West Central Heat Football: 2026 Schedule and Results (8-Man)
Latest result — Week 3, Friday September 4: won 62-22 against Galva. Now 3-0. Next: at Peoria Heights, Friday September 11.
Full area results are published every Saturday morning — see our weekly results.
2026: 3-0 · Coach: Jason Kirby, 11th season · League: Illinois 8-Man Football Association · Enrollment: 215
The smallest school in this coverage area, in a village of 300 people, currently holding the best football record in it — and the only one whose alumni include a man with his name on the Claret Jug.
2026 results
- Aug 21 — beat Flanagan/Cornell/Woodland 32-12. Led 24-12 at halftime when thunderstorms suspended play; the game was completed Saturday afternoon, with West Central taking the second half 8-0. The only area game this season to require two days.
- Aug 28 — beat Blue Ridge/DeLand-Weldon 48-20 on the road.
Eighty points in two games. The Heat have not trailed in either.
Sept 4 — beat Galva 62-22 at home. Three from three in eight-man. Note: a statewide roundup that Friday also lists a West Central beating North Greene 41-7 — that is Winchester West Central, a different school entirely.
2026 schedule
| Date | Opponent | Site | Time | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 21 | Flanagan/Cornell/Woodland | Home | 7:00 | W 32-12 |
| Aug 28 | at Blue Ridge/DeLand-Weldon | Away | 6:30 | W 48-20 |
| Sept 4 | Galva | Home | 7:00 | — |
| Sept 11 | at Peoria Heights | Away | 7:00 | — |
| Sept 25 | Bushnell-Prairie City | Home | 7:00 | — |
| Oct 2 | West Prairie/Southeastern | Home | 7:00 | — |
| Oct 9 | at Ridgewood | Away | 7:00 | — |
| Oct 16 | St. Thomas More | Home | 7:00 | — |
| Oct 23 | at Ashton-Franklin Center | Away | 7:00 | — |
2022: state champions
On November 18, 2022, in roughly twenty-degree weather with a single-digit wind chill, West Central beat the Amboy/LaMoille/Ohio co-op 44-36 at April Zorn Memorial Stadium on the Monmouth College campus to finish 13-0 and win the I8FA state championship — the first football title in the school’s history.
Kaiden Droste ran for 180 yards on 17 carries with four touchdowns, and added sixteen tackles and a fumble recovery. Mason Carnes had fifty yards and two scores. Parker Meldrum ran for 45 and made 21 total tackles. Colton Fletcher added thirteen tackles; Brody Link and Ian Dunlap each recovered a fumble.
Through the first six games of that season the Heat outscored opponents 364-128 and led at halftime in every one. The district credited sports psychology work by Dr. Donna McCaw with the team’s mental preparation.
They had lost the semifinal the previous year to Polo, who went on to win it.
Jason Kirby
Now in his eleventh season at West Central and 28th as a head coach, with roughly 150 career wins.
Before Biggsville he coached Bureau Valley, taking them to the Class 3A state runner-up finish in 2004.
His 2025 team went 7-3, and the record undersells it: both losses that bookended the season came against West Carroll, 42-0 in the opener and 42-8 in the playoffs. In between, West Central went 7-1.
Returning is running back Aidan Garner, who ran for 238 yards and three touchdowns against Flanagan/Cornell/Woodland last season.
Todd Hamilton
The best athlete any school in this coverage area has produced graduated from Union High School in Biggsville — the school that became West Central.
Union had no golf team. Hamilton qualified for the state tournament as an individual, through district and sectional, alone. He won the IHSA Class A individual state championship in 1982 with a 150, and again in 1983 with a 157.
He went to Oklahoma, turned professional in 1987, failed at Q-School eight times, and built a career in Japan instead — eleven wins in twelve seasons. He finally earned a PGA Tour card at thirty-eight.
Seven months later he won the 2004 Open Championship at Royal Troon, beating Ernie Els in a four-hole playoff. The full story →
An older set of titles
Before all the consolidations, Biggsville High School won back-to-back boys track and field state championships in 1899 and 1900 — among the oldest state titles held by any school in this region, from the IHSA’s first years.
Union High School was the Class 2A football state runner-up in 1982. And Theresa Brokaw won the Class A girls 1600 metres in 2006.
Five schools became one
The lineage here is the deepest of any school in the area:
- 1895 — Biggsville High School founded
- 1914 — Oquawka High School founded
- 1949 — Gladstone and Oquawka merge
- 1960 — Biggsville joins them to form Union High School
- 1971 — separately, Stronghurst and Wever merge to form Southern High School
- 2005 — Union and Southern merge to form West Central
The old Stronghurst building is now West Central Junior High. The 1925 brick gymnasium is still standing.
The district serves Oquawka, Gladstone, Biggsville, Gulf Port, Stronghurst, Media, Raritan, Smithshire and Carman. Biggsville itself is Henderson County — the only school here outside Knox and Warren counties — population 300, covering a third of a square mile.
Softball is the other story
West Central went 33-2-1 in 2026 with a 28-game winning streak and a 12-0 conference record.
On May 29 they beat the defending Class 1A state champions, Ridgewood, 5-1 in the sectional final. Junior Miley Stimpson allowed nothing through five innings with five strikeouts. Lauren Winters drove in a run, Becca Hinshaw tripled, and junior Kaylee Mills hit the go-ahead single in the seventh.
They lost the super-sectional 6-5 to Dakota at Sterling on June 1.
Coach Dylan Voyles: “Nobody expects this from us, nobody knows us, and we’re trying to change that.”
Softball is 154-67 all-time — comfortably the strongest programme in the school.
Beyond football
Baseball, basketball, golf, track, bowling and bass fishing for boys; basketball, golf, track, volleyball and softball for girls, plus girls flag football. Monmouth-Roseville joins West Central for bowling.
The rest of the record
Beyond softball and the 2022 title, West Central’s other programmes have found the postseason in patches: a girls volleyball Class 2A regional in 2019, girls basketball regionals in 2006, 2008 and 2016, and softball regionals in 2016, 2023 and 2024 on top of the sectional runs in 2022 and 2026.
All-time, girls basketball sits at 188-195 and volleyball at 146-152 — competitive but not dominant. Boys basketball, at 133-306, is the one programme that has struggled consistently.
Send us results
We cannot be at every stadium and every gym. If you have a score, a stat line or a photo from this programme, send it in — we post them as they come and we correct errors the same day.
Records via the IHSA and MaxPreps. Championship detail via West Central CUSD 235 and WMOI/WRAM. Area conference guide →
