The gift of a new season

When I jotted down this column on our weekly planning schedule, I fondly called it ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.’

It even drew a laugh from at least one colleague.

But, it’s true. The feeling on a night like Tuesday is a lot like the night before Christmas for us sports guys. Even more so, it’s like the start of a great story.

To properly explain it, I think I have to go to the last story’s ending.

It seems like yesterday that I rolled the large cooler through the doors at Sauk Valley Community College after the SVM All-Star Classic, feeling like we had put a nice exclamation point on the high school sports year.

Of course, that was mid-June. Where did the summer go?

I won’t say we had a giant pause between sentences. We’ve kept busy on the desk as one member after the other fit in a few days of welcomed vacation through July.

We did have a couple of golf tournaments and a pretty hard-hitting series on concussions that helped carry us through July and early August.

But here we are on the brink of another long sentence that will reach from August to June.

Fall sports practices officially start today all over the state. Kids with strong shoulders will carry big dreams into practices across the Sauk Valley.

Some will see those dreams come wildly true. Others will work and work and work, and reach and reach and reach, but ultimately fall short of their lofty goals.

It won’t be for weeks or months or years later that they’ll realize just how great this time is.

I won’t deny being excited for them. Over the next few weeks, we’ll reacquaint ourselves (and you faithful readers) with the names and faces that have been around the last couple of years.

We’ll also marvel (and hopefully correctly spell) the names of new kids from around the area who will inevitably pop up here and there.

Today is like opening that new book and reading the first sentence. Soon we’ll all be swept away in the plot.

We’ll see these young men and women laugh and cry, sweat and bleed. We’ll tell their stories and share their dreams. Then before we know it, they’ll leave as adults entering the real world, joining the rest of us.

I could tell you more. Like which football team that I think will have the best chance to win a state title, but stuff like that will come soon.

For now, lets enjoy this view and wait for the story to start. I’ll leave with the most overused, but the most appropriate beginning.

Once upon a time…

Breakout

Calling all Coaches

• SVM will be previewing all falls sports in the coming weeks. We will be looking for rosters and schedules as soon as possible. They can be sent by email to sports@saukvalley.com, or faxed to 815-625-9390.