After the loss in the quarterfinal round of the AHSAA playoff in 2015 to Munford High School, a new challenge presented itself for the Bulldog football team.

The senior class did a tremendous job of setting a new bar for our program, but we know that our ultimate goal is to compete for the top spot in our classification every year.

Knowing that it takes a full year’s worth of work to prepare a championship team, we didn’t waste any time.

The following week, the team immediately went back to work in the weight room, pushing all the way to Christmas break for some much-needed recovery time. The first day back to school in January marked the start of the true “offseason” for our team.

Each week, the team faces a new five-day series of physically and mentally grueling workouts, combining the weight room with skill development through circuit training. The high-volume weight training is designed to develop strength and power from a different part of the body each day, focusing on the three main lifts of the squat, bench press and hang clean. The workouts become progressively harder each week, building up to the long-awaited Max Week, when athletes get to compete against themselves and try to set new personal records for maximum weight lifted on each exercise.

The circuit training attacks a different objective each day such as speed and acceleration, agility power, and toughness, using drills to simulate game-type situations and movements. Some drills are based on individual performance while others rely on teamwork.

We are currently in our fourth week of offseason training , which will continue until school lets out for summer vacation After a short break, the team will report back for summer workouts and transition into the “pre-season “ phase of the year. The Andalusia Bulldogs will open the season against Brooks High School on August 230, 2016, in the Champions Challenge at Crampton Bowl in Montgomery.

This week’s Bulldog Bytes was written by Adam Helms.