By Michael Boytim

mboytim@altoonamirror.com

The Mirror’s 11th annual Blitz magazine is now on newstands including most Sheetz locations, Martin’s and Weis grocery stores and also available for purchase at the newspaper’s office at 301 Cayuga Ave. during regular business hours.

Blitz serves as “opening day” for the Mirror’s scholastic sports coverage of the 2023-2024 school year.

The magazine, like our day-to-day coverage, is something we take a lot of pride in and hope you will support, much like an opening-day game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

There’s plenty of excitement about opening day, or the first week of your college football or NFL’s team’s season.

The Blitz is no different.

Every team is 0-0 and filled with potential. Our season outlooks for 31 different teams highlight many of the players teams expect to lean on, and our scouting reports detail what needs to go right for each team to get the most out of its season.

There is even more excitement surrounding this year’s high school football season and the scholastic school year in general than previous years.

Many schools have switched conference affiliations, and even for the ones who haven’t, new teams have joined their conference to make for some interesting matchups.

The Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference made the most significant changes, but the Inter-County Conference and Heritage Conferences will have a new look as well.

All of that is detailed with a map in this year’s Blitz magazine which helps clear up any confusion of which school district is playing in which conference.

Some fans in Tyrone and Bellwood may be disappointed the “Backyard Brawl” isn’t opening the season this year, but Golden Eagles fans will likely rejoice in the renewal of their rivalry with Central in the LHAC, and Bellwood-Antis should be involved in plenty of competitive games and could possibly develop a secondary rivalry against division foes like the Scarlet Dragons or Bishop Guilfoyle as well.

Though neither Chestnut Ridge or Bedford switched conferences, the addition of divisions will mean the schools always play each other each year unlike last season when the rivals were rotated off each other’s schedule.

Two more teams are featured in this year’s Blitz — Richland and a returning Mount Union — with the hope that the magazine can continue to grow to cover even more of District 5 and 6.

The magazine is something our staff puts a lot of time into — John Hartsock has reached out to coaches in February in the past for preliminary information about his season outlooks — and Buck Frank is already scheduling photos for this season with the idea of taking photos of juniors for their senior spotlights in next year’s edition.

But for this product to continue its growth, the biggest component is the support of our readers. We’re hoping to continue to provide excellent coverage of our local athletes and give them their moment in the spotlight, and we appreciate your help in our mission to continue “making it happen for you (and your student athletes).”

Michael Boytim can be reached at mboytim@altoonamirror.com or 814-946-7521