The varsity football team will “hit the ground running” during spring practice which began Monday. According to Head Coach Jeff Lee, the coaching staff will speed things up for his older players.

“By this Friday I expect to be able to have a game. It may not look too good, but we will pretty much have everything in and should be able to play,” Lee said. “We will then take what we have learned this week and scrimmage on Saturday morning.”

The Tigers have a nucleus of players that were thrown into the fire last season as sophomores and freshmen. The football learning curve for them shouldn’t be as steep this year.

Leading the Tigers will be junior quarterback Tyler Dominy.

Dominy recently attended a Nike Football Camp where he was very successful. He ended up in the top six in the camp and was noticed by several college recruiters.

“Tyler has been throwing since the end of February,” Lee said. “He has been working on his steps. Tyler is light years ahead of where he was this time last season.”

The Tigers will practice from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. On Saturday morning the team will have an informal scrimmage at Tiger Stadium.

Next week Dawson will install more offensive and defensive schemes on Monday and Tuesday. Thursday and Friday the team will polish up some rough ends before holding a full blown scrimmage at 10 a.m. Saturday, according to Lee.

“Our players are eager to put their equipment on to see how much stronger they are from the end of the season,” Lee said.

One of the concerns of spring practice is avoiding getting key players hurt. The Tiger coaching staff will encourage players to take care of their bodies, especially after contact drills and at the end of the day.

Goals of the Dawson County coaching staff are to see leadership, not only from the seniors but the rising juniors as well.

“We want to see how much the players have retained from last season. I would also like to see our guys flying around out there. I want our guys to hit the field and have a good time,” Lee said.