The end of summer might be a bittersweet time for students, but there are silver linings to look forward to like the official kick off of the Falcons’ fall sports season on Friday, Aug. 23, the first football game of the year.

While the teachers and administrators have been working hard these past few weeks to prepare for the school year, FHUSD athletic director Willie Dudley and local coaches have been putting in work to make sure everything is ready for the new season.

One advancement that the athletic department will have ready for this year is a new way for parents and fans to buy tickets to local games.

“One thing we are going to be doing this year is an Adult Pass,” Dudley explained. “It will make it easier for the parents or grandparents to have a pass that will let them skip the long line and go through a special entrance. It’ll be a $100 annual pass that will get them into everything.”

Outside of the introduction of this new pass, the athletic department will not look too different compared to last year, which is comforting news after Falcon sports experienced a metamorphosis in recent years.

Only two coaching changes have been made with former Falcon Tia Kannapel taking over indoor girls’ volleyball from Pete McGloin (who is still coaching sand volleyball) and track coach Nick Goodman taking the head role with the high school’s cross country team.

Boys volleyball will also receive a new coach but the position has not yet been filled.

The athletic department is also creating a new sport with middle school wrestling.

“All the sports we do at the middle school, the purpose is to help prepare our students so they can get to high school and play that sport,” Dudley said. “So hopefully introducing them to wrestling will help coach [Luke] Salzman.”

Dudley said he hopes that he can get as many Falcons as possible in a sport because he feels that, along with being a fun extracurricular for students, it will also help them in other aspects of their life.

“The more the students are active at the school, the more that will help them be successful,” Dudley said. “It makes them feel like they’re a part of a large community and makes them feel like they fit. That’s why we do sports; and clubs for that matter, too.”