2026 Football Preview: Skill positions a strength of often-overlooked Pekin squad

PEKIN – The Pekin Dragons football team enters 2026 with a chip on its shoulder. 

The Dragons started strong last year, suffered multiple key injuries and still managed to make the Class 6A playoffs before getting ousted by conference foe Dunlap.

However, the buzz surrounding the team is that this season will be quite different.

For one, the Dragons will have one of the fastest and most versatile athletes in the Mid-Illini, senior wide receiver Dylan Anderson, back on the field for them this season. Anderson missed nearly the entire 2025 season with a torn ACL.

“The biggest thing that's going through my head is just proving people wrong,” Anderson, who led the Dragons with 143 receiving yards per game during his sophomore campaign in 2024, said. “People that are saying, ‘You're in high school, and you can't really come back from injuries just because you don't got the money for it  like the NFL players do.’”