A football team from Florida opened the season last week with a game in Daytona Beach.

That same team is scheduled to fly to Pittsburgh for a game Saturday, and fly to Dallas for its third game next week.

This sounds like the schedule for a college football team. But this is the early-season schedule for Cocoa High School (Fla.).

All the travel might seem unusual for a high school team, but Cocoa is a good example of what is becoming more and more popular for some powerhouse teams across the country. They are invited to play in multi-game events that can cost organizers and promoters as much as $100,000 in expenses.

Organizers of these events cover the costs of teams' airfare, food and lodging. But the events can also be profitable for promoters.

High school football has gone national in recent years with some big money involved.

"If you don't have $100,000 in liquid, then you probably shouldn't do these events," said Ken Halloy of Halloy Boy Sports Marketing in Columbus, Ohio.

Halloy and his company have become big players in the high school football multi-game events. Halloy has put together the Rally at the Wolvarena Saturday at Woodland Hills' stadium in Turtle Creek.

Four teams from the WPIAL will play four out-of-state teams -- two from Florida and two from Ohio. Cocoa will play Thomas Jefferson at 5 p.m. The other Florida team is Manatee High, which will play Woodland Hills at 8 p.m.

At 11 a.m., McKeesport plays Steubenville, and Pittsburgh Central Catholic plays Akron Buchtel at 2 p.m.

Similar events are being conducted around the country the first few weeks of the season, before most high school teams begin league play. Just a few of the venues playing host to multiple games are NFL and major-college stadiums. Qwest Stadium, home of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, Ohio State's Ohio Stadium and the Alamodome in San Antonio are three sites with multi-game events.

But there are numerous other multi-game events in places from Florida to Illinois.

"I don't think these events with teams traveling is a fad. I think they're here to stay," said Tom Lemming, a national talent scout of high school players who now works for CBScollegesports.com. "With how easy it is to travel nowadays from coast to coast, and the publicity some high school teams now get, I think you're even going to see more of these events in the future."

Woodland Hills played in a multi-game event two years ago at Texas Stadium, then the home of the Dallas Cowboys. Woodland Hills coach George Novak said Halloy isn't exaggerating when he says it can cost around $100,000 in expenses for an event with out-of-state teams.

Besides paying for airfare, game organizers pay for everything from hotel rooms, to food, to buses for out-of-town teams.

"When we went to Dallas, I know the bill just for our luggage was more than $2,000," Novak said. "I don't mean the luggage for each player. You have to remember that you have to take all of their football equipment and a lot of other equipment for the team. Things add up."

But what's nice for some teams is they also are paid money on top of their expenses. Woodland Hills was paid to play in Dallas. Halloy said all teams in the Rally at the Wolvarena will be paid something.

"We're still evaluating the payout formula," Halloy said.

He has run similar events in the past in Wheeling and will stage a three-game event later this month in Steubenville, where the feature game will be Cleveland St. Ignatius against Don Bosco Prep of New Jersey.

But don't think people like Halloy and other promoters wouldn't stage these games without a chance for profit. Novak said he is hopeful that Saturday's games draw a total crowd of 10,000 to the Wolvarena. Tickets to the event are $18 and one ticket is good for all four games.

But do the math. Even if expenses are $100,000, if the event draws 10,000 fans at $18 a ticket, that's $180,000.

"People are making money off these events," Lemming said. "Especially if you can get them televised, then you can make a lot of money."

None of the four games at the Wolvarena will be televised. But Halloy said he plans to bring the event back to the Wolvarena in future years and is hopeful to have a game televised, possibly nationally. He said the St. Ignatius-Don Bosco Prep game Sept. 25 will be televised by Fox.

"The greatest risk is weather. If you get a rainy day, people are going to stay home," Halloy said. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out there are only two sources of revenue with these things. One is the gate and the other is sponsorship."

Highschoolsports.net is the major sponsor of the Rally at the Wolvarena.

There are critics of the multi-game events, where tens of thousands of dollars are spent on a team's expenses. The critics complain that high school football shouldn't be a national product, with so much money spent to stage games. Critics also complain about players missing school.

"We'll miss only three days of school for these three games and it's not costing our school anything," said Cocoa coach John Wilkinson, whose team has won two state championships in a row. "There's no way we could pay for our expenses. It would be too much.

"I think it's a great experience for our kids. When we knew we were playing these games this year, we asked how many of the kids have ever been on a plane? Five raised their hands. A lot of kids in our area don't get out of the city much or ever get on a plane. I think it's a great experience for them and I think the plusses far outweigh the minuses."

Joe Kinnan is the longtime coach at Manatee, and this is the first time his team has been invited to play in an event such as the Rally at the Wolvarena.

"High school bands fly to other cities around the country to perform in things like parades and no one ever says anything about that," Kinnan said. "Most of these kids aren't going to play college football, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them."

With more and more high school games being televised nowadays by ESPN, with national rankings, and with the popularity of national high school sites on the internet, high school sports are more global than ever before.

"The first high school team I remember traveling to play games was Cincinnati Moeller 30 or 40 years ago with [coach] Gerry Faust," Lemming said. "The reason why high school teams travel to play games now is the same reason why colleges started doing it. Because they're looking for the best competition. So there is no reason to put restrictions on them."

Ten years ago, it was practically unheard of for a high school team to take a plane ride somewhere for a game. But in the past five years, the proliferation of multi-game events has brought high school football into a different world.

Nowadays, event organizers are actually battling over teams.

"We're already talking to people about games next year," Manatee's Kinnan said.

Halloy said he hopes to add a couple events every year.

Said Lemming: "I think someday you might even see a national high school championship game played on the field."

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