Caleb Dewey says he doesn’t pay much attention to the stat sheet; he was caught completely off guard when he learned that he had broken Edinburgh’s single-season records for catches and receiving yardage.
“I just try to play,” Dewey said. “That’s all I’m thinking about.”
For everyone else, the numbers being put up by the Lancers’ junior wide receiver and senior quarterback Riley Palmeter are just about impossible to ignore — and they’re part of the reason why the optimism around Edinburgh football is higher than it’s been in quite some time.
Palmeter had a record-setting campaign of his own in 2020, throwing for 2,235 yards and 29 touchdowns; almost half of that production came in tandem with Dewey, who finished his sophomore season with 65 receptions for 1,037 yards and 13 scores.
The duo helped the Lancers finish last year with some momentum — they scored 130 points over their last three regular-season games and won their last two before falling to Class A state champion Covenant Christian in their sectional opener.
“They’re super excited about this year,” Edinburgh coach Tyler DeSpain said. “I think they’ve realized what they can do, and with knowing the numbers that we have and the offensive and defensive line that we have, they see it could be a special year this year.”
The community is seeing the same thing. Hopes are high in Edinburgh, where there hasn’t been a winning football season in 28 years. And folks from outside the area are taking notice of the Lancers’ two headliners — Dewey was recently named one of the top 22 underclassmen in the state by Indiana Preps.
DeSpain has been impressed by Palmeter’s continued development as a quarterback since last season ended.
“His leadership has been his biggest growth,” the coach said. “He has definitely taken a role in that leadership. Last year, it was his first full year of starting and seeing the defenses and calling the plays … and I think this year he’s more of, ‘Hey, we need to do this’ or ‘we need to do that’ and kind of directing, especially the younger kids, and making sure they understand what we’re trying to do as a program.”
As for Dewey, he’s already picking up right where he left off, making several highlight-reel plays during the Lancers’ informal summer scrimmages. At 6-foot-3, 158 pounds, he’s got the wiry build of a Randy Moss — and a similar ability to leave fans in awe.
“He’s just a freak athlete in general,” DeSpain said of Dewey. “He doesn’t look like it from your first look at him, but just seeing him be able to do the things he does — I mean, we scrimmaged down in Clarksville a couple of weeks ago, and he caught two one-handed balls over a defender or two defenders. The things he does, it’s crazy.”
“He bails me out a lot,” Palmeter echoed. “It’s just nice to know that wherever you put it, he’s liable to make a play on it.”
While the recognition and raised expectations are good for raising confidence, it also puts a weight on the players that wasn’t there when the Lancers were stringing one-win seasons together.
Nobody on this team is complaining.
“There is pressure, because the whole town is counting on us and everyone expects us to be good,” Palmeter said, “but we embrace it and we use it as motivation to work harder.”
“It seems like every year, the community starts to support a little more,” Dewey added. “We’ve just got to make sure we go out there and play hard for them and just give it our all.”
