Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011

Preps sports return

High school students may not be thrilled about returning to classes next week, but those who play fall sports are beaming with excitement at the thought of going back to campus for this week's opening games.

Perhaps nobody is more amped up - or at least grateful - for the opportunity to play and represent his school than Middle Creek's Rashawn King.

King missed last season while suffering from leukemia. But with his cancer in remission, he will play football again this season.

He couldn't hide his joy last week in a scrimmage against West Johnston. Neither could his teammates who congratulated him.

King, a running back, took a screen pass and went down the field for a score.

As King's situation showed last season, albeit on a more dramatic scale than most, high school sports can bring together communities - and occasionally rock them.

But students don't have to be making a comeback from cancer to revel in some of the most cherished moments they'll ever have playing sports.

New football page: Our Wednesday editions will now have more pigskin.

We will provide more features about the week's big football games in our standalone sports section on Wednesday.

Our Sunday editions will also deliver live coverage from the top Friday night games with even more stories and statistics published on our website.

Also except feature stories in both editions about players and teams from all the other falls sports.

Predictions: Back again for another season are my weekly Tri-Nine football game predictions. They are posted each Thursday on our sports blog, blogs.newsobserver.com/SWakeSports/home.

Also on the blog, you will find my predictions for conference champs in each fall sport, along with each state or regional qualifier for the team sports.

Photos galore: From most high school events we shoot this year, there will be a photo gallery on the News & Observer and Cary News websites.

So if you see that we covered a game involving your favorite school and used one photo for the paper, there's a good chance you'll find even more photos from that game online.

Get social: There are a number of ways you can keep up with all our high school sports coverage.

For information on the Tri-Nine Conference, our area's private schools and, of course, the Carolina RailHawks, follow us on Twitter @SWakeSports. There is also a Facebook page by the same name.

Score updates and links to N&O stories from around the Triangle can be found at the Twitter handle @PrepsNow. (Again, there's a Facebook group by the same name).

Big games: This week's biggest fall sports games aren't just football contests.

The fall sports season, which started Monday, heats up with Green Hope's boys soccer team hosting defending 4-A state champion Jordan - who knocked out Green Hope in last year's playoffs - today at 6:30 p.m.

And then later in the week, Cary Academy's volleyball team will try to defend its Husky Invitational title this Friday and Saturday at Heritage High in Wake Forest.