Tyler Weber of Marysville (15) picks up yardage after a pass reception during a recent scrimmage. High school football previews will be published next week in the Journal-Tribune. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
The high school football season will begin a week earlier this year.
Action kicks off for teams from around Ohio next weekend (Aug. 20 and 21).
The reason for the early start is the fact the Ohio High School Athletic Association has expanded the state playoffs.
In previous, non-COVID 19 seasons, the top eight teams in each region from the seven divisions in Ohio qualified for the state playoffs.
The regular season was shortened last year due to the virus.
After six regular-season games, each team in the state qualified for the post-season.
This year, the playoffs have expanded to include the top 12 teams in each region.
That will be after each team plays a full regular season.
The regular season must start a week early in order to play state championship games for each division the first part of December.
State title games will be played at Fawcett Stadium in Canton, which is located next to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The early start to the high school gridiron season will mean the Journal-Tribune fall sports previews will be different this year.
Next week, we will publish football previews with a team story and photographs.
We will feature one school each day, starting with Marysville on Monday.
The Monarchs will be followed by Fairbanks (Tuesday), North Union (Wednesday), Jonathan Alder (Thursday) and Triad (Friday).
The season opens with Fairbanks hosting Cardington, North Union at Marion Pleasant, Jonathan Alder at Amanda-Clearcreek and Triad hosting Benjamin Logan.
All of those games will kick off at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 20.
At presstime, Marysville’s first week was still up in the air.
Cleveland Collinwood was scheduled to play on the Monarch gridiron on Saturday, Aug. 21, 1 p.m.
That game was canceled due to Collinwood’s small roster.
No replacement game had been scheduled as of today’s presstime Friday evening.
Additional fall sports such as volleyball, girls tennis, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls golf and boys and girls cross-country will be previewed the following week, beginning on Monday, Aug. 23.
Each school will be previewed once a day with the schedule following the same as football.