Don’t be surprised when you see Fall sports-athletes taking over the Miami Country Day School campus every afternoon.  The pool, the track, the gym and the field will be overflowing with Spartans preparing for the 2018 fall season.

While there have been many questions surrounding Varsity football since their one year hiatus,  the 20-odd person team began pre-season on Monday, August 13. According to Athletic Director Chuck Sennett, the decision regarding whether the team will or will not compete this season will be made on August 30 by the entire football coaching staff, including Head Coach Chris Polite.

Polite told us that he would “love to see a football game at Homecoming this year,” but whether the athletes have the stamina and remain healthy and prepared for competition  is yet to be determined.

Both girls volleyball and cross country began practicing last month. In this time volleyball has trained as one team, not yet split up into Junior Varsity and Varsity. The decision will be made this week according to the coaches as to which players will be on which teams. The varsity and JV teams will be led by Coaches Eric Rivera and Coach Jose Padilla, respectively. The first pre-season tournament is at Florida Christian.

Boys and girls cross country will embark on their third week of practice as their fellow students arrive back on campus.  They will be led by Chris Hayes for the 24th year. As done in the past, the entire team will practice together for a majority of time. For specific workouts they will be loosely divided into JV and Varsity. As the season progresses people can bounce from the different designations.

Varsity swimming, led by Coach Eric Scheingoltz, hit the pool lanes in early August. 

Varsity Golf began practice on Monday, August 6, just last week. Led by Bryan Parizo, the team will continue to train at the Miami Shores Country Club. They will have their first match on Wednesday, August 22.

By the time school starts, fall sports will be in full swing. Games are coming up quickly for the Spartans, and they are training five days a week to be ready.

Athletes:  It is important that all student-athletes have their forms in before starting to practice. This includes having your completed physical and all proper FHSAA paperwork (EL2 and EL3) uploaded electronically to Magnus Health.