Charlie Waca, a longtime assistant with four decades on Bureau County area sidelines, will be inducted into the Illinois Football Coaches Association Hall Fame in the Class of 2026.

Waca has 38 years on his resume with stops as an assistant at his hometown Tiskilwa (1968-88), Princeton (1989-2007) and Kewanee (2008-12). He got to coach along side his son, Chris, when he was the Boilers head coach.

Waca is one of 16 coaches to be inducted in the Class of 2026 on Saturday, March 28, 2026, at the annual Hall of Fame banquet. Also to be inducted is Farmington head coach Toby Vallas with Drew Potthoff receiving the Ray Elliott Award.

Hall’s Braden Curran chosen to Shrine Game

Hall senior Braden Curran has been selected to play in the Illinois High School Shrine All-Star Game to be played at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 20, 2026 at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.

These players were nominated by their coaches and selected by the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association.

Curran will be a member of the Red team, whose coaching staff includes Mike LeMay of Sterling Newman and Guy Dierikx.

Princeton senior all-stater Casey Etheridge chose not to play in the game, according to Tiger coach Ryan Pearson.

Tigers receiving college offers

Princeton senior football players Common Green, Rhett Pearson and Etheridge are having a busy postseason as they prepare for the next chapter of their football careers.

Green and Etheridge have both received offers from UW-Whitewater to play at the D3 level.

Green has six offers on the table in all, most recently from Millikin University and Monmouth University. He has also received offers from the University of Dubuque, Aurora University and Concordia-Wisconsin.

Etheridge received Game Day Invites from North Central College, the defending and three-time National champion, Upper Iowa and McKendree University, along with a trip on Saturday to UW-Whitewater.

Pearson has been offered by St. Ambrose, Cornell, Aurora, Monmouth and Concordia-Wisconsin.

Payne Miller to enter portal

Western Illinois DT Payne Miller, a 2023 Princeton grad, plans to enter the transfer portal, reports say. He has three years of eligibility remaining.

The 6-foot-2, 300-pound DT, the 2023 BCR co-Player of the Year, had 19 tackles and 5 TFLs this year in 10 starts for the Leathernecks.