By Jason Goorman
Local Sports Journal

Are you ready for some high school football, Muskegon?

The staff here at Local Sports Journal has been living and breathing prep football for the past few weeks as we worked feverishly to prepare our second annual high school football preview section.

The good news is that the section went to print today. The better news is that it’s ready to hit the newsstands, three days earlier than anticipated.

UPDATED LIST OF LOCATIONS***

Bills Shop n Save – Fremont
Holton Foods – Holton
Plumb’s Stores – Whitehall, North Muskegon, Apple Ave., Sherman Ave.
Norton MiniMart – Norton Shores (corner of McCraken and W. Norton)
Orchard Markets – Fruitport and Spring Lake
Pic-N-Pac – Norton Shores (corner of Henry and Porter)

That means you can pick up your copy of the 2013 Muskegon area prep football preview by noon Saturday at your local Plumbs grocery stores. The price is a meager $3, and the proceeds will help us compensate our loyal reporters for all the work they will do covering games this fall.

Shoreline Insurance has signed on as the Local Sports Jouranl’s official football sponsor and is excited about the tab hitting newsstands early.

“We’re just happy help to put the spot light on the outstanding kids in thte area and their accomplishments,” said commercial lines producer and marketing director Josh Silvis.

“It’s certain we are huge fans of high school football. A number of us played and everyone has a rooting interest in the schools,” said Silvis. “Many of us have kids playing right now. We’re absolutely big high school football fans and football fans in general.”

The section includes full length preview stories about every prep football team in the area, including our state runner-up Muskegon Big Reds, Grand Haven, Mona Shores, Reeths-Puffer, Fruitport, Muskegon Catholic, Oakridge, Montague and all the rest.

It features full schedules for all local schools, as well as history-filled feature stories by Mr. High School Football himself, legendary local sports broadcaster Jim Moyes.

The best part is that our preview stories were researched and written by some of the most talented professional sports writers in the area, including Ron Rop, Mike Mattson, Tom Kendra, Mark Lewis, Shawn Liverance and Jim Moyes.

As we all know, Muskegon County is a hotbed for high school football talent, and at least one of our local teams makes it to the state finals at Ford Field nearly every year. Our preview section will help you get an early idea of the schools that may have the talent, experience and heart to make a serious playoff run this fall.

Remember, it all begins next Thursday, when most of our local teams hit the field for their first games of the season. There will be some great matchups in Week 1, including Muskegon-Grand Haven, Mona Shores-Muskegon Catholic and Reeths-Puffer-Fruitport. Local Sports Journal will be there to cover all the action and bring you the results the same evening at LocalSportsJournal.com.

We hope you enjoy our football preview, and we hope you can get out this fall and cheer on your favorite teams. All the kids on all the teams have been working extremely hard, and they all deserve our support.

Let the games begin!