To tweet this release: http://es.pn/HSFBsked

—Eight Matchups Live from Five States
—Defending Champions Plant, Hoover and Trinity Featured

The ESPN RISE High School Football Kickoff will air live in HD across ESPN’s family of networks—ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU—over three days, August 27-29. The first annual event, will precede all high school, college and pro-football regular-season fall football programming. will feature 16 teams from seven states in eight exciting high school football match-ups; the weekend-long event will precede all high school, college and pro-football regular-season fall football programming.  ESPN’s Tom Luginbill, Herm Edwards, Justin Kutcher, Rob Stone, Beth Mowins, Danny Kannel, John Congemi, Mike Gleason, Clay Matvick, David Pollack and Quint Kessenich will provide analysis and play-by-play commentary for the eight matchups.

Live from five states—Florida, California, South Carolina, Texas and Ohio—the ESPN RISE High School Football Kickoff will feature eight teams from the ESPN RISE FAB 50 2010 preseason ranking, seven ESPNU 150 ranked players and more than 60 Division One recruits. The event will feature defending Fla. 5A champion Plant (Fla.), defending Ala. 6A champion Hoover (Ala.) and defending Texas 5A champion Trinity (Texas).

The ESPN RISE High School Football Kickoff Television Schedule:

Date	Games	Location	Time	Talent	Network
Fri., Aug. 27	Plant – Fla. (No. 2, FAB 50) vs. Manatee – Fla. (No. 19, FAB 50)	Manatee High School	7 p.m. EDT	Stone, Pollack	ESPN
Fri., Aug. 27	Grant – Calif. (No. 4, FAB 50) vs. Folsom – Calif.	Folsom High School	10 p.m. EDT	Mowins, Kannel	ESPN2
Sat., Aug. 28	Hoover – Ala. (No. 9, FAB 50) vs. Byrnes – S.C.	Rock Hill District 3 Stadium	12 p.m. EDT	Kutcher, Luginbill, Kessenich	ESPN
Sat., Aug. 28	South Pointe – S.C. vs. Northwestern – S.C. (No. 42, FAB 50)	Rock Hill District 3 Stadium	4 p.m. EDT	Kutcher, Luginbill, Kessenich	ESPNU
Sat., Aug. 28	Steele – Texas vs. Madison – Texas	Heroes Stadium	7 p.m. EDT	Matvick, Edwards	ESPN
Sat., Aug. 28	Trinity – Texas (No. 6, FAB 50) vs. Tyler Lee (Texas)	Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium	10 p.m. EDT	Gleason, Congemi	ESPNU
Sun., Aug 29	Good Counsel – Md. (No. 15, FAB 50) vs. St. Xavier – Ohio (No. 39, FAB 50)	St. Xavier High School	3 p.m. EDT	Kutcher, Luginbill, Kessenich	ESPN
Sun., Aug 29	Moeller – Ohio vs. Huber Heights Wayne – Ohio	St. Xavier High School	7 p.m. EDT	Kutcher, Luginbill, Kessenich	ESPNU

 

Of the 16 teams playing during the ESPN RISE High School Football Kickoff, eight are ranked in the ESPN RISE FAB 50 2010 preseason ranking: No. 2, Plant (Fla.), No. 4 Grant (Calif.), No. 6 Trinity (Texas), No. 9 Hoover (Ala.), No. 15 Good Counsel (Md.), No. 19 Manatee (Fla.), No. 39 St. Xavier (Ohio), and No. 42 Northwestern (S.C.).

ESPNU 150 ranked players featured in the ESPN RISE High School Football Kickoff are: No. 1 Jadeveon Clowney (DE, South Pointe), No. 7 Malcolm Brown (RB, Steele), No. 8 James Wilder II (ATH, Plant), No. 15 Aaron Green (RB, Madison), No. 16 Braxton Miller (QB, Wayne), No. 96 Viliami Moala (DT, Grant) and No. 116 Mike Blakely (RB, Manatee).

The ESPN RISE High School Football Kickoff is produced in conjunction with Paragon Marketing Group.

About ESPN RISE

ESPN RISE represents ESPN’s commitment to engage and elevate high school athletes by providing them with recognition, resources, information and inspiration that can motivate them to improve their skills and achieve their goals to be the best athletes they can.  ESPN RISE assets include ESPN RISE, GIRL, Hardwood and Gridiron magazines; ESPNRISE.com, and more than 160 high school events including Elite 11, Elite 24, ESPN RISE Games, ESPN RISE National High School Invitational, Faster to First, Area Code Baseball and Nike Combines/Nike SPARQ Mini Camps.  ESPN RISE is uniquely positioned to provide high school athletes and the company’s core fans with compelling high school sports content across all ESPN platforms.

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Contacts:

Media

Crystal Howard, ESPN PR: [email protected]