An interesting fall

The temperatures are beginning to be more reasonable which will be helpful for the start of high school football today (Wednesday). The weight rooms have been busy, hopefully, as athletes prepare for their fall camp practices. There is always a lot of anxiety and positivity especially if the returning team has a great deal of experience. There are always several schools that graduated much of their team and it is back to the drawing board about how to fill those key spots that are now void. It is now time to rebuild as they say and hopefully those that will be turning out will be able to fill those shoes.

There will be no jamboree this year. It has been a struggle to get teams to commit to playing that early and if it is a numbers game it can be difficult to field both varsity and JV squads. And there will be no games played during the fair at the high school so enjoy the fair and rodeo this year.

This is really an exciting time of the year and anyone that played a fall sport it has a lot to do with beginning school and getting things started off on the right foot. For seniors it is getting the opportunity to be leaders and generate excitement and school spirit in the hallways and throughout the community. Most all of these student athletes know how hard they've worked to achieve success. They also know how hard their teammates worked and they want to make sure they are on the same page when it comes to winning a league championship and making a playoff run. Trust me it is never easy and there has to be some positive luck along the way.

This year's schedule is a bit different with the additions of Newport and Freeman. There are only four home games and five away games with the closest away game at Liberty on September 6. The team needs to only worry about the first game as having video available the other games are on a week to week preparation basis. This will be an interesting team with some quality athletes returning and as always a lot of the team's success will be determined by the quality of the line on both sides of the ball. All I can say is good luck and understand the season goes by really quick

College football practice has been in full swing for about 3 weeks and it is just about ready for game time. Eastern will be the first team to play on August 29 at 6:00 P.M. against the Monmouth Hawks It will be an interesting season as the Eagles are coming off of back to back losing seasons, which hasn't happened in a lot of years. The defense seems to have improved which is important as the Eags need stops and to keep their offense churning out yardage and scoring touchdowns.

Eastern has some exciting players that have the ability to move the ball downfield. The defense has to play with pride and understand that they are the key to a successful season. Their side of the ball needs to get stops and give the ball back to the offense with interceptions, fumble recoveries or 3 and outs. They can't afford to let the opponent go on long drives or convert on third down and long.

The Eagles have several games that will be starting at 4 or later to accommodate those fans that have kids playing soccer or youth football on a Saturday morning. Personally I like the 1:00 kickoff times but then I don't have a youngin' that has important things to do on a Saturday morning. In November the last two Eagle home games will start at 1:00 P.M. I'm looking forward to the season as the tickets are here now.

WSU will start their season with the first four games in the state of Washington. They will play Portland State at home on August 31, Texas Tech on September 7th in Pullman, UW Huskies at Lumen Field in Seattle on the 14th and return to Pullman on Friday night September 20th to play the San Jose State Spartans. Good luck to the Cougs in Pac 2/Mountain West football. This will be a strange year of the mega conference play. Keep your eyes on California and Stanford in their quest for Atlantic Coast Conference love. Their trips will be long and the teams visiting from the other side of America probably won't be happy either.

This is a very favorite time of year for me as I really do love football and with all of the changes in conferences and coaching staffs it will also be quite interesting.

- Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].