Games on. The fun begins tonight with local high school football, although there were a couple of games that were played Thursday night out of the area to help out the officials shortage.

There’s a shortage of a few things these days. Hopefully, for most schools, it’s not players.

It’s been happening over the years. The Lowell (Mass.) Sun reported Wednesday night that nearby Dracut (Mass.) High School was in grave danger of losing its varsity football season before it even began, with only 18 varsity players. Reportedly school officials said they needed more players by the end of the week or the cord was being cut. And also, an offer from a nearby charter school to co-op was rejected.

Co-ops are a way of life in this state for a lot of school districts when it comes to varsity athletics. They are obviously a big part of keeping hockey programs alive (both Nashua North and South co-op), and there are a handful (we count five) football co-ops, mainly in Divisions II and III. It’s helped keep some sports programs alive in Manchester, where athletic participation is dwindling. Even in softball and baseball.

But football has faced long odds. Every time the picture of NFL players kneeling while one of their teammates is lying motionless on the ground and receiving medical attention appears on a TV screen, you can probably take three or four kids off a high school program. Parents feel the risk for their kids is not worth it, and it’s certainly their decision and hard to argue with it.

COVID didn’t help some programs, as some youth football programs didn’t play in 2020. Nashua North coach Chad Zibolis says his freshmen numbers are down, pointing to that period. There are rosters in all sports where some classes have been missed.

But luckily, no school has reached a crisis point. Chris Lones has had problems at Hollis Brookline getting numbers, tracing the problem again to a youth football shortage. Football is indeed a numbers game; such a physical game that if you don’t have depth you’re in trouble. Lones has told the media in so many words that he has to throw his players to the fire because there’s no one else. Other coaches have the same issue. Alvirne, thanks to injuries and other factors, had a severe numbers crunch that helped to derail its 2022 season. That’s why new coach Matt Lee went to work right away after being hired in January to get the numbers up and get as many athletes from the school as he could find playing the game, and from the looks of it he’s done a pretty good job. Just a guess, but it will be curious to compare the numbers on the sidelines between the Broncos and the Little Green.

But the game of football is alive and well. Nine area teams will be playing this weekend, including North squaring off against Merrimack tonight at 6:30.

Football is certainly fighting obstacles. Game officials have given athletic directors a couple of selected dates to see if they can move games to Thursdays if they can to help with the shortage. Nashua AD Lisa Gingras said that they weren’t able to do it for those specific dates for various reasons. But don’t be surprised to see it happen down the road.

Stellos will be busy on Friday nights, beginning tonight. And that’s a great thing.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.