Like it or not, it’s football season

Today is Aug. 7, which doesn't carry a lot of significance to me except that August already is a week old.

While part of me wants to scream 'what the heck happened to June and July,' another part wants to rejoice.

I bet a lot of you — regular readers of these pages — feel the same way.

It's football season, and that does carry some significance with me and many others.

If you don't believe it's football season, take a look around.

The annual Shrine Bowl all-star high school game was more than a week ago at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. Prep teams who have 'Week 0' games started practice last Monday and the rest of the state joins them today.

Northern Iowa, Iowa State and Iowa all held their football media days last week.

If that's not proof enough, the NFL kicked off its preseason last week with the annual Hall of Fame game and, late Saturday night, Cedar Rapids' own Kurt Warner joined the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the first native Iowan enshrined.

It's football season, folks, and that's not a bad thing.

We at The Gazette greet this time of year with excitement and, to be honest, a little angst. We have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time to get ready for Aug. 25 — the first night every high school team in the state will be playing football.

But first things first.

In addition to our annual special section, which will publish Aug. 20 and feature all 10 Metro and Iowa City teams as well as a handful of others, The Gazette will host the inaugural 'High School Football Kickoff' at Kingston Stadium on Aug. 17.

The event will run from 6 to 8 p.m. and include games, food and talks from The Gazette's K.J. Pilcher, Jeff Linder and Jeff Johnson. Scott Unash from KGYM also will be on hand to broadcast the event.

We're also planning a 'coaches roundtable' with as many of the Cedar Rapids-Marion coaches as possible talking about their teams and their hopes for the 2017 season. And, of course, we want as many high school football players, their families, friends and fans to show up, as well.

Our goal is to expand this in coming years with more coaches, more teams and more players. But we'll start with baby steps and see how things go the first time around. But any coach or team wanting to join the fun on Aug. 17 is welcome.

The idea is to celebrate these players and coaches and what makes this time of year so special.

Despite some serious concerns with concussions and other injuries, football is our national pastime. College game days are a special event, like going to a friend's party five or six times in a 13-week period.

And when a high school team from Cedar Rapids is playing for a state title, all of Cedar Rapids is proud and cheering for that team. The same goes for Iowa City and many other places in Eastern Iowa and across the state. Rivalries often are forgotten when championships are on the line.

So, like it or not, summer is coming to an end. High school football kicks off a week from Friday.

l Comments: (319) 368-8696; jr.ogden@thegazette.com