Are you ready for some football?

If you are, you had better check the calendar.

This year, for the opening home game for the Northampton Area High School Konkrete Kids varsity football team, it’s not “Friday Night Lights.”

It’s “Thursday Night Lights.”

The NAHS Konkrete Kids football team will face the Stroudsburg High School Mountaineers football team 7 p.m. Sept. 7 at Al Erdosy Stadium, Northampton.

Other Konkrete Kids home and away varsity football games for the 2023 season are played Friday nights with the exception of the scrimmage game versus Bethlehem Catholic High School Golden Hawks Aug. 19; the season opener, an away game, which was a loss (17-16 to Allentown Central Catholic High School Vikings); and the annual Turkey Day game with the Catasauqua High School Rough Riders, scheduled for 10 a.m. Nov. 23 at Alumni Field, Catasauqua.

The rescheduling of the varsity football team home opener at Erdosy Stadium is because of a leaguewide problem in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, in which the Konkrete Kids compete.

“That’s our turn for the Thursday game, at least for now,” Northampton Area School District Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik said.

Kovalchik said each school in the league shared in the rescheduling of games.

“Across the league, we’ve changed the schedule. So some games are on Thursdays, some on Fridays and some on Saturdays,” Kovalchik said. “It all boils down to not enough officials (at games). We always talk about shortages of teachers, but it’s bus drivers, principals and officials.”

Kovalchik said the move to the Thursday night Konkrete Kids varsity football home opener had to be coordinated with other NASD student sports games, as well as for the participation of the NAHS cheerleaders, NAHS Big ‘N’ Band, food stand workers and ticket collectors at Erdosy Stadium.

Matthew Frailey was approved by a unanimous 9-0 vote during the Aug. 14 NASD Board of Education meeting as NAHS assistant athletic director, at $84,000, prorated with benefits, effective Oct. 16.

In other business at the Aug. 14 board meeting, school directors voted 9-0 to approve:

• Revised listing of 2023-24 fall season head coaches and assistant coaches with their designated payments, effective July 1-June 30, 2024

• Barry Schultz Jr., Northampton Area Middle School assistant principal, at $86,000, prorated with benefits, effective Sept. 15

• Shane Nauss, 12-month school psychologist, at $85,809, prorated with benefits, effective Oct. 16

• Kyrsten Bowman, English teacher, NAMS, at $59,466, with benefits, effective Aug. 21

• Taylor Atiyeh, long-term substitute grade 3 teacher, Siegfried Elementary School, for the first semester of the 2023-24 school year, at $58,855, pro-rated, effective Aug. 21

• Memorandum of agreement for services between Valley Youth House and NASD for the 2023-24 school year to provide additional counseling services at NAMS, Moore Elementary School, George Wolf Elementary School, Lehigh Elementary School and Northampton Borough Elementary Schools at a cost not to exceed $90,000, paid for through the American Rescue Plan Learning Loss grant and a Northampton County grant secured by Valley Youth House. There is no cost to the district for these additional counseling services.

The board of education next meets 6:30 p.m. Sept. 11 in the auditorium at NAHS, 1619 Laubach Ave.