There's no way the high school football season should be starting before the end of August. This year, there were two weeks of football before September 1 arrived.

The heat wave that prompted delays in starting times has no bearing on this opinion. Heck, we're in the Central Valley. We could have a heat wave like that in September.

The current setup is just too early. Practices start too early in the summer and the season ends too early. The regular season ought to end in mid-November, and the starting of seasons should be adjusted accordingly. There's even a break should one of the Central Section teams get a chance at qualifying for the state playoffs.

The only advantage of an early start: The teams that don't advance to the postseason are finished before the winter sports begin, so the winter sports teams at those schools are at full strength if they rely on fall sports athletes. But at many schools, this isn't as crucial as it was years ago because so many more athletes are specializing -- that is, they are only playing one sport and not bouncing from a fall sport to a winter sport to a spring sport that was so common in the past.