Three weeks from now, high school sports teams will begin preparation for its fall season.

In 20 days, football practice begins for freshmen, JV and varsity programs throughout the state of Michigan.

A couple of days later, the other fall sports — golf, soccer, tennis, cross country and volleyball will begin preparation for 2014 competition.

It doesn’t seem possible that summer has already come and gone for high school athletes.

It seems like only yesterday that we were wrapping up the spring sports season with MHSAA tournament play.

But that’s the way it goes these days.

When I was in high school there were three full months of summer vacation.

Sure we could attend sports camps over the summer, but we were pretty much on our own.

Now, with the way the MHSAA has pushed the state tournaments into mid-June and the way they have pulled back the starting dates for some sports into mid-August, a month has been lopped off the student-athlete’s summer.

Then there is the fact that most programs have transitioned into year-round preparation for whatever sport an athlete competes in. Quite frankly I do not know how they do it.

I played some sports in high school and I enjoyed having my summers off.

I was never good enough to think about playing in college, so maybe my mind set is not the same.

But I can tell you this, at some point you need to take a break and recharge your batteries before heading back into competition.

If you don’t, you risk becoming burned out.

 

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com.