By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

LAGRANGE –  It’s the next stage for the Troup Tigers.

The Tigers put the wraps on their summer program with Thursday’s 11-on-11 team camp at Northside-Columbus, and they’ll make the transition to official preseason practice next week.

Troup head coach Tanner Glisson felt Thursday’s camp was a valuable tool for his players.

It was a full-contact camp that included Troup, Northside and Upson-Lee, and the players went at it for about two hours on a sweltering morning.

“One good thing was it was extremely hot,” Glisson said. “For us to push through and get in a little bit of shape was good. So I was overall pleased with it.”

The camp wrapped up a busy summer for the Tigers.

They began their summer program at the start of June, and there were daily workouts at the school as well as a handful of camps, both of the 11-on-11 and seven-on-seven variety.

“I was pretty pleased,” Glisson said. “There are always things we need to improve on, so we’ll keep coaching, and keep working hard. But I thought it was a good summer.”

Glisson felt the 11-on-11 padded camps were a valuable tool for the players since it’s a closer approximation to what a Friday night is going to be like as opposed to the seven-on-seven passing games.

Glisson was eager to see how the offensive line that features four new starters would perform in a game-like setting on Thursday.

Seth Adams, who is moving from center to guard, has the most experience of any of the offensive linemen.

The rest of the line will consist of first-time starters.

“I think the offensive line did some growing up, but we’ve got a long way to go with them,” Glisson said. “We’ve got skill guys. It’s according to how we’re going to play in the trenches. So we’re working on that.”

Glisson added that the men who’ll be on the offensive line will “fight you, and they’re good kids that are very smart and are dedicated to the program. They just need time to grow. If they can do that, and everybody else can stay healthy, defensively we’re going to be fine, and we’ve got a lot of good people in the skill position. And we’ve got a kicker (Carson Wreyford). That’s a tremendous weapon.”

The Tigers will get together at the school on Monday before official preseason practice gets under way on Tuesday.

“We’ll come in Monday and lift, and probably walk through some things so we’ll be organized and be ready to hit the ground running on Tuesday,” Glisson said.

Troup will host Harris County on Aug. 10 for a preseason game before opening the regular season Aug. 17 against Hardaway at Callaway Stadium.

Troup, after going 1-9 in 2015, went 8-3 last season and finished second in Region 5-AAAA behind Cartersville.

“I always tell the guys, it’s harder to stay on top, than to get to the top,” Glisson said. “Once you get up there, and you start beating some people, they start gunning for you, and you get circled on the calendar. You’re not homecoming any more. You’re a tough region game. So that’s kind of where we sit.”