The stadium lights. The sound of approaching drums as the band marches its way toward the field. The team huddled together outside the locker room before taking to the turf.

It never gets old.

High school football is back.

Next weekend, Butler County teams will take to the gridiron. So many questions come into play with the start of each season and they are eventually answered as the weeks go on.

Will Butler build off its successful turnaround from last year?

What kind of immediate impact will Eric Kasperowicz have as new head coach at Mars?

Will another year of playing experience and work in the weight room pay off for Moniteau?

Is Karns City going to get away from its traditional running game enough to take advantage of its vaunted weapons in the passing game?

These are all legitimate questions that bear watching as the 2022 season unfolds. But none of them are the biggest question in my view.

That belongs to Knoch.

How are the Knights going to handle playing every game away from home, including Homecoming and Senior Night?

This program is enduring plenty of change to start with. Tim Burchett is its new head coach and Knoch is playing in Class 3A this season, giving the Knights a whole new schedule.

While Knoch Stadium is having artificial turf installed, the football team will be playing all 10 games in other places. To me, this is unprecedented. Covering high school football for more than 40 years, it’s something I’ve never seen.

Burchett has a challenge here. He’s taking over a program coming off a two-win season. He’s putting in an entirely new offense. And he’s taking his show on the road each week.

There won’t be much feeding off the energy of the home crowd. Two would-be home games will be played at Butler, so the players will likely hear plenty of support on those nights. Same, too, in road games at nearby Freeport and Deer Lakes.

But Burchett and his team will have to generate their own energy most of the time.

For a new head coach and a group of seniors, this is a unique challenge. How they embrace it will be worth watching.

Sad news to report

I received a phone call Friday alerting me to the recent death of former Slippery Rock University sports information director Bob McComas.

McComas served in that position with The Rock from 2000 through 2014. He was a man who always followed his passion.

He came to SRU after serving 15 years as a sports writer and assistant sports editor for the Bradenton Herald in Florida. He was a graduate assistant under then-SID John Carpenter from 1980-82 and wanted to return to Slippery Rock to build on that SID position.

Also a passionate member of the Lions Club, McComas was president of the Slippery Rock Lions Club for three years and left here to assume the position of State Administratror for Lions of Pennsylvania, relocating to Harrisburg.

Bob McComas cared deeply for SRU and its student-athletes. He often presented story ideas to me to promote those people.

Good man. Diligent worker. He was scheduled to retire next month.

May he rest in peace.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle