LAKE COUNTY >> The official start of the 2017 high school football season commences Monday when team practices get underway at all of the county’s high schools leading up to the first week of games on Aug. 25-26.
Peeking ahead to season openers for the county’s schools, Clear Lake, Kelseyville, Lower Lake and Upper Lake all open on Aug. 25 while Middletown’s first game is Sept. 1 at home against Hercules. Of the four schools playing on Aug. 25, Kelseyville has the only home game, against Stellar Prep of Oakland. Hitting the road that Friday are Clear Lake at Colusa, Lower Lake at DeAnza (Cupertino) and Upper Lake at Los Molinos.
The weekend of Aug. 25-26 is often referred to as “zero week” in the North Coast Section. Teams have the option to open that weekend although other schools, such as Middletown, push their opener back a week to the more traditional first weekend in September. Eleven-man teams that choose to play their first game on zero week have a bye built into their schedules at some point during the season. Kelseyville has a bye the weekend of Sept. 22-23, Clear Lake’s bye is the weekend of Sept. 29-30, and Lower Lake’s bye is the weekend of Oct. 7-8.
There are some new opponents for Lake County schools in 2017. On Middletown’s schedule, Hercules replaces Salesian, Middletown’s first-week opponent the past decade, in week one. Clear Lake travels to Santa Cruz to play Harbor High on Sept. 2, and Kelseyville host the aforementioned Stellar Prep, a one-time opponent of Upper Lake in the old North Central League II.
Upper Lake, an eight-man football team competing in the NCL III, has three new opponents on its 2017 schedule. Along with Los Molinos, the Cougars travel to Stuart Hall of San Francisco for a non-league game on Sept. 9 and host Roseland Collegiate Prep of Santa Rosa in a NCL III North game on Sept. 30. Roseland Collegiate Prep is fielding a football team for the first time.
