Lackawanna League girls’ soccer and girls’ volleyball will have a different look in the upcoming fall season.

High school teams around the state began legal practices Monday.

When the girls’ soccer and volleyball seasons start, it will be with new divisional formats in place.

The Lackawanna League switched girls' soccer from three unbalanced divisions to two divisions of eight teams each.

Lakeland, after moving Division 3, will join the seven holdover teams to form the realigned Division 1. Valley View, Scranton Prep, Abington Heights, Western Wayne, Wallenpaupack, West Scranton and Scranton make up the rest of the division.

Mountain View, which won Division 2 last year, will be joined by all the other Division 2 and 3 teams from last season, other than Lakeland. The new Division 2 will also include Forest City, Elk Lake, Montrose, Holy Cross, Mid Valley, Carbondale and Dunmore.

Abington Heights has moved from the Wyoming Valley Conference to the Lackawanna League in girls' volleyball, which will switch from nine teams in one group to two, five-team divisions.

Dunmore, Lackawanna Trail, Western Wayne and Forest City will join Abington Heights in Division 1.

Susquehanna, Montrose, Elk Lake, Blue Ridge and Mountain View make up Division 2.

After finishing tied for last in the North Division last season, Blue Ridge and Susquehanna have joined forces in a cooperative sponsorship in golf.

The divisional formats for football, boys' soccer, boys' and girls' cross country and girls' tennis remain the same.

League openers are scheduled for Monday, Aug. 22 in golf and girls' tennis.

Boys' soccer league play starts Sept. 2. Football opens the weekend of Sept. 2-3, but all teams begin with non-league games that remain part of the playoff qualifying process.

Girls' soccer and girls' volleyball league play begins Sept. 6.

Boys' and girls' cross country open Sept. 7.

Wyoming Valley Conference field hockey, which includes Montrose and Elk Lake, opens Sept. 2.

COLLEGE DECISION

Lenoxville resident Mark Bevacqua is the latest recruit for the University of Scranton men’s basketball program.

Royals coach Carl Danzig announced the commitment of the former Holy Cross standout earlier this month.

Bevacqua spent the last two seasons at Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J.

“Mark is a tremendous talent who will add needed strength in the front-court positions,” Danzig said. “Not only are his abilities as a player a welcome addition to the team, but he possesses the type of individual character that has become a trademark of Scranton basketball players.”

Bevacqua, a 6-foot-6 forward, was an all-star at Holy Cross before moving on to the New Jersey prep school, which is the alma mater of current NBA players Royal Ivey, Luol Deng and Charlie Villanueva. He helped the 2009-10 team go 20-5 and helped the 2010-11 team go 16-7 while winning a New Jersey Prep Class A state title.

Between Holy Cross and Blair Academy, Bevacqua produced 1,344 points and 712 rebounds.

The University of Scranton has won the Landmark Conference and appeared in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III national tournament three of the last four years.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The golf season opens Monday with North Division matches including Mountain View at Montrose, Blue Ridge at Carbondale, Lakeland at Elk Lake and Lackawanna Trail at Forest City.

Most of the league’s teams will participate in the Jackman Memorial Tournament Tuesday, Aug. 23 at Scranton Municipal Golf Course.

In girls’ tennis, the season opens Monday with Elk Lake at Holy Cross in Division 3.

Montrose begins its Division 2 season Tuesday at Mid Valley.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com.

Busch Brothers Dominate Nationwide Race

Polesitter Kurt Busch won Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen after subbing for his teammate Brad Keselowski. Kurt and his brother, Kyle Busch, combined to lead every lap.

Kyle Busch, who led a race-high 48 laps, was out front on Lap 78 of the 82-lap race when he had to pit for fuel, giving the lead to Kurt.

“We were running hard together,” Kurt said. “It wasn't to force him to run out of fuel. I wanted to race him as fair and square as you can, but we knew that they were short [on fuel]. I had the confidence in [crew chief] Todd Gordon here that we had no problem on fuel, so, of course, we were going to continue to apply pressure.”

The race ended in a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the event three laps past its scheduled distance of 82 laps at the 2.45-mile road course.

Jimmie Johnson finished second despite a pit-road penalty. Joey Logano was third, followed by Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Paul Menard, Ron Fellows, Aric Almirola, Trevor Bayne, and Elliott Sadler.

Top-10 leaders after 23 of 34: 1. Stenhouse-816, 2. Sorenson-806, 3. Sadler-792, 4. Almirola-746, 5. Allgaier-736, 6. Leffler-713, 7. K. Wallace-686, 8. S. Wallace-636, 9. Scott-626, 10. Annett-623.

DALE JR; HALFWAY THROUGH HIS CAREER

In an interview last week with Steve Byrnes on SPEED, Dale Earnhardt said his racing career is only about half over.

“I feel like I’m about halfway into my career,” he said. “I feel like I could go another ten years. I think I really have to ask myself a lot of questions once I get to that age, whether I was being productive or wasting anyone’s time or whether I was still having fun. All those things pop up once you get older. But for the most part, I feel like I’m about halfway through.

“I haven’t changed my life a whole lot in the last eight years and I don’t want to change it that much. I have no interest in being married. I’d like to have kids one day, but that’s not something I’ve got planned out.”

Earnhardt went on to say that he doesn’t view himself as someone on a pedestal, or “hero-type” person.

“I feel pretty normal,” he continued. “And I feel like I have normal conversations with people. I don’t really see the celebrity buzz, because I’m on the other side of the fence, and don’t realize my level of fame.

“I don’t categorize individuals like ‘This guy is famous. This guy is my hero.’ I feel like when people start asking me questions and want to do a sit-down interview, I get a little more guarded as the interview goes because I get nervous about being too open.

“You want to have some privacy and you don’t want to be a blabbermouth either. I don’t feel that special. I just like going and driving my car and having fun racing.

“For the most part, the car is the key factor. If a guy’s not running well, in most cases, it’s the car. The crew chiefs or other people might say it’s more the driver. But for the most part, the deciding factor is the equipment you’re driving and whether it will go around the corner as good as the other guy’s car.

“The percentage of decent talented drivers is much larger than it used to be years ago, at least in my opinion. There’s more talented guys in the sport and guys that can win races than there’s ever been.”

Weekend Racing: The Cup and truck teams are at the 2.0-Michigan International Speedway, while the Nationwide teams are at the 14-turn, 2.71-mile Circuit Gilles Villeneuve track in Montreal, Canada.

Sat., Aug. 20, Camping World Trucks VFW 200, race 15 of 24, Starting time: 12:30 p.m., TV: SPEED.

Sat., Aug. 20, Nationwide NAPA Auto Parts 200, race 24 of 34, Starting time: 2:30 p.m.; TV: ESPN.

Sun., Aug. 21, Sprint Cup Michigan 400, race 23 of 36, Starting time: 1 p.m.; TV: ESPN.

All times are Eastern.

Racing Trivia Question: Who are the two Cup teammates of Joey Logano?

Last Week’s Question: Jimmie Johnson has one 2012 Cup win this season. Which track did it come at? His lone victory came in April at Talladega.

You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.