Greg Tepper, managing editor of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine and on-air analyst for Bally Sports, speaks at the 18th Annual East Texas Kick-Off Luncheon Tuesday at the W.T. Brookshire Conference Center. (Michel Alfaro/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

When high school football fans across Texas receive their copy of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine, that often signifies the unofficial start of the high school football season.

A key event to usher in the high school football season in East Texas is the East Texas Kick-Off Luncheon.

For the 18th Annual East Texas Kick-Off Luncheon Tuesday at the W.T. Brookshire Conference Center, Greg Tepper, managing editor of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine and on-air analyst for Bally Sports, was the guest speaker in a room full of football coaches and players.

“I am thrilled to be out here at the East Texas kickoff,” Tepper said. “There’s almost no area area of the state that I think has deeper high school football than out here in East Texas. Everywhere you look, you’ve got incredible talent and incredible teams. There’s great coaching out here. They take it seriously out here. These are my type of people.”

Tepper started working at Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine in 2011 and is entering his 14th high school football season there. He said one of the intriguing aspects of the 2024 season will be to see the effect realignment has on the season.

What teams in East Texas are most on Tepper’s radar entering the new season?

“I think the conversation has to start with Carthage,” Tepper said. “I think the Carthage revenge tour is in earnest. I know they’re still stinging from their loss to Gilmer. Though Gilmer would like you to know they are not going to go away quietly. That’s a program that I think has built that pedigree and belief system that they got last year, plus the talent they’ve got coming back for Alan Metzel’s ball club. They’re going to be awfully hard to beat. Plus the other 4A state finalist from a year ago, Chapel Hill, that’s a team that’s going to be right back in the mix.

“I’m very interested to see what the Tyler schools do, as well, Tyler High and Tyler Legacy, especially Tyler High, the second year under head coach Rashaun Woods I think will do wonders for them.”

Tepper went to Coppell High School and the University of Missouri. He and his wife, Jen, have two sons, Hank and Max.