This will not be the first time Neal has had the reigns of a football team though. Neal led the Yorktown High School football team last year to an 11-2 season, the most wins in the school’s history.
Although Neal will experience the most pressure this weekend, the news of his start has affected more than just him.
Mike Wilhelm, the Yorktown High School head football coach, said the whole Yorktown football team is buzzing.
"I hear guys talking about stuff like, 'It'll be awesome if Riley goes and Ball State upsets Northwestern, this weekend.' I mean it's just part of the chatter you hear in the locker room and during breaks in practice, so he's definitely on our minds as an entire group and as a community,” Wilhelm said.
Anthony Todd, the senior center for the Yorktown football team, said he is excited to see his former teammate and best friend starting at a collegiate level. He said seeing Neal succeed inspires him and his teammates to work harder.
“Him starting sets an example for all of us,” Todd said. “We were all around Riley, and he never missed anything, never missed a workout, anything that was volunteer, he was always there. So it shows that if kids want to go to the next level, Riley shows you can do it, even if you are from Yorktown. He sets an example for all kids that are younger than him.”
Peyton Stites, a Yorktown senior and former teammate of Neal, said seeing Neal’s calm gameplay has helped him as a player and as a person.
"I don't think I've ever seen Riley Neal panic in a football game, ever. And I think that's kinda transferred over to this year,” Stites explained. “It gives me a cooler head, it gives me like more confidence, it makes me think, ‘In this situation, Riley wouldn't panic and he's like perfectly successful, so why should I.’”
But Wilhelm says it goes beyond just his team. The whole community has something to be proud of.
“It’s a prideful thing for our Yorktown community, where I know our guys take pride in watching him play football and there’s no doubt that we’re gonna have kids that look up to him, and continue to look up to him and want to be like Riley Neal,” Wilhelm said.
Todd said it has been an adjustment this year not having Neal around, but the new quarterback for the Tigers has stepped up to the challenge.
“I’ve always said, you’re never gonna be able to replace a kid like Riley, so it’s been more than tough, but our quarterback, Brogan Miller, has stepped in and he knew his role coming into it, knew what the offense was gonna be, and when we ask Brogan to make a play, he always seems to come through,” Todd explained. “It’s been tough but I think Brogan has done it very well, and we’ve dealt with it very well.”
The Tigers have a 3-2 record so far this season.
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