Members of the 2026 Northwest Mohawks’ football team. McDERMOTT — Paul Carver has been at several schools including the head coaching job at Oak Hill and an assistant’s job at Portsmouth West, both Southern Ohio Conference schools. Regardless of the differences, Carver knows that football is football as he takes over the Northwest Mohawks head coaching position. Northwest enjoyed a 7-3 season that was 4-2 in the Southern Ohio Conference-2 standings. But the loss of 11 seniors

Players and coaches of the 2026 Raceland Rams’ football team. RACELAND, Ky. — The Raceland Rams want to keep one streak going, but they want to end another that’s tied to the other streak. Raceland has made four straight championship game appearances and are loaded with enough talent to make another run. But this time, they want to end a four-game losing streak in the finals. The Lexington Herald-Leader thinks the Rams could very well end that title game losing streak because

Members of the 2026 Portsmouth Trojans’ football team. PORTSMOUTH — It’s been said that coaching is just another type of teaching, and first-year Portsmouth Trojans head coach Brandon Sammons has plenty of things he wants to teach. Besides the basic fundamentals of the game, Sammons is hoping to teach some other valuable lessons. “As I told players and parents, if your goal isn’t to win a state championship, why are you playing? Now in realistic situations play into it. There

Players and coaches of the 2026 Portsmouth West Senators’ football team. WEST PORTSMOUTH — Call them unusual. Call them strange. Call them an oddity. But in the end, you’ll call the Portsmouth West Senators snot-knocker football. In a world where everyone runs the spread even if they don’t have the athletes to do it, West is an oddity because they like to line up and run the football at opponents as they pound away and try to rattle your helmets. “We hang our hat on it. There

Members of the 2026 Sciotoville East Tartans’ football team. SCIOTOVILLE — On paper, the Sciotoville East Tartans have some positive pieces this season. But East coach Adam Bailey knows nothing has been won on paper. And the paper doesn’t include injuries or unexpected obstacles. The Tartans’ program went 1-8 last year including 1-5 in the Southern Ohio Conference-1 race. But Bailey preferred to speak of the positive with caution. “We return a decent group of kids. We’ve got

Players and coaches of the 2026 Green Bobcats’ football team. FRANKLIN FURNACE — Green Bobcats coach Shane Colvin is playing the numbers. No, Colvin isn’t playing the illegal three numbers mafia lottery game that was popular during the last century. His numbers are the total on his football roster. “This year it’s been a lot better. We’ve been in the weight room consistently with 18 guys, 19 guys. We did a whole lot more 7 on 7s,” said Colvin. “We’ve had really good leaders.”

Players and coaches of the 2025 Coal Grove Hornets’ football team. COAL GROVE — When Coal Grove Hornets’ seven-year head coach Jay Lucas goes to fill the holes in his lineup, he’s going to need a lot of filler. The Hornets graduated some talented players from last year’ 8-3 team that won its first Ohio Valley Conference title since 2017 and qualified for the Division 5 postseason playoffs. Of those who must be replaced is All-Ohio first team running back and Division 5 Southe

Player and coaches of the 2026 Minford Falcons’ football team. MINFORD — In the “Die Hard” movies, someone would always tell John McClane that he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” But McLane always got himself in the right place at the right time that made for a happy ending. Enter first year head coach Josh Bailey who is looking to write a happy ending to the Minford Falcons season. And he’s doing it by getting his players in the right place at the right time. “We,

Members of the 2026 Valley Indians’ football team. (Photo courtesy of Pat Phillips/Glory Days Photography) LUCASVILLE — Nolan Crabtree probably doesn’t consider himself a deep thinker. He’s more focused on finding a deep roster. He might have dug deep enough this season. “We’ve got some experience back and we have some depth,” said Crabtree with a sigh of relief. The Indians were 8-3 last season and finished third in the Southern Ohio Conference race at 4-2. Among the key ret

They are the second line of defense, but that’s the only thing second about them. Linebackers make up the second line of defense and are needed to read the situation and react quickly. And their jobs are plentiful. While the defensive linemen tie up the offensive linemen, the linebackers are versatile players who fill holes, stop the running gaps, blitz the quarterback and drop back into pass coverage. Here’s a lot at five of the top linebackers to watch this high school foot

