What do the Dakota County Fair, the Minnesota State Fair, trees beginning to lose their leaves and Hastings Raiders athletics starting practices all have in common?
They all signal that summer is quickly coming to an end.
For some, that is a somber thought. For a sports reporter scrambling to find stories each week, it is both a welcome change of pace and a curse. Summers are never truly boring for local reporters, but things sure do slow down, which makes storytelling more complicated and a lot less predictable.
Soon, the computer will be filled with stats and pictures of our Raiders, and there will not be enough time in the day to cover all of them. Thankfully for Hastings, there are only seven sports in the fall, and the biggest one, football, generally has just one game each week.
That may make the fall season sound manageable.
It is not.
Fall sports practices are underway, athletes are learning new systems, returning veterans are settling back into familiar roles and newcomers are trying to earn theirs. Before long, all of that preparation turns into games, matches and meets, and once the first official competition arrives, the fall season moves very quickly.
The first varsity event on the combined Hastings fall schedule is Tuesday, Aug. 25. The final regular-season event currently on the calendar is the Hastings Diving Invite on Saturday, Oct. 31.
That gives Hastings just 68 calendar days, about 9.7 weeks, to fit in nearly an entire season of varsity athletics.
Across those 68 days, Raider teams are scheduled for 83 regular-season varsity events. That works out to about 8.5 competitions every week, but even that number makes the schedule sound more spread out than it really is.
Sundays are not available for high school competition, which removes nine days from that 68-day window. That leaves just 59 possible competition days to fit those 83 events, an average of about 1.4 varsity events for every available day.
Of course, the games, matches and meets are not evenly scattered across those 59 days either. Tuesdays and Thursdays become especially crowded, with multiple Raider teams frequently competing at the same time, while Saturdays absorb many of the larger meets, invitationals and tournaments.
So, while 8.5 events per week is the mathematical average, the reality looks much different. There may be a Monday or Wednesday with little happening, followed by a Tuesday or Thursday when several Hastings teams are competing in different places at essentially the same time.
Even that number does not completely capture how busy the calendar can become.
Boys and girls cross country are counted as one event when both teams participate at the same meet. Scrimmages are not included, and neither are section or state competitions that begin piling onto the schedule as regular seasons come to an end.
Soccer takes the biggest bite out of the fall calendar. Hastings girls soccer has 17 regular-season games scheduled, while the boys have 16. Combined, the two programs account for 33 of the 83 varsity events, nearly 40 percent of the entire regular-season schedule.
Volleyball adds another 16 competition dates. Put volleyball together with boys and girls soccer, and those three schedules account for 49 of the 83 varsity events, about 59 percent of everything on the fall calendar.
Girls tennis has 12 regular-season dates, football and girls swimming and diving each have eight, and boys and girls cross country have six combined meet dates.
Football may actually provide the easiest schedule to follow. Hastings has eight regular season games beginning Sept. 3 and ending Oct. 21. For the most part, that means one game each week and one night to circle on the calendar.
The other sports do not have nearly as much breathing room.
Boys and girls soccer squeeze 33 games into roughly six weeks. Girls tennis works through 12 competition dates in about a month. Volleyball has 16 dates to complete before postseason play arrives. Swimming and diving and cross country have their own compressed schedules to navigate as athletes work toward conference and section competition.
Then there is September.
That is when everything collides.
All seven Hastings fall sports are active during the month. There will be afternoons and evenings when soccer is being played while volleyball is underway inside the high school, swimmers are in the pool, runners are at a cross country meet, tennis players are on the courts and the football team is getting ready for Friday night.
Throw in practices, travel, weather postponements, rescheduled contests and the normal demands of school, and what appears to be a couple of months on the calendar becomes much more of a sprint.
For athletes and coaches, that pace is simply part of fall sports. For parents, it can mean a lot of miles on the vehicle and some creative scheduling. For a sports reporter trying to photograph and write about as many of those teams as possible, it means keeping the camera batteries charged, memory cards empty and a close eye on which teams are playing where.
This fall could present one more complication on my end.
I am dealing with a biceps tendon injury that could require surgery. If that happens, there is a very real possibility that my ability to carry and operate camera equipment will be significantly limited through much of the fall season and potentially into the beginning of winter sports.
Thankfully, covering Hastings athletics has never truly been a one-person operation.
Over the years, Denny Beck and Sarah Wasvick have become two very capable photographers I can rely on. Somewhere along the way, they also became friends. Their work has already helped us cover events when multiple Raider teams are competing at the same time, because no matter how much I might like to try, I still have not figured out how to be in three places at once.
Their help may become even more important this fall.
There could also be an opportunity for other members of the community to help make sure Hastings athletes continue receiving the coverage they deserve. Parents, grandparents, students and fans are already at games throughout the season, and many have cameras or phones in their hands.
If circumstances keep me from some events, people willing to share quality game photos, help photograph an occasional event or otherwise assist with coverage could make a real difference.
Anyone interested in helping with photos from Raider events this fall can contact me at bruce@hastingsjournal.news.
There are 83 regular-season varsity events packed into 68 days, with only 59 non-Sunday days available to hold them. There is no realistic way for one person to see all of them anyway.
Covering Hastings athletics has always required some teamwork.
This fall, that might be more true than ever.