SPRINGFIELD — A sure signal the 2009 high school football season draws near hit the Internet recently when the Ohio High School Athletic Association released the schedules for every school in the state.
That’s 718 teams, if you’re keeping track.
Schedules can be viewed at ohsaa.org by team, or if you like to search, by week (Week 1 alone has 16 pages of schedules, with 25 games per page).
Here’s a week-by-week look at area games you won’t want to miss this season:
Aug. 28 | West Jefferson at Mechanicsburg: No better place to start than in the ’Burg, a regional runner-up one year ago.
Sept. 4 | Northeastern at Urbana: Former league mates play every year in a tough regional rivalry.
Sept. 11 | Miami Trace at Tecumseh: The Arrows open the home schedule after playing on the road the first two weeks.
Sept. 18 | Shawnee at Northwestern: The Braves and Warriors lock up in a Clark County battle.
Sept. 25 | Southeastern at West Liberty-Salem: A Tigers TD beat a Trojans field goal in 2008.
Oct. 2 | Catholic Central at West Liberty-Salem: These perennial playoff teams have waged some classic battles through the years.
Oct. 9 | Indian Lake at Greenon, and Benjamin Logan at Graham: Both the Falcons and the Knights have new head coaches and new looks, this year.
Oct. 16 | Triad at Mechanicsburg: Few neighborhood rivalries get as intense as this one in a game with league and playoff standings at stake.
Oct. 23 | Tippecanoe at Tecumseh: The Arrows are glad to have this game, and potential league bragging rights, at home.
Oct. 30 | Wayne at Springfield: If the Wildcats can stand up in a strong schedule, this game will again have playoff implications.
