The 2025 high school football season begins this weekend with all four of our local teams – the Jackson Ironmen, the Wellston Golden Rockets, the Oak Hill Oaks and the Vinton County Vikings all having opening games.
The Oak Hill Oaks will travel north on State Route 93 to take on the Wellston Golden Rockets at C.H. Jones Field on Friday evening, Aug. 22. Also on Friday evening, the Vinton County Vikings begin the season away from home at Waterford. Both games are scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff. On Saturday evening, the Jackson Ironmen will host a new opponent, the Little Miami Panthers at Alumni Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
In conjunction with the new season, The Telegram is proud to present our annual Football Preview section as part of today’s edition. The 10-page Section B of today’s paper provides in-depth previews of each of the four local football teams including photos of the teams and head coaches as well as rosters and schedules. This special section also includes photos of the varsity cheerleading squads and bands of all four high schools.
On a related note, The Radio will once again be broadcasting all home and away regular-season and post-season football games involving our local teams on our local stations – the Jackson Ironmen on WKOV (96.7 FM), the Wellston Golden Rockets on Fox Sports (105.3 FM and 1330 AM WYPC), the Oak Hill Oaks on WCJO (97.7 FM) and the Vinton County Vikings on WYRO (98.7 FM). (The Oak Hill-Wellston game will be broadcast only on 105.3 FM and 1330 AM WYPC since the game is at Wellston.)
As an added bonus, the home games of all the local teams will be video-streamed live and posted on the Total Media Sports YouTube platform.
Also, Total Media radio stations will be airing a pregame show entitled Football Friday Night pre-game show which will provide previews of all the football action that evening. This weekend, there will be editions on both Friday (5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.) and Saturday (5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m.). The Football Friday Night post-game show will air immediately following the local football games and will continue until 12 a.m.
Looking ahead, The Telegram will publish Part Two — its annual Fall Sports Preview section as part of this Saturday’s edition, which will provide information on other fall sports teams at the four local high schools.
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