The late August air feels different this week across Carbon, Schuylkill and Lehigh counties.

Friday night lights are coming back.

After months of quiet weekends, the heartbeat of these communities is about to return with the crack of shoulder pads and hometown crowds.

High school football season kicks off this week, and for just about everywhere in the Times News coverage area, that means everything is about to change.

“It’s awesome because I’m still obviously living here, and I have a business in the town where I grew up and played,” said Salvatore Caruso, a co-owner of Pizza Como U.S.A. in Lehighton, who played middle linebacker for the Indians’ Class of 2008.

Nearly 20 years after graduating, Caruso still finds himself connected to the program that helped shape him — and that connection runs deeper than nostalgia.

Caruso supplies pizzas for Lehighton’s Friday night games, giving the program a good rate so it can turn a profit at the concession stands. The money goes back into equipment, facility improvements and whatever the team needs, Caruso said. It’s the kind of investment that makes small-town football special — former players giving back, local businesses stepping up, everyone pulling together.

“We do a lot with the team, so it’s nice to stay involved in that aspect,” Caruso said. “The coaches all come in here, and so do a ton of the players. Every time they come in, we chit-chat a little bit about what’s going on, how the team’s doing, how they’re looking.”

Through those conversations over pizza orders and casual visits, he gets a sense of how the team is developing.

“They’re all really big kids, man. I mean, it reminds me of my junior and senior year,” Caruso said of this edition of the Indians. “As long as this group of kids can stay together and stay dedicated and keep working together, the program will have a bright future.”

Just a stone’s throw down Route 443 in Tamaqua, another kind of excitement is building.

Jolene Barron is entering her 26th year as an educator, but this season brings new perspectives on the Friday night experience that defines autumn in small-town Pennsylvania.

“I look forward to the start of every high school sports season, but there’s something special about the start of football season,” Barron said. “There’s the promise and hopefulness of a successful season, there’s excitement about seeing new players excel on the field, and it’s always fun to see the bonds student-athletes form with each other.”

For Barron, those bonds carry meaning.

As a longtime elementary teacher now transitioning to high school mathematics, she’s about to see former third graders take the field as varsity players.

“It is always a unique experience to see former students stepping into new roles, and discovering their strengths in the classroom and on the field,” she said. “I am looking forward to teaching many students again this year who I taught when they were in third grade.”

This season, Barron will experience Friday nights from a completely new spot.

Tamaqua recently purchased a new digital scoreboard, and she has taken on the role of creating and operating the digital content during varsity games. Instead of watching from the stands, she’ll be up in the press box, helping tell the story of each game as it unfolds.

“Friday night lights in Tamaqua are always very exciting, and you can feel it building in the town,” Barron said. “I’m looking forward to watching this season unfold from my new seat in the press box.”

That excitement Barron alluded to? It’s the same energy that has Caruso’s pizza shop buzzing on game days, the same anticipation that fills the air when these communities rally around their teams. It’s more than football; it’s the weekly gathering that brings together families, former players, local business owners, teachers who’ve watched kids grow up, and everyone in between.

Let’s not forget the competition between neighboring schools, which creates its own intensity.

When Lehighton hosts rivals such as Jim Thorpe or Palmerton, Caruso sees the difference immediately.

“We do see a lot more foot traffic when there’s a big game, especially a big home game like Jim Thorpe or Palmerton or a rival school,” he said.

Those rivalry games represent something bigger than just wins and losses. They’re community events that span generations, where former players like Caruso watch from the stands alongside teachers like Barron, where local businesses thrive, and high school kids get to be heroes under the lights.

Entire communities organize their fall schedules around Friday night games. It’s football, sure, but it’s also identity, tradition and hope wrapped up in shoulder pads and school colors.

The weather will soon begin to break, school bells will ring again, and under those bright lights, these communities will gather to cheer for their kids and remember why Friday nights in small-town Pennsylvania feel like magic.

The lights are ready. The fields are lined. The communities are buzzing.

Let the season begin.