By Brittany Bowyer
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As July draws to a close, many student athletes in the Northeast Valley are making necessary preparations for their return to campus.

For athletes, it means getting in those last summer practices to continue improving in the offseason. Here’s a look at what’s happening at some of the schools near the Scottsdale area.

A number of football teams are looking to beat the heat while getting some work in by heading off to football camp this week. Horizon was the first to depart, going up to Camp Tontozona in Payson for three days for practice and team bonding.

Cactus Shadows is also on the road right now for football camp in California, as they left Tuesday. This weekend, Pinnacle and Arcadia prepare to travel to Flagstaff for NAU’s camp, while Chaparral is leaving this weekend for camp at Cal Lutheran.

When it comes to girls flag football, the Cactus Shadows community is celebrating after the school announced it will be adding it as an official sport this fall. The news comes after interested athletes raised the necessary funds to become a sport on campus.

Finally, a few schools will have some new faces on campus when they return this fall.

Chaparral will be welcoming Mitchell Gregg as their new atheltic director, coming over from Cicero Prep. Pinncale’s old athletic director David Abrams will be making the move over to Saguaro high school, where he will look to get the football program back on track. Since Abrams left Pinnacle, he was replaced by Patrick Hurley, who had already been on campus there as an administrator.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame Prep welcomes Dennis Coyle, who joins the Saints from Cininnati Country Day School. Last but certainly not least, Xavier College Prep will have a new athletic director for the first time in nearly five decades, with Tui Selvaratnam stepping into the role of Sister Lynn, who retired at the end of the school year.

Brittany Bowyer is a Report for America corps member, covering sports for Independent Newsmedia in Arizona. Report for America places talented journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and regions.