Courtesy photo The new Escanaba football logo has been unveiled.

ESCANABA — It’s a new football season and a new look for Escanaba football.

The Eskymos will wear a new logo on the left side of their helmets– a black E, with a black image of the Upper Peninsula used as the middle line of the E.

Escanaba coach Dave Howes said the new logo was crafted after glancing at the Eskymos’ schedule.

“If you look at the schedule we play, we play three downstate teams and a Wisconsin school,” Howes said. “If we do make the playoffs, we’ll never see another U.P. school because of where we’re at in our division. We will always be going downstate.

“We are representing Escanaba, but also at the same time, we are representing the U.P. as we go along with our schedule. It’s something different. From afar you can’t really see the U.P. until you get up on it. The kids are digging it.”

Howes added Northern Screen Printing in Escanaba is putting the new logo on hats, T-shirts and “every little item they can.”

C-N gets forfeit win

Give it up for Carney-Nadeau coach Jim Belec, who sure knows how to start a varsity football season.

Last year, the Wolves beat Ewen-Trout Creek 36-26 in the season opener. And this year, the Wolves gained a forfeit win after Chippewa Falls McDonnell Central Catholic, Wis., canceled its season due to a low number of committed players for the season.

“I still haven’t lost an opener,” Belec quipped at practice this week.

All kidding aside, Belec said the Wolves were not too happy about the turn of events. McDonnell announced the news on July 24.

“We found out three weeks ago,” Belec said. “It would have been nice to find out sooner.”

McDonnell had fielded a varsity football team since 1926 and planned to start its first season playing 8-man football until the plug was pulled.

Belec is looking at the lost game as a positive, which includes more efficient practice time for his second-year program. The Wolves will launch their season Aug. 31 at North Dickinson.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Belec said. “We’ll get to practice more. We have a tough game against North Dickinson to get ready for the following week.”

In addition, in Week 4 the Wolves will play the Wisconsin School for the Deaf, traveling to Delavan in the Lake Geneva area on Thursday, Sept. 14 for a 4 p.m. (CST) game.

Special football section

The annual Daily Press special football section will be published on Thursday. Readers can get the scoop on eight area teams – Escanaba, Gladstone, Manistique, Rapid River, Bark River-Harris, North Central, Carney-Nadeau and Superior Central.

The section again will include previews, schedules, photos and insight on all eight schools.