Are you ready for some football?

How about a plethora of other high school athletic events?

Though the calendar and the thermometer both may still say it’s summer time, it’s also time for area fall sports athletes to begin official practice sessions for the 2017-18 seasons.

The first IHSAA sanctioned practices begin Friday for area girls’ golf teams. Practices start on July 31 for football, boys soccer, girls soccer, volleyball, boys tennis, boys cross country and girls country teams.

Local girls’ golf teams can begin matches on Monday, while the first date for openers for all of the other sports with the exception of football comes on Saturday, Aug. 12.

The first Friday night under the lights for prep gridders is set for Friday, Aug. 18. Those local openers will include Columbia City at Warsaw, Lakeland at Wawasee, Tippecanoe Valley at Bremen, South Newton at Triton and Jimtown at NorthWood.

The girls’ golf season will also be the first to hit the postseason trail with sectional play slated to be held either Sept. 15, 16 or 18 as set by the host schools. Warsaw will host the local sectional at the Stonehenge Golf Club with those involved including teams from Wawasee, Tippecanoe Valley, Triton and NorthWood.

The boys’ tennis postseason is scheduled to start with sectionals from Sept. 27-30. Warsaw will host one of the sectionals with the field also including Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley. Triton will play in the Bremen Sectional and NorthWood will be in the field at the Goshen Sectional.

The pairings for boys tennis sectionals are slated to be held at each of the host schools on Sept. 25.

Boys’ soccer sectionals are slated for Oct. 2, 4, 6 and 7. Warsaw will host its own Class 3-A sectional.  Wawasee and NorthWood are both in the Class 2-A field at the Wawasee Sectional.

The girls’ soccer sectionals are Oct. 3, 5, 6 and 7. Warsaw will play in a Class 3-A sectional at Homestead, while Wawasee and NorthWood are in the Class 2-A Lakeland Sectional.

State tournament pairings for both the boys’ and girls’ soccer are set to be held on Sept. 24 by the IHSAA.

The boys’ and girls’ cross country sectionals are scheduled to be run on Saturday, Oct. 7. The teams from Warsaw, Tippecanoe Valley and Triton will compete in the Culver Academies Sectional, while the teams from both Wawasee and NorthWood will run in the sectional at Ox Bow Park hosted by Elkhart Central.

The volleyball sectionals are slated for Oct. 10, 12 and 14 with Concord hosting in Class 4-A, West Noble in 3-A and Culver in 1-A. Warsaw will play at Concord with Wawasee, Tippecanoe Valley and NorthWood at West Noble and Triton at Culver.

The pairings for the volleyball state tournament are to be held Oct. 2 by the IHSAA.

Football playoff time starts on Friday, Oct. 20 for schools in Class 1-A through Class 5-A. Sectional openers for Class 6-A schools are on Friday, Oct. 27.

Warsaw is in a Class 6-A sectional grouping for football now with Penn, Valparaiso and Chesterton. Wawasee and NorthWood are in a Class 4-A field with Plymouth, Northridge, East Noble, DeKalb, Angola and Culver Academy. Tippecanoe Valley’s 3-A sectional also includes Peru, Mishawaka Marian, Knox, Jimtown, John Glenn, Fairfield and Maconaquah. Triton will compete in a Class 1-A sectional that also has West Central, Winamac, South Central, North Judson, LaVille, Culver and Caston.

The IHSAA will hold the state tournament series draw for football on Oct. 1.