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Fall? Already?

By Tom King - Sports Writer | Aug 13, 2022

Tom King

Summer’s over, kids.

Well, more or less. The fall high school sports season, or more specifically the preseason, is upon us.

Football teams were set to open up on Friday, and likely by the time you read this, a couple of practices, along with meetings, etc. will have been held.

All the rest begin on Monday, with girls and boys soccer, field hockey, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, bass fishing (for some), and golf, and some unified sports at some point in the next few days, depending on the school and what’s offered.

It’s a busy time. There have been open gyms, open field sessions (no coaches), the so-called captains practices, the football 7 on 7 competitions, weight room sessions, etc. It’s catch as catch can, kids go on vacation with their families, or go away to specific sports summer camps at colleges, so there’s always spotty attendance here and there.

But now it all starts for real. Tryouts, etc. Teams used to have double sessions, but those are basically a thing of the past, for health and safety reasons. Football will have them but are restricted to meeting/classroom work for one part of the day, and actual field work for another.

As always the heat can be a factor. It’s cooled off since the latest bout of kinda sorta Florida weather (but it’s nowhere near what it’s like down south, folks) but you’ve got to figure it will return fairly soon.

But the time between the first day of tryouts/practices and the first game of the season comes up quick – less than two weeks from this Monday. Many soccer teams will start playing games that count on Friday, Aug. 26. Golf matches may be as soon as a day or two before.

Then some of the other sports will get into the act. Some field hockey teams open on Monday Aug. 29 or later that week. And the big day is Friday, Sept. 2, the start of Labor Day weekend but also high school football season. Stellos Stadium will be a busy place. Nashua North hosts Bedford football Friday night while Bishop Guertin and Nashua South tangle Saturday night.

It comes up so quick. It just seems like yesterday in mid-June when BG wrapped up the tournament season with a boys lacrosse title in Exeter and then the following weekend on Fathers Day we were saying farewell to the high school season, period, with the annual Decathlon-Heptathlon in Nashua.

Last year was such a great year for high school sports amid all the hurdles, restrictions, and fluctuating waves of the pandemic. It was, with the exception of fan restrictions for some indoor venues, as normal a year as we could have gotten.

Most memorable were the North-South boys soccer semis and Nashua South winning the Division I soccer title with a penalty kick session that got so tense even Panthers head coach Tom Bellen couldn’t bear to watch.

Bishop Guertin had a thrilling tournament season, a classic finale vs. Bedford, 1-0, to capture the girls soccer title that had eluded the Cards year after year. The Milford football team made a great run to the Division II title game and gave Timberlane all it could handle before falling in a close final.

Football on the Division I level especially will have a different look, with four conferences reduced to three and all sorts of scheduling differences, open dates, etc. with the Division I finals not until Saturday, Nov. 26 – yes, Thanksgiving Weekend. We’ll get more into that in our special football preview section in two weeks. Division II will be on Nov. 19 and Division III on Nov. 12.

As for soccer, the Division I and II girls were in Exeter for semis and finals, while the boys were at Stellos. They switch places for this fall.

But you have to know it was so special having that North-South game at Stellos with the stands completely full, same for the finals.

It all starts with 80-90 degree temps, and ends in the November chill. But the time is now, so check your school websites for all the practice times and reporting days.

And don’t be late.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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