The hard work, preparation, and time that goes into a sports season has continued at the collegiate level for a select group of former Ashe County High School athletes.

Buster Phillips and Zach Hudler are two former ACHS football players who take to the gridiron each week and battle fellow collegiate athletes.

Phillips is a sophomore defensive lineman at Catawba College and has appeared in eight games for the Catawba Indians. Phillips has 11 tackles, two tackles for loss and a quarterback sack so far this season. The Indians are 3-7 overall and 2-4 in the South Atlantic Conference this year and have one game remaining on the schedule, which takes place this Saturday at home against Lenoir-Rhyne.

Hudler is playing under a few different circumstances than his former teammate is. The freshman is at Bluefield College, and this is the first football season in at Bluefield since 1941. The school decided to revive its football program in 2010, and Hudler got a chance to be a member of the first team at the school in 70 years. The school recently got a new weight room upgrade and has been participating in several scrimmages throughout the season. According to National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) regulations, the Bluefield College Rams had to play this season with scrimmages and intra-squad games, and will officially join the Mid-South Conference for football in the 2012 season.

Elsewhere, several athletes are preparing for their respective sports season coming up. Shelly Barker, Mallary Clay, Chandler Christensen, and Aaron Scott are all prepared for their season openers.

Barker enters her junior season at Guilford College. The Quakers finished last season with a 15-12 record and reached the semifinals in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC). This season, Barker’s team returns four starters and was a preseason pick to finish second in the conference. The junior appeared in 25 games last year including 13 starts. Guilford opens the season on Nov. 16 against rival Greensboro College. The team will begin its conference slate of games on Nov. 22 at Washington & Lee.

Both Clay and Christensen are freshmen on their new college teams. Clay will be playing her first year at Catawba College while Christensen enters her first year of play at Methodist University in Fayetteville. Catawba College begins the 2011-2012 season at home against Queens College on Nov. 15 while Methodist begins the year on the road at Salem College on Nov. 15.

Scott did not travel far from home to take his wrestling talents to the next level. The former three-sport star at ACHS is now a sophomore on the Appalachian State University wrestling team. Scott wrestles in the 149-pound division and will continue working hard to get his shot against the best wrestlers that the Southern Conference has to offer. The App State wrestling season began on Nov. 6 at the Hokie Open in Virginia. The team will be at home this Sunday with matches against Anderson and Belmont-Abbey.