High School Coverage Increased Online

The Times is increasing its online coverage of high school sports with the launch of Varsity Times, which will feature columns, stories, profiles, breaking news, blogs and other interactive elements.

The site, latimes.com/preps, will continue to feature the stories and columns on Southland athletes that are published in the newspaper. Daily scores and highlights for varsity events will be posted each evening, as they have been in the past.

New content by The Times’ high school staff will include:

* Blogs for football, girls’ volleyball and recruiting.

* Profiles on top Southland athletes.

* A daily report for breaking news.

* A daily list of top performers from varsity events.

* Football rankings, standings and schedules.

Included on the site will be links to:

* “Your Scene” photo pages, where visitors can upload their own images.

* MaxPreps, which has home pages for each school as well as rankings and statistical leaders for football by section and across the state.

Visitors to the site also will be able to comment on blog items as well as take part in a discussion on the topic of the week.

This week’s discussion will focus on small-school football powerhouse Westlake Village Oaks Christian being ranked No. 6 in The Times’ preseason poll despite never having played a highly regarded opponent.

-- Dan Loumena