The 2024 high school football season is upon us.

In Week 1, Wilmington will travel to Cincinnati Northwest while Clinton-Massie makes the short trek to Waynesville, Paint Valley visits Blanchester and Huntington travels to East Clinton.

All games are scheduled to kickoff at 7 p.m. Friday night.

WHS

The Knights are a Division II team. Wilmington holds a 7-4 edge in the series, including a 28-7 win last season.

Northwest was 1-9 last season and competes in the four-team Southwest Ohio Conference with Harrison, Mt. Healthy and Talawanda. Wilmington will travel to Mt. Healthy in Week 3.

Northwest has 64 players listed on its roster on the league website but only seven of them are seniors.

By contract, Wilmington has 49 listed on its roster with 10 of them seniors.

Wilmington was 8-3 last season, the most wins for a WHS football team since the 1963 team won nine games.

WHS head coach Ryan Evans said Northwest is a high-tempo and attacking offense but it’ll run right into the teeth of a very strong Hurricane defense led by returnees Malachi Cumberland, Jesse Keith, Donavon Perdue, Logan Achtermann, Eli Stewart, Zane Smith and Bryson Schutte.

Northwest has shown discipline on defense and will meet a WHS offense looking to replaces its quarterback (Aiden Price), top running back (Caydn Denniston), top lineman (Chris Stewart) and all-around top player (Mikey Brown Jr.)

BHS

Blanchester won six of its last seven games during the regular season, including a 54-33 shootout win over Bethel-Tate. However, the Tigers defeated the Wildcats 35-20 in the opening round of the playoffs.

Paint Valley was 8-4 last season and has won at least one playoff game in four of the last six seasons.

The Bainbridge-based Bearcats are 3-0 all-time against Blanchester, including a 35-14 win last season.

Blanchester head coach Justin Schmitz said Paint Valley will put nine defenders close to the line and pressure the Blanchester offense, retooling after losing standout quarterback Bryce Sipple to graduation.

“We’re young at a lot of spots,” Schmitz said. “We’re a bit undersized, like Blanchester usually is but we have a lot of speed.”

Braylon Robertson (1,850 yards, 28 TDs last year) is the top ball carrier for PV. Preston Fauber is an all-purpose QB who can run or pass and has receivers to go deep through the air. Schmitz said the Wildcats will use multiple fronts in an attempt to stop the Bearcats.

On offense, Schmitz is excited about his team’s speed and hopes to utilize that both on the ground and through the air.

Schmitz said Caleb Sears has performed well thus far as the new signal-caller. The coach also said Tristen Malone, Ayden Basham and Zack Musselman have had strong preseason camps for the Wildcats.

Austin Knight, a former standout Blanchester quarterback, is the new offensive coordinator this season for the Wildcats while Schmitz is the defensive coordinator. Also, each coach on the staff is a BHS graduate.

“That’s a point of emphasis,” Schmitz said. “We know this offense and defense so well, it’s in our DNA. We’re all George Rise prodigals I guess you would say. That’s the kind of mentality we want to keep here in building our staff.”

CMHS

Clinton-Massie begins its quest for a return trip to Canton by facing neighboring rival Waynesville Friday night.

The Spartans were 11-3 last season, winning a trio of playoff games before losing 42-24 to Valley View in the Div. V Region 20 championship game.

Clinton-Massie leads the all-time series 25-19 with 2 ties. Massie won last year’s game 38-8 while the Spartans won in 2022 14-7.

There are 15 seniors on the Waynesville roster, with standout quarterback Alex Amburgy leading the way.

Clinton-Massie has 16 seniors listed on its roster with SBAAC American Division offensive player of the year Logan Chesser leading the way. However, Chesser is coming off a knee injury late last year.

“We lost two really good running backs, lost our best DB, we lost another kid earlier in the year that probably would have helped,” Clinton-Massie head coach Dan McSurley said. “We had a lot of young kids that weren’t quite mature yet, but if we can stay healthy … .

“Just the way it is with football, man, when you’re a smaller school it’s so hard to overcome (injuries to) one or two good players. We have to manage injuries and get our young guys who didn’t play a lot last year, have to bring them up to speed.”

After a rivalry game with the Spartans, the Falcons run through a brutal and emotional stretch of four non-league games that include perenial state power Coldwater, Columbus-area small school powerhouse Dresden Tri-Valley, big-school Harrison and a renewal of the Cider Keg rivalry with Blanchester.

Then to kick-off the SBAAC American Division slate it’s county rival Wilmington.

ECHS

The Astros were 4-0 against teams that missed the playoffs lst season but 0-6 against teams that advanced to the postseason.

Coach Steve Olds said his team needs to break that pattern in 2024 if it wants to play in Week 11 and challenge for an SBAAC National Division title.

East Clinton welcomes the Huntington Huntsmen to Lees Creek Friday night. The Astros won last year’s meeting 12-0. The 2023 game was the first time the two teams played on the varsity football field.

The Astros have not had a winning season since 2011 when they were 7-3. The Huntsmen are facing a longer dry spell, with the last positive season coming in 2000 at 6-4. In fact, Huntington has had just four winning seasons since 1973.

Olds said the Huntsmen are aggressive on defense and will try to establish the run on offense. The Astro defense, Olds said, must tackle well to avoid allowing the big play.

Olds said his offensive line is a strength and the Astros will lean on the guys up front to get the run game going.

East Clinton has 10 seniors on the roster, most of which have 20-plus varsity games under their belts, Olds said.

The success of East Clinton this season “will be tied directly to their leadership and performance,” said Olds.

Trent Olds is a newcomer to the EC staff and will be running the offense this season.

“You won’t see anything drastically different but it’s freed me up, allowed me to step back from that role and take on more of the head coaching role … he’s freed me up to do that,” Steve Olds said.

Steve Olds said EC still wants to be a running offense, featuring Dameon Williams, Brody McCulley and Aiden Conger. Conger will start at quarterback from the beginning. He took over midway through the season last year.

“Mid-season was tough for him,” Olds said. “He’s only gotten better every week.”