 'Hey, you got a special guy here.'

"The maturity, that was the biggest thing that I saw from him. I saw it in his eyes that he was hungry. He wanted to be great. He wanted to change the dynamic of his family and mom."

Bilhal led the Broncos in passes defended each of the past two years and held his own against tough competition, such as Ohio State. He has the size, length, and speed to go along with his competitiveness. He was one of only four FBS cornerbacks with 70 tackles or more last season.

"I was shocked this year when he didn't make all-conference," Celiscar said. "He locked down the whole side of the field."

Bilhal was one of Western Michigan Head Coach Lance Taylor's first commits when he took the job in 2023. Taylor told him in their first meeting that he had the tools to make it to the NFL if he committed himself to the program.

"He came in and he was a naturally instinctive football player. He's really disruptive with the ball in the air. He uses his length really well. Does a great job in man-to-man skills," Taylor said.

"He's also a great practice player. He loves football. That's what you guys are getting. He is a guy who is competitive, loves to work, and is going to lay it all on the line every day."

Bilhal checked all the boxes during the pre-draft process. He measured in at 6-foot-1, has a 75-inch wingspan, and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.43 seconds. He was projected to be a late-fourth or fifth-round pick by The Athletic's Dane Brugler, who ranked him as the 14th-best cornerback in the class. Yet Bilhal landed with the Ravens in the sixth round (pick No. 178).

When the Ravens called, Bilhal became overwhelmed with emotions when Head Coach John Harbaugh asked how his family was doing. Bilhal's mom was sitting right next to him.

"You all don't know how much this means to me," Bilhal said. "I'm ready to go."

The challenges certainly haven't ended. Bilhal is a late-round pick and the Ravens have drafted four cornerbacks in the past two years. He wasn't even the only corner they drafted in the sixth round this year. Bilhal will compete with fellow rookie Robert Longerbeam of Rutgers, among others, to secure a spot on the 53-man roster.

But if Bilhal needed any reminder about his motivation, he got it on draft day, when he was selected on the anniversary of Hazma's death. Bilhal said his brother was more on his mind that morning than the NFL Draft, and he'll be on his mind every time he laces up his cleats.

"Playing football is when my expressions come out and I have this high energy motor about me that I know comes from my little brother," Bilhal said. "I'm ready to go at any time and I don't get tired quickly. Neither did my little brother. I definitely have his spirit through me every time I'm out on the field."