By this evening, the locker rooms are going to stink.
For some, it's a putrid aroma, the remnants of gallons of sweat that have seeped into pads and apparel that no dehumidifying units or fans can extinguish. To others, it is mindful of the fruits of labor necessary for success.
Today is the first of many full-pads practices for Tennessee high school football teams.
"For everybody, it's THE day. It's a big deal. Monday, it's on," Central coach Cortney Braswell said late last week. "Everybody is on the same page and the clock is the same for everybody.
"Everybody's good in seven-on-seven. Every quarterback is a Peyton Manning and every receiver runs great routes. There are no missed blocks. Now it's Monday and nobody can hide. It's real football, and I remember knowing as a player I was going to be real, real sore."
The outcome of Hixson's trip to Maryville for a seven-on-seven matchup nine days ago was of no consequence to new Hixson coach Gary Murray.
"I told the guys it didn't matter how we performed, that REAL football starts Monday," he said.
Teams had to spend three days last week in shorts and shoulder pads to get acclimated for what begins today.
"It's a little different," Meigs County coach Jason Fitzgerald said of the mindset shared by players and coaches. "You get to see for sure who's grown up and who's gotten tougher and bigger, and you're looking at last year's middle-of-the-pack guys to see who's advanced."
Like Fitzgerald, Murray is an old offensive line coach and an older old offensive lineman.
"We had three seven-on-sevens (two weeks past) and last week we did the acclimating thing," he said. "Being an old O-line guy, anytime you get a chance to put on pads and get nasty, that's exciting."
Some of the teams will practice twice today, others only once. There are limits in place on how often teams can practice twice per day, and there are also heat-index limitations.
"Weather hasn't been an issue so far, but I don't remember the heat-index stuff or practicing indoors when I was playing," said Lookout Valley's Lance Rorex, a first-year head coach and quite possibly the youngest of the area's head coaches. "If we had to, we could go up to the baseball indoor facility and run drills there."
Practice times will vary also. While Lookout Valley will wait until 6 p.m., Central, for one, is going early this morning.
"We'll start at 8 and go to about 10. None of our practices last more than an hour and 50 minutes," Braswell said. "Then we'll hit the road at 5 a.m. Tuesday headed for Boone, N.C. (Appalachian State) - training camp, five days and four nights completely surrounded by football."
East Hamilton is one of those one-per-day practice teams, beginning at 8 this morning with lifting and meetings and getting on the field at 10.
"Two-a-days, for me and most college teams, are a thing of the past," Hurricanes coach Ted Gatewood said. "There gets to be a point of diminishing returns, and you start losing production. It's a matter of production and safety."
East Ridge coach Tim James has returned to the two-a-day format, but much of what the Pioneers will do involves walk-throughs.
"It's not like we're beating the brakes off each other; no more knocking the snot out of each other in Oklahoma drills and that stuff," James said. "We'll have limited contact, saving our hits for Friday night. Our kids are physical. We're just making sure of fundamental techniques."
It wasn't always that way. Many coaching veterans recall the grueling three-a-day sessions, some on campus and some away.
"We went in pads in the morning and again in the afternoon, and then the evening practice was walk-throughs or special teams work," said James, who spent many a night at the old Catoosa Rifle Range while playing for his father, Raymond.
"Yeah, we had three-a-days," Gatewood remembered. "We stayed at school. We'd practice in the morning, have lunch, go on the field for special teams at 1:30 or 2, get a 45-minute break and then back on the field. We'd go from 2:30 or 3 till 5 or 5:30 - for the whole week."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.