AURORA — An already abbreviated summer for Colorado high-schoolers is officially over.
Preseason practice for fall begins Monday for eight additional fall sports, notably football. Boys golfers opened last week.
The first of three sports seasons for 2015-16 is here and thousands of in-staters had been anticipating it, some even counting the days.
“Yes, sir, I’m so excited,” Legacy senior quarterback Matt Lynch said. “I was looking forward to it as soon as last season was over. I’ve been waiting for it to start up again.”
The wait, said Lynch, who has pledged to UCLA, has been worth it. Football competitors are joined by others in boys and girls cross country, field hockey, gymnastics, boys soccer, softball, boys tennis and volleyball.
Boys tennis players (Aug. 20) and softballers (Aug. 21) also will have early beginnings to regular-season action before across-the-board play opens Aug. 27, including the obscure Zero Week for football that contains 42 games.
Boys golfers again will be first, this time in state championships — three classifications will play Oct. 5-6 to spark an ensuing eight-week run of titles (starting on Oct. 17) that will be capped on Dec. 5 with three upper groups of football, including Classes 5A and 4A at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.
As usual, there will be seasonal overlap. Winter sports open on Dec. 1.
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/neildevlin