Players and coaches of the 2026 Symmes Valley Vikings’ football team. WILLOW WOOD — It was the famous Roman poet Horace who said, “Carpe diem.” Translated: Seize the day. The total quote was “Seize the day, trusting as little in the future.” The Symmes Valley Vikings are taking that approach this season as they look to improve on last season’s 9-3 record and a berth in the Division 7 Region 27 semifinals before losing 48-7 to eventual state runner-up Hillsdale. Armed with a v

Players and staff of the 2026 Ashland Tomcats’ football team. ASHLAND, Ky. — Maybe Ashland Tomcats’ head coach Chad Tackett is a fisherman. He found himself last season saying, “You should have seen the one that got away.” If it was for bad luck, the Tomcats might not have had any luck at all like an unlucky fisherman. Ashland went 7-5 and had numerous games that couldn’t have gone in their favor. “We had a down year last year. Going 7-5 is not good enough here. We let a coup

Players and coaches of the 2026 South Point Pointers’ football team. SOUTH POINT — Brian Wroten got what he wanted, and he got to be where he wanted to be. Wroten realized his dream of becoming a head football coach when he was hired to take the helm of the South Point Pointers. The Pointers are coming off a 3-7 season and Wroten knows there’s a lot of work ahead, but none of the matters. “It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been working 10 years to get to this point. This is my dre

Members of the 2026 Ironton Fighting Tigers’ football team. IRONTON — Are the Ironton Fighting Tigers trying to gaslight the opposition? Ironton head coach Trevon Pendleton is making several moves that may confuse opponents and have them thinking it’s a practical joke. All the questions arose when senior Kayden Edwards (5-11, 175) was moved from quarterback to wide receiver. Last season playing strictly as the quarterback, Edwards was 74 of 113 for 1,167 yards and 15 touchdow

Players and coaches of the 2026 Greenup County Musketeers’ football team. LLOYD, Ky. — Haven’t we seen this before? Greenup County head coach Travis Jones has a lot of familiar faces and opponents awaiting this season. That familiarity has the Musketeers’ fourth-year head coach approaching the season with cautious optimism. “We should come in a very confident football team. All our guys have been there, done that. They’re playing the exact same schedule as last year,” Jones s

Members of the 2026 Fairview Eagles’ football team. WESTWOOD, Ky. — The Fairview Eagles will have experience and depth. Well, what you call depth at Fairview. With a roster under 30 players, head coach Alex Roy is leaning on a veteran senior class to help the Eagles improve on last season’s 5-6 record. “We do return a lot. We’ve got 13 seniors and we return basically our entire core. We lost two seniors starters, so we’re hoping for a fun year,” said Roy. Although Roy made a

Members of the 2026 Gallia Academy Blue Devils’ football team. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Hoops/Impressive Studios) GALLIPOLIS — One bad break isn’t going to break the Gallia Academy Blue Devils spirit. A possible severe injury to senior quarterback Max Canaday looks like it could derail the Blue Devils hopes for a good season. But second-year head coach Dalton Jarrell is determined that the Blue Devils will battle through the adversity. “We have a pretty good senior class. Mos

Players and staff of the 2026 Notre Dame Titans’ football team. PORTSMOUTH — Steven Irwin understands tradition. He also understands what is important to continue at Portsmouth Notre Dame. But the Titans’ first-year head coach also understands what kind of talent he has inherited and how he needs to utilize it. “We are very skilled heavy. We have a plethora of guys on both sides of the ball playing receiver, running back. We can kind of mix it up if need be. If we wanted to,

Players and staff of the 2026 Wheelersburg Pirates’ football team. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Hoops/Impressive Studios) WHEELERSBURG — There were three “Back To The Future” movies made. The Wheelersburg Pirates are looking to make that four. Building on past success including last year’s Division 5 state runner-up season, veteran Pirates’ head coach Rob Woodward said his team is using the past to help make this season another good year. “Our theme this year is ‘Back To Work.’ A

Players and coaches of the 2026 Russell Red Devils’ football team. FLATWOODS, Ky. — The Russell Red Devils lost a lot of good players from last season’s talented team. But head coach T.J. Maynard is taking the approach of looking at the glass being half-full instead of half-empty. Russell was 10-3 last season and went 4-0 to win the district championship before losing 28-13 to Lloyd Memorial in the regional championship game. Gone is the quarterback, the top two wide receiver