Prep football primer: The top names, games to watch across the greater Tri-Cities region

This is the week.

The week all local high school football fans have been looking forward to, with the regular-season openers.

There are a lot of questions that have crossed my mind, and maybe there are some answers. Such as:

Who are the new coaches?

Let’s start in the Mid-Columbia Conference, where 33% of the teams have new guys leading the way. Justin James takes over for Greg Lupfer at Walla Walla; Josh Jelinek steps in at Richland for Mike Neidhold — who retired after last season.

And Joe Powers comes to Hanford from Kiona-Benton to lead the Falcons.

Stepping in as head coach at Ki-Be is Keithon Flemming, a former Tri-Cities Fever running back who has been an assistant for different programs around the Tri-Cities.

What do the conferences look like?

Some have changed. Others look the same.

MCC: There were no changes in the 4A/3A Mid-Columbia Conference. All nine schools return — although some will be Class 4A and others 3A.

In 4A, the schools are Chiawana, Hanford, Kamiakin, Pasco and Richland.

In 3A, the schools are Hermiston, Kennewick, Southridge and Walla Walla.

CWAC: The 2A Central Washington Athletic Conference, which had seven members last year, expands to nine with the addition of Quincy and Toppenish.

They’ll join East Valley of Yakima, Ellensburg, Ephrata, Grandview, Othello, Prosser, and Selah.

SCAC: The 1A South Central Athletic Conference tossed out the East-West division format and has just a straight nine-team conference of College Place, Connell, Kiona-Benton, Naches Valley, Royal, Wahluke, Wapato and Zillah. That’s eight. Now add Cashmere, a north central Washington powerhouse that will make the conference even tougher.

EWAC: The Tri-City area schools in the 2B Eastern Washington Athletic Conference’s East division — Columbia-Burbank, River View and Tri-Cities Prep — stay together. Add Granger and Warden and you have five teams.

Southeast 1B: The 8-man league has 12 teams in its lineup, which means an unbalanced schedule.

The league lineup includes returners Dayton, DeSales, Garfield-Palouse, Liberty Christian of Richland, Pomeroy, St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse, Sunnyside Christian, Tekoa-Rosalia, Touchet, Waitsburg, and Yakama Nation Tribal.

Mabton drops down from 2B to join the fray.

Who are 5 big-school players to watch?

Let’s start with Chiawana senior linebacker Cooper MacPherson, the MCC’s Defensive Player of the Year from a year ago.

Then there is Kamiakin senior David Kuku, a defensive back who has committed to Washington State already. He’ll also catch passes on offense.

Landon Biglin may be the coach’s son at Kamiakin. But the Braves senior center is the quarterback of that big line on offense.

Colson Mackey was the best receiver in Richland’s lineup as well as the entire MCC last year. He runs great, crisp routes. In fact, watch any of the Bombers receivers this season. Their routes are outstanding.

Alex Roberts is a big reason Kennewick could go deep once again into the state 3A playoffs. The standout running back wastes no time getting through the holes the Lions’ offensive line creates.

What about 5 small-school players?

Start will Royal senior Lance Allred, who led a dominating Knights team to another 1A state championship last December. Allred plays quarterback and linebacker, and he’s one of the state’s best, regardless of classification.

Eight-man football players don’t get much love. But you just can’t ignore what senior Charlie Branning has done these past few years at Liberty Christian. Last season, he rushed for over 2,000 yards and caught 17 passes for 395 more yards. Defensively, he had four interceptions and fumble recovery.

Hyatt Clark took River View deep into the 2B state playoffs last year. The Panthers’ standout was first-team all-EWAC East last season at quarterback, kicker and punter.

Kiona-Benton senior Spencer Hansen was a two-way, first-team all-conference player last season in the SCAC at both wide receiver and defensive back. Expect more outstanding play from him.

Othello senior Mason Perez plays both sides of the line, and last season he dominated in all phases for the Huskies. He’s a big reason they should be favored to win the CWAC title.

Notes

Two players to keep an eye on: Kennewick junior Cooper Neer is a tough linebacker and tight end. Lions coach Randy Affholter will look to find ways to keep Neer on the field. The other is junior Sylen Kissel-Kauhane of Richland, who should be involved in the Bombers’ high-octane passing game as a tight end, as well as a linebacker on defense. He is so well thought of that his teammates just named him a co-captain for the season. That’s usually not normal for a junior.

• Who is not back? Issac Corey at Hermiston. The two-year starter at quarterback transferred to Eastside Catholic this past offseason.

• Upcoming game to watch: Thursday, Sept. 12, will pit Chiawana at Kamiakin at Lampson Stadium in the first of many big MCC contests this fall.

This week’s openers

Here are this week’s openers (all times 7 p.m. unless noted otherwise):

Thursday, Sept. 5

2A CWAC: Toppenish at Grandview

Southeast 1B: Waitsburg at DeSales

Non-league: East Valley-Yakima at River View

Friday, Sept. 6

4A MCC: Hanford at Kennewick; Hermiston at Richland; Kamiakin at Walla Walla, Borleske Stadium; Southridge at Pasco, Edgar Brown Stadium

2A CWAC: Othello at Ellensburg; Prosser at Ephrata; Selah at Quincy

1A SCAC: Cashmere at Wapato; Royal at Kiona-Benton; Wahluke at Naches Valley; Zillah at Connell

Southeast 1B: Liberty Christian at Garfield-Palouse

Non-league: Chiawana at Rocky Mountain, Idaho, 5 p.m.; Davenport at Mabton; Dufur at Touchet, 2 p.m.; Granger at Kittitas; La Conner vs. Pomeroy at Sunnyside, 3 p.m.; Moses Lake Christian/Covenant Christian at Sunnyside Christian; Northwest Christian-Colbert at Columbia-Burbank, 6 p.m.; Soap Lake at St. John-Endicott; Sunnyside at Skyline; Warden at Medical Lake; Weston-McEwen at College Place

Saturday, Sept. 7

Southeast 1B: Yakama Tribal at Dayton

Non-league: Entiat at Tekoa-Rosalia, 6 p.m.; Tri-Cities Prep at Asotin, 1 p.m.

Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.