Fan of football or not, anyone looking at an American sports section this time of year would have a hard time avoiding the sport.
Well, here is a brief reprieve. In addition to football, this week marked the start of practice in three other fall high school sports: golf, swimming and volleyball. Cross country practice begins Monday.
Here is a brief look at a top and/or intriguing Brevard County girls team in each of the fall sports:
Joining the third-year school's golf team this fall are two of the area's best 2007 scholastic players who performed for other schools last season. Adding to the benefit of Olivia Lugar and Mary Dawson coming to play for the Hawks is that they have, respectively, three and four seasons of high school golf left.
"We'll be a pretty strong team, but my reservation is you have to perform," Ford said. "We're still in (Class) 1A, so that makes it tough to come out of the region."
OK, a coach has the right to be cautious. The reality is, however, that Lugar was Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High's top golfer for several years, won the state girls junior tournament in her age group this summer and qualified for the U.S. Junior Girls national event.
Regarding Dawson, she left West Shore in part because she wants to play softball. Viera is her neighborhood school. West Shore, which does not have a softball program, is a school of choice.
In addition, Viera also returns its top players from last year. Both Nancy Keck and Danielle Baiunco will be sophomores this season. All of which means recent Cape Coast Conference titan Cocoa Beach could be supplanted by the girls in green and gold.
"Cocoa Beach has what everyone considers their army," Titusville coach Natasha Kremer said. "They have solid swimmers and a lot of them. With Satellite, they just have those few really top-notch girls. Same with the guys."
That said, Titusville, which has 13 girls swimming, has its share of talent. Much of it comes from one family, sisters Nikki and Courtney Parenti. The former is a senior known for her breaststroke, the latter a versatile sophomore known for her distance abilities.
Whether their presence, and a good mix of experience and quality newcomers, are enough to scare the top two will be determined by the stopwatches.
"We should have another solid year," Kremer said.
The Class 1A Cougars finished 27-3 last season and qualified for the state event in Lakeland for the second time in four years. Coach Laurie Haines' squad has six starters back, including senior Kacie Paulk and junior Stephanie Quinn.
Haines has concerns, however. Two girls expected to return moved out of the area. Another transferred to Rockledge. Haines is rebuilding the right side of the formation. Three girls graduated and depth could be a problem.
Yet in anticipation of this season, MIC toughened its schedule. The Cougars will play home and home against good local teams Holy Trinity and Melbourne Central Catholic. Melbourne is also in preseason and regular-season tournaments with the Cougars.
MIC is in the field of the final-week Northside Christian tournament at St. Petersburg. Others in that field include 1A finalists Bayshore Christian and Warner Christian.
"I think we're (ranked) 10 out of 10 teams invited," said Haines, who nonetheless cherishes that level of competition just before districts.
No, not as in consecutive state titles. In that regard, Satellite is looking this fall for No. 4, as in a fourth straight Class 3A state title.
To do that, coach Peter Blount is looking for a quality fifth runner, one to replace Alisha Kowaleski, who graduated.
The Scorpions' top four are fine. Senior Ashley Shiver is a defending state champ. Senior Juliana Stern was third in 3A last fall. Blount thinks both can break 18 minutes in a race this season. The third and fourth runners, Nicole Shiver and Mollie Hibbard, are proven in big events.
Blount's top choices for an emerging No. 5 runner -- the final scoring spot -- are senior Sharlea Robbins and junior Katie Parry. Both have been in Satellite's program for three years.
"They've put in the time," Blount said. "They're disciplined. They made it to camps and the summer runs."
Satellite will be pushed by 4A power Melbourne in area races. The other Brevard powerhouse will be small-school titan Holy Trinity.