With the 2025 school year coming to a start, fall sports are in their uproar. With popular events like Friday Night Lights, themed sports games and others, it’s a fun and exciting way to rile up school spirit and kick off into the new year. 

Sports like football, girls swim, girls field hockey, boys soccer, coed cheer, boys tennis, coed rowing, coed cross country, girls golf, girls volleyball and boys water polo are all the fall sports that take place in the Pioneer campus from their pre-season in August, to late October.

Kicking off the fall sports review, the Pioneer men’s soccer team which is starting the season off strong is one of our most popular fall sports. Varsity goal keeper, Marcus Byrn, who plays under number zero, expressed excitement for his upcoming game against Skyline High School and the season their team has ahead of them.

Student sections can be a big event at Pioneer, with hundreds of students lining the bleachers of most home and some away football games. Something we call Friday Night Lights, which is a fun night time activity for all Pioneer students to come together and cheer on the players. Though these student sections are most popular during Friday football games there are still a good amount of students that come to the other fall sports and watch their friends play. 

Women’s field hockey is another very popular sport at Pioneer. Overall, the team has been defending state champions for the past three years and has had multiple division one commits. One of which being junior, Lily Boardman. Boardman, who plays midfield and just committed to the University of California Davis’s (UCD) field hockey program says “I’ve learned some amazing life skills like leadership, and made some great friends” while talking about what she’s learned from being on the Pioneer team and from playing field hockey.

Some of the bigger, upcoming games which some of the players are more excited about are the games against Dexter and Saline High School and of course the state championships and semi-finals which happen near the end of their season. Nina Moore, a Pioneer women’s cross-country runner similarly exclaimed her excitement for the season by saying “It’s so much fun, the team and community is really great, and it’s a great sport to be a part of, whether you’re super invested or just there to have a good time.”

The Pioneer women’s cross country team is currently placed at sixth in the nation.

School spirit, being a large part of incorporating fun into the school day, and riling up support for many of the Pioneer sports, whether it’s wearing a team uniform to school, or rocking various different outfits ranging from simple to exotic, or student section themes, most days of the year students can be seen in the hallways in unique outfits showing off their team spirit and making Pioneer an exciting school to be involved in, especially regarding their athletics.