{"id":27271,"date":"2026-01-12T14:32:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=27271"},"modified":"2026-01-12T14:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:32:19","slug":"potthoff-named-ray-eliot-award-winner-in-ihsa-in-football-coaches-association-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/football\/27271-potthoff-named-ray-eliot-award-winner-in-ihsa-in-football-coaches-association-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Potthoff Named Ray Eliot Award Winner in IHSA in Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>The 2026 Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductees for 2026. These coaches will be honored and inducted at the annual Hall of Fame Banquet on Saturday, March 28, 2026 at 12:00 Noon.<\/p>\n<p>The banquet will be held at the I Hotel &amp; Conference Center in Champaign. Ticket info is available at ihsfca.com<\/p>\n<p><strong>2026 IHSFCA HOF Inductees:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ray Eliot Award<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Drew Potthoff (Potthoff was the Effingham High School coach for nine years from 1981-82 to 1989-90 seasons.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Active<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Josh Roop &#8212; Tri-Valley<\/p>\n<p>Brent Pearlman &#8212; Evanston<\/p>\n<p>Toby Vallas &#8212; Farmington<\/p>\n<p>RJ Haines &#8212; Manteno<\/p>\n<p>Chuck Spagnoli &#8212; Lake Forest<\/p>\n<p>Justin Townsend &#8212; Fairfield<\/p>\n<p><strong>Career<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chris Skinner &#8212; Jacksonville<\/p>\n<p>Don McCarthy &#8212; Arthur<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Bryant &#8212; Chicago Robeson<\/p>\n<p>Albert Cruse &#8212; Chicago Inglewood<\/p>\n<p>Dennis Piron &#8212; Batavia<\/p>\n<p><strong>Assistants<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bradley Miller &#8211; Byron<\/p>\n<p>Charlie Waca &#8212; Princeton<\/p>\n<p>Conor Arendt &#8212; Lena Winslow<\/p>\n<p><strong>Retired<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ed Freed &#8212; Galena<\/p>\n<p>Greg Wood &#8212; Lawrenceville<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductees for 2026. These coaches will be honored and inducted at the annual Hall of Fame Banquet on Saturday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Potthoff Named Ray Eliot Award Winner in IHSA in Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/football\/27271-potthoff-named-ray-eliot-award-winner-in-ihsa-in-football-coaches-association-hall-of-fame\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Potthoff Named Ray Eliot Award Winner in IHSA in Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/football\/27271-potthoff-named-ray-eliot-award-winner-in-ihsa-in-football-coaches-association-hall-of-fame\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-12T20:32:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Millie Lange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Millie Lange\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/football\\\/27271-potthoff-named-ray-eliot-award-winner-in-ihsa-in-football-coaches-association-hall-of-fame\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/football\\\/27271-potthoff-named-ray-eliot-award-winner-in-ihsa-in-football-coaches-association-hall-of-fame\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Millie Lange\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0ecf2a966f6bc51e38a364270d9d4aa2\"},\"headline\":\"Potthoff Named Ray Eliot Award Winner in IHSA in Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-12T20:32:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/football\\\/27271-potthoff-named-ray-eliot-award-winner-in-ihsa-in-football-coaches-association-hall-of-fame\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":162,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Football\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/football\\\/27271-potthoff-named-ray-eliot-award-winner-in-ihsa-in-football-coaches-association-hall-of-fame\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/football\\\/27271-potthoff-named-ray-eliot-award-winner-in-ihsa-in-football-coaches-association-hall-of-fame\\\/\",\"name\":\"Potthoff Named Ray Eliot Award Winner in IHSA in Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame - 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