Dawson County High School Head Basketball Coach Thad Burgess and his Tiger basketball team are preparing for a very busy summer schedule of workouts and games.
According to Burgess, the Tigers will totally overhaul their philosophy of the last five years. He said that the style of play will be different from the style that has carried them to the state playoffs.
"I felt now was a perfect time to put some new energy and excitement with basically a new bunch of players that we will depend on," Burgess said. "The loss of our outstanding group of seniors will be missed and they meant so much to me and our basketball program. However, I feel we have established a solid base of great kids that have bought into what we are trying to acHhieve and will carry our success on."
Returning for Dawson County will be junior Tyler Dominy.
As a sophomore, Dominy scored 17 point per game for the Tigers. Dominy will be expected to carry a bigger role on offense this summer and next season, according to Burgess.
The Tigers are also going to do something different defensively. Burgess has stated that the team will employ more of an up tempo style of play.
"We are going to try and speed things up defensively. I plan on bringing back our run and jump full court pressure that was a key in our first run in the state playoffs five years ago," Burgess said.
On offense, the Tigers have really depended on the 3-point shot over the last five years. This summer Burgess plans on using a motion style offense patterned after college teams like Princeton and Gonzaga.
"I have spent this spring studying just about every type of motion offense in the college ranks, and feel confident with what we will be doing to match the type of personal we have," he said.
Dawson will have seven practices to learn the new style. Practices began May 27 and games will begin June 7 at South Forsyth High School.
The team will travel for an overnight camp at Berry College from June 9 -11. Dawson will also go back to Birmingham-Southern for a team camp from Monday, June 20 till Wednesday, June 22.
Wedged in between these two camps will be games at Chestatee High School on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 14 and 15.
The Tigers will finish their summer schedule by attending the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Camp in Alpharetta from June 29 through July 1.