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MIDDLETOWN — Middletown football coach Ron Johnson always says if you want to be the best, you have to play the best.

The Middies will get that chance in the first two weeks of the season next year and in 2009.

After traveling north to play perennial playoff team Massillon Washington this year, the Tigers will be Middletown's Week 2 opponent for the next two seasons, coming to Barnitz Stadium in 2008 and hosting the game in 2009.

Middletown's season-opening opponents will be Elder (2008) and St. Xavier (2009), both games set for an 8:15 p.m. start on Saturday night at the University of Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium in the Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown.

"It just so happened that we were open in Week 1 both years," Johnson said. "When the people that run that called and asked us, we felt it would be a great opportunity for our kids and our program.

"But in no way does it help us beat Colerain this week," he continued, emphasizing that they really haven't talked much about it with the team. "It shows our kids that we will be pitted against two of the most respected teams in Ohio, and that's how we want to be viewed too. We want to build ourselves into a top-notch program just like they are and we feel we are headed in that direction."

To complete their nonleague schedule in both years, Middletown will continue its long standing rivalry with Lima Senior.

"I hope we can continue that game forever," Johnson said. "It's a great rivalry game for us and for them."

Of course, Middletown opens its Greater Miami Conference schedule in Week 4 each year. In 2008, GMC opponents will include Lakota East, Fairfield, Lakota West, Colerain, Oak Hills, Hamilton and Princeton. In 2009, the Middies would face Sycamore, Mason, Lakota East, Fairfield, Lakota West, Colerain and Princeton.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2852 or sweaver@coxohio.com.