We didn’t do football picks last year because of the patchwork schedule that changed day-to-day because of COVID. I was .900 predicting which games were going to be canceled.
Here are my picks for week one of the high school football season:
D.C. Everest over Green Bay Preble: Warning! The D.C. Everest – Green Bay Preble game, which matches a division champion against a 2-5 team, will be much closer than you might think. I’m making all of my picks on the assumption that teams that played spring football into May and early June have certain built-in advantages over teams that were off last fall. Still, Everest brings back a lot of returning players, and should open the season with a win at home.
Muskego over Wisconsin Rapids: Wisconsin Rapids opens at home against a team that won all 9 of their games last season. The Red Raiders were down last year, and have given themselves an impossible game to start their season.
Holmen over Chippewa Falls: ChiHI, Everest’s week two opponent, opens against a Holmen team that played spring ball and won 3 of 5 games. Holmen gets the recency edge. But Everest will have their hands full against the Cardinals next week.
In other Thursday night games:
Auburndale over Menomonee Indian
Appleton West over Manitowoc-Lincoln
On Friday:
Wausau West opens on the road against DePere; this is a reasonable opening night opponent for West, which brings a solid running attack to the table. DePere won all of their game last year, and is the pick.
Two Valley Football Association teams have tough road openers: Marshfield vs. Fond du Lac and SPASH vs. Kimberly. Both of the local teams will likely come home with losses.
Stratford over Mosinee
Iola-Scandinavia over Marathon
Amherst over Antigo
Edgar over Lakeland
Rhinelander over Tomahawk
Medford over Rice Lake
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