NATCHEZ — Belhaven University strength coach Garret Rayborn can almost be credited with jumpstarting Cathedral’s season last fall.

Last summer, Rayborn came to help then-new Green Wave head coach Ron Rushing get started on summer workouts.

One year after the school’s most successful season in quite some time, Rayborn is back to once again get the Cathedral players started on the right track, he said. He’ll be working with the Green Wave players Tuesday and Thursday for the next two weeks.

“Right now, I’m just making sure they’re doing everything right,” Rayborn said. “Whether it’s running or lifting, they need to be in the mindset of doing everything right.”

Speed and acceleration drills are the focal point for Cathedral’s workouts early in the summer, Rayborn said. A Natchez native and graduate of Adams County Christian School, Rayborn said he’s eager to pour into the youth in Natchez.

“I want to help out the local high school sas much as I can,” Rayborn said. “I went to school with Ron, and I want to help him as much as I can, too. I know they’re going to have a good year again.”

Rushing said his team started doing full-time summer workouts May 30, and he said Rayborn’s done an excellent job of getting things started, just as he did last year.

“He came and got us focused (last year) and got us off to a good start in our summer workouts,” Rushing said. “We wanted him to come back.”

A year has made a big difference for his program, Rushing said, as many of his players seem to have bought into what the coaches are trying to do.

“I think from this point last year, the improvement our team has seen has been tremendous,” Rushing said. “A lot of it is that they’re older. A lot of these kids have put on 20 to 25 pounds. I think we had 17 kids that didn’t play basketball or baseball that have seen the most improvement, but we still have others who did play other sports that also improved.”

And because Cathedral, which went 10-3 last year and won its division, is coming off such a successful season, Rushing said his players are hungry for even more.

“No doubt,” Rushing said. “We’ve been talking about (this season) since football season ended last year. We realized all the hard work paid off, and they’re putting in the work again and feeding off of last year.”

New to Cathedral’s team this year will be a different set of uniforms, Rushing said.

“These are going to be kind of a dry-fit uniform that clings to your body,” Rushing said. “It’ll keep the players cool and there won’t be any jersey hanging down that the other team can grab and hold onto.”

Rushing said the turnout for summer workouts has been great so far — something Rayborn said he’s happy to see.

“I’m glad to see so many kids that want to better the program and have even a more successful year,” Rayborn said. “I think last year’s season brought about a lot of this.”