Monday marked the start of volleyball practice, which serves as the alarm bell for me to wake from my summer hibernation and spring back into action.

In just a few short days the actual volleyball season will tip off when Pflugerville squares off with former district nemesis Westlake on Monday. From there it only gets busier as the Panthers take on Hendrickson on Tuesday, then all three PISD teams jump into tournament play which will last for much of the month before they begin their actual district schedules.

Just a little over a week after the start of volleyball, the tennis teams start playing and I hear tell there’s a cross country meet Aug. 20 somewhere to the west of us (okay, I know exactly where it is, but for the time being I’m going to pretend like it’s still the first of July). In just over three weeks from the time you read this the first actual football game (not a scrimmage) will be played, as all three local squads kick off their seasons on Aug. 27. Like I said, it seems I’m going to be a pretty busy guy from here up until Christmas break.

This is the start of my seventh season covering the PISD schools and I’m expecting big things from all corners of the sports universe. I’ll be especially interested to see how the Pflugerville volleyball team looks in their game with Westlake. Most of the Panthers’ starters from last year graduated, but they are bringing back Nneka Enemkpali who sat out last year after injuring her knee in the 2009 state basketball tournament. Enemkpali is the type of talent who can make a coach quickly forget any player they have lost to graduation and I think that could very well be the case for Panther coach Jeff Coward who certainly will still miss the loss of the school’s all-time kill leader Haley Outon. Pflugerville also has one of the their top setters from last year returning in Lindsey Ernest so perhaps the Panthers will be able to finally beat a Westlake team that frustrated them for the past two years in the former District 14-5A.

As exciting as the volleyball teams should be I’m even more excited to see what our football teams (and a couple of D-I running backs in particular can do this year). Hendrickon’s Kenny Williams (Texas Tech) returns to lead the Hawks and has his sights set on 2,000 yards and at least 25 scores. That translates to close to 200 yards and two touchdowns a game if you’re bad at math.

Meanwhile the cupboard at Pflugerville High is completely stocked for Panther coach George Herrmann. Storm Woods returns from his an injury for one final romp through the Texas high school gridirons before heading to Oregon to play for Oregon State. He is joined by a mighty threesome in the Panther backfield including quarterback Alex Dean, running back Julian Ward and electric running back/wide receiver Sammy Flowers. And don’t forget tight end Jordan Moon who is a big play threat in his own right.

Of course there are plenty more story lines that will unfold as the year progresses which make waking up for the fall pretty bearable indeed.