Many call it the fastest 10 weeks of the year.

Generations of families who grew up in this diverse melting pot we call the Ohio Valley wait anxiously through weeks of winter’s cold and into Mother Nature’s heat of the summer. There may be nothing better in the world, I believe, than attending a high school football game on a Friday or Saturday. High school football is more than a tradition; it is a way of life and wonderful entertainment for people of all ages.

As a young child growing up in the Ohio Valley, I couldn’t wait for football season to start. When I was in the first grade at Pleasant Hill Elementary school, a magical moment happened in my life. My favorite team, the Jefferson Union Yellow Jackets, were coming off a 0-10 season the year before.

In the fall of 1965, my parents packed up my two brothers and me in the old black Chevrolet and took us to each game to see my uncle and his teammates play. I remember getting so excited with anticipation as my Yellow Jackets entered the field out of the locker room in their brown, gold and white uniforms. As a young child, I thought it was the greatest spectacle of all time to see the marching band, cheerleaders, and majorettes with their fire batons and, yes, even a drum major dressed in a huge white hat preparing for what lay ahead.

That season, we witnessed JU winning their first eight games in a row, upsetting a very strong Wintersville team in week two. The final game of the season was remarkable: The school board decided to change the final game from a Friday night to the afternoon in order to allow all the students from the three elementary schools to be bussed to the stadium to see history in the making.

The Yellow Jackets won the game going away on a dusty field on a very warm autumn afternoon, finishing the season undefeated and untied. In my eyes, these 16- and 17 year-old players became legends to me, my brothers and all of my childhood friends. To this day, I can still name the starting lineup of that team and their uniform numbers.

There are countless memories like mine of high school football all over the Ohio Valley.

As the Vice President and General Manager of WTOV9, I’m proud to be a part of a great team that covers high school football like no other television station in the country. As a young man in 1987, I returned to the Ohio Valley after working and living in Lexington, Kentucky. My first day of work was on a Monday before the Ohio and West Virginia state football championships. I remember walking into the station’s conference room asking our sales staff if they had any thoughts of broadcasting Steubenville Big Red’s and Brooke High’s state championships games that weekend. The rest, they say, was history.

WTOV9 broke ground on broadcasting high school football and we haven’t looked back since. The next year, 1988, we introduced Sports Friday. Sure, other stations including WTOV9 had been broadcasting high school football highlights for years, but we made a strong commitment to travel to as many games as possible and extend coverage past regular news time. That year we also broadcast a select number of games on a delay basis Friday evenings and during the playoffs.

In 1989, The WTOV9 “Game of the Week” was born. We made the commitment to expand Sports Friday to 45 minutes, covering as many as 20 games, and broadcast a game each Friday evening. In that span of time, WTOV9 has broadcast nearly 400 Ohio Valley high school football games and 15 OVAC All-Star games.

This year, we have put together an exciting 16- game high school football broadcast schedule that features great rivalry games. Before the season starts, Don Sloan, Ryan Recker and Del Barris will travel to each school and preview each team. On Wednesday, August 23rd, we will preview the season with a three-hour high school football show live from Undos’ West in St. Clairsville and from the Spot Bar in Steubenville.

This year, WTOV9 is expanding our coverage of high school football to the Internet. We are preparing what we believe to be the best high school football Web site in the world. The site will include a separate page for each Ohio Valley football team. WTOV9.com will include video stories about each team and post video highlights throughout the season. In addition, we will include weekly articles about each game, extended highlights, and video performances of the cheerleaders, rosters, schedules, and statistics. We will also stream “Sports Friday” on the Web and include highlight videos and stories about the Team of the Week, Player of the Week, Band of the Week and the Electrifying Play of the Week.

In association with Big Season Sports, we will highlight the top 22 pre-season players in the Ohio Valley with interviews, highlights and video stories. To cap off our season, we will introduce the post-season “Big 22” players of the year and announce The Health Plan Player of the Year award in early December with a live television and Internet broadcast.

As I look back, I have memories of a dusty football field and my favorite team capping off a magical season. I still have the old black-and-white programs and photographs to remember those wonderful times. At WTOV9, we are proud to broadcast games and events that will be enjoyed in the present and become a permanent time capsule for years to come.

Here’s to all the passionate players, coaches, cheerleaders, band members, school administrators and fans to enjoy this football season and create memories to last a lifetime.

-Tim McCoy Vice President/General Manager, WTOV9