Tonganoxie High volleyball, cross country and boys soccer teams all will practice at midnight Monday morning to usher in the official start to the preseason.

The practices will follow a tradition the THS cross country team started several years ago of practicing at the earliest possible time that first day of the fall sports season. The Kansas State High School Activities Association allows practices to start on a Monday in mid-August each year. The THS football and girls golf teams also will open its preseason camp Monday, but it will be later in the morning.

High school teams across the state are allowed one practice a day for the first six days of preseason camp and then can schedule two-a-days after that period.

A year ago, athletics departments were moving into a new school year after earlier stages of the COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellation of spring sports in 2020. Cody Witte, THS athletics director, said Tuesday that the season, as of now, is set to start without spectator restrictions as was the case a year ago.

“As of right now for the community there are no attendance limitations and masks will be optional at events,” Witte said.

In 2020, sports schedules looked different in August than they did in October. For instance, THS football had two games canceled due to COVID-19 protocol.

“Last year, we had teams as far away as South Dakota reaching out to find an opponent because of games lost to COVID,” he said.

There was a three-week stretch in October in which the game was moved back a day, a new opponent was on the schedule, or both.

The homecoming game against Piper was moved to a Saturday on Oct. 3 in Week 5, the Week 6 game was moved to Saturday on Oct. 10 with a new opponent and Week 7 had a new opponent on Oct. 16. Southern Boone from Ashland, Mo., came to Tonganoxie on Oct. 10 and then Shawnee Mission East made the trip west on Oct. 16 for another non-conference game. Tonganoxie defeated Piper, 29-0, and then handled Southern Boone, 52-13, before getting another shutout against SM East, 35-0.

Tonganoxie football had just three road games due to scheduling amendments in 2020. THS heads into 2021 with four home games and four road contests. The football opener is 7 p.m. Sept. 3 against Basehor-Linwood at Beatty Field.

Boys soccer kicks off the season at 6 p.m. Aug. 27 in Prairie Village against Kansas City Christian, while volleyball opens the season at 5 p.m. Aug. 31 in De Soto with a triangular against De Soto and Piper. THS girls golf begins the 2021 campaign at 3 p.m. Aug. 30 with a tournament in Ottawa, while THS cross country opens the season at 9 a.m. Sept. 4 with a dual against Lansing.

Postseason pairings are expected to return to normal in 2021-22.

KSHSAA drew up substate and regional assignments based on geography for all classes rather than utilize bracket seeding. Football still played out its playoff brackets in various classes based on district assignments or bracket seeding, but other fall and winter sports moved into the postseason regionals and substates based on geography and not records in all classes. In addition, state quarterfinals occurred on campus and then the remaining four teams in each bracket met at neutral state sites as opposed to the final eight teams in each class competing at one site.

Meetings for parents of student-athletes at THS will be 6 p.m. Monday at the Tonganoxie Performing Arts Center, with meetings for parents of student-athletes participating in fall sports will take place after that meeting.

“We’re hopeful to have a great start to our year and avoid any COVID-related issues,” Witte said. “If they do happen, we’ll handle them with our students’ and coaches’ safety in mind.”