Apollo’s Noah Dillbeck will be continuing his football career into college after signing to play at Eastern Kentucky University. The signing caps off Dillbeck’s high school career that started during the COVID-19 pandemic.
His freshman year was also his first year ever playing football as he did not play in middle school. Once he stepped foot on the field, Dillbeck fell in love with football and made it his goal to make it to the college level.
“It’s been a dream for the past four years,” he said. “As soon as I touched the football field I was like man I want to keep doing this. I don’t want to play only four years, I want to keep going. I didn’t play in middle school, so I went into freshman year not having a clue how to play football. Year by year, I noticed myself getting faster and better. Footwork was the biggest thing that I had a problem with because I have slow feet.”
All of his hard work paid off, as Dillbeck achieved his goal when he signed for Eastern Kentucky University. The distance from Owensboro to Richmond isn’t too far for Dillbeck as it was always considered like a home to him. The only challenge he sees himself facing is adjusting to college life.
“It has just always felt like home to me,” he said. “It’s still in Kentucky and it’s pretty close by. I already have some friends there as well. I’m already a little used to the college classes. That’s not really the big issue, I think it’s just the college life like being away from family, dorming with other students and being on your own all the time.”
As he goes to the collegiate level, Dillbeck said he can’t wait for the increase in intensity from the high school level. Everybody will be fighting for their spot on the team, and he’s excited to get started and throw his hat into the ring as well. His hometown environment along with the heated city-county rivalries are what he will miss the most about high school football.
“I’ll miss the environment,” he said. “You know everybody from school, so you’d see everybody you know in the stands and in the student section. That kind of carries over to college as well, so it’s really just the hometown environment that I know. I’ll definitely miss the city-county rivalries. I’ll miss playing Daviess County and getting hyped up for the rivalry games. It’s just like you’re ready to go kill somebody. I don’t even know if it’ll be the same in college, but we’ll see.”
