It doesn’t really feel like a few months have flown by since the end of the spring sports season, but here we are on the first day of the fall season.

Most of the teams from both schools spent the day running through conditioning tests or doing simple drills to help coaches with the tough task of making cuts this week.

A sample of some of the conditioning tests:

Free State boys soccer: Run a timed mile, 800 (meters), 400 and 200 with two-minute rest in between runs. There were also timed sprints on the field.

LHS boys soccer: Run a mile and a half, then a 400 with a short break in between. Goal is under 10 minutes total.

LHS volleyball: Run several (I think around five) 100-meter dashes and run a mile. … To no surprise, most of the girls who run track were the fastest in the 100 races.

One of the most surprising sights, or rather sounds, of the first day of practices was music blasting over Lawrence High’s football field.

For the first time in Dirk Wedd’s coaching career, which he says is 39 years, he had music on the practice field.

I listen mostly to rap so I wasn’t able to pick up on all of the songs playing but a small sample was Forgot About Dre (Dr. Dre and Eminem), No Love (Eminem and Lil’ Wayne), an AC/DC song (I think?), and Superman (Eminem).

When I asked Wedd what it took for the players to convince him to allow music, all he said was, “a lot,” with a laugh.

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Also for some former Lawrence athletes in the news, former Free State soccer players Maddie Dieker and Jessica Ferguson both scored goals in their first collegiate exhibition games. Ferguson (Gardner-Webb) scored on a header just inside of the box against Charlotte in the 36th minute, helping Gardner-Webb to a 1-1 draw. Dieker (Portland University) scored in the 78th minute during a 3-1 loss to Kentucky with a shot just inside of the left post past a diving goalkeeper. Video of Dieker’s goal can be seen by clicking the link here.

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I plan on updating this blog as much as possible, so hopefully there will be something new each day. I visited LHS and Free State football, volleyball and boys’ soccer teams today, and hope to stop by the rest of the teams throughout the next two days. I’ll also have video and maybe some photos of teams in drills as the week progresses and we head closer to games/meets/tournaments.

As always, feel free to comment, email me, or find me on Twitter @nightengalejr.