By Tim Cleveland

sports @vindy.com

warren

The high school football season officially starts Thursday.

But as longtime coach Gerry Faust can tell you, it unofficially began in December.

“When I was coaching, the season started after the last game,” said Faust, who won 251 games over 33 seasons coaching Cincinnati Moeller High School and the universities of Notre Dame and Akron. “When the season started, we would think that we would be good or average from what we had done from the last season.

“Fortunately, most of the time it turned out good. Just to see the kids grow and mature and become gentlemen, that was the most important thing of all.”

Faust was the guest speaker at Sunday’s Pigskin Preview, presented by the Warren Sports Hall of Fame.

The annual event serves as the unofficial kickoff of the high school football season, giving area fans a chance to interact and ask questions of Trumbull County’s top coaches.

One of the favorites among area teams to make a lot of noise in the postseason is Hubbard.

The Eagles went 8-4 in 2012 and are expected to do even better this year. Coach Brian Hoffman is doing his best to keep the expectations from getting out of control.

“I love how that comes about,” he said of the high hopes that are being predicted for Hubbard. “It’s a challenge. Sometime I think people start making predictions way early in the game. Sometimes that goes to kids’ heads. That’s a part of my job to try and keep these guys grounded and to make sure they understand it’s a long season.”

No matter where Hubbard finishes this season, one of the big reasons why will be L.J. Scott. The 6-foot-1, 219-pound junior running back led the Eagles with 1,614 rushing yards and added 23 touchdowns in 2012. Hoffman said he expects Scott to improve and mature this season.

“I would like him to mature and be able to lead our team,” Hoffman said. “I think he has those qualities about him as a player. He’s going to be asked to carry the load even more than last year.”

After seven seasons as an assistant at Ursuline, Kevin Cylar takes over at Liberty for Brian Jones, who resigned after getting the Leopards back into the postseason. He hopes to take the commitment to excellence that the Ursuline program is known for and bring it to Liberty to keep the team from regressing.

“I expect the kids to play hard and disciplined and fast and do the best of their abilities,” Cylar said. “The organization and the hard work in the offseason and the expectations. We expect to win.”

After a turnaround 9-2 record a year ago, Warren Harding has tons of talent at its disposal. Coach Steve Arnold said while the Raiders snuck up on teams in 2012, they will have targets on their backs this time around.

“Last year’s team is not coming back. It’s an entirely different team,” he said. “We were chasing teams last year. Now teams are chasing us. It’s like back when we were in basketball. We were the highlighted game on a team’s schedule in basketball. Last year we weren’t. This year we’re the highlighted game. We have to be ready.”