Follow all of the action tonight with the Football Central live blog as the high school season opens.

Tom Reisenweber will provide scoring updates throughout the night from games featuring District 10 teams. We’ll give you game scores, along with scoring details and stats.

Check out Football Central today, beginning at 6:45 p.m., here on the Varsity blog.

The Erie Times-News published its annual Varsity Football Preview in Thursday’s edition. The tabloid is a 48-page section that previews each of the  teams in District 10, as well as new WPIAL member McDowell. For District 10 fans who couldn’t get a print copy, here are links to the team previews, region glances and features stories.

Teams:
Cambridge Springs • Cathedral Prep • Central Tech
Cochranton • Conneaut Lake • Conneaut Valley
Corry • East • Eisenhower • Fairview • Farrell
Fort LeBoeuf • Franklin • General McLane
Girard • Greenville • Grove City • Harbor Creek
Hickory • Iroquois • Kennedy Catholic • Lakeview
Linesville • Maplewood • McDowell • Meadville
Mercer • Mercyhurst Prep • North East
Northwestern • Oil City • Reynolds • Saegertown
Seneca • Sharon • Sharpsville • Slippery Rock
Strong Vincent • Titusville • Union City
Warren • West Middlesex • Wilmington • Youngsville
Bradford • DuBois

Region glances:
Region 1 • Region 2 • Region 3 • Region 4 • Region 5 • Region 6

TV/Radio schedule
District 10 week-by-week schedule

Features:
McDowell takes on WPIAL challenge
Funk follows in George’s footsteps at Girard
White steps in at Strong Vincent
District 10 Preseason Player of the Year: Justin Wiley
District 10 players to watch

Coaching profiles:
Jim Funk, Girard • Jim Brinling, Fairview • Jeff Nichols, Seneca •  Scott White, Strong Vincent •  Ken Achenbach, Meadville

Other stories:
Premier area linemen
Top placekickers

Register today to play the free High School Football Challenge at GoErie.com/hsfootballchallenge.

If you’re 13 or older, you’re invited to play and compete for weekly prizes and the end-of-season grand prize.

How it works: Each week you’ll log in at GoErie.com/hsfootballchallenge, where you’ll choose the teams you believe will win that week’s high school football games. There will be 20 games each week, each of them featuring at least one District 10 program.

You’ll also pick the score of the weekly tiebreaker game.

The participant who has the most correct picks — and, if needed, the score closest to the final score of the tiebreaker game — wins that week’s contest.

Each participant’s best seven weeks will count toward the contest grand prize, so you can take a week off or have a bad week and still be in the running.

With the exception of the final two weeks of the season, only games played on Friday and Saturday have been selected. The deadline to post your picks for the first eight weeks of the season is each Friday at 1 a.m. starting Sept. 3. In Weeks 9 and 10, a Thursday game is included, and deadline will be Thursday at 1 p.m.

You’ll get to compete against the Erie Times-News sports staffers (who aren’t eligible for prizes), and the winner’s name will be published every Wednesday in the Varsity high school sports special section of the Times-News.

The games already have been entered into the contest database, allowing you to make your picks now — for Week 1, or for all 10 weeks. You also can change your picks up until each weekly deadline.

If you played in 2009, there’s no need for you to register again.

Have fun, and good luck to the contestants and all the teams they’re pulling for.

Do you know an area high school athlete who celebrates a birthday soon?

If you do, send an e-mail to the Erie Times-News at sports@timesnews.com. Include the athlete’s, name school and birthdate.

We’ll print Birthday Wishes each Wednesday during the school year in the Varsity special section.

To get an upcoming birthday in the Sept. 8 Varsity edition, please send the e-mail by Sunday night.

Kaitlyn Kissell, Villa Maria

Russell Tattersall, Cathedral Prep

The Erie Times-News and GoErie.com opened its District 10 soccer preview series Sunday with the unveiling of the Preseason Players of the Year and the season schedules.

Cathedral Prep’s Russell Tattersall and Villa Maria’s Kaitlyn Kissell were selected as the District 10 Preseason Players of the Year.

Check out the first three parts of the series below:

Preseason Players of the Year
Boys schedule
Girls schedule

More preview coverage will follow soon.

Click below to see each of the Varsity video football previews from the 17 Erie County teams (in alphabetical order).

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time for the final round of football scrimmages before the Sept. 3 openers. Here’s a look at the matchups over the next two days:

Today
Fort LeBoeuf at General McLane, 5 p.m.
McDowell at McKeesport, 5 p.m.
Lakeview at Keystone, 6 p.m.
Mercer, Moniteau at Neshannock, 6 p.m.
Oil City at Northwestern, 6 p.m.
Punxsutawney at Franklin, 6 p.m.
Greenville at Sharpsville, 7 p.m.
AC Valley at West Middlesex, 7 p.m.
Conneaut Valley at Eisenhower, 7 p.m.
North East at Iroquois, 7 p.m.
Fairview at Mercyhurst Prep (Tullio Field), 7 p.m.
Saegertown at Seneca, 7 p.m.
Mohawk at Hickory, 7 p.m.
Wilmington at Meadville, 7 p.m.
Corry at Harbor Creek, 7 p.m.
DuBois at Philipsburg-Osceola, 7 p.m.
Grove City at Titusville, 7 p.m.
Slippery Rock at Karns City, 7 p.m.
St. Marys at Bradford, 7 p.m.
Warren at Clarion-Limestone, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday
Linesville at Union City, 9:30 a.m.
Youngsville at Conneaut Lake, 10 a.m.
Union-Rimersburg at Cochranton, 10 a.m.
Cambridge Springs at Kennedy Catholic, 10 a.m.
Reynolds at Maplewood, 10 a.m.
Girard at Central Tech (Veterans Stadium), 10 a.m.
Cathedral Prep at St. Joe’s (Ohio), 11 a.m.
East at Dunkirk (N.Y.), 11 a.m.
Sharon at Strong Vincent (Veterans Stadium), 1 p.m.

Northwestern took some positive steps last season with a 4-6 record and a couple of close losses to solid teams. Coach Aaron Shaw has some experience returning in the backfield, but the line is a question mark. Shaw talks about the team’s challenges ahead:

Former Mercyhurst Prep coach Jeff Nichols takes over as head coach at Seneca after Randy Gunther resigned in the offseason. The Bobcats will try to improve on last year’s 3-7 record. Nichols talks about the approach with his young team a camp:

The Seneca football community will host a “White Out” game for its home opener on Sept. 17 against Northwestern. The Bobcats start the season with two road games before finally playing at Diffenbacher Field in Week 3. Seneca will have special t-shirts and banners for the game with the band also being involved.

– Tom Reisenweber