It’s time to break out the water bottles high school fall sports practices begin Monday afternoon at Lawrence High School and Free State High School.

Practices start after school at various times and locations for seven sports, Steve Grant, athletics director at Free State, said Monday morning.

“This is the first day of practice for everyone,” Grant said.

He predicted about 250 Free State students would take part in football, volleyball, cross country, girls golf, girls gymnastics, girls tennis and boys soccer.

Ron Commons, athletics director at LHS, said his latest headcount showed 327 LHS students would be participating in the seven fall sports.

“It’s always interesting. There’s always something new,” he said. “Each year there’s always new challenges.”

What’s new this year is a $50 charge per student, per sport imposed by the Lawrence school board as a way to help cut the costs.

“None of the staff has indicated that seemed to be a problem at this point,” Commons said.

Grant said the new charge hasn’t seemed to deter any students from going out for sports this fall.

“I don’t know if it’s going to keep any of the numbers down,” Grant said. “We’ll have to see.”

Students in sports where there are tryouts, such as volleyball and soccer, may wait to pay until after they see if they’ve made the team, he said.

The annual LHS-Free State Sports Jamboree will be Aug. 29 at Haskell Stadium. LHS’s program begins at 6 p.m. and Free State’s begins at 7:30 p.m.

The following are the sports, the practice times and places today.

Lawrence High School:

• Cross country 3:20 p.m. to 5 p.m., Lawrence High west gym.
• Girls’ golf 3:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Alvamar Public Golf course.
• Girls’ Gymnastics 4:30 p.m., Free State High School gym’s wrestling room
• Girls’ Volleyball 3:30 p.m., Lawrence High’s east gym.
• Football 3:20 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Lawrence High practice field.
• Girls tennis 3:30 p.m., Lawrence High Tennis Center.
• Boys’ Soccer 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Holcom Field.

Free State High School:

• Cross Country 3:25 p.m., outside the Free State main gym.
• Girls’ Golf 4 p.m., Eagle Bend (Tuesday, 3:30 p.m. at Alvamar.)
• Girls’ Gymnastics 4:30 p.m. at the Free State gym’s wrestling room.
• Girls’ Volleyball 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Free State main gym.
• Football 3:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Free State’s practice field.
• Girls’ Tennis, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Free State courts.
• Boys’ Soccer, 3:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. at the Free State Soccer Field