Company to launch HS football preview
Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/Sports/61602/
BENTONVILLE — Competition appears to be heating up when it comes to publishing a statewide football preview in Arkansas.
VYPE High School Sports Magazine announced this week that it will be putting out a 260-page, full-color preview that features coverage of all 208 high schools in the state.
It will be released June 23 at more than 1, 000 locations across the state, including Wal-Mart.
For more than a decade, Hooten’s Arkansas Football has been the only statewide high school football preview magazine. While it covers the Arkansas Razorbacks and state colleges as well, VYPE’s preview will focus on high schools only.
Rhett Lashlee, a former Shiloh Christian and Arkansas quarterback, is VYPE’s Market Director for Arkansas. He said another difference is that the preview will be offered at about half the price ($ 6. 99 for pre-orders or $ 7. 99 on newsstands ) than Hooten’s has been in recent years.
“ We know how important high school football is in most every community in Arkansas, and we are excited to bring something new and fresh for high school football players and fans across the state, ” Lashlee said. “ I know people are going to be blown away by the quality of this publication. ”
Chris Mortensen, an NFL analyst with ESPN, and Marcus Elliott, a former Razorback who’s now on Drive Time Sports, are providing guest columns for the preview. It also will have features, team previews, schedules, coaches’ polls, recruiting rankings and hundreds of action photos.
“ Think big-time college preview meets Arkansas high school football, ” said Mike Capshaw, Editor-in-Chief of the preview. “ It will be comparable to Lindy’s or Athlon’s as far as all the extra elements and the way we cover each team. ”
Lashlee said each team will receive equal coverage, regardless of advertising. In Hooten’s previews, teams are allotted space based on the amount of advertising sold by coaches and schools.
“ One thing we wanted to make sure was that the coaches and schools don’t have to pay to be included. The coverage is free, ” Lashlee said.
“ We didn’t want the coaches to do much work. ”
VYPE High School Sports Magazine is a national syndicate of 10 locally owned and published magazines. Out of its Springdale office, the company has published a free monthly magazine in Western Arkansas for the past year.