TODAY IN SECTION X.

Section X Fall Sports Are Back: 2026 Varsity Season Officially Begins Across the North Country

Football got the first taste last week. Today, the rest of Section X joins the party. Monday, August 24 marks the first official day of practice for the remaining 2026 fall varsity sports across New York, and that means fields, courts and pools throughout the North Country are coming back to life. Soccer balls are rolling again. Volleyballs are back in the air. Swimmers are back in the pool. Cross country runners are putting in the miles. And across Section X, thousands of practices, bus rides, games, meets, rivalries and memories are about to begin. The 2026 Section X fall sports season is officially here. A New Season Begins Across Section X There is something different about the first official day of practice. There are no standings yet. Nobody has a winning streak. Nobody has been eliminated. Last year's champions don't begin with an extra win, and last year's rebuilding teams don't start with an extra loss. Everybody gets a clean slate. For returning varsity athletes, today may feel familiar. For others, it's their first varsity practice. Some athletes are beginning their senior seasons and experiencing their final first day of fall practice. Others are just starting high school careers that could produce memories they'll carry for the rest of their lives. That's high school sports. And today, we get to start all over again. Football Got the Head Start Section X football teams officially returned to practice last week, giving football an early start on the rest of the fall season. Now the rest of the varsity landscape catches up. Over the coming weeks, football fields won't be the only places getting busy across Northern New York. Section X boys and girls soccer will return with league races and postseason hopes. Volleyball teams will begin the long process of building chemistry and finding their identity. Girls swimming will return to the pool. Cross country runners will begin chasing personal bests, team goals and postseason opportunities. Every sport has its own season. Every school has its own expectations. And every athlete begins today without knowing exactly how the story will end. The Road to a Section X Championship Starts at Practice When championship games arrive later this fall, we'll remember the winning goals, final points, huge saves, breakout performances and celebrations. Nobody will see most of what happens before then. The conditioning. The early mistakes. The position battles. The extra repetitions. The new athletes learning varsity speed for the first time. The returning athletes being asked to become leaders. The coaches trying to figure out which pieces fit together. Championships aren't won on the first day of practice. But the teams that eventually win them usually start building something long before anyone is handing out a plaque. That work begins now. New Teams Will Emerge in 2026 One of the best parts of a new high school sports season is how little we actually know on Day 1. Last year's results give us a starting point, but they don't give us the ending. Seniors graduate. Younger players develop. New athletes emerge. Roles change. Teams that struggled a year ago can suddenly become contenders. Teams expected to dominate can find themselves in a fight. Somewhere in Section X right now is an athlete most fans haven't heard much about yet who could become one of the biggest stories of the fall. Somewhere is a team that will be much better than people expect. There will be upsets nobody sees coming. There will be rivalries decided by inches, seconds or a single goal. And eventually, there will be Section X champions. Today, nobody knows who they are. That's the fun part. Section X Scoreboard Is Ready for the 2026 Fall Season As the 2026 Section X high school sports season gets underway, Section X Scoreboard will be following the action across Northern New York. We'll be tracking schedules, scores, standings, results and postseason races throughout the fall while highlighting the athletes, teams, schools and moments that make Section X sports special. Football. Boys soccer. Girls soccer. Volleyball. Girls swimming. Cross country. And the rest of the fall sports landscape across Section X. The goal is simple: make it easier for North Country sports fans to follow what's happening across the section, not just at one school or in one sport. Because every school has a story. Every team has athletes worth celebrating. And every season produces moments worth remembering. Welcome Back, Section X For months, we've been waiting. Today the whistles come back out. The scoreboards will soon turn back on. School colors will return to sidelines, gyms, fields and pools throughout the North Country. There are no champions yet. There are no final standings. There are just athletes showing up for Day 1 and teams beginning to figure out what they can become. A few months from now, we'll know how it all ended. Today, we finally get to find out how it begins. Welcome to the 2026 Section X fall sports season. We're back.