WAKE UP! | The busiest week on ETB ever?! Maybe so, player of the week, team of the week returning and all KINDS of new stuff for you guys! Oh, yeah, and football starts…

WAKE UP! returns, presented by Cozy Coffee Station in both Kilgore (at 110 Midtown Plaza) and Gilmer (at 755 Highway 271 North). Check them out online here, Cozy Coffee Station, and then go see them for great coffee, tea, sodas, sandwiches and so much more!

Well, the 2025 football season is upon us, and that fact, combined with high school volleyball, junior college football — really, just football in general going on, and we have the busiest week maybe since ETBlitz.com was launched two years ago.
So, here’s what we have coming. And I’ll try to pin it down by the day.

• The latest state volleyball poll from the Texas Girls Coaches Association will be released at some point today, and we’ll have it here on ETB. Last week’s poll, really more of a preseason poll, didn’t have a single one of the 15 programs in the ETBlitz coverage area. We’re hoping that changes soon.
• We’ll have the return of the ETBlitz Scoreboard later today, telling you guys where everyone is playing, and I mean anything we can think of that you might be interested in, it’ll be in there, from high school volleyball, football and cross country meets this week to college football.
• Next week marks the return of a couple of our most recognizable features every week: the Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Players of the Week, and the Goudarzi & Young, LLP / ETB Team of the Week, as in performances from this week will win those awards early next week. The Whataburger / ETB Players of the Week awards are presented to a girl athlete and a boy athlete whose achievements stand out above others among our staff voters. And they get some cool stuff: some gifts from Whataburger and an ETBlitz T-shirt. By the way, those ETB shirts are ONLY presented to the player of the week award-winners and our staff. And it is ALWAYS great to get gifts from Whataburger!
  The team of the week award, presented by Goudarzi & Young, will be the team whose performance this week impresses our voters more than any other. That will typically be announced on Monday morning, and the Whataburger / ETB Players of the Week award on Tuesday, to allow each award-winners time to get recognized. And our staff will be by the respective players’ schools on Wednesday to present those gifts.
• Mondays will feature the TGCA state volleyball poll, as mentioned, presented by Denny’s, and also the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football state high school football poll, presented by Zippy J’s Community Stores and Gateway / TA Travel Centers, Washmasters. We recognize DCTF’s poll because we believe it is the most respected of any poll statewide, and the same with the volleyball poll from the Texas Girls Coaches Association. The preseason state football poll has ran a few times here on ETB, and that poll will be up again later today. But it won’t change until after this weekend’s games, and then a new poll will come out Monday, Sept. 1.
• We’ll continue each day to have Wake Up!, presented by Cozy Coffee Station, typically in the morning to give you guys some reading material before you head to work, or start your day.
• We have a couple of new features that are debuting this school year, and you’ll read more about them in the coming days.
  One of them is the HIGH NOTE OF THE WEEK, presented by Kilgore Mercantile & Music. It’s simply to recognize what we believe was the biggest moment from the previous week, like last year when Kilgore football won in Carthage the first week of football season, or when Overton football knocked Mart from the playoffs in the second round.
  Another is EYE SPY, presented by Kilgore-Gilmer Eye Care Centers, where we focus the cameras on you guys, the fans, at games around our coverage area — y’all at the games, simple as that. And then you can see your pictures and videos here on ETBlitz.com every weekend, and you’ll also be able to submit your own! You really don’t know WHO you’ll see. It’ll be cool, and fun.
  And you never know: we might come up with something else!

This week’s football schedule
In a nutshell, here’s where the football programs that we cover have on tap this week, and that’s opening week for everybody EXCEPT Tyler Junior College, who played last Saturday and beat Dodge City (Kan.), 27-7, in Tyler.
Thursday
Beckville opens at home on Thursday night, a 7 p.m. kickoff against San Augustine.
Tatum also opens on Thursday, but on the road at Winnsboro, also a 7 o’clock start. That’s a rematch of that crazy lightning-delayed game at Eagle Stadium on a Thursday night last year, when state-ranked Winnsboro came in, waited two hours, and then the teams played a half — a half in which Tatum took Winnsboro to the woodshed.
Gladewater begins the coach Jermaine Lewis Era at Daingerfield, whose Tigers are ranked in the top 10 in the DCTF state 3A poll.
Friday
Arp will open the 2025 season at Harleton on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.
In the game of the week probably in the entire state, Carthage, ranked No. 1 in the 4A-Division II poll, visits Kilgore, the third-ranked team in 4A-DI, Friday night at 7:30 at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium. And apparently 90 percent of the media in the state are planning to be at that game.
In a rematch of a very-good season opener a year ago, Gilmer, two years removed from a 4A-DII state title, visits Pine Tree on Friday night at 7:30 at Pirate Stadium. The Pirates surprised Gilmer a bit last year, and got the win at Jeff Traylor Stadium. Coach Alan Metzel’s team would love to return the favor Friday.
The Ricky Meeks Era begins for the Henderson Lions, who will play the first game in Meeks’ Henderson head coaching career at Athens Friday night, with a 7:30 kickoff. Meeks, of course, returns to one of the places where his father, the late Dickie Meeks, won a state championship.
Overton begins its 2025 season at Alba-Golden Friday night at 7 p.m., note that kickoff time. The Mustangs will likely have a lot of people’s attention this season to see if they can again win at least 10 games.
Coach Cody Gilbert and the Sabine Cardinals will welcome Spring Hill on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at James Bamberg Stadium on the SHS campus.
The 14th-ranked Troup Tigers will hit the road to Shelbyville Friday for a 7:30 p.m. start.
West Rusk’s Raiders will host the sixth-ranked team in the state in 3A-Division I, Malakoff, on Friday at 7:30.
And White Oak gets a road trip to start the season, as well: the Roughnecks, who started 4-0 a year ago, open the season Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Eustace.
Saturday
Leverett’s Chapel, the only six-man program in the ETB coverage area, opens the season Saturday night at Greenville Christian, a 7 p.m. kickoff.
Also Saturday, coach Willie Gooden’s Kilgore College Rangers, ranked 11th in the nation in the NJCAA’s preseason poll, will kick off the 2025 season at home against Community Christian College, a 3 p.m. start.
And that’s it. TJC is off this Saturday after opening with the win over Dodge City, and doesn’t play again until a trip to Snow (Utah) on Thursday, Sept. 4 — which is also the night the National Football League opens its 2025 season with the Dallas Cowboys visiting defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia.
This is going to be a VERY busy but fun week, between volleyball, high school football, KC and more. Hope to see y’all at the games.