Daily News (N.Y.) sports columnist and Sunday Sports Reporter fixture Mike Lupica has an agreement with Scholastic books to publish a series of hardcover novels for middle-school readers.

Game Changers follows Ben McBain and his young pals across football, basketball and baseball. The first book (focused on football) will be published in May 2012, followed by basketball (spring 2013) basketball) and baseball (2014).

This marks the first time Lupica is targeting the eight-to-12 demographic. He is the author of several novels for teens, including Travel Team, Heat, Miracle on 49th Street and Summer Bal.