Although graduation and the end of the school have just passed, coach Jeff Littleton’s Bearcats coaching staff is already preparing for the start of the 2013 season.

Littleton said that the players will have a few weeks off, before starting their summer weight lifting and conditioning program Tuesday, June 11. The Bearcats will work out every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday through the remainder of June.

Littleton said that some individual players may attend position-specific camps during June, but there are no camps scheduled for the entire team that month.

“We’re going to use that time in June to get better at the things that we need to do, and to get stronger in the weight room,” he said.

He said that there will likely be some additional camps and 7-on-7 competitions scheduled for July, as the team gets closer to the start of two-a-days practice. Littleton said the Bearcats will do some intra-squad 7-on-7 drills, and also compete in the Georgia-Florida 7-on-7 tournament on July 18.

Starting July 25, teams in Georgia can begin practicing in helmets and shorts, Littleton said. The first day that teams can begin practicing in full pads is Aug. 1.

Last Friday, May 17, Littleton’s players participated in an intra-squad scrimmage at Centennial Field. Although there was no score kept or running clock, the team practiced its regular plays on both offense and defense, and worked on a variety of formations and situations.

Littleton said the team looked at the film from that scrimmage earlier this week, and he was proud of what he saw.

“It was really impressive to see the progression that the team made throughout spring practice,” he said. “We got much, much better at the things that we were really emphasizing to the players.”

Littleton was hired in March, replacing former coach Ed Pilcher, who resigned after five seasons and is now the head coach at Berrien. Pilcher’s teams ran the veer offense, while Littleton prefers a pro-style system based out of the I-formation.

Littleton said that there were some new things that his players had to learn for his system, but a lot of the fundamentals were the same as what Pilcher’s staff taught.

“Coach Pilcher did a really good job of getting these kids to learn the fundamentals of football, and now we’re just trying to build on the foundation that he put in place,” he said.

The Bearcats are scheduled to host Chamblee in a pre-season scrimmage game on Friday, Aug. 23, and then open regular season play against visiting East Gadsden on Friday, Aug. 30.