The 2016 Olympics are less than two weeks out. The games, which last from Aug. 5-21, are the pinnacle of international athletics. Nations will converge on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to compete for sporting dominance in everything from basketball to soccer to table tennis.

For those athletes competing, it signifies the culmination of years of hard work and training. There’s also a patriotic aspect to it in that, while many compete at a professional level, there’s something special about representing one’s country.

There’s something similar approaching down at the high school level. Months of hard work will begin to pay off in the middle of August when the fall sports season begins. Athletes will be competing under the banner of their respective schools. As the season progresses and teams build a résumé for the playoffs, they may get a chance to represent the county as a whole, too.

Some, like Southside football and Washington soccer, will look to pick up where they left off. Others, such as Washington football and Southside soccer, may feel like they have unfinished business come the fall.

The common factor between the Olympics and the approaching fall high school season is the work that precedes the event — or, in the case of high school, season opener — itself. Beaufort County’s athletes have been putting in an impressive amount of work with many forgoing much of their summer vacation. Things will really begin to ramp up mere days before the Olympics when athletes report for the beginning of the preseason on Aug. 1.

While the amount of largely unnoticed work is one of the bigger similarities between the Olympics and upcoming high school fall season, there’s also a parallel in the scheduling of the two.

The final days of the Olympics coincide perfectly with the season-opening road trips for Beaufort County’s three football teams. Washington, Northside and Southside will all hit the road on Aug. 19 as America’s representatives are hopefully closing in on gold medals. Football is something near and dear to the community, just as basketball is to the larger North Carolina population. It’s possible that fans of both may experience a perfect storm between the beginning of the football season and the late stages of the Olympic basketball tournament.

The beginning of the fall is always an exciting time in an area so rich in high school athletics. This year, it will be compounded by the late stages of the Olympics overlapping with the beginning of the prep seasons. Sports fans should enjoy watching the unfathomable amounts of hard work and dedication — from the professional level all the way down to the local high school level — unfold in front of them in the coming weeks.