Editor’s note: It’s that time of year. Sweltering two-a-days. Endless film sessions. Rampant optimism about the season ahead. And never mind your favorite high school football team. We’re talking about our esteemed high school football scribes, Kalle Oakes and Randy Whitehouse. These guys hate to lose, particularly to each other, and will do whatever it takes to gain an advantage. Randy finally got a Twitter account. Kalle lost a few pounds and got himself some Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn spectacles in hopes of not breaking the camera this season. These guys mean business. Let the snark and the smack begin …

Oakes: Greetings, newly Twitter-pated ol’ pal. Nice of you to take a break from your duties as president of the Ned Colletti Fan Club to join me again for the kickoff to another high school season. It seems like only yesterday we were seeking shelter in the warmth of the Fitzpatrick Stadium press box, watching Cheverus party like it was 1985 and run all over Lawrence. No, I mean it REALLY feels like yesterday, because it looks like the same two teams and much the same cast of characters. Anybody got a snowball’s chance on sun-baked FieldTurf of keeping up with the Stags or the Bulldogs in Class A?

Whitehouse: Yes indeed, I have shackled myself to the navel-gazing Twitterverse not only to provide the world an alternative to 40-year-old men in Randy Moss jerseys, but to keep the Tweeps updated on our adventures across the vast Pine Tree pigskin landscape. I predict our journey will end on a globally-warmed 60-degree day at Fitzpatrick with the final “Super Saturday” held in Portland before the four-class system makes its overdue debut in 2013. And I pray the inevitable Cheverus shellacking of whoever comes out of the East takes place before sundown. I’ll take Bangor just because it’s their turn to give up four touchdowns in the span of five plays.

That’s the easiest pick of the three classes. Let’s start getting into the nitty-gritty with Class B. Mountain Valley’s every-other-year thing is getting almost as silly as Josh Beckett’s, but here the Falcons are again, favorites in the West. And it looks like a two-horse race again in the East, with Leavitt and Mt. Blue headed for another photo finish. I’ve got the Hornets by a nose again because a) as the great philosopher Ric Flair once said, “To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man,” and b) that offensive line is so big, I think the field might collapse Dark Knight style under their feet and everyone will just agree it’s best to just give them what they want. So I’ve got a 2010 rematch for all the marbles. And you?

Oakes: I would love to disagree with you, but I can’t. Our propensity for picking a Hornets-Falcons showdown is every bit as flagrant as Chris Berman’s forecast of a Bills-49ers Super Bowl in the 1990s, but in our case there is more justification than mere ring-kissing. Brian Bedard was waiting in the wings as Jordan Hersom’s backup for, what, nine years? And the Hornets have so much depth that Bedard probably won’t even play quarterback. Wherever he lines up, the rest of the state is about to find out how good he is. Mountain Valley doesn’t have Leavitt’s wave after wave of talent, but you win with seniors. The Falcons have ’em, and the rest of the Campbell Conference doesn’t.

It almost looks like Class C has a complex about being renamed Class D in a year, because at least on the Western side I see about nine different teams with a shot at winning the last title. I’m not buying the it’s-Yarmouth-and-then-not-exactly line of thinking. You don’t lose that much talent and have your coach take a Class A job and not take a step backward. Plus, I seem to remember more reporters than reserve players roaming the sideline at most Clippers games in 2011. And while I’d love to regale the local readers with my conviction that Oak Hill or Lisbon or Winthrop or Poland will step into the void, I envision the regional titles going to Greater Boston and Greater New Brunswick. Orono beats Traip in a clash of programs given up for dead a decade ago. What’s your fearless-if-flawed forecast, RAW-dawg?

Whitehouse: I like your thinkin’. It’s wrong, but I like it. The thing with the two favorites in Western C, Yarmouth and Traip, is you could combine their rosters and you’d barely have enough kids to overpower a Ron Paul delegation. I’m going with a darkhorse here, Maranacook. Yeah, they lost Luke Emery, but they have a talented QB in Caleb Castonguay, a clutch receiver in Andrew LaChance and virtually all of their offensive line back. All the coaches I’ve talked to said Western C is as deep as it’s ever been. Maranacook will win the war of attrition and give the West a clean sweep the Saturday before my vacation, uh, Thanksgiving