With kickoff events for El Portal and Escalon High School students going on this week and the first day of school looming on Thursday, Aug. 10, Cougar athletes at Escalon High have already jumped into practices for the upcoming season.
The school events included sixth grade Panther kickoff and 2023 senior and junior Cougar kickoff on Tuesday, Aug. 1; seventh grade Panther and 2023 sophomore Cougar kickoff on Wednesday, Aug. 2; eighth grade Panther and 2023 freshmen Cougar kickoff on Thursday, Aug. 3.
An Escalon Unified School District board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 8 at 7 p.m., while classes resume on all campuses on Thursday, Aug. 10.
For the EHS sports teams, the fall season includes the brand-new Girls Flag Football, along with the traditional Girls Golf; Freshman, JV and Varsity Football; Cross Country; and Freshman, JV and Varsity Volleyball. Following is a look at their first few contests.
Leading the new girls flag football program will be Steve Largent as varsity coach, Joe Dalpogetti as JV coach. The first game for the girls will be hosting Golden Valley on Monday, Aug. 21 with games scheduled at 4:30 p.m. for the JV and 5:30 p.m. for varsity. A full slate of games will run through Tuesday, Oct. 24.
The golf girls will start their season with back-to-back matches against the Sonora Wildcats, home on Tuesday, Aug. 15 and away on Thursday, Aug. 17 followed by the Yellowjacket Invitational in Turlock on Monday, Aug. 21.
The football teams are currently planning to be on the road for their games throughout the season, as work continues at Engel Field on the EHS campus. It’s possible they could play a late season game at home but the current schedule has them traveling each week. Andrew Beam returns to coach the varsity squad.
They will start with an Aug. 11 game against the Gregori Jaguars, with start times of 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.; the freshmen will go to play at the Golden Valley Cougars on Thursday, Aug. 17 at 6 p.m., the JV and varsity follow them to Merced with a Friday, Aug. 18 game against Golden Valley with the JV at 5 p.m. and varsity at 7 p.m.
Cross country begins with the traditional Purple and Gold intrasquad event on Wednesday, Aug. 16 and then they head to the Sierra Invitational at Sierra College on Saturday, Aug. 19 to kick off the season. Head coach is Michael Bower.
Volleyball, with new varsity head coach Shaylynn Beam at the helm, will host the GEBO Scrimmage for all three levels throughout the day on Saturday, Aug. 12 and then head to Manteca for a game on Wednesday, Aug. 16 with the freshmen playing at 4:15 p.m., JV at 5:15 p.m. and varsity at 6:15 p.m. They will host Sonora on Thursday, Aug. 17 with games times of 4 p.m., 5 p.m. ad 6 p.m.
