Football season has arrived and all I can say is: Finally!. It’s going to be an interesting next few days with some great high school matchups and even Michigan and Michigan State have interesting opening games. I’ve decided each week I will predict the outcome of what I think are the top 10 games involving Oakland County teams. And boy is it a great 10 games this week. It seems like nobody is scheduling a patsy for Week 1 and I like it.

Week 1 predictions
Thursday
Birmingham Detroit Country Day at Birmingham Seaholm — The Maples are going to be a team to watch, but I like Bennie Fowler and the Yellowjackets. Pick: Country Day
Grand Blanc at Lakeland — Blake Heiman and company will have to be at their best in this one. Pick: Lakeland
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s at East Grand Rapids — A rematch of the five-OT state championship game from last season, the Eaglets get their revenge. Pick: St. Mary’s
Milford at Novi — Two former KVC teams hook-up in a KLAA crossover. I like the home team in this one. Pick: Novi

Friday
South Lyon vs. Walled Lake Central, 11 a.m. at EMU — This one will be worth getting up early for and yes 11 a.m. is early for me. Pick: South Lyon
Rockford vs. Lake Orion, 5 p.m. at EMU — I commend both these teams for taking such a difficult first game. The Rams win a close one. Pick: Rockford
Stoney Creek at Troy Athens — The Cougars are playing a much tougher schedule this year and won’t get past the Red Hawks. Pick: Athens
Farmington Hills Harrison at Bloomfield Hills Lahser — East Lansing transfer Drew Jackson won’t be able to lift the Knights over Harrison. Pick: Harrison
GAME OF THE WEEK
Rochester Adams at Clarkston — The Highlanders have a lot of hype surrounding them this year, but I’m going to go with the upset here. (Hopefully I’ll still be allowed to move into my new house in Rochester this weekend.) Pick: Clarkston

Saturday
Birmingham Brother Rice at Oak Park — Oak Park’s Edwin Baker will be the best player on the field, but Brother Rice is well Brother Rice. Pick: Brother Rice

Bonus college picks
Utah at Michigan — FireRichRod.com is up by 7 p.m. after the Wolverines drop their opener. Pick: Utah
Michigan State at Cal — The Spartans put up a fight, but nobody will remember anything other than they lost. Pick: Cal

The Oakland men’s basketball team released its schedule earlier this week and no surprise here, it’s a difficult one. The Golden Grizzlies have just two games at the O’Rena in the non-conference schedule, Rochester College to open the season on Nov. 15 and Toledo on Dec. 7. Oakland also has two games at the Palace against Michigan on Dec. 20 and Michigan State at Dec. 27.

I’m going predict Oakland goes 7-6 in its non-conference schedule. (For now, it’s still really early) That may be a little optimistic, but I think it’s doable. My prediction does include two wins in Las Vegas and wins over Green Bay and Michigan, which are all games that could go the other way. And wins over Toledo and Eastern Michigan are not guaranteed. But in the grand scheme of things what do these games really mean? Greg Kampe will be the first to admit it’s all about those three days March for teams at Oakland’s level and right now I still like Oakland to be the last team standing in South Dakota.

Here is my predicted results for the non-conference schedule.

W - Nov. 15 Rochester College
L – Nov. 17 at Oregon
L – Nov. 21 at Syracuse
L – Nov. 23 at Iowa
L – Nov. 25 at Kansas State
W – Nov. 28 Delaware State (in Las Vegas)
W – Nov. 29 Longwood/SE Missouri (Las Vegas)
W – Dec. 7 Toledo
L – Dec. 16 at Cleveland State
W – Dec. 18 at Green Bay
W – Dec. 20 Michigan (at The Palace)
W – Dec. 22 at Eastern Michigan
L – Dec. 27 Michigan State (at The Palace)

I’ve been busy today working on my volleyball preview, basically calling every coach I can and seeing what they have coming back. Last season was a banner year for Oakland County volleyball with three teams making it to the state finals and Pontiac Notre Dame Prep becoming the first team in the county to ever win a state title. Hopefully volleyball can get a streak of state titles going. Maybe being in the fall will be the difference and the winter was just bad luck this whole time.

I don’t think it’s any shock to anyone that Birmingham Marian is the team most likely to make a run at a state title. The Mustangs return just about everybody from their Class A runner-up squad and will be even better with another year of experience. Several other teams could make runs, but I’ll let you wait until my volleyball preview comes out to see who I think it might be.

Most teams will be taking part in tournaments this Saturday so I hope to have my preview out in the next week or two. There will be an interesting tourney at West Bloomfield that the Lakers coach told me about. A lot of the top teams in the county will be there along with some talented teams from outside Oakland County.

Well I hope to have more updates now that the fall high school season is kicking off. Thanks for reading.

NOTE: Any Oakland County volleyball coaches reading this that I haven’t talked to fell free to E-mail me information about your team to dave.pemberton@oakpress.com Please include a phone number in case I have any follow up questions. Thanks.

There hasn’t been much to blog about lately, but hopefully that’s all about to change. Just about all the fall sports start up August 11. The high school football tab comes out Aug. 24 and I’m doing the KLAA, Metro and Independents, which should be interesting. I’m also working on the volleyball preview. Hopefully the fall will continue to be good to our county volleyball teams after a memorable season last year. Here are a few random thoughts to hold all my fans over until my next blog entry. Hopefully it will be soon.

— I don’t know what to think of this new KLAA. It seems all the teams were just grouped together in five team leagues by location. I think it would work better if it was like OAA, where the best teams in each sport are grouped together. But I guess even the OAA went away from that in football. With gas prices so high and the economy so bad, I’m sure all the AD’s love the new league, but as a fan it doesn’t excite me.

— I saw the Oakland men’s team again last week as part of Kampe’s basketball camp. I walked away pretty optimistic about their chances in the Summit League. IUPUI and Oral Roberts lost a lot and I’m not as high on North Dakota State as some people are. Johnathon Jones completely shut down Ben Woodside last year and I don’t think the Bison can beat Oakland without Woodside at the top of his game. Oh and where’s the schedule already? I know most of it, but I still want to see the official schedule.

— With all these previews and working on my two teams for the top 10 teams of all-time in Oakland County, I may have neglected getting ready for my fantasy football drafts. I have to get some cram sessions in. I still don’t know what I’ll do if I end with the third pick and I don’t want to be that guy that takes two days to make each pick.