Marty Kirkland: Touchdown! back in print for the fans

Here’s my dedicated high school football fan of the week winner for the opening set of games: On Friday night, as North Murray played its first varsity football game at Mountaineer Stadium, athletic director Josh Lowe said he overheard a woman in attendance say she was also present when the Murray County High Indians debuted their own stadium decades earlier.

No one’s asking you to pledge that many years of following area high school football, but many local fans will have to fill up their gas tanks and put a few miles on the Goodyears this Friday — the consequence of an opening week in which most teams enjoyed the chance to start the season at home. However, Christian Heritage will hold its home opener against Dominion Christian this Friday and Dalton will only need to cross the Conasauga River to face Murray County.

Northwest Whitfield heads to Canton and Creekview High for another Region 7-4A test, while North Murray makes the trek south to Rockmart for one of its longer trips of the season. (The Mountaineers’ schedule is fairly generous when it comes to travel this year. Four of their first five games are at home, and two of the three road games already set for the second half of the season require a drive no farther than Calhoun.)

When it’s 7:30 p.m. on a Friday night in Northwest Georgia, we don’t really have to tell you what’s going on. But here’s a look beyond your prep football schedule for the week at just what is going on:

• OK, so this is still about high school football, but it’s not about the games themselves. For a decade now, Thursdays during football season have meant picking up The Daily Citizen for TOUCHDOWN!, our weekly publication dedicated solely to that sport.

It will still mean that, but we do have some changes in store. No. 1, two new schools will be included — Christian Heritage and North Murray — in our weekly stable of features and other information. No. 2, we’ve switched our print format from a tabloid (the style of paper you’re holding today) to a broadsheet (the style of paper you hold every other day of the week).

Some other things may change as well over the course of the season, but the bottom line will stay the same: TOUCHDOWN! is our way of giving you a complete picture of the area’s high school football scene every week.

• The week in local sports starts with a non-region, cross-classification softball battle between two teams ranked in the top 10 of their respective levels of play as Gordon Lee heads to Tunnel Hill today to face Northwest.

Gordon Lee (7-0) was No. 1 in the most recent Ga.PrepCountry.com Class A Coaches Poll and a quarterfinalist in its state tournament last season, while Northwest (4-4) drew the No. 7 ranking in 4A and finished third in its class a year ago.

The Lady Bruins have lost two straight and are 1-2 in Region 7-4A, but I wouldn’t read too much into that at this point in the season. They’ve been notoriously slow starters the past few years, but they’re usually doing fine by the finish.

On the other hand, against the Lady Trojans might not be the easiest place to start a turnaround. All but one of Gordon Lee’s wins have come against a team from a higher classification, and opponents have been shut out four times while managing a combined six runs so far.

• You can find all the details in our Local Sports Calendar on page 32, but here’s a reminder that Wednesday is the deadline to sign up for the Conasauga Bass Club’s 2010 Youth Fishing Event, set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 11.

The club’s members and those who help sponsor the event are generous with their time, money and other resources, but they have to plan like anyone else and need an accurate head count so no one’s left out the day of the event. So do them right and let them know if you’re taking youngsters this year.

Marty Kirkland is Sports Editor of The Daily Citizen. Got something you think he should highlight in ‘What’s Going On?’ Write to him at martykirkland@daltoncitizen.com.

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