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Health & Fitness

Almost magic time: Are you ready for some football?

Move over summer, it's time for a favorite season and pastime to re-emerge.

Can you feel it? It’s in the air, that unmistakable magical time. That time of the year when the days are long and hot and the nights short and cool and the transition between the seasons, though clouded by weather, is still almost instinctively perceptible among us.

Soon, beach trips and barbecues and lazy days in the sun will give way to kids going back to school. Playful routines will defer to pencils and notebooks, scantrons, and backpacks full of textbooks, and oh yea: cleats for a select few.

Though Halloween is still about 10 weeks away, the long Labor Day weekend is almost here, and that can only mean one thing for die hard sports fans: The sport we love the most is almost ready to reintegrate itself back into our lives. Sorry football widows.

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It has been a difficult off season. The NFL threatened to cut the season short, or worse yet, to not have one at all due to bickering between the owners and players. Yet, in the San Gabriel Valley, the pros are almost an after thought to college and the Preps where the true magic in sports still lingers like that pesky Indian Summer weather that refuses to die in mid-September.

Friday nights for us mean violent collisions, kickoffs and action under the lights.

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And like long lost friends coming back to regale us with stories from far away lands, the autumn winds usher in another season of touchdowns, colorful team uniforms, bands playing, mascots dancing, and an almost dizzying array of tradition and fun.  

Yesterday morning I spent an enjoyable few moments photographing the action at Citrus College where the Glendora Tartans Varsity football team ran through the motions, in preparation for another season.

Those of us who love the sport are always in for a treat as the area has many games and teams for us to root for. At Citrus College, the Fighting Owls are clad in blue and silver, and though they have fared better in previous seasons, I am sure coach Ron Ponciano will have them ready to play.

Glendora, Damien High School and other local teams are getting ready for the season, and if four year schools are more your speed, locally you can catch the University of La Verne’s Leopards and the APU Cougars in action, where great players like Christian Okoye and others have left their mark.

If you fancy longer drives, you can hop in your car and head West and catch the USC Trojans downtown L.A., or the UCLA Bruins in the Rose Bowl. Can’t you almost smell the carne asada cooking in the parking lot tailgate parties?

I love the fall because I love football. The game embodies everything we value in life, hard work, second effort, loyalty and love. Perhaps John Facenda said it best, “It speaks of duels in the snow and cold November months.” He was talking about Vince Lombardi, but he may as well have been talking about all of the football season.

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