Football state championship special section

Just out of curiosity, was wondering what people have done or what works well when doing a special section for a high school football team heading to the state championship. Something beyond the standard stats, rosters, lineups, schedules, how they got there, by the numbers, keys to victory, etc.

Any ideas/discussion would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Poster pages are easy enough and well-received.

 

Sections of this type, I like to include a story on the opponent.

 

Yeah, for sure. Scouting report. Most fans already know about the "home" team and its players, but may know little to nothing about the team they will be facing.

 

I've tried that in the past and it wasn't too well-received. My readers seemed to want to read more about their team, even if all I was doing was telling them things they already knew.

 

Maybe a flashback to a previous team that went to the championship game?

 

Chances are, if it's a pretty big program that's won multiple titles or been to the finals several times, there are brothers that played on those teams. If you find a family with two or three sons that played on those teams, there's a good story.