School is starting in a week or so for many of you, and with the K Mart commercials there to constantly remind you, how can anyone forget. In roughly a week, we will have to go back to long days of class and longer nights of practice and homework (or rather, practice then dinner then shower then facebook then stumbleupon.com then more facebook and then maybe, just maybe, some homework). And it doesn't seem like there's much to look forward to now that late August is here. (The Green Day song, Wake Me Up When September Ends has always confused me. Why do they want it to be October? And wouldn't you rather wake up when May ends, when school let's out? But this is besides the point.)

The point is that although the end of August looks bleak, there are a few things that you as a high school athlete have to look forward to. For example, pre-season is almost over! You survived! All those sprints you ran and crunches you crunched and push ups you pushed are starting to have a purpose. Which brings me to my next point... you'll finally start playing games! You're starting to remember why you were practicing in the first place. Why you were conditioning. Why you were interrupting you're lazy days by the pool to go soak in the heat from the nice turf fields (which is another issue entirely). I love packing my uniform in my bag before heading off to school, pumping myself up throughout the day, counting down to 3:15 (even though it makes that slow, boring, last class of the day go by that much slower). We practice to play games. And we play games because we like playing them. And so even if homework has gotten you down (my summer reading not quite done...), the idea of classes and quizes and tests and grades and G.P.A.s and SATs has you feeling a little sad, remember that at least your season is finally here, it's finally game day and you're ready to play.

And for those of you who play winter or spring sports... you'll survive. You always do.