Howdy,

Long time, no see.

HUZZAH — the CIAC unreleased the 2013 schedules today.

Commence foaming at the mouth.

The master schedule is HERE.

You may find team schedules HERE.

There are still 97 days before said season kicks off, but it's never too soon to start obsessing about sweet, sweet football. And we're going to obsess about it today. A lot.

Consider this the first manifesto for the upcoming season as we're going to give YOU a little bit of everything to strengthen that big, beautiful brain of yours.

This post is incomplete as we're still throwing together more things. We're enablers here, though, so we wanted to provide you, dear reader, with your football fix.

Consider this post a beta version of this blog while we gather more intel.

The season officially kicks off on Sept. 11 when Law of Milford plays at Harding of Bridgeport (6 p.m.)

The opening night game we recommend, nay, IMPLORE you to see is Staples v. Xavier at Middletown's Palmer Field (6:30 p.m.) Both teams will be starting a bevy of new players. Big deal — all the Falcons and Wreckers ever do is win.

More Week 1 fun:

■ Seymour at Amity of Woodbridge, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 7 p.m.: Gather round, young 'uns, as we give you a quick history lesson. Amity and Seymour used to be Housatonic League rivals. It was quite a fun league featuring the likes of Cheshire, Derby and Shelton. And then the league dissolved after the 1993 season. Amity moved to the fledgling Southern Connecticut Conference. The Wildcats joined their neighbors in the Naugatuck Valley League. The two haven't played since, um (rifles through old files). .... 1995 (Amity won, 30-6). Reunited, and it'll hurt so good.

■ Valley Regional/Old Lyme v. Hyde at Wilbur Cross, Thursday, Sept. 12, 4 p.m.: VR/OL started just one senior last season. The Howling Wolves are a perennial Pequot and Class S threat.

■ New Canaan v. Hand at the Surf Club, Madison, Thursday, Sept. 12, 6 p.m.: No hype necessary. It's also the first regular season football game on the Surf's shiny new turf field.

■ West Haven at Greenwich, Thursday, Sept. 12, 6 p.m.: Again, no hype necessary.

■ Southington at Glastonbury, Thursday, Sept. 12, 6:30 p.m.: The FCIAC-SCC Challenge will be the center of attention during Week 1. Southington and Glastonbury could provide the game of the week.

■ Masuk at New Milford, Thursday, Sept. 12, 7 p.m.: Whoever put together the South-West Conference schedule ought to book pro rasslin'. Here's the storyline — John Murphy coached Masuk for 16 seasons and helped transform the program into a superpower. The Panthers won a SWC-record six titles, played in seven state finals and won three CIAC state titles. Murphy resigned during the off-season and headed northwest to take over the Green Wave, a program that's had just one winning season the previous 11 seasons. Break-ups are rarely easy, so, yeah, this game.

■ Trumbull at Shelton, Thursday, Sept. 12, 7 p.m.: These neighbors play in different leagues, thus preventing them from smashing into one another. It was a no-brainer match-up when the FCIAC-SCC Challenge was constructed.

■ Gilbert/Northwestern Regional v. Cromwell at Pierson Park, Cromwell, Saturday, Sept. 14, 1:30 p.m.: G/NR returns some good talent. The Panthers always have good talent.

■ Notre Dame-West Haven at St. Joseph, Saturday, Sept. 14, 1:30 p.m.: ND should win more than four games this season, but might still be a year away from being it's usual burly self. The Cadets will be a great measuring stick as they have the talent to win Class M.

• • • •

Behold, the divisional alignments:

CLASS LL (702 and more boys, 36 teams): Amity-Woodbridge (844); Bridgeport Central (923); Cheshire (798); Conard-West Hartford (773); Crosby-Waterbury (746); Danbury (1,468); East Hartford (836); Fairfield Ludlowe (737); Fairfield Prep (896); Fairfield Warde (726); Glastonbury (1,077); Greenwich (1,366); Hall-West Hartford (725); Hamden (944); Hartford Public (750); Kennedy-Waterbury (717); Manchester (889); McMahon-Norwalk (793); New Britain (1,338); New Milford (726); Newington (719); Newtown (905); Norwalk (770); Norwich Free Academy (1,071); Ridgefield (906); Shelton (779); Simsbury (832); South Windsor (723); Southington (1,009); Stamford (989); Staples-Westport (953); Trumbull (1,049); Wilby-Waterbury (702); West Haven (794); Westhill-Stamford (1039); Xavier-Middletown (870).

New to the division: Fairfield Warde (from Class L); Wilby (Class L).

