WCHL is gearing up for another exciting season of ‘The Grid with Matt & Matt’, the radio station’s weekly high school football show.

The program, hosted by WCHL sports reporter and on-air personality Matt Oakes and sportswriter Matt Paul, will air exclusively on the station at 6:30 pm (and occasionally 6 pm due to other programming) and get you set for the live feature game broadcasts to follow with our Championship Sports team.

It’s the second year the duo will host the show, and the first year they will do so from the beginning of the season, which has them both excited.

“We’re known as the Tar Heels station,” Oakes says, who also covers UNC athletics for WCHL and its companion website Chapelboro.com. “But we know covering high school sports, especially football and basketball, is important to our local communities as well. We can’t wait for another exciting season showcasing our outstanding area schools.”

Oakes, who has been with the station for the last 16 months, is a 2013 graduate of UNC and formerly the Managing Editor at Olympia Media Group. In his extra time, Oakes serves as a tennis instructor at RDU Tennis, regularly runs the American Tobacco Trail, and enjoys contributing his vocal talents to not only the radio, but also as a member of Vox Virorum Men’s Chorus of the Triangle and Heart of Carolina Chorus.

Matt Oakes

Matt Oakes

Paul, who has covered high school and college sports nationally for USA Today and locally for publications like Long Island’s Newsday and the News & Observer, is pleased to team up with Oakes again.

“We’re both low-ego guys who just love sports and want the spotlight shining where it belongs … on the area coaches and their players,” said Paul, who also helps sports programs raise funds through onlinedonations.com. “It may not happen, but we want all the area teams to excel.”

Matt Paul

Matt Paul

Orange and Northwood certainly had their moments of excellence last season, while highly competitive Chapel Hill also eked its way into the playoffs. East Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Cedar Ridge are the other schools comprising the race for the Chapelboro Cup.

The trophy, which will be awarded to the top team in the area, should raise the level of excitement for the coming season to another level, according to WCHL news and sports director Ran Northam.

Tune in to all the high school gridiron excitement on ‘The Grid with Matt & Matt’ each Friday night with exclusive interviews of all your favorite area coaches, game breakdowns, analysis and predictions, the unveiling of our WCHL/Chapelboro Super Six power rankings and the announcement of our Grid Great of the Week.

Matt Paul can be reached on Twitter at @mattauge, while Matt Oakes can be contacted at @moakes3.