2024-25 NewsTribune Male Athlete of the Year: Princeton’s Casey Etheridge

No matter what, Casey Etheridge wants to win.

Whether he’s playing basketball against his older brother, Carson, on a 7 1/2 foot hoop at their house, playing pickleball with friends or competing in one of his three varsity sports, Etheridge wants to come out on top.

“Going into a sport, I don’t want to be on the losing side,” Etheridge said. “I’m such a competitive person. I think that drives me.

“It’s just the mentality that I don’t want to go into something and be average at it. I want to be able to succeed and help my team succeed in every way I can.”

Etheridge is not often on the losing side.

As a junior at Princeton this school year, Etheridge helped the Tigers’ football team to a fifth consecutive Class 3A quarterfinal appearance.

In wrestling, Etheridge placed fourth at state in the Class 1A 165-pound bracket.

Etheridge ended the school year by qualifying for the state track and field meet in the Class 2A 300 hurdles.

He was NewsTribune Offensive Football Player of the Year and NewsTribune Wrestler of the Year along with NT All-Area in track. Etheridge was unanimous All-Three Rivers Conference Mississippi Division at running back and honorable mention at linebacker and was Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Class 3A All-State honorable mention.

For all he accomplished this school year, Etheridge is the 2024-25 NewsTribune Male Athlete of the Year.

“I think what makes Casey successful is that he is one of the most competitive young men I’ve ever been around in my 25 years of doing this,” Princeton football coach Ryan Pearson said. “He constantly strives for perfection in everything he does. The competitive fire this kid has inside of him is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

That competitive fire drives Etheridge to be “all in” when it comes to weight lifting, training, practice and work in the classroom to “enhance his God-given ability,” Pearson said.

“Whatever he needs to do to better himself, he’s going to do that,” Pearson said. “He takes a lot of pride in how hard he works. He takes a lot of pride in being an all-around athlete as well as how he excels in the classroom and how he behaves in and out of the building and out in the community. Everything he does, he takes it almost to the max because he’s always striving to gain an edge. It’s pretty special.”

Princeton wrestling coach Steve Amy said Etheridge has been a hard worker since he started coaching him in youth wrestling.

“A lot of it is his character and his work ethic,” Amy said about Etheridge’s success. “He’s always out for a sport, so he’s always working on something. He’s a great young man. I’ve coached him since he was 8 years old. He’s always been very driven and worked very hard. That’s something Mom and Dad instilled in him out working on the farm.”

Dave Moore, who took over the Princeton boys track program this year, saw Etheridge’s work pay off this spring.

“Whether we’re doing a regular workout or it’s doing hurdles or relays, he goes 110%,” Moore said. “I think that’s really what separates him from the rest.

“He never ran the [110] high hurdles before [this year]. We started gradual and went to the first hurdle then we stair stepped it. By the end, his best time was 15.8. He just kept getting better and better.”

After a breakout sophomore year on the football field, Etheridge was as good or better as a junior.

Etheridge played both ways this fall and ran for 1,706 yards and 25 touchdowns, putting him 581 yards away from breaking the Bureau County all-time rushing record.

“I thought I did well learning how to balance myself on both sides of the ball,” Etheridge said.

While Etheridge said the “transition is definitely tough” going from a football playoff run to wrestling, he had plenty of success on the mats.

He went 48-6, recorded his 100th career win, won a regional title and finished fourth at state.

“I thought I had a lot more confidence coming into my junior season because I made it to state the year before and I knew what I could do,” Etheridge said.

In the spring, Etheridge won conference titles in both hurdle events and finished 20th at state in the 300 hurdles.

“I was really happy with how it went,” Etheridge said. “I thought I did a lot better this year than I did last year. I’m happy coach Moore encouraged me to try the 110 hurdles. I ended up getting consistent three step down and dipping into the 15s. With the 300s, coach Moore really helped build my confidence in those and trust myself. I was really happy to make it to state.”

Although Etheridge is happy with his junior year, he’s not satisfied.

“In every sport, the goal is to make a run at state,” Etheridge said. “In football, we’ve been pretty stagnant making the quarterfinals. We want to make it past that point and try to get a run at a state title. In the other sports, I want to be as high as I can in the state. I don’t want to just go to state and be happy with being there. I want to go there and place and make a run at something great.”

Etheridge is putting in the work this summer to get there.

He goes to football weight lifting in the morning, works for the city street department, goes to wrestling on Mondays and Wednesdays, runs hills with teammates and goes to Peoria for football training with former University of Illinois running back Kendrick Foster.

“The sky’s the limit for him,” Pearson said. “He’s been on the field for us since he was a freshman, so he knows what to expect. There’s something about when a kid becomes a senior. A switch is flipped. The finality sets in and they find that extra gear.

“I think he’s expecting to have a great year. I think our team expects him to have a great year. Our coaching staff expects him to have a great year. The reason we can say that is because we know how much time and effort Casey has put into things.”