There is little that illustrates fall more than looking forward to high school football with the newspaper’s help

When thinking about autumn, many things come quickly to mind. The color of the changing leaves. The earlier sunsets. Geese honking overhead as they head south. Oh, and not the least of them, high school football.

There is no other sport that attracts the interest of a community more than football. Sure, in some places, and at some schools, basketball can rival it, but football begins the school year and sets a tone. The sport offers more than just the games. It builds a community.

Years ago, our brother-in-law was a sought-after high school principal who was brought in to help fix schools in need. He told us one of the first things he did when taking over a high school with issues was examine the football program. If he felt they were needed, he made changes. If not, he offered support. Either way, he devoted energy and whatever resources he could drum up to help in the program’s success.

Why? Simple. A successful football program got the year off to a positive start. Allowed the school’s stakeholders – his word – a high-profile entity to rally around. Earned positive vibes in the area media. You may scoff, but it worked for him and the schools he dealt with.

The high school football season is upon is. You can debate whether its oversize footprint is a good or a bad thing, but it’s not debatable it’s there. Even in the Inland Northwest, which has a more nuanced (and balanced) view of high school football than, say, Texas or Florida or California.

The best part of high school football for us? Not the wins and losses. We’ve seen both a thousand times over the years. But the growth of the participants, physically and mentally in their four years, transforming from sallow freshmen to experienced seniors.

All high school sports offer that to some degree, but football adds in more physicality, more coordinated interaction among the participants and, yes, more outside focus, than the others. It’s the biggest sport of them all. And it’s on now.

Why bring it up? Mainly because today on the S-R’s website, there are a handful of stories on the new season. Stories covering Spokane’s schools, those Eastern Washington schools outside the city limits and those throughout North Idaho.

Somehow, Dave Nichols has been able to pull it all together while still covering the Spokane Indians and other subjects.

But the coverage doesn’t end with football. There are other fall sports, and they have their moment in the sun as well, with volleyball, soccer and cross country previews on the site.

Enjoy.

It was easy to enjoy the Mariners’ win Wednesday, as the offense woke up and supported another strong Logan Gilbert outing. Three home runs – none from Julio Rodriguez, surprisingly – keyed the 8-4 win but it was Gilbert who set the tone, throwing five strong innings before running out of gas in the sixth.

This time the bullpen came through and held the Reds scoreless until Andres Munoz gave up a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth.

Let’s get back to football, shall we?

The 400,000-pound blue whale of sports kicks off Thursday night as the NFL season begins. The defending champion Chiefs host Detroit on NBC (5:20 kickoff).

Last weekend, as the NFL prepped for the season, college football played on Thursday night. This week? Crickets. The NFL has decided it is landing and everyone else clears the runway.

Saturday is different, with the Pac-12 putting an undefeated record on the line – spoiler alert: The conference won’t be undefeated by this time Sunday, even if we throw out the loss bound to happen when USC hosts Stanford – and another week of interconference matchups dominating the schedule.

The Seahawks kick off their season in a late game Sunday, hosting the Rams, who won’t be bringing Cooper Kupp with them. The EWU star is out with a hamstring injury.

One thing we love (and hate) about high school football in this part of the country: The season begins with the fans wearing shorts and T-shirts. It ends with the same folks wearing snow pants and parkas. Talk about the changing seasons.