Is this thing on?
Good, still works. A little dusty, but still.

Coinciding with the suggestions of several people whose opinions I value, it’s right about time to start scratching around in The Litter Box again. The fall semester — congratulate me now, it’s my last and I’m so happy I could kiss you — is on the near horizon, and that means both the return of Wildcat athletics and the relevance of this blog to anything or anybody.

Most immediately, Chico State fans will get to see the new versions of the cross country, volleyball and soccer teams. I’m particularly interested in soccer, for both the men’s and women’s teams, for a few reasons. The biggest is the men’s club’s coaching change to Felipe Restrepo, a guy younger than predecessor Mike O’Malley and maybe just what a talented but underachieving team needs. Personally, I’m interested to see how they respond to Restrepo.

The women lost several important seniors, and it’s hard to say whether they will be able to get back to the West Regional. Obviously these stories will garner more attention after some games are actually played, but until then, speculation is about all we have.

Speaking of which, I’m going to speculate that the volleyball team will (or at least should) do much better than last season, improving on a team that earned the No. 7 spot in the first round of the NCAA Division II Pacific Regional. Every main player is back, and — going out on a limb, because it’s hard to predict things like these — I don’t know if an incident similar to the suspension of Gillian Heydorff, Lindsey Macias, Erica Brick and Megan Cape will happen again. It was a “violation of team rules” that led to the four-game sit-down that incidentally watched the Wildcats drop to fifth in the CCAA from second. They’re a year wiser, though who knows what that means. One big area to address: Chico State had a losing record in road games; it was pretty good statistically everywhere else.

More to come as the semester draws nearer.