By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

Monday was transition day for many of Troup County’s fall sports teams.

While the football teams from Callaway, LaGrange and Troup began official preseason practice last week, the remaining fall teams kicked things off on Monday.

According to the Georgia High School Association calendar, it was the first official day of practice for the softball, volleyball, cross-country, and competitive cheerleading teams.

Each of those teams are gearing up for seasons that will begin in August.

While practice has the “official” tag next to it now, most of the county’s fall-sports teams have been working hard during the summer.

Between morning workouts, weight-lifting sessions, camps, and scrimmage games, the local teams have been busy since school ended in May.

That’s critical since the fall sports seasons begin soon, with teams able to start playing games as soon as this week.

The first regular-season games involving local teams will take place on Saturday.

Troup’s softball team will host Callaway and LaGrange for a round-robin series of games.

The remaining fall sports teams will begin their seasons later in August.

The Callaway and Troup softball teams tuned up for the season with a scrimmage game last week, and it was a productive day.

“You get to see some live pitching,” Callaway head coach Robyn McCann said. “That’s what we wanted to do.”

Troup coach Kayla Yeargin used the exhibition game as an opportunity to experiment, to try players in positions they’re not familiar with.

“It’s nice to get to see the different positions everybody played,” Yeargin said. “(The game) answered a lot of questions for us and gives us a lot of opportunities. We’re excited for it.”

LaGrange’s softball team was supposed to have a scrimmage game against Callaway last week, but it was canceled because of the threat of rain.

The football teams are continuing with what’s known as the acclimation period this week.

Players are required to have five days of heat acclimation before they can participate in a full-contact practice.

The players who have the necessary five days will take part in the first full-contact practice on Wednesday.

The first football games are coming up soon, with LaGrange, Callaway and Troup each playing one preseason game before the regular season begins.

LaGrange hosts Kendrick on Aug. 15, and Callaway will be at home against Starr’s Mill on Aug. 16.

Troup has a preseason game at Northside-Columbus on Aug. 16.

The regular season begins on Aug. 22 with Callaway traveling to Opeika, and LaGrange visits Heard County on Aug. 23.

Troup’s regular-season opener is against Ridgeland on Aug. 30 at Callaway Stadium.

The Callaway, LaGrange and Troup volleyball teams will begin their seasons next week.

On Aug. 15, all three of those teams will share the same court

One of the early-season highlights features a showdown between the Callaway and Troup volleyball teams on Aug. 15 at Troup.

The fall sports seasons go through November when the state competitions are held.