By Duncan Nixon
Correspondence
The Fluco fall sports schedule is crowded. Football, volleyball, cross country, field hockey and golf will be sharing the stage. Fluco football has an unusual schedule. Last year Mitchell Pace’s squad played six of its ten contests at home. In 2024, only four of ten will be at home and six will be away.
The football team has scrimmages scheduled on Aug. 16 and 23. The first will be at home against William Monroe and the second will be at Wilson Memorial. The home opener will be against Broadway High on Aug. 30. The second week of the regular season is the Flucos’ bye week. The Fluco football team will then be on the road for all of September. On Sept. 13 they will visit Chancellor High. On Sept. 20, they travel south to play at Buckingham County High. A week later, on Sept. 27 they will be at Charlottesville High. In October, the Flucos will be home on the 4th and the 18th hosting Albemarle High and Orange County. The Orange County game will be Homecoming. On Oct. 11 and Oct.25, the Flucos will travel to Western Albemarle and Louisa County. On Nov. 1, they are also on the road, at Goochland County. The final Fluco game of the regular season will be at home against nearby Monticello High. This game will be senior night.
Volleyball is a sport in which the Flucos traditionally excel. It is also an excellent spectator sport that should attract large crowds. Hopefully, recent increased interest in girls and women’s sports will draw more fans to these exciting indoor contests. The Fluco volleyball team opens its season on Aug.29 hosting Mills Godwin. On Aug. 31 they host a multi-team Farruggio tournament. On Sept. 3 they host Wilson Memorial and then travel to Wilson on Sept. 10. On Sept. 12, they take on Mills Godwin again, this time on the road. On Sept. 19 the heavy Jefferson District schedule begins, with two contests a week through the end of Oct.
Cross Country is another sport in which the Flucos have traditionally been highly competitive. This years’ schedule does not offer options for watching home meets (it is not a great spectator sport.) The cross country team’s first match of the season is at home on Aug. 28 and then the rest of the team’s meets are away.
Golf is a fall sport who’s contests must be front loaded, as golf contests on week nights can not be completed once the country goes off day-light saving time. Football, soccer, baseball, softball and field hockey all may be played under the lights, since the fields are contained. Golf which is played over acres of land can obviously not be played under the lights. The Fluco golf team starts its season on Aug. 6, at William Monroe High. On Aug. 8 the golf team hosts a multi-school tournament at the Lake Monticello golf course, which is naturally the teams’ home course. They play Charlottesville away on Aug. 12 and then compete in the Jefferson district tournament, at Albemarle on Aug. 15. Their season winds down on Oct. 23., when the football team still has three weeks of regular season games to play.
Field hockey is the Flucos’ newest sport. While it is played internationally by men and women, in the US, it is primarily a girls sport. The Fluco field hockey team has a 16 game schedule beginning on Aug. 22 with a contest at Stuarts Draft and finishing up with a Region play-in on Oct. 28. Like the volleyball team, the field hocky athletes have contests mostly twice a week.
