By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

These are good times to be a Troup Tiger.

Coming off a 9-3 season, the Tigers appear poised to do some special things this fall, with most of the players from last year’s team coming back.

The players and coaches are taking nothing for granted, though.

Part of the reason the Tigers are in this position is because of the good work they’ve put in during the summers in recent years, which allows them to hit the ground running when preseason practice gets started in July.

This summer is no exception.

The Tigers kicked off their summer program at the start of June, and they’ll stay busy until official preseason practice begins on July 25.

The Tigers will, like every other team in the state, take some time off for the Georgia High School Association-mandated dead week the week of July 4th.

Outside of that week off, the Tigers will be hard at work throughout the summer as the players participate in daily workouts at the school, as well as camps, seven-on-seven competitions, and other activities.

“It’ll be here before you know it,” said Tanner Glisson, who is in his fourth season as Troup’s head coach. “You come back from the dead week, and it’s on you. But we feel good about where we are.”

It helps that Glisson has been at Troup long enough where everything is in place and running smoothly.

That wasn’t the case in the summer of 2015 when Glisson had just taken over and he was still getting to know the names of his players.

Now, the players know what to expect, and outside of a few changes, the coaching staff has been mostly the same since 2015.

“It’s been good, and these guys have been around the block now for a while,” Glisson said. “So we make it real easy to get things installed. I’m real blessed to have this group of guys.”

One of the first things Troup did this summer was to participate in a two-day, four-team camp at Bremen.

Troup was joined at the camp by Bremen, Carrollton and Rockmart, and all three of those teams made it at least as far as the second round of the state playoffs.

“Those were three really good teams,” Glisson said. “Carrollton made the quarterfinals last year. Bremen has got a ton of seniors and they’re going to be really good. And Rockmart brings a ton of seniors back. So it was really a good thing.”

Glisson felt the second day of the camp was an especially productive one for his players.

“The first day, I felt like we felt our way through it a little bit,” Glisson said. “You don’t really game plan for something like that, so you get up there and see certain things you haven’t seen a lot. The second day I thought we were really good defensively. I thought we were very physical, as much as you can be in shells.”

Glisson added that “we moved pretty well. We got around pretty good. For the most part, I thought Thursday was one of the best days we’ve had. It was good against quality opponents. And you’re able to get things on film.”

Last week, Troup participated in a seven-on-seven tournament at Auburn University, and it was a successful day.

The Tigers reached the semifinals of the tournament, and they got a win over the rival Callaway Cavaliers along the way.

Troup has another seven-on-seven tournament at the University of Alabama later this month.

While the seven-on-sevens and camps are important, the foundation of a summer schedule are the daily workouts at the school.

“They come in from 8 to 11:30,” Glisson said. “We feed them breakfast and lunch. We lift weights, and there’s a little bit of on-the-field time and film time. It just depends on what we need.”

Glisson has been pleased with what he’s seen from his players so far.

“It’s been pretty good,” Glisson said. “The kids have a little hop in their step.”

Troup opens its season on Aug. 24 at Ridgeland, and it will begin its Region 5-AAAA schedule on Sept. 21 against Chapel Hill.