Bainbridge High School head football coach Jeff Littleton was the guest speaker at Rotary this week and talked about his team, his goals and his upcoming second season at BHS.

“We have been working hard since January, both on and off the field,” Littleton said, who indicated the players have been working in the weight room while also working on their grades. They have done a good job on the latter as there are no players who are ineligible to play.

“We are emphasizing our core values on and off the field,” Littleton said, and he went on to define them as:  1) passion and pride; 2) dependable and accountable; 3) no excuses or complaints; 4) give great effort and never give up and 5) be confident that you will win.

He also spoke of the spring practices without pads and of the football camp hosted on the BHS campus that was visited by two other teams.
Last year he had three returning starters. This year he has 11 returning starters, some of whom play both sides of football. Key newcomers will be playing bigger roles this year.

“Seven of the 11 are offensive players,” he explained, while promising that the offensive line will be the team’s strength this coming season.
“We have a new quarterback who is more athletic,” he said. “We plan to control the tempo of the game.”

One Rotarian asked about the freshman running back, Damian Pierce, he had been hearing about. Littleton responded that he is age 14, 5-feet-11-inches and a really good athlete, but still young and learning.

Another question asked about the extra scrimmage in the spring, and Littleton replied the Georgia High School Athletic Association allows for an extra scrimmage in the spring if you do not use pads. That has given them the opportunity to move people around.

“We are much further ahead this year than at the beginning of last year,” Littleton said.

A question about the new region schedule brought the response, “I am happy. The games are closer and the community can be more involved.”

Littleton said he has been in that region for many years and is familiar with the coaches. He predicted the new region will be tougher, that there are ten teams – five per side.

A scrimmage in Cairo will be held Aug. 15, and a home scrimmage with Pelham the following week. The first regional season game will be Aug. 29 at Early County and the first home season game is Sept. 5 against Cairo.