Welcome to the blog ... and the new school year!

Welcome to the 2007-08 school year! During the past week, 191 Auggie student-athletes reported to campus for preseason practice in our eight fall sports. The first competitions on the Auggie sports calendar will happen this weekend, when the women's soccer team hosts Wisconsin-Stout and Northwestern-Roseville on Friday and Saturday, the men's soccer team travels to Iowa for two games, the men's and women's cross country teams host Bethel in their annual dual meet on Saturday morning in Riverside Park, the volleyball team is on the road for a season-opening tournament at Ripon (Wis.), and the women's golf team competes at the Wisconsin-Eau Claire Invitational this weekend.

Auggie squads certainly have a lot to be excited about this fall. The football team is coming off a 5-5 season last year, which included a dramatic 4-2 run to end the year. Be prepared for aerial fireworks with this team; coach Frank Haege's offense is going to throw the ball a lot. The season opens on Sept. 6 with a nonconference game at Crown. Here's a link to the football season preview.

The volleyball team is coming off one of its best seasons in the past decade, and 13 letterwinners and five starters return. Coach Jessica Rinehart has this team optimistic about qualifying for the MIAC postseason tournament. Here's a link to the volleyball season preview.

Consistency has been the hallmark for the women's soccer team, with four straight appearances in the MIAC postseason tournament. Mike Navarre enters his 10th season as Augsburg's head coach, and hopes are high for a fifth straight tourney berth this year. With one of the most solid defenses in the conference back nearly intact, the "drive for five" could happen again. Here's a link to the women's soccer season preview.

And the men's soccer team also has high hopes. Coach Greg Holker's squad has his first complete recruiting class entering their senior seasons, and that group has helped change the Auggies into a consistent contender in a very tough soccer conference. Here's a link to the men's soccer season preview.

We'll have some updates and links for men's/women's cross country, men's golf and women's golf later this week.

Onto this blog ... We're going to try to update this every weekday during the school year. Along with the athletics website, this will be a prime destination for Auggie sports news. We'll link to stories on our athletic website, share some "behind-the-scenes" stuff and hopefully, have some fun along the way. Please send any suggestions, comments, or complaints to us (You can click here for the athletic department directory; most of these posts will be written by either SID Don Stoner or Assistant SID Kelly Anderson Diercks).

-- Don Stoner