Football season is almost upon us

This time of the year always has a certain lure to it. As vacations wind down and people get ready for the fall it is in my mind the time for high school football.
Yes, I love all sports and I love to cover them but my favorite by far has to be the lure of Friday Night Lights. I love the thrill of going to games under the light on Friday night and seeing all the action on the football field.
I know it is high school sports and not the professional sports that you see on television on Saturday or even the big time games on Sunday when teams like the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers take the field.
Granted most of these kids will not make it to the college level and even fewer of them will make it to professional ranks.
Belleville has produced quite a few professional athletes. Cullen Jenkins is still part of the Packers and a very good player as well. Kris Jenkins also plays professional football and he plays for the New York Jets. Tony Scheffler of Chelsea is now on the Detroit Lions and TJ Lange from Eastern Michigan University is still on the Packers.
I plan to go to some Detroit Lion practices this season and put out some interesting and local stories to the readers.
The part I like best about high school football is not knowing who might make the big play. Who is going to have the big interceptions, who will score the game-winning touchdown. Players of all ages and sizes can do amazing things on the football field and I like to catch that so I can put it in the paper.
I will be covering some football teams with some potential this season. The closest I came to the playoffs last season was Willow Run who missed making the playoffs on week nine. They needed a win against the Riverview Pirated to get an automatic nod. This season maybe Coach Rufus Pipkins and Company will be looking to make that happen.
The Lincoln Splitters are also looking to make some noise and grab a few more victories this season. I will miss watching start player Andrew Dillon but I have to admit I am excited about the future of football and athletics in general at Lincoln High School.
Belleville has a new coach, Matt Davenport, and I think a new attitude on the gridiron. It might take them more than one season to get things done but I feel confident is saying they will be returning to that glory in the 1990’s that made them one of the best in the area and made them feared by opponents.
Ypsilanti High under new coach Jason Malloy will be having good things happen for them. Malloy is a no-nonsense guy who will turn this program back around and I really believe move them into the playoffs if not this season than in a year or so.
I am getting excited about practices starting next week and pretty soon games will be the talk every Friday night we publish are stories at www.heritage.com every Friday night. We may even feature games of the week and I can’t wait to start getting our stats and picks of the week in the papers.
Look for our coverage and look for our insight. The best thing I can say and I know it sounds quite cliché is ‘Let’s get ready for some football.’
Let me know if you have a special player or maybe an interesting story to go along with our coverage and I will check it out. I love new articles and I love hearing from people so give me a call at 734-697-8255 or just shoot me an email at dmerchant@heritage.com and we can talk about sports, football or even life in general.