WHEELING - The Rally in the Valley high school football extravaganza is altering its name and changing venues. But the big news today is the fact it's happening at all.

As little as a month ago the event was dead in the water locally, instead being shipped to Pittsburgh after event organizer Ken Halloy, president of Halloy Boy Sports Marketing and a Bridgeport native, had a falling out with the Wheeling group that had previously played host to the showcase. But thanks to the efforts of people such as former Belmont County Commissioner Gordie Longshaw, Highschoolsports.net's Jason Rine and Morgantown lawyer Sam Stone, there will be a third straight Rally in the Valley.

Scheduled for Sept. 25 at Steubenville's Harding Stadium, the newly minted Rally in the Valley featuring The USA Today Super 25/Massey Challenge of Champions, features three games that figure to be tightly contested.

Host Big Red is scheduled to take on perennial West Virginia Class AAA power Morgantown, and Wheeling Central and Bridgeport will also renew acquaintances.

But the crown jewel is the nationally televised - on Fox - noon kickoff between defending National Champion Don Bosco Prep out of Ramsey, N.J., and 2009 runnerup Cleveland St. Ignatius. The game will be shown live to 70 percent of the country, with the other 30 percent, at worst, getting it on tape delay.

The start time for the other two games will be released perhaps as soon as Wednesday.

"When Wheeling fell through we were dead-set on Pittsburgh, and were going to play at Woodland Hills where I am doing my Labor Day games," Halloy said Saturday. "I just got an itch. It was bothering me we were moving it."

Steubenville agreed to play host to the event, but contractual obligations had to be worked out with Morgantown, which was set to entertain Big Red this season as the first game in a two-year deal. With Steubenville needing the second year as a home game, Morgantown officials had to agree to play the first two - the initial one technically being a neutral-site date - at Harding.

That's where Longshaw came in. He made a couple of calls to Stone, who is also a Morgantown High booster, and Stone then made contact with the school's representatives.

"If Gordie doesn't get to Sam, and Sam doesn't make phone calls, this never happens." Halloy said. "Morgantown has been very gracious."

Halloy then had to see what he could work out with Rine's Highschoolsports.net and USA Today, who are both under the Gannett Co. umbrella. The newspaper said in February it wanted to put on such an event, but Halloy wasn't sure the idea of doing so in the Ohio Valley was exactly what it had in mind.

"(Rine) kept pressing very hard on his end to his superiors," Halloy said. "They said 'that's cool with us,' so that put it all together."

Bridgeport and Wheeling Central each had to get out of previous contracts with Valley and Fairview, Pa., respectively, which they were able to do.

"It's a great experience and great exposure for our programs and our kids," Wheeling Central coach Mike Young said. "If you look at the economy and the way it is, it's still going to be in the valley and that's good. It just causes your team to raise the bar."

For Bridgeport coach Rudy Vavrock, this seemed like the logical next step in his program's continual progression.

"The best thing about it is, it's exposure for our kids that have worked hard and for our school system, which it deserves," he said. "When you're playing the likes of a Wheeling Central you have a little apprehension.

"But it's somewhere we wanted to go with where our program is."

Remarkably, a school like St. Ignatius, it's brand known nationally, doesn't get involved in many of these events. Athletics Director Rory Fitzpatrick said it has to be the right time and the right place.

"We haven't been in a lot of these events because we're trying to fill a schedule and you do those things two years in advance," he said. "We just happened to have an opening on our schedule.

"The tradition at Steubenville, obviously this is one of the great opportunities.

"Playing at Steubenville - it's just one of those places. We've never played down in that area of the state, and the kids are very excited."

Halloy said he has learned from a few of his mistakes, specifically the price of tickets and the number of games involved. This year's event will cost $15 for all three games, and of course there will be three games, which is down two from 2009.

"I'm working on the idea of finding sponsors to provide complementary or heavily discounted tickets for students and participating local schools," he said. "I'd like to get prices down to a bare minimum. We really didn't get any complaints the first year when we charged $15.

"Five (games) was a bad, bad decision on my part, and I have no problem saying that. Ultimately what I like is four games, and I think that can be run fairly smoothly."

Though thrilled the event will remain in the Ohio Valley, Halloy said he had always intended to hold it in Wheeling. Now, though, "the Rally in the Valley has a permanent home in Steubenville" where it is "truly, truly wanted."

"I want it clearly understood that Mayor Andy McKenzie, (City Manager) Bob Herron, (Marketing Specialist) Joelle Ennis, and (Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director) Frank O'Brien have given me tremendous support," Halloy said. "We're not leaving because the city of Wheeling did not want it.

"But what personally disappoints me the most is, a very few select people took some shots at me business-wise such as unpaid bills and some other unseemly things that I don't want to air out.

"In the process they tried to soil my family name, and that I find reprehensible and unfortunate."