Quick hits

The football team at Chartiers-Houston can improve to 3-0 with a win at winless Serra Catholic. It would mark the second consecutive season the Bucs started a season with three consecutive wins.

The matchup points to a win for Chartiers-Houston, coming off a 20-6 Saturday night win at Shenango, but the Bucs are taking steps to avoid mental letdowns that can accompany such occasions.

This week, and every other week, the team watches a video featuring Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. In the video, Lewis talks about the importance of handling every game as if it is a playoff game. For Lewis, that meant handling matchups against the Browns and Bengals the same way he prepares for playing the Steelers.

For the Bucs, that means taking care of business in their Black Hills Conference opener before facing the difficult task that is Clairton.

* Sicking with Chartiers-Houston, I asked head coach Terry Fetsko if the Bucs take umbrage with attention received by conference rivals, particularly Fort Cherry.

Fetsko said, "Honestly, I don't think it's something the players look at. If they have, I know it's something we haven't talked about. We're focused on putting ourselves in a position at the end of the season where we can achieve our goals."

Among those goals are to top last year's win total of seven games and to host a first-round playoff game.

* Teams from the Tri-County South struggled in non-conference games last year, which naturally had a deserved negative effect on playoff seeding for qualifiers. California has a chance to chalk up a nice win for the conference when it hosts Riverview tonight.

* Washington junior running back/linebacker Jaylin Kelly was a guest of West Virginia's football team during last week's home game against Norfolk State. Kelly is receiving interest from multiple Division I programs.