It was full speed ahead Friday on the first day of football practice for Nashua North. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Josh Porter knew what day Friday was.

“It’s like Christmas,” the Nashua High School South football coach Josh Porter said with a big grin.

Yes, Christmas in August. The 2026-27 local high school sports year is underway with the start Friday of high school football practices, and local coaches and players were ready to get going.

“Outside of the admin stuff, making sure everyone’s got their paperwork, it’s a good buzz. It’s been a long off-season, but a good off-season. Now we’re here, it’s real now.”

Oh it’s real. As Bishop Guertin coach Anthony Nalen said to his players as they were doing the dreaded small hill run at Elliott Field yesterday, “You can tell the guys who worked out all summer.”

Sure, teams are in the weight room or have skill/agility drills during the summer, not to mention weight room work and 7 on 7s. But Friday was just a different day as the players are all together, all positions, and it’s time to get into football shape.

“The summer, it’s always exciting to see the kids with their strength and conditioning,” Nashua North coach Chad Zibolis said. “But now, you see every kid together. Every kid’s going to be here, nobody’s on vacation, everybody’s ready to play ball.

“It’s great to see what they did in the off-season, how much it’s helped them, and see what kind of improvement you have.”

Do kids look forward to this day or dread it?

“No, I look forward to it,” Guertin senior QB Nate Bowen said. “It’s like all the conditioning, people think that’s bad, but no, it’s what football’s all about and it’s what makes me want to come back for more during the season.

“When my alarm went off, I woke up right away, and I’m like ‘I’m ready for today.'”

The competition was all out at Bishop Guertin’s first day of practice on Friday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Cardinal teammate Bishop Kearns agreed. In fact, he showed up for the morning meetings early.

And found out he wasn’t the only one.

“I felt good, was getting up, ate, came here 30 minutes early,” he said. “There was already a bunch of people here, ready to get the season started.”

And it’s a season with the Cards one of the preseason favorites.

“I’m looking forward to it, there’s high expectations, everybody’s here to play,”

Kearns said.

No pads, just shirts and shorts, and the players do wear helmets.

“Obviously there’s not a ton of stuff you can do with just helmets,” Zibolis said. “But you can see how fast you are. You can see where you are mentally and understanding our systems and actually seeing our youth kids who are coming up who have been running our systems where they’re at. We’ve already got about six of our plays in.”

The first few days are all about conditioning and setting the tone.

“We get into our conditioning, make sure kids understand how we do things, how our culture is,” Zibolis said. “Make sure we’re always running on the field, make sure you’re always bringing stuff, the type of culture stuff we talk about. Not being late for practice. They learn real quick the first three days of practice.”

This year was a short summer for the two Nashua public high schools, as they didn’t end until late June.

“Last year we had everybody returning as starters, so we wanted a short summer, let’s just get to the season,” Porter said. “This year, we’ve got new guys, so we could use a little bit more time.

“But we’re here, and these guys are ready to go. It’s exciting for sure.”

Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Football Christmas.

Nashua South linemen get to work on the first day of high school football practice Friday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)