Our annual football edition will be included with your Wednesday newspaper, marking the return of local high school sports for 2025.

The high school football season, which officially opens this week in Ohio and next week in West Virginia, will be the topic of many conversations and will occupy the hearts and minds of fans from all parts of the region for at least the next 10 weeks — and, hopefully, beyond.

With all of that in mind, members of our local sports staff, led by Sports Editor Andrew Grimm, have spent much of the past several weeks conducting interviews, taking photographs, recording and editing videos and preparing for the much-anticipated special edition, Prep Football 25.

This year’s theme sums up our appreciation of the sport and what it means for the Tri-State Area: “Football and the river — running through the heart of the Ohio Valley.” As always, it will offer insights into what we can expect from each team this season, as well as profiles of each of the area’s coaches.

Our region comes alive this time each year, as athletes, coaches, cheerleaders and members of marching bands become an important part of the soon-to-arrive autumn season. For more than six decades, our football edition has been an integral pat of that atmosphere, bringing to our readers the information they want and need about who is back, who has graduated and just where our local teams stand.

It is a publication that continues to follow in some pretty impressive footsteps — our high school football edition is a consistent award-winner, annually finishing among the top entries in contests conducted by the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors and the West Virginia Press Association.

Wednesday’s edition will focus on high school football. Look for our annual college and pro football edition in your Sept. 3 newspaper.

High school football returns this week — make sure you are ready for all of the action by getting a copy of this year’s preview edition.