Another season of high school football kicks off tomorrow in Conecuh Co.

Another season of high school football will kick off tomorrow (Friday) in Conecuh County and across the great state of Alabama. Sparta Academy will be playing its 43rd season of varsity football this year, and Hillcrest High School will be playing its 25th season of varsity football. Every kid on both teams should keep in mind that they are part of teams that have long-running histories, and that they have an opportunity to make a mark this year that will be remembered for years to come.

It’s often said that a school’s sports teams are the “front porch” of the school, that is, while the purpose of the school is to educate young men and women, sports is a thing that generates a lot of interest in the school among the general public. This is true at home and on the road, where our players, coaches and fans serve as ambassadors of our community. Everyone here at The Courant is hoping that both schools will have outstanding, memorable and injury-free seasons. Nothing would please us more than for both teams to go undefeated.

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The college football season will kick off today (Thursday) and there will be a full slate of Southeastern Conference football games for fans to enjoy today, tomorrow and Saturday.

For what it’s worth, here are my picks for this week’s round of SEC games. I like Alabama over Virginia Tech, Auburn over Washington State, South Carolina over North Carolina, Ole Miss over Vanderbilt, Kentucky over Western Kentucky, Oklahoma State over Mississippi State, Arkansas over UL-Lafayette, Georgia over Clemson, LSU over TCU, Texas A&M over Rice, Florida over Toldeo, Missouri over Murray State and Tennessee over Austin Peay. Last week: 0-0. So far this season: 0-0.

The NFL regular season schedule will officially kick off next Thursday, Sept. 5, and this year I’ll also be predicting the outcomes of those games throughout the season. Look for those predictions to start in next week’s edition of The Courant along with my college football picks.

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For those of you in the audience who enjoy reading a good sports-related book, you might want to check out “Like Any Normal Day: A Story of Devotion” by Mark Kram Jr. It was recently announced the Kram’s book was named the winner of this year’s PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. This prestigious award is given each year to the best nonfiction book on the subject of sports published during the previous calendar year. The winner receives $5,000.

“Like Any Normal Day” was among four finalists for this award. The other finalists were “Over Time” by Frank Deford, “Road to Valor” by Aili and Andres McConnon and “Floyd Patterson” by W.K. Stratton.

The PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing is a relatively new award and was first awarded in 2010. Past winners of the award include “A Terrible Splendor” by Marshall Jon Fisher (2010), “Play Their Hearts Out” by George Dohrmann (2011) and “Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption and Baseball’s Longest Game” by Dan Barry (2012).