In one of the most dramatic finishes in recent Football Forecast history, the 2025 crown came down to the very last game—the NCHSAA 5-A championship between Hunt and Crest.
Tom Ham, retired-but-still-working-at-80 Times sports editor, accurately picked the Chargers to defeat the Warriors, which they did 31-14, to edge former Times sports reporter Andrew Schnittker by a game. Schnittker trailed Ham by three games entering Week 17 and won three of the first four in which he and Ham had different picks, leaving it all to the Warriors to bring him his first Forecast crown.
Instead, Ham wins his record ninth Forecast title since 2005 with a 151-52 final showing to Schnittker’s 150-53 record.
Times freelance photographer Sheldon Vick, who had won the last two Forecasts, was third with a Week 17-best 11-1 mark while Coach for life Mitch Hayes waltzed past Times sports editor Paul Durham into fourth place by three games. Durham could take consolation in knowing that he outperformed the Guest Picker slot.