Published on August 20, 2026 7:22 am
Last Updated on August 20, 2026 7:25 am
Effingham High School hits the road this week to get its 2026 varsity football campaign underway, making the season’s first of two trips to Clinton County for a Friday night showdown with the Cougars of Breese Central.
Kickoff tomorrow night is 7 p.m. with the pregame show beginning at 6:45 here on 979 XFM and online at 979xfm.com. Matt Robinson and Dustin White are back for another year of football coverage here on your home for Hearts football; that will include the game itself plus a postgame chat with Flaming Hearts coach Brett Hefner, back for a 12th season at EHS.
There’ll be a number of storylines to follow this year … a new quarterback mixed in with quite a bit of varsity experience returning at the tailback and receiver spots, some very solid players returning on defense and both lines but needing to gel with new faces, an always challenging Apollo Conference, and IHSA’s new expanded playoff field.
Coach Hefner hits on all that and more in his preseason interview with Dustin. If you missed it earlier this week, check it out. It’s a good primer for the upcoming season and worth a watch!
Breese Central was a state semifinalist in last year’s Class 4A playoffs after opening its campaign with a 42-7 victory at Klosterman Field. Plenty of talent graduated off that roster, but this year’s squad does have a returning quarterback and more than 20 seniors currently listed … not to mention playing on its home field this time around.
Effingham will return to Breese in Week 3 to play longtime non-conference opponent Mater Dei after its home opener next week against Mt. Carmel. Apollo Conference play kicks off Week 4 with a Sept. 11 home date against Charleston.
The Hearts are coming off back-to-back 4-5 seasons and would like to end their playoff drought at two years; prior to this brief lack of postseason football, Effingham had qualified for the playoffs in five of its previous six full campaigns.
Elsewhere in Apollo non-conference action: Charleston hosts Robinson, Mahomet-Seymour hosts Morton, Mattoon hosts Decatur MacArthur, Mt. Zion travels to Bartonville (Limestone) and Taylorville has a home matchup with Olney.
Also in the area: Cumberland, coming off a 9-2 campaign and a berth in the Class 2A playoffs, hits the road to Fisher to take on the newest member of the Lincoln Prairie Conference. (Remember, Cumberland remains in the LPC for football despite joining the National Trail Conference for the rest of its athletics.) Newton doesn’t begin Little Illini Conference play for a couple weeks, getting its season started with a non-conference trip to Bethalto Civic Memorial.