Summer conditioning is done, equipment has been handed out and, on Friday morning, area high school football players donned helmets for the first time, marking the official beginning of the 2024-25 NHIAA season.

This fall is also the beginning of a new two-year classification cycle, meaning the structure of the divisions and some of the teams within them will be different than in the previous two years. It will be especially significant for some of the smaller Capital Area programs. Two local cooperative programs dissolved, Hopkinton and Belmont high schools will no longer participate in football and, for the first time in school history, Hillsboro-Deering High School will field a standalone team.

Here is a breakdown of all four NHIAA football divisions and the changes for the next two seasons.

Division IV

The most significant development in area football is happening in Hillsboro, as the HDHS Hillcats prepare for their inaugural season as a solo program. H-D was the lead school in the Hillsboro-Deering/Hopkinton Redhawks cooperative team, which started in 2014 as a junior varsity program and reached varsity status in 2016.

The Redhawks spent most of their nine varsity seasons competing in Division II, including last fall when they finished 2-6, knowing that it was their final season in partnership with Hopkinton, a significant decision given that the Redhawks played their home games at one of the Houston Fields behind the Hopkinton Town Library.

Needless to say, it’s been an incredibly busy offseason and summer for H-D athletic director Jay Wood, who has also served as the team’s head coach for its entire history. Folks have been hard at work converting the HDHS practice field into a game field.

“The practice field has been worked on and added to since the beginning of the summer and should have plenty of grass down for our home opener,” Wood said, adding that new tags and decals bearing the Hillcat name will replace the Redhawks on all of the uniforms.

Hillsboro-Deering will host a football game for the first time in school history on Sept. 21 when Franklin pays a visit.

With Somersworth, the three-time defending champions, and Newport, finalists in three of the last four D-IV title games, moving up to D-III, this year’s pecking order is entirely up in the air.

H-D should fare better in D-IV than the Redhawks since the Hillcats will face programs of more comparable sizes. Due to NHIAA rules for cooperative programs, the Redhawks had to compete in D-II since H-D and Hopkinton’s combined enrollment put them in that bracket, even though Hopkinton only contributed five players to last year’s roster.

Hopkinton athletic director Dan Meserve cited low participation numbers as the reason for the end of the partnership.

H-D will face plenty of area competition as fellow Capital Area programs Bishop Brady, Franklin and Winnisquam make up half of the eight-team division.

Farmington-Nute, Mascoma, Newfound and Raymond high schools are the other four teams.

All D-IV teams will face each other once throughout the regular season, with the top four, based on the NHIAA football point rating system (which awards more points for victories based on the strength of schedule) qualifying for the playoffs.

D-IV will kick off Sept. 14, one week after the other three divisions open.

Division I

D-I is the only division with no adjustments to its structure, so not much will change for Concord, as far as its schedule goes, in 2024. The division remains the largest with 21 teams divided into three conferences of seven teams each. The Crimson Tide remain in the Central Conference with Alvirne, Londonderry, Manchester Central, Pinkerton, Salem and Windham.

Teams will face all other members of their respective conference with two crossover games against programs from elsewhere in D-I. The Crimson Tide will face D-I West opponent Goffstown in its season opener on the road on Sept. 6 and will host D-I East’s Manchester Memorial on Oct. 10.

The top team in the D-I Central, East and West conferences will earn the top three seeds for the playoffs, with the next 10 best programs rounding out the tournament field, as has been the case for the past two seasons.

Division II

Aside from D-IV, most of the local high school football teams are represented in D-II.

Bow, Merrimack Valley and Pembroke return to the D-II East, as do Plymouth, St. Thomas and Kennett. Those six teams will be joined by former D-III programs Kingswood and Trinity (the 2023 champions and finalists the past three years).

John Stark returns to the D-II West with Hanover, Hollis-Brookline, Manchester West, Milford, Pelham and Souhegan and D-II newcomers ConVal.

Each team will play all seven other teams in their respective conference, plus two crossover games with the other half of the division. The top East and West team will receive the top two seeds for the playoffs, with the next six best teams filling out the bracket.

Division III

Kearsarge is the only area team in a division that saw several changes due to the reclassification. The division has increased to 13 teams after playing with 10 in the previous cycle.

Gilford High School is now playing as a standalone program for the first time since 2015 following the dissolution of the Gilford-Belmont cooperative program that played eight seasons through last year.

After playing in D-II, Gilford on its own qualifies for D-III based on enrollment, with Laconia, Lebanon (JV only in 2023) and Sanborn moving down as well.

Due to the increase in teams, D-III now has the same regular season and playoff structure as D-II.

Kearsarge and its fellow D-III West opponents (Fall Mountain, Lebanon, Monadnock, Newport and Stevens) won’t have to travel far this season with most of them based in the Upper Valley.

Returning programs Campbell, Epping-Newmarket and Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough and newcomers Gilford, Laconia, Sanborn and Somersworth make up the D-III East.

Opening games

Week one of the new season will be Sept. 6-7 for Divisions I, II and III, with D-IV opening a week later. The season openers for all area teams:

Friday, Sept. 6: Concord at Goffstown, 7 p.m.; Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough at Kearsarge, 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 7: Pelham at Bow, 1 p.m.; Merrimack Valley at John Stark, 2 p.m.; Manchester West at Pembroke, 2:30 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 14: Hillsboro-Deering at Winnisquam, 2 p.m.; Farmington-Nute at Franklin, 2 p.m. Newfound at Bishop Brady, 6 p.m.