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With a couple of weeks to go before the TSSAA dead period, the football Red Raiders have been hard at work in spring practices preparing for next season.

This past week, the Red Raiders worked out and practiced from 7 a.m. until 10 a.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and had a 7 vs 7 practice with Moore County on Tuesday as well.

In his first offseason as Head Football Coach, Roger Haynes is looking to shake things up heading into the 2024 season.

“Our offense will be drastically different next year,” Haynes said. “Coach Oliver is one of the best offensive line coaches and offensive minds that I’ve been around in 37 years. He has a huge challenge in front of him, but he’s stepping up to the plate. Our offensive staff have been working around the clock and the kids are trying to learn it the best they can.”

Last year, the Red Raiders were held scoreless in five games and scored a combined 34 points in the first eight games of the season, before scoring 42 points in their home win over Ooltewah and 14 points in a road loss to Blackman to close out the season.

Along with learning the new system, the Red Raiders have also spent an equal amount of time working on strength and conditioning, but as the summer rolls on, Coach Haynes believes that conditioning will be more of a priority.

“We lift for about 50 minutes, practice for 50 minutes, and run for 50 minutes each day of practice,” Haynes said. “We break it up and work on all aspects of the game, but in July, there will be much more conditioning and getting more acclimated to the heat.”

While they mostly work against each other to improve their craft, the