Evan Ghormley/C&SMedia
Wylie East’s Haley Shewmake, left, and Alyssa Cortes return for the Lady Raiders, who, along with many other teams around Texas, will start practice next week. East tips off the 2016 regular season against Wylie, their cross-town rival and former district foe. However, the Lady Pirates have moved in District 6-6A, while East remains at 5A (District 15). Plano East will be one of Wylie’s district opponents, while Sachse will be part of the GISD-only 11-6A.

By Greg Ford
Sports Editor
[email protected]

August is right around the corner, and with it will come some of the hottest days of 2016.
Also, the start of calendar’s eighth month means some harbingers of fall, at least the sports associated with that time of year, will be appearing.
The first will be next week, when volleyball teams throughout Texas will hit the floor for one week of practices and scrimmages before officially starting the 2016 season the following week.
Locally, four schools Wylie East, Wylie, Plano East and Sachse, will use that one week to at least produce a rough draft of their respective varsity and sub-varsity lineups, and then attempt to hone things during the nearly month-long non-district schedule.
During that period, Lady Raider head coach Lisa Curry will look to produce a lineup that can hopefully make another playoff appearance, while down the road at Wylie, fellow second-year head coach Sherry Olivares will be prepping the Lady Pirates to their foray into 6A competition, which includes an extremely tough 6-6A schedule that tips off in September.
One of Wylie’s district foes will be Plano East, which will attempt to resurrect its fortunes under third-year head coach Scott Sandel.
Meanwhile, at Sachse, Rikki Jones, the only head coach that program has ever had, will attempt to reload a Lady Mustangs’ program that will look to maintain its winning ways.
(To view the entire article, check out the July 27-8 edition of The Wylie News)