It's baa-aaack. The Desert Sun's Athlete of the Week makes its 2025-26 school year debut as we honor the top high school athletes from around the desert.

The fall season — outside of the Friday night football gridiron — features volleyball, flag football, girls' golf, girls' tennis, boys' water polo and boys' and girls' cross country.

And each week we pick five athletes from those sports who have had a particularly strong week.

Then, after you read about their accomplishments, you vote for your favorite in the poll at the bottom of this article at desertsun.com. It's that simple.

Whichever athlete has the most votes at noon on Saturday will be the weekly winner.

And we love to get nominations so if you know a boy or girl who is excelling in a fall sport, let us know by e-mailing sport

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