When the 2009 high school football season kicks off this weekend, it will be a little more low key than in recent years for two Kenosha County teams.

With Burlington and South Milwaukee leaving the Southeast Conference at the end of the last school year, the league now consists of eight teams instead of 10.

That might not seem like a big deal, but it now affords those eight teams the luxury of playing two non-conference games.

“I can’t even think of the last time we had a non-conference game,” 13th-year Tremper coach Frank Matrise Jr. said. “It’s been a long time.”

In the previous two seasons, rivals Bradford and Tremper jumped right into the conference schedule by squaring off in season openers that more resembled playoff games.

That’s not what I call easing into the season.

“When you went into the conference season, boy, it was important from the start,” Matrise said.

“It really made you understand that you better start strong right from the beginning.”

You have to go back to 2000 to find the last time that Bradford and Tremper had non-conference games on their schedules.

In that season, the Red Devils opened against Racine St. Catherine’s and Muskego, while the Trojans opened against Muskego and Mukwonago in non-league games. Even though Muskego was a member of the SEC, those games were of the non-conference variety for reasons I honestly can’t remember.

In tonight’s non-conference season openers, Tremper will face a relative unknown in Onalaska at Ameche Field and Bradford will hit the road to play a familiar foe in Burlington.

After that, Bradford will travel to Lake Forest (Ill.), while Tremper will take on Wauwatosa East at Hart Park.

Of course, winning those games will be a top priority, but the Red Devils and Trojans have a chance to use the non-conference schedule as a “preseason” before the fun begins with the start of conference play in Week 3.

“Basically, we talk about two things around here,” Bradford coach Jed Kennedy told News sports writer Jeremy Reeves this week. “The first thing is qualifying for the playoffs, and the second thing is to make sure we’re playing our best ball when we come to the playoffs. That’s really all we’re concerned with.

“So it basically gives us two extra weeks before we get into that mode where these games start counting toward us making the playoffs and toward our seeding. Those are really the things we stress.”

Here’s to a successful and injury-free 2009 season!

Sports writer Andrew Horschak has been covering high school football for the Kenosha News for 15 years. Contact him at ahorschak@kenoshanews.com.