NEWS BLOG (WSAU) There are six regular-season high school football games remaining. DC Everest will be on the road for three of them – and all three involve long trips to the Fox Valley. One of those games is tonight in Kimberly. It’s a two-hour haul.

I understand the scheduling problems Everest had in the years before the Valley Football. No one wanted to play Everest during its juggernaut days. They’d resorted to bussing in teams from Milwaukee or arranging travel to and from Minnesota; and one year they were still stuck with a 7-game schedule. I thought the solution was for the WIAA to gather all the schools together that were having trouble filling their schedules and play matchmater. These teams needed help with one or two games; they didn’t necessarily need an entirely new conference.

I miss seeing SPASH and Rapids and Merrill on the Everest schedule. Those were traditional, long-time opponents. I don’t think rivalries will ever develop with the new Appleton-area schools even though they’re likely to be opponents year-after-year.

Tom King, who saw Kimberly play last week against Wausau-East, advises that the Papermakers are one of the best teams in the state. And they have a lot of juniors on their varsity roster… they’ll be loaded next year too.

Tonight on Fox Sports 1390:
Wausau-East at Appleton-North at 6:30pm
DC Everest at Kimberly at 9:30pm (tape delay)

Here are this week’s football picks:
Appleton-North will have a big size advantage over East
Kimberly should handle DC Everest
Wisconsin Rapids over Oshkosh North
Marshfield will beat Fond du Lac
SPASH should top Menasha
Merrill over Mosinee
Abbotsford over Assumption

Last week: 9-1 This season 17-3