The paint is dry on the new three-point line on Chadwick Court, the grass at Hollett Little Giant Stadium is being cut, and the Wabash football team has defended its title at the Indiana Special Olympics Fedex Plane Pull.

Must be time for Wabash sports to kick into high gear. Literally.

Sunday morning Roberto Giannini's 2008 soccer team will enter the Allen Athletics and Recreation Center for the first time to fill out paper work, watch NCAA videos, take physicals, and get equipment and locker assignments. Monday the same procedure will be in place for the members of the football team. Wednesday afternoon the cross country team will complete the full fall sport schedule of teams reporting for pre-season camp.

I had a chance to chat with Matt Kraft and Jeremy Morris about the senior football players' trip to Utah a couple of weeks ago. They'll be posting information and photos in the football blog just before camp opens Monday. JD McClintic's mother, Brenda, sent me photos over the weekend from the annual Special Olympics plane pull. Nineteen Wabash players raised money and gathered at the international terminal at the Indianapolis airport, winning the All-Star division for another year after tugging a 147,000-pound Boeing 727 a total distance of 20 feet in 4.764 seconds. (Eric Shaver spoke to The Paper of Montgomery County about the event after getting the players organized and handling the fundraising this year).

I'm not certain I'm ready for summer to be over (particularly if we can keep this current weather with cooler temperatures and lots of sunshine and my golf game stays as hot as it is right now!). One thing I am certain of, however — I'm more than ready to sit down to that first varsity soccer match at Mud Hollow Field on August 30 to watch the Little Giants get the 2008-2009 athletics season underway.

Let the games begin!

Photos by Brenda McClintic.