It’s only been a little more than a month since the final game of the 2021 high school spring season ended, but schools are already itching to get back out there. And on Friday morning, football and golf teams across the North Shore will be allowed to begin practices again to prepare for the Fall 2021 season.
Football and golf are the only two sports permitted to begin practices on Friday, while the other fall sports — field hockey, boys and girls soccer, cross country and volleyball — are allowed to begin practicing on Monday. As always, teams are not allowed to have more than 13 single practice sessions (“double sessions” count as two single practice sessions) up to and including the Friday before Labor Day (Sept. 3). Double practice sessions are not permitted on the first three days of fall practice.
Matches will begin for golf teams on Sept. 7, while the first football games will take place on Sept. 10 and 11.
There will be plenty of storylines to follow in both sports this year.
Lynn English will begin a new era with Mackenzie Charles taking over as head coach of the football program.
St. Mary’s rising senior golfer Aidan Emmerich, who has been tearing up the amateur circuit over the past two summers, is ready to chase after an individual state championship this fall after last year’s tournament was canceled. He finished third at the Division 3 individual championship as a sophomore in 2019.
On the football side of things, KIPP is facing one of the most intriguing seasons in its young history after graduating more than 20 seniors from last year’s squad.
Then there’s a team like Bishop Fenwick, which rolled through its shortened season this past spring and finished 6-0. But the Crusaders are also replacing 17 seniors, meaning there will be plenty of new faces on the field this fall.
There are too many storylines to go through them all, but plenty of questions will start to be answered once teams take the field on Friday morning.
