OK, now that we have survived the first Monday back, it is time to embrace the fall semester.

Returning to the classroom means we will also be returning to Moby Arena as soon as this Friday, and then Hughes Stadium the weekend after. And that is something to cheer about.

You may have been too busy trying to navigate the crowded campus – or too busy staying at home sleeping because you are an upperclassmen and it is syllabus week – to notice some of the significant changes at the Collegian.

As our executive editor Skyler Leonard wrote yesterday, “The website is new. The paper is longer. Hell, even the ink is different.”

But one thing that always remains unchanged is our commitment as a staff to bringing to you the high-quality coverage of news and events in the CSU community.

One of the biggest differences you may notice this year is that the Collegian will no longer print on Fridays.

However, there will be some exceptions, such as this Friday, and the Friday after that, and then the Friday after that and then many more Fridays after that one. Just because we do not run an official paper does not mean we plan on taking the day off.

The sports desk is so excited about the return of CSU football, volleyball and soccer, and eventually men’s and women’s basketball, that we will be printing special editions on certain Fridays geared specifically toward bringing you up-to-date with everything you need to know about your favorite Rams teams.

After all, everyone needs a little extra incentive to get to campus on Friday (except for those slick enough to avoid scheduling Friday classes).

And if you are wondering why you have not seen any volleyball coverage in the paper or online the last two days, just wait. Patience is a virtue.

Our special editions will kick off Friday with CSU volleyball. Members of the six-time defending Mountain West champs were kind enough to tolerate the incessant questioning of reporters and pose for photos after their practice on the first day of class, and this brings us to another point.

While we here at the Collegian sports desk like to believe we work our horns off, it is nothing compared to the effort of the student-athletes who make all of our coverage possible with their hard work on the court or field, and their personable nature away from it.

The most uncomfortable moment in my young, mildly blossoming journalism career was interviewing players on the CSU men’s basketball team the day after their tournament snub last season.

Despite the obvious gloom that lingered around Moby that day, members of the team not only honored their “obligations” to the media, they went out of their way to make everything a little less tense.

Avila strutted down the hallway with a new pair of sunglasses and joked with reporters to lighten the mood. Tiel Daniels greeted media members with a big smile outside of the gym. Even a clearly emotional Daniel Bejarano took the time to sit down and answer all of our occasionally dumb – and frequently annoying – questions.

We all can see the athletes on game day. But it is hard for the common fan to understand how much more they do behind the scenes.

All of this paper’s sports reporters work extremely hard, sacrificing sleep on most nights and skipping classes far too often, to bring the student body the best coverage we possibly can. The Collegian is a student-run paper, and we aim to deliver the stories the students want to read.

But we would not be able to do it without the help and cooperation of certain group of extremely athletic and incredibly well mannered students.

So, a huge thank you goes out to all of the student-athletes. And to you, for reading this far.

Cheers, to what this sports editor hopes will be another school year of outstanding CSU athletics coverage.

Collegian Sports Editor Emmett McCarthy can be reached at sports@collegian.com and on Twitter @emccarthy22.