NATCHEZ — Despite high school football season being more than two months away, the Natchez High football team is already hard at work shaping up for the fall.

The summer months are generally the toughest for the Bulldogs said assistant coach Ivan Evans, who was leading conditioning drills at 7 a.m. Wednesday at Tom F. Williams Memorial Stadium.

“Summer workouts are the hardest,” Evans said. “The games (in the fall) are the easy part.”

Evans said the Bulldogs split up the varsity and junior varsity players for separate weight room and conditioning workouts starting at 6 a.m. Natchez has the two-hour workouts every morning Monday through Thursday.

“It used to be that nobody worked out in the summer,” assistant coach Trey Woodard said, while shouting weight lifting commands in the Natchez High weight room at the David Steckler Multi-Purpose Center.

“Now to be competitive, you have to work year-round. Training is essential, especially in 6A.”

The team started its summer workout program June 6 and will continue until July 29.

Woodard said it is important for the players to take advantage of the summer workout time and build as much strength as they can to prepare for the grind of camp and the season.

Evans said his focus is on endurance and increasing speed.

“We do endurance and speed drills a lot,” he said. “(We have) a lot of new (players), so some (of the older guys) have to go both ways until the younger guys learn.”

The older players need to be in better shape to handle more reps, Evans said.

Evans said the benefits of the summer conditioning program are seen in games early in the season.

“Going into the fall, as far as we can see, in the second half of games we are still fresh and other teams aren’t, so it helps in the fall.”

Evans said the conditioning work helps the players’ mental toughness as much as their physical stamina.

“We try to push them, but don’t want to overdo it,” he said. “We push them as far as they can go because most of it is mental anyway.”

Upcoming senior offensive and defensive lineman Levarious Dorsey said the hard work and early hours are definitely tough on him.

“It’s hard, I get off work at 1 a.m. and have to be here at (6) a.m. running and lifting weights,” he said.

Dorsey said although the work is hard, he does understand the benefits of the workouts.

“It helps you to be stronger and have more endurance. It helps you prepare (for the season),”

Evans said despite the early start, workout participation is good,

“The participation is good, especially for 6 a.m.,” Evans said. “But the ones that show up are who we can count on in the fall.”

Evans said the players that do not participate now would face even tougher work during camp.

“(Summer workouts) are very important. The one’s that don’t participate have to make it up in the fall with pads on,” he said.

The Bulldogs are also currently participating in seven-on-seven camps every Tuesday night and will travel to LSU for a seven-on-seven camp in July, the coaches said.