Seasonal change

There is something in the air this time of year. The baseball season is heating up, pro football is starting its preseason, college football has been practicing for a week and the Washington high school football teams are practicing for the first time today (Wednesday).

For baseball the excitement for the most part is in the wild card races. A majority of the first place teams are running away with their division titles by double digit games. But the wild card races make things a bit exciting. For the lower echelon clubs I guess the only thing they get excited about is being in a spoiler role and cashing their paychecks.

Once September hits it will be a fight to the finish to make the playoffs. The Mariners are in the thick of it and will need to stay healthy the rest of the way. Right now most everyone is back which also means that some of the call ups from Triple A Tacoma will be back in Tacoma again waiting their turn to get back to Seattle. These guys need to take advantage of their everyday work in Tacoma and work on the things that can help them be consistent Major Leaguers and counted on to succeed with the Mariners. If not they should be prepared to be traded to another team.

The Seahawks lost a competitive preseason game to the Pittsburgh Steelers Saturday night. The Hawks battled back all night and would tie the game only to lose on a Steeler drive aided by some poor Seattle defense especially tackling. It’s a good thing that preseason games don’t count in the win loss column. The nice thing about these games is that coaches know what strengths and weaknesses that will need to be worked on. Will the Hawks be able to replace Russell Wilson with either Geno Smith or Drew Lock or will they need to make a blockbuster trade for a signal caller? Only time will tell.

A few weeks ago we were talking about the future departures of UCLA and USC from the Pac 12. I’m glad that the colleges are now practicing to take everyone’s mind off of that and onto the field of play where we want to be anyway. This is the time of the season where fans can get excited reading about the players that can impact a season. New players bringing an exciting style to your team and make you proud to be a ____ fan!

What will it take to make it to the conference championship game or reach the six game win mark to make it to a bowl game? For Cougar and Husky fans I’m sure they won’t be happy with six wins but would happily settle for 8-10 victories. Whatever happens, every conference team wants to end up with more wins than USC and UCLA you can bet on that.

At the FCS level EWU has been picked to finish 6th in the conference and 15th in the preseason poll for all FCS teams. That means that the Eagles are rated nationally as the 4th best Big Sky team. But that is why you play the games because you never know what might happen during the season. The intangibles are often times the decision makers on a make or break season.

Last year EWU opened to season against FBS and Mountain West also ran UNLV and won in Las Vegas. This year the Eags FBS opponents yes that’s plural, are Oregon in Eugene and Florida in the Swamp. There will be a lot of crazy fans at each venue but if you are recruiting a kid to play at your school the opportunity to play at those two places would be a great selling point.

And the bad news is that with a tougher league if you don’t win or share a league title there is a good chance the team won’t make the playoffs. As an Eagle fan that hasn’t happened a lot in the last dozen years. But I’m still excited and hopeful which is what a fan should be. Each win is big but each loss takes a toll on getting a chance to play on.

The heat is on and high school football practice starts around the state today. For a lot of the small town schools in eastern Washington harvest may also play a role as some kids have a part in the family farm and schedule adjustments will need to happen during the first week or so. An early football poll has come out and the LRS Broncos and Davenport Gorillas have earned the respect of sports writers. The teams have been recognized as two of the top eight in 2B football. But now is the time to put in the work and enjoy the season to its fullest and prove those people right.

Seasons change and sports seasons change. I’m also looking forward to some 75 degree weather which would be a wonderful change.

– Dale Anderson is a Ritzville-based sports columnist. Email him at editor @ritzvillejournal.com.