The Opp Bobcat football team has spent the grueling days of summer in preparation of another strong year under the helm of head coach Brent Hill.

“It has been a good summer,” Hill said. “The guys have been working really hard, and we have been working on getting them acclimated to the heat.”

Hill said the Bobcats spent three days each week in June and four days each week in July to get ready for the season.

“We’ve been working on agility, strength, speed, conditioning and working on plays without pads,” Hill said. “It’s important to get those reps in before we get in full pads.”

Throughout the summer workouts, Hill said he has seen a lot of growth from several players.

“I’ve seen several guys that have gotten stronger and quicker,” Hill said. “I’m very proud of the work that this group has put in so far this summer. Today was our first day back since last week’s dead period, and that’s always tough coming back from a break. The dead period’s a good thing, though, they need a few days to rest and relax.”

Improvement in past year’s contributing players was also something that Hill said impressed him over the summer.

“To me, the guys who have done a lot for us in the past, for them to continue to develop and get better, that impresses me,” Hill said. “A lot of times, you see guys like that start coasting in leaning what that have done. These group of guys have done a great job at getting better and becoming better leaders of the team.”

After two months of summer workouts, Hill said he is certain the kids are ready to strap on the pads in August.

“They’ve have been going at it in the heat learning fundamentals for the past two months,” Hill said. “I’ve got no doubt they are ready to get in pads and get a lot more physical.”

Hill said that this is will be the first season that Bobcats haven’t been installing a new system in his threes years at Opp.

“This will be the first year where we aren’t teaching something new,” Hill said. “My first year we put in a new offense, and last year we put in a new defense. That’s going to be a huge advantage for us. Instead of teaching a brand new system, we are fine tuning ours. If we can stay healthy, this group has a pretty good chance to do something special.”