Head Coach Thomy Edwards and the Dawson County Middle School Tigers have been busy preparing for the upcoming 2010 season. The team has been working out all summer to get ready for the upcoming campaign.

“Practice has been going good,” Edwards said. “We have had a great turnout all summer.”

About 48 players have been at practice the last two weeks.

“I’m pleased with our numbers,” Edwards said. “We have about 30 players returning from last year, so we should be a lot more mature.”

Dawson has made several changes on both offense and defense over the summer. The Tigers will run a split backfield with a wing on offense.

Leading the offense will be quarterback Brody Chester.

Chester is a seventh grader, but Edwards will put him in charge offensively.

“Brody has learned the offense really well for a seventh grader,” Edwards said. “He has done a great job of picking the offense up. We need to work on his throwing some and his arm strength can be improved.”

Chester will have several running backs to handoff to this season.

The Tigers will have Cory Voyles, Jake Phillips, Jake Leete, Logan Crumley, Matt Hamil, Kyle Hayes and Richard Palmer in the backfield.

“We are going to rotate all seven backs and try to keep them fresh. Some of them will have to play defense also,” Edwards said.

On defense the team will base everything out of  a 4-4 formation.

“If we can’t stop the run we will switch to a 50 front on defense or maybe a 5-3 defensive scheme,” he said.

Leading the defense will be linebacker Richard Palmer.

“Palmer has been all over the field in preseason,” Edwards said. “He should make a bunch of tackles.”

Also at linebacker, the Tigers will have Kyle Hayes, Jake Phillips and Cory Voyles.

Tucker Welling will also be a force from his defensive tackle position.

“Tucker [Welling] is real physical and does a great job of stopping the run.”

Dawson finished the season 3-4 last year, but three of those losses were by a total of only nine points.

“We want to be in every ball game again this season but find a way to win those close ones that we dropped last year,” Edwards said.

The Tigers will host a Jamboree beginning at 5:30 p.m., Aug. 18.

Dawson’s first regular season game will be against cross-county rival Riverview Middle School. The game will be played at Dawson County High School with kick-off set for 7:30 p.m.