1440 WROK Will Be Broadcasting Local High School Football In 2021

We were excited to announce on Friday's morning show that we will be bringing local high school football to the airwaves in 2021 starting on August 27th.

We have been broadcasting high school basketball on our airwaves for the past 3 seasons and decided that it was time to expand our local sports coverage to high school football as well.

High school sports are unique in the Rockford area. It is, in my opinion, the perfect size for a thriving high school sports scene. High school sports in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs have great talent and exciting games but the coverage and attention to the prep sports are diluted by the professional and college coverage. There are also just too many teams in the city and suburbs and most of the action just gets lost in the volume of games.

When you get to the smaller schools in the rural part of the state, the passion is definitely there but with such a sparse population, the level of play isn't always as high and with no real local "media" they don't get much coverage or attention.

Rockford is right in that Goldilocks zone for high school sports. Big enough to get media coverage and have a large talent pool but small enough to not get overshadowed by the professional scene. I would also put Peoria and Bloomington in this category. Both are outstanding areas for prep sports.

We still have some details to work out but here's what I can tell you. The tentative first game will be Harlem/Hononegah on August 27th. Both teams are predicted to be pretty good this year and should be an excellent matchup to kick off our coverage.

Dave Perrone, a voice that will be familiar to those that have listened to our basketball broadcasts will be on the call along with a partner that's currently TBA but very close to being announced.

I had Dave come into the studio Friday morning to talk to the IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson about the return of high school sports and how things will look this year.

I thank both Craig and Dave for hopping on this morning and REALLY look forward to being the loudest voice for high school football in the Rockford area.

See you all August 27th.