Here’s a glance of what the 2020 fall sports season might look like:

Nothing has looked familiar in 2020, so don’t expect high school sports to be any exception this fall.

Yet, despite that fact, there are plenty of reasons to watch when the fall season begins on Sept. 18.

The main reason: what will sports look like?

Local cross country, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, soccer, swimming & diving and volleyball players will finally get a chance to represent their local high schools for the first time in nearly six months.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) recently announced an athletic structure that allows student-athletes to compete in “Fall I” amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic – albeit without cheerleading, football and unified basketball.

So here’s a glance of what the 2020 fall sports season might look like:

WHAT’S THE SAME?

There will be green turf and white lines. There will be green fairways and yellow flagsticks. There will be blue water and brownish balance beams.

That’s a certainty.

The MIAA may have made modifications to “Fall I” sports – namely field hockey and soccer – but the coronavirus can’t even alter the accustomed aesthetics of fall sports. And those aforementioned MIAA alterations are meant to keep the student-athletes safe. So, yes, there will be facemasks and gaiters to protect against COVID-19.

But there will be sports; and that’s what everyone is thrilled about.

“For the first time for most schools since February, kids are going to be participating in sports. It’s exciting,” Nipmuc athletic director Chris Schmidt said. “For the first time I’m able to talk about having sports rather than not having them, which is great.”

There will be practices and huddles (socially-distanced). There will be eye black and bus rides (more on that later). And there will be rivalry games and trash talking.

“Once those kids put the Holliston uniform on and are going to line up against the Tri-Valley League teams in our pod … that’ll bring some sense of normalcy and look like what we’re used to,” Holliston athletic director Matt Baker said.

Last fall, athletic directors and student-athletes dealt with a new MIAA heat modification policy and then a viral infection transmitted by mosquitoes called Triple E.

With a later start time to the season and the ability to flex games to the weekends this fall, athletic directors are hopeful to avoid breaking any policies. Triple E, however, is still a concern but not as much as a year ago.

“Doing games on a weekend can help because we can start as early as 9 o’clock in the morning and we can spread everything out over the course of the whole day,” Baker said.

WHAT’S DIFFERENT?

During the fall, football players are the only ones who usually have to deal with facemasks while field hockey players and swimmers wear goggles. But this fall, facemasks will be worn by nearly everyone in what will be a major adjustment for coaches, referees and student-athletes.

“I know it’s going to be a nuisance for them and hopefully the goal is to get the kids into a mindset that yeah the first couple of weeks are going to be annoying,” Schmidt said. “But it’s all of us. … It’s basically training yourself. The reality is like anything; if you do it for a little awhile, it’s almost becomes second nature.”

Golfers have to wear masks up until the first tee, runners until they start racing and field hockey and soccer players for the entire game.

And when it comes time for field hockey and soccer, well, it’s not going to be the traditional experience. For the latter, there will be no touching with the hands or body, no headers, walls, slide tackles, throw-ins or corner kicks. As for field hockey, it’s being played 7 vs. 7 (teams must have a goalie) and with no penalty corners.

“We’re still trying to digest all of the rule modifications,” Baker said. “It still is just ever-changing. Just seeing them out there will bring back some sense of normalcy.”

What we could see this school year is a four-sport athlete. With cheerleading, football, unified basketball and volleyball (for many schools) getting pushed to the “Fall II” season in February, the opportunity to play four different sports is an option for student-athletes during the 2020-21 school year.

“We have some football players talking about playing soccer and soccer players talking about playing football,” Schmidt said.

“We are expecting for the first time ever in high school, kids competing in four sports,” Baker said.

Buses can only have 25 people on them – at least for Nipmuc – with riders sitting at least six feet apart. Baker believes that flexing all of his sports games (except for golf) to the weekend allows for transportation to come in other forms other than a school bus or two.

“Kids will be showing up in their uniforms, bringing their own water bottles, going right to the field and when game ends, they’ll get in their cars or their parents car and leaving,” he said. “It’s going to resemble youth sports more than high school sports.”

A few other differences we’ll see are that only 50 fans will be allowed at each contest and there will be no trophy at the end of the season. The playoffs have been postponed.

“It will be a little quieter,” said Lincoln-Sudbury athletic director Art Reilly.

LISTEN: Lincoln-Sudbury boys golf team talks winning state title on Cassell’s Corner podcast

WHAT’S IT ALL MEAN?

The COVID-19 curveball still has the sports landscape on its heels in 2020.

But for the first time since March, high school sports will be back in a couple of weeks.

It may not look the same as some things may appear strange. But the ultimate goal is to give the student-athletes the ability to compete and that’s what will happen starting on Sept. 18.

“If we step on the field, it’s a win,” Schmidt said. “That’s one more day than we stepped on the field in the spring. I see that as a win for kids. It may not look the same, but it is.”

Tommy Cassell is a senior multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tcassell@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @tommycassell44.