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And with the month of July just right around the corner, the countdown has begun for soon-to-be high school seniors, who are eagerly anticipating the night of August 28. On that night, the 2008 high school varsity football season will get underway, and with it, football fans from around the state of Michigan will be able to once again watch as their favorite high school teams battle it out on local football fields.

In the meantime, though, there are plenty of football games this summer that will more than wet the appetite of the hard-core gridirion fan. There are all-star games featuring kids from Lapeer County. There are semi-professional football games that are now set to begin right here in Lapeer County. And there are Alumni football games, which will feature some of the names from the recent and not-so recent past, players who are looking to not only contribute to a good cause but who might be looking for one last shot at beating a long-time rival.

To get the football festivites underway for the summer, there's the new all star game in Cass City next weekend.

All-Thumb All-Star Game

The First-Ever All-Thumb Football Classic all star football game will kick off the summer gridiron activities on Saturday, July 5, at Cass City High School. The game will feature some of the best recently-graduated high school football players from the Thumb of Michigan, including a few players from the Lapeer County area.

This event was a labor of love for Cass City's Ben Varney, who spent the better part of the last year organizing and coordinating this event. Over sixty football players, including a few from Lapeer County, have been invited to participate and practices began this past week. Expect this to be a yearly event.

Lapeer County Lions set to go

On Saturday, July 12, semi-professional football makes it debut in Lapeer County when the newly created Lapeer County Lions kickoff their inaugural season in the North American Football League by playing host to the Flint Fury. The Lions will play all of their home games at Almont High School.

The Lions have quite a few area athletes on its roster, and the competition in these semi-pro leagues is always top-notch. Some of the teams in the NAFL feature several former college football players on their respective rosters, so you can feel safe knowing going into these games that these teams feature some real quality athletes.

After an away game at the Tri-City Thunder on July 19, the Lions will return to Almont to play the Indianapolis Tornadoes. The Lions season will continue into August, as they are scheduled to play a total of 10 games, with all games to begin at 7 p.m.. For more information, go to www.lapeercountylions.org.

Capac Alumni to take the field

On Friday, July 18, the football alumni of Capac High School will play in their first-ever alumni football game when the Chiefs host the Imlay City alumni football team.

Back in February, Capac Athletic Director Arnie Vandemark announced that his school had signed a two-year agreement with Imlay City to play an alumni football game. There are more than a few area schools that now use these games as fundraisers for their respective programs. The hopes are that the game will provide enough funds for the school to not only make sure that their respective programs can avoid becoming pay-to-play programs but also provide enough money to make this the only fundraiser for the year.

It does work. In last year's North Branch-Imlay City alumni game, the two schools split gate receipts that totaled a little more than $11,000. And since the Spartans hosted the game, they also made over $1,000 in concessions and even more on the 50/50 raffle, so Capac is almost assured of making somewhere in the area of over $5,000-6,000 for the Chiefs program. That will bring in some nice new equipment for the school.

MSFCA football game

On Saturday, July 19, three football players from the Lapeer County area will get to suit up in the 28th Annual Michigan High School Football Coaches Association All Star football game on the campus of Michigan State University.

Lapeer East's Jarrett Starr, Oxford's Zach Line and Capac's Alex Wegner will all suit up for the East squad, which will be coached by Warren DeLaSalle's Paul Verska.

The game is a great yearly feature that promotes high school football in the state of Michigan while also acting as a fundraiser for the MHSFCA scholarship fund. Participants receive their game jersey from the game, All-Star T-shirts and shorts, an equipment duffle bag, an All-Star cap and a 2008 All-Star program.

Game tickets can be purchased at the gate for $10 and all tickets can also be purchased beforehand for $5.

IC will play two

Because they must be crazy, Imlay City's alumni football team will play another game the week after they face off against Capac. The Spartans will travel to North Branch to play the Broncos alumni on Saturday, July 26.

The Broncos and the Spartans have played the previous two summers, with North Branch winning the first game in 2006 by a score of 21-18. Imlay City struck back and won by a final of 20-6 when they hosted the game last July.

These games are usually timed to coincide with a festival that the city might also be hosting, so these games are more than often than not an event as opposed to just a single game.