Aurora – Beginning today, teenagers should be spending less time in your neighborhood.
Colorado’s 87th high school sports season officially opens today when boys golfers hit their first tee shots. Nine sanctioned fall sports, which constitute the first of three seasons, will run into the first day of December. The winter season will feature its usual five sports, including basketball and wrestling, and will last until mid-March. Then spring, notably with baseball and track and field, will cap activity with five other offerings by the third week of May.
But first things first. The wait is over, as the freshness and vigor of another high school sports year is upon us.
“Every year, you start over,” Colorado High School Activities Association associate commissioner Paul Angelico said. “Every year, you start fresh, and every team can become a state champion.”
The fun can be unmatched for boys and girls.
“We try to allow kids to have an opportunity through an educationally based background,” Angelico said. “We feel like we have so much to offer, something you don’t get in the classroom or in club and other sports. That’s where the focus will be for our kids, I think.”
Today’s focus will be on practice for boys golfers, who then will also earn first dibs on regular-season play (duals and multi- team gatherings) Thursday. The 2007-08 season will begin in earnest Aug. 13, when competitors in cross country, field hockey, football (the state’s most popular sport), gymnastics, boys soccer, boys tennis, softball and volleyball will commence drills.
Boys tennis (Aug. 16) and softball (Aug. 17) are due for early beginnings for the regular season. The other six sports will make it across the board Aug. 30, although there will be a handful of “Zero Week” games for football on Aug. 24, an early time slot for teams to ensure a complete regular-season schedule.
Staff writer Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
