We are now about to say goodbye to the month of July and that means a myriad of things: my 35th birthday (July 27), Major League Baseball’s trade deadline, football season is almost upon us and the premature adios to summer.

I won’t speak much about baseball, as much as I would like to, but know this: things are getting heated as the regular season enters the home stretch! Some divisional races are about to be wild, some are runaways and there are still teams that I can’t believe are having fantastic-ish seasons. So, that’s that, I said my piece and oh yeah, go Red Sox!

As for my birthday, well, another year has gone by and I’m still not quite sure what I want to be when I grow up…

Anyways, the real reason for this column is the “au revoir” to the season of summer. It has, as it has also been in recent years, a strange summer. More rain then you could shake a stick at, days in which it got so hot that all I did was stay in the air conditioning and drink adult beverages and the, for some reason, surprise realization that the high school fall sports season is upon us!

The season officially gets underway on Thursday, August 1 with practice with coaching opening up. After some grueling workouts in weather that is sure to be less than favorable, many student athletes will suit up in their respective schools’ colors and take to whatever battlefield it is they play on.

Some notes for the kids that are also about to say an early adieu to their summer: Drink plenty of water, get plenty of rest, ice is your friend, as is music and don’t forget to take some time to continue to revel in your youth. Trust me, it’s gone before you know it and it’s not something that you want to look back on and say that you wished that you would’ve done things differently. Also, for those of you that have graduated and moved on to post-secondary education and possibly athletics, that same advice applies.

Enough of the pseudo-inspirational stuff…let’s get down to business and by that I mean when things “start to count” for Galion High School sports.

With this fall season comes another football season in which the Tigers will be led by Matt Dick, who is entering year four of his reign. Bryce Lehman is back for the boys golf squad, which is young and determined to keep up the successes of the previous few seasons. Eric Palmer is back as the boys soccer coach and Cindy Conner will continue to lead the Galion cross country teams into action. Jaime Valentine will also be returning to head-up the Lady Tigers on the volleyball court.

Joining the returnees this fall are new coaches Cole Plumb, Terry Gribble and Alan Conner.

Plumb is taking over the Galion Lady Tigers soccer team following the departure of Kathryn Nutt while Gribble will be stepping up from assistant to head coach for the girls tennis squad. Conner takes over a resurgent girls golf team that has not fielded a squad in the past two seasons for Galion. The Tigers’ administration also named a new boys basketball coach this summer (Bobby Gossom), as well as the official announcement of the baseball coach coming in August (stay tuned).

The Galion football Tigers will head to Bucyrus on Friday, August 30 for their first game of the year, their rivalry contest with the hosting Redmen for the Seccaium Park Trophy. Their first home game will be the following week against the Carey Blue Devils of the Northern-10 Athletic Conference.

Galion’s spikers will open their season on their home floor on Tuesday, August 20 against the visiting Bellevue Lady Redmen. For Gribble’s Lady Tigers tennis team, they open their season at home in Heise Park against the visiting Willard Lady Crimson Flashes.

The soccer teams from Galion both open their 2019 schedule at home with the girls hosting Mount Vernon on Tuesday, August 20 and the boys welcoming Highland to town the following day. Lehman and the boys golf team head to the Clyde Invite on Monday, August 5 for their first match before hosting the Galion Invitational at Sycamore Creek on Wednesday, August 7. For the Lady Tigers linksters, they will be at Clear Fork on Tuesday, August 6 and are set to host their first home match on Tuesday, August 13 against non-conference foe, Highland.

The Tigers’ cross country teams officially open their season with four consecutive road invitationals, beginning with the Upper Sandusky Invite on Tuesday, August 20. Following that stretch of traveling, Galion will host their annual Galion Cross Country Festival on Saturday, September 14.