Guess who’s back, back again…

Dare I say it, Kosciusko? Can it really be true? Is football FINALLY back!?

Yes, yes it is. *and there was much rejoicing*

Finally we can forget about pretending that we like the summer. Who really enjoys the lake and the sandbar? I mean, did we really enjoy warm weather all that much? Now we can get down to business and celebrate what we are really excited about, football!

This week I will be picking some local football games and loving every second of it because that’s just how I roll. Football is why I live and usually don’t sleep from August though the first week in February.

Real quick, I want to apologize to any and all Notre Dame football fans. Stud receiver DaVaris Daniels asked me to use my excellent writing skills to help him and a few teammates out with an assignment last spring and I of course helped the kid out, but apparently that did not go over well with everyone. My apologies.

Also, everyone has gone slightly insane this past summer by willingly pouring ice cold buckets of water over their heads. How crazy do you have to be? Well, as crazy as me I suppose. Below you’ll find my ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I made an error in my opening statement about the website to visit. For more information on ALS and how to donate please, please, please visit http://www.alsa.org/donate/ 

Do NOT visit the fake site I mentioned in my video as it is, well, fake. Also, cross your fingers for me as I have challenged Stacey Page and Ron Baumgartner. Both of them might be hunting me down as you read this.

Yes, wasn’t that lovely?

One new thing I’m doing this year is adding a designated game of the week. Why? Why not? Every other sports outlet does something like that so I think our teams deserve the same kind of love. Also it allows me to feel better about yammering on about a game that I might know more about. I also will put *Game of the Week* next to the team names to make it look all official. So, that’s cool.

Let’s get to some pickin’!

High School Football Week 1

Warsaw (0-0) at Columbia City (0-0), 7 p.m.
The Scoop: Seeing as I don’t know too much about the teams quite yet, I am going to try and keep these scoops short.
Warsaw is switching things up on us this year. Coach Phil Jensen getting outside of his comfort zone a little bit by taking advantage of the talent he has and running more of a spread based offense this season.
Obviously nobody knows how this will go, but I am a man who will take the leap and say that it will work pretty well given the athleticism that the Tigers have.
Jake Mangas will take over under center in this new offense and while I have no clue what Columbie City has in its secondary, I will say that Mangas has a sold debut on Friday night and the Tigers come home happy with their third consecutive win over the Eagles.
The Pick: Warsaw 34, Columbia City 20.

Triton (0-0) at Caston (0-0), 7 p.m.
The Scoop: The Trojans had a rough season in 2013. Triton finished its year with just a 1-9 record, but that one win comes into play here as Caston was the only team Triton beat. The Trojans claimed a 25-13 win over the Comets to start out 2013 then finished with nine straight losses.
There are a few pieces that Triton has to replace going into the new season, most notably being quarterback Cole Creighbaum. Grant Stichter will take over under center and he performed well in the scrimmage last week. While that’s a hard way to measure how someone will do in real action, it’s the best I have to go on right now.
I got burned by the Trojans with my pick last year so I will give the team the benefit of the doubt starting its second season with the motivational John Johns at the helm.
The Pick: Triton 17, Caston 6.

Wawasee (0-0) at Whitko (0-0), 7 p.m.*Game of the Week*
The Scoop: Let me start by saying that I hate having to pick a game between two local teams the first week of the season. It just isn’t fun because I have to cover the game Friday and one of these two coaches will not be happy with me.
Lasy year I dubbed this game the “Josh Joust” because both teams brought in first-year head coaches Josh Mohr (Whitko) and Josh Ekovich (Wawasee) and because I like alliteration. Both coaches had good rookie seasons. Mohr grabbed a share of the Three Rivers Conference title while Ekovich finished with a winning record in the always challenging Northern Lakes Conference.
The story of this game will be offense. Wawasee brings a lot of athleticism to the table, a lot It starts at receiver with Clayton Cook, a senior who has the ability to make any defender look silly. For Whitko the offense will center around Tanner Hughes. The senior ran for more than 1,200 yards in 2013 and is aiming for the 2,000 threshold this year.
I believe Hughes will get over 100 yards on the ground on Friday night but I don’t think that will take as much of a toll on the Warriors as Cook’s performance will on the Wildcats. Regardless of which player stands out more, this should be a good contest between these two teams.
The Pick: Wawasee 35, Whitko 24.

Culver Academy (0-0) at Tippecanoe Valley (0-0), 7:30 p.m.
The Scoop: Scott Bibler returns as the head coach for the Vikings after Jeff Shriver stepped down after this past season. Let me just first say that Bibler was the right guy to bring in. That being said, it is upsetting to see Shriver go as he legitimately looked like he was a viking.
Anyways, Bibler takes over again as head coach for Valley. He previously coached the Vikings from 1990-2005. In that time Valley finished with a winning record 12 times, won three conference and one sectional title. The concern here isn’t with the coaching, clearly. It is replacing the players that graduated in the spring.Valley lost record-setting players Tanner Andrews and Ben Shriver as well as 2013 leading rusher Nolan Sponseller.
The line returns some strength this season and there will be some talent in the backfield with Garrett Bell. I am not sure how the team will look as a whole on the field just so picking Valley makes me nervous. It doesn’t help that CMA returns some talent as well and holds a three-game winning streak over the Vikings. We’ll see where I stand with the Vikings next week.
The Pick: CMA 41, Valley 28.