August brings football in the sports whirl, professional, college, and high school. If the COVID-19 will relent, plans are for full schedules at all levels. Many high school games last Spring were canceled because of COVID virus. The modified schedule called for six games maximum. Some schools played as few as two games and three games.
The master football schedule by the Illinois School Association was issued in the middle of last week for nine games. The combination of individuals without masks and without vaccines may determine if all nine regular-season games will be played.
Nonetheless, optimism prevails.
Football practice officially will begin August 9. First games, largely non-conference, will be Friday, Aug. 27. The final regular-season games will be Saturday, Oct. 23.
With care, good fortune, and common sense a full schedule, plus playoffs will be played.
Other high school sports will begin on time and offer a full array of Fall activities.
A few notes regarding high school football prior to the start of the National Football League games the second weekend in September, and the opening of college football Thursday, Aug. 26: Friday, Aug. 27, Geneva will play at Metea Valley and Oswego East will play at Waubonsie Valley, both in Aurora; Plano will be at Aurora Central Catholic and Chicago Noble Johnson will be at Aurora Christian; Oswego will be at Neuqua Valley in Naperville; Kankakee McNamara will be at Marmion in Aurora; Chicago Simeon will be at Joliet Catholic Academy; Lockport at Joliet Central, West Aurora at Plainfield South; and East Aurora and Elgin, the latter, are listed as playing at an unlisted neutral site. Week two will be Batavia at Oswego. Batavia will open at home against tradition-rich Chicago Phillips. In week one it will be Plainfield North at Plainfield East. The West Suburban Conference, Gold and Silver, have interesting games to start, including Lyons at New Trier, Oak Park-River Forest in its traditional opener at Wheaton Warrenville South of the DuKane Conference, and Glenbard West will be host to Grandville, Mich..
One more note: Kishwaukee River Valley and Interstate Eight Conferences have combined for football into Blue and White Divisions.
• Comments on the Chicago Cubs’ plan to let go of the three key players of the 2016 World Series championship team, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Javi Baez: Major league sports have their cycles and expectations and loyalty have been diminished to the point where sentiment suffers from being extinguished. It was a fun run and changes began when Kyle Schwarber was traded to the Washington Nationals. He was traded on deadline day, Friday, to the Boston Red Sox. Professional sports’ tenures have become tenuous and ephemeral. Best advice always is to enjoy the moment.
• The Chicago baseball moment switches to the White Sox who have put themselves into an excellent position for postseason. Pitching has been good, and improved, with the acquired relief artist, Craig Kimbrel. Ordinarily, it is best to brace for unexpected in postseason. Each team in the playoffs starts with a 0-0 record and the regular season is only a sliver of what to expect.
• The 2020 (2021) Summer Olympic Games have offered good competition, good storylines, and should be remembered as positive experiences for the U.S. competitors. In only three years there will be more
Summer Games and Winter games will be next.