Well before Vineyard students head back to classrooms, student athletes laced up this week and headed back to the sports field. Varsity and junior varsity high school athletes are participating in the longstanding tradition of Hell Week, which kick starts the fall sports season with early morning and evening practices. Members of the cross country, field hockey, football, and soccer teams were out on the fields and the track this week, getting into shape for another season. The field hockey team has been known to start its practice the earliest, with athletes arriving at the field at 5:45 a.m. It's all important warm-up for the next few weeks, when the athletes will don their Vineyard purple as the season gets officially underway.

The golf team, exempt from traditional Hell Week but working hard nonetheless, begins its season on Tuesday, Sept. 8 at Somerset Berkeley.