Head coach Hal Lamb watches his Calhoun High School team play football during the 2013 season.Lamb’s LeadersCalhoun quarterbacks in the spread offense:• 2014: Kaelen Riley, 2,301 yards, 22 TDsComment: Athletic junior has the team in finals and also has 724 rushing yards and 13 scores.• 2013: Fields Chapman, 2,420 yards, 22 TDsComment: Injuries and turnovers were an issue for strong-armed one-year starter.• 2012: Taylor Lamb, 3,498 yards, 36 TDsComment: Current Appalachian State QB was 29-1 as Calhoun’s starter.• 2011: Taylor Lamb, 3,635 yards, 40 TDsComment: The state player of the year led the Jackets to the Class AA state title with a record season.• 2010: Landon Curtis, 2,734 yards, 35 TDsComment: He led the team to state finals five months before leading the baseball team to a title.• 2009: Nash Nance, 3,000 yards, 28 TDsComment: Current Hampden-Sydney College starter formed a lethal duo with Da’Rick Rogers.• 2008: Michael Johnson, 2,559 yards, 25 TDsComment: The two-sport star had a great postseason in one year as the football starter.• 2007: Tre Lamb, 2,400 yards, 27 TDsComment: He helped transform the offense into the spread era with a 70-percent completion rate.
Kaelen RileyCALHOUN, Ga. — Athletes are programmed early to ignore pressure and to let outside expectations be somebody else’s concern. Just do your job, they’re told, and everything else will take care of itself.
Kaelen Riley has heard all that, and on Friday nights the Calhoun High School junior quarterback is a 6-foot-3 package of cool and calm. Don’t, however, let that happy-go-lucky persona fool you into thinking Calhoun’s latest star quarterback doesn’t realize the responsibilities of being the trigger man in Hal Lamb’s offense. Riley is, in fact, well aware of those who came before him and the legacy that he’s fully intent on extending.
Instead of putting undue pressure on his shoulders, Riley uses it as a reminder to never feel satisfied.
“It really does mean something to me to be a Calhoun quarterback,” said Riley, who will lead the Yellow Jackets into the program’s seventh state championship game Friday against Washington County. “You never think about the enormity of it, the guys you follow, but becoming one of them is incredible.