Wareham’s student athletes celebrated the imminent return to a more normal fall sports season — a stark contrast to the abbreviated “Fall II” season that was held last spring.

This year, Athletic Director Ed Rodrigues said fall sports include football, boys and girls soccer, volleyball, cheerleading and field hockey.

He said most sports have seen a typical level of student involvement, but volleyball has seen a spike in popularity.

“Volleyball, for some reason, has taken off,” Rodrigues said. “We’ve got 35 or 36 girls, which is highly unusual.”

In particular, he noted that there were “a lot of young kids” in eighth and ninth grade who wanted to play.

Because only six athletes play at a time, Rodrigues said there will be freshman, junior varsity and varsity volleyball teams. The other sports offered will have varsity teams.

Following the state’s mask requirements, athletes and coaches will wear masks when indoors. Outside, masks are not required at this time.

Rodrigues said that “as of right now,” the hope is to allow spectators at games. A final decision will be made in about a week or so, but things could always change throughout the season.

Rodrigues said student athletes and the coaches are all excited to get back to their sports.

“It’s not normal-normal,” he said. “But it’s more normal than we’ve had. It’s in the fall. [...] And obviously last spring was an abbreviated season.”

The abbreviated season meant that students played about half the games they’ll play this year. Although the pandemic is still a factor, Rodrigues said he was hopeful things would go smoothly.

“Anything could change at any time,” he said. “But we’re excited to have sports back. We’ll start having games again next week.”

The first home volleyball game will be on Sept. 7