Bulldogs eager to start season

For a time, it looked like Strong would have an unexpected bye week in the first week of the season.

Originally scheduled to play at Lake Village, a contractual snafu nixed the game, leaving Strong coach Greg Anthony precious little time to try and secure a game.

But thanks to Hamburg playing on Monday, Anthony was able to secure a game against the Lions' JV squad, giving the Bulldogs an opportunity to take on a school that is two classifications higher.

Game time is set for 7 p.m. from Strong.

“They’re excited that it’s time to go hit somebody else instead of hitting each other,” Anthony said. “We’ve had a really good fall camp up to this point. We’re relatively healthy, and that’s major. We have had good practices and good attitudes. Everybody is working hard.”

The Bulldogs and Lions aren't strangers to one another.

The schools squared off at a team camp in Magnolia, and Anthony

said that helped the Bulldogs' confidence.

“We got to go against Hamburg this summer at a team camp at Magnolia, so they’re excited we’re getting to play somebody two classifications higher than us,” Anthony said.

“Playing them this summer helped build their confidence. They’re excited.”

The late change in the schedule has made preparing for the Lions a unique challenge.

Although Anthony had film from the team camp in Magnolia, both coaches wanted to swap films in order to get ready for tonight's game.

The schools traded films on Tuesday, leaving the coaching staff just two days to get ready.

“We had film from this summer, and we were lucky that they wanted to swap films, so we’ll have a little bit of an idea of what we‘re looking at,” Anthony said.

Anthony added that he has spoken with the team about their preparation and what he is looking for from his team.

“I’m looking really hard, and I have told the team this. We’ve stressed that football is a lot like life sometimes. You have a plan and then something happens and you have to go down a different road, which is what we’ve done,” Anthony said.

“We’ve basically prepared for two different teams for one week. We started preparing for Lake Village, but then had to change directions.

"One thing we’re looking for is that we have no drop-off from the scrimmage to this game.

“Hamburg is going to bring quality players, and if we don’t have a good night, they’re going to be capable of beating us really bad, but we’re looking for our effort and our attitudes. We’re looking for them to treat this as though it were a conference game.”

Last week, the Bulldogs were impressive in knocking off Lafayette County in their scrimmage, but there have been a couple of topics that Anthony has stressed this week in practice.

“One thing that we noticed on film was that we would have players that would play five, six, seven plays really, really hard, but then it looked like they would take a play or two off, I guess due to conditioning,” Anthony said.

“That was one thing we’ve worked harder on this week. We had a day where we went real long in practice to correct some technique things on the defensive side, stuff that you go over every day, but we had to stress the importance of it, so we went back to more of a teaching-type practice.”

If the Bulldogs are to open the 2017 season with a win, Anthony believes it will start in the trenches.

“We have to win up front on both sides,” Anthony said.

“I think that’s going to be a key for us every week, because I feel that up front is one of our strongest points.

“Controlling the clock and not turning the ball over I think will help us as much as anything. At the scrimmage, we did a very good job of not turning it over, so hopefully that will last.”