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Fall Sports Team Hitting Practice Fields For Season
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Shown during a late June scrimmage event hosted at Engel Field, the Cougars got in some practice on both offense and defense against several other squads. Here, quarterback Lucca Dutra sends off a pass as fellow players and some members of the coaching staff look on. Marg Jackson/The Times

Classes resume for the 2018-19 school year in Escalon on Wednesday, Aug. 8.

With the start of school comes the beginning of fall sports as well and Escalon High School offers football, volleyball, girls golf and cross country in the fall sports season.

Taking over as the high school’s athletic director this year is Nate Bartelink, succeeding the retired Mark Loureiro in the post. Bartelink has coached JV boys basketball for several seasons at EHS and previously taught at El Portal Middle School before moving to a teaching post last year at Vista High. He will also take over as head coach for the varsity boys basketball program during the winter season, replacing longtime coach Martin Louro, who stepped down from the position.

For the fall campaign, however, most teams have already gotten started with practices and are looking forward to some preseason action over the next few weeks.

The major coaching changes for fall are in football, where Andrew Beam takes over as varsity head football coach, replacing Loureiro and Brant Rose moves from the varsity staff to take over Beam’s former position as JV head coach.

The Cougars, coming off a hugely successful season in Loureiro’s final campaign, earned a share of the Trans-Valley League title and look to get back to top form under first year head coach Beam. They start the season out with a Saturday scrimmage, Aug. 11 hosting the Argonaut Mustangs and then they travel on Friday, Aug. 17 to take on the Union Mine Diamondbacks. TVL action for the Cougars will begin on Sept. 21 as they host the Hilmar Yellowjackets. Home games start at 5:30 p.m. for the JV team with the varsity game following, at 7:30 p.m.

Lady Cougar volleyball kicks off with a home scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 11 and they follow that up with a game at Enochs on Friday, Aug. 17 with freshmen on the court at 4:30 p.m., JV at 5:30 p.m. and varsity at 6:30 p.m.

On Monday, Aug. 20, the varsity squad only will travel to Calaveras for the annual Foundation Game, set for 7 p.m.

Hilmar will visit Escalon on Wednesday, Sept. 5 for the TVL opener.

Girls golf will begin their season with a match hosting Riverbank on Tuesday, Aug. 14 at 3:30 p.m. and then travel to face Ripon Christian at Jack Tone on Thursday, Aug. 16. They have seven matches and one tournament scheduled in August with the midseason tournament (Sept. 17), league tournament (Oct. 15) and divisionals (Oct. 22) all scheduled at Micke Grove.

Practices for cross country are scheduled to begin on Monday, Aug. 6 with the traditional Purple and Gold inter squad competition slated for Tuesday, Aug. 21. The first action of the season will be at the Lodi Flame Invitational at Lodi Lake on Friday, Aug. 24. League action begins with TVL Meet 1 on Wednesday, Sept. 5 at Legion Park in Modesto.