CLASS L (531-701, 36): Avon (540); Bassick-Bridgeport (645); Branford (531); Bristol Central (681); Bristol Eastern (640); Bulkeley-Hartford (549); Cheney Tech-Manchester (534); Darien (659); E.O. Smith-Storrs (602); East Lyme (542); Farmington (678); Fitch (593); Guilford (551); Hand-Madison (617); Harding-Bridgeport (685); Maloney-Meriden (618); Masuk-Monroe (620); Middletown 674); Platt-Meriden (619); Platt Tech-Milford (554); Naugatuck (683); New Canaan (629); New London (536); North Haven (625); Notre Dame-West Haven (616); Pomperaug-Southbury (652); RHAM-Hebron (615); Stratford (556); Stratford–Bunnell (590); Torrington (590); Vinal Tech/East Hampton (534); Wethersfield (617); Wilbur Cross-New Haven (653); Wilton (689); Windsor (637); Windsor Locks/Suffield/East Granby (535).

New: Bristol Central (Class LL); Cheney Tech (Class M); Naugatuck (Class LL); New London (Class M); Vinal Tech/East Hampton (Class M).

CLASS M (388-530, 36): Abbott Tech-Danbury (423); Bacon Academy (448); Barlow-Redding (487); Berlin (497); Bethel (502); Brookfield (433); Bullard-Havens of Bridgeport (388); Coventry/Windham Tech/Bolton (528); East Haven 468); Ellington/Somers (437); Fermi-Enfield (499); Foran-Milford (491); Gilbert/Northwest Regional-Winsted (431); Granby (390); Hillhouse-New Haven (510); Killingly (440); Law-Milford (466); Ledyard (465); Lewis Mills-Burlington (409); Lyman Hall-Wallingford (468); New Fairfield (521); Putnam/Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech (508); Rockville-Vernon (497); St. Bernard/Norwich Tech (479); St. Joseph-Trumbull (440); Sheehan-Wallingford (437); Stonington (398); Tolland (437); Valley Regional/Old Lyme (409); Waterford (440); Watertown (467); Weston (395); Wilcox Tech-Meriden (438); Wolcott (427); Wolcott Tech-Torrington (417); Woodstock Academy (514).

New: Fermi (Class L); Granby (Class S); Killingly (Class S); Rockville (Class L); Stonington (Class S); Valley Regional/Old Lyme (Class S); Woodstock Academy (Class L).

CLASS S (Up to 387, 37): Ansonia (323); Bloomfield (276); Canton (286); Capital Prep/Classical/Achievement First-Hartford (239); Coginchaug-Durham (279); Cromwell (270); Derby (188); East Catholic-Manchester (339); Enfield (380); Griswold (311); Haddam-Killingworth (309); Holy Cross-Waterbury (325); Housatonic Valley/Wamogo (333); Hyde-New Haven (161); Immaculate-Danbury (184); Montville (372); Morgan-Clinton (308); Nonnewaug-Woodbury (353); North Branford (312); Northwest Catholic-West Hartford (300); Notre Dame-Fairfield (215); O'Brien Tech-Ansonia (286); Old Saybrook/Westbrook (321); Oxford (289); Plainfield (371); Plainville (370); Prince Tech-Hartford (359); St. Paul-Bristol (194); Rocky Hill (345); Sacred Heart-Waterbury (181); Seymour (303); Sports Medical/University-Hartford (360); Stafford/East Windsor (281); Trinity Catholic-Stamford (227); Weaver-Hartford (243); Windham (379); Woodland-Beacon Falls (363).

New: Enfield (Class M); Montville (Class M); O'Brien Tech (Class M); Windham (Class M).

• • • •

Ansonia senior Arkeel Newsome and longtime West Haven coach Ed McCarthy both have a chance to make history this season.

Newsome is within striking distance of setting the state's career records for rushing yardage and scoring. Former Ansonia great Alex Thomas holds both records (8,279 yards, and 747 points).

Newsome's has rushed for 6,818 yards and has 738 points, adding up his stats posted over the years at MaxPreps.com.

Do the math — Newsome needs to run for 1,462 yards to set that record. He could have that by midseason given his ludicrous production. He could set the point record before the end of the first quarter Week 1 at home against Torrington.

McCarthy is one of the state's coaching legends as he's been doing it since 1971. His longevity is a testament to both his love of the game, and that he believes suffering is good for the soul. Coaches age the same way as cats and dogs, i.e. one year of coaching equals several human years.

McCarthy, who also coached at St. Joseph, has won 316 games.

Bill Mignault won 321 games during his lengthy and uber-successful career, so McCarthy needs six wins to pass Colonel Ledyard.

Here's where it gets fun — say West Haven is fortunate enough to win its first four games.

McCarthy would have a chance to tie the record at home. .... against blood-rival Notre Dame of West Haven, his alma mater.

Should the Westies beat ND, then they could get McCarthy the state record at home. .... versus Xavier.

Sure, nothing ever goes as planned. West Haven has to deal with the usual hellacious SCC schedule. There's no guarantee it'll win its first four games.

Imagine how crazy it would be if it does, though.

Couldn't script it better.

• • • •

There will be more later.

Thanks for reading.

Vaya con dios....