This scene from last year's preseason practices at Hollis Brookline High School will be repeated all over the area and the state today as official football practices are allowed to begin. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

There will be a different feeling in the air this morning, can you feel it?

It’s a fall feeling. Or a football feeling.

Yes, the summer is over for hundreds of local high school football players, as team practices officially begin today – three weeks away from the regular season’s opening weekend.

As those who have followed things over the last 10 years know, the old days of full double sessions out on the field are over. Teams are allowed to have one full practice (no pads just yet, that starts at some point next week) and one planning session or walk through.

So while you think that may take a while to get into the swing of things, most teams have gotten together over the summer around vacations, etc. playing in 7 on 7 leagues, weight room sessions, open gyms, etc. A lot more off-season is allowed.

But now football begins Nashua South will try to replace several key players from its semifinals season a year ago. Nashua North got back on track for the post season, but was ousted by Bishop Guertin in the first round before the Cards fell to Nashua South in the quarterfinals for the second straight season. Guerin and Pinkerton are looked at as perhaps the top two teams in Division I.

Alvirne and Merrimack also get underway, looking to build on the positive signs from a year ago. In Division II, Souhegan hopes to bounce back from a painful loss in the finals to Trinity, but several key spots need to be filled. Milford is looking to make strides while Hollis Brookline will be in the second year of a major rebuild but the off-season gatherings showed tons of promise. And it’s almost a new era in Division III for Campbell, as most of the players from their recent titles and finals appearances have graduated.

Teams will practice through the weekend; some may go away for a couple of days and scrimmages with other schools will also get going certainly by the end of the second week of practice.