… and we’re back
If it seems that the summer has flown by, well, it has. There were only 43 days between Mercer County’s loss to Central Hardin in the state baseball tournament, which ended the 2010-11 high school sports year, and the start of the golf season Monday, which began the 2011-12 year.
So it’s time to get back to work, beginning with the golf season this week and followed by the opening days and nights for volleyball (Aug. 8), soccer (Aug. 15), football (Aug. 19) and cross country (Aug. 22). Hard to call it the fall sports season when we’re still seven weeks from fall and teams are sweating out practices in this miserable heat, but there’ll be a chill in the air and an urgency in the action soon enough.
Here in Advocate-land, previews for the six football teams in our coverage area began appearing Monday and continue in each edition through Sunday. We kicked off the golf season with a look at Mercer’s new driving range on Monday, the girls soccer preview appears Wednesday, the volleyball preview is Sunday and the boys soccer preview is Aug. 8.
And here’s a look at the new fall sports coaches at five of the eight Advocate-area schools and the new athletic director at another (there were no fall sports or AD changes at Burgin or Kentucky School for the Deaf:
- Boyle County — Cate Guthrie, volleyball.
- Casey County — Amanda Hatter, cross country; Sam Marple, football.
- Danville — Melissa Shannon, volleyball; J.D. Smith, girls soccer; Chris Verhoven, cross country.
- Garrard County — Scott Bolin, boys golf; Brandon Cooper, cross country; Wynn Harris, girls golf.
- Lincoln County — Jeff Jackson, athletic director.
- Mercer County — Paul Rains, football; David Sullivan, volleyball; Phil Williams, girls golf.
Interestingly, two of the new volleyball coaches — Guthrie at Boyle and Sullivan at Mercer — are returning to teams they once coaches. Guthrie took a one-season hiatus to take some classes, while Sullivan returns after a longer absence.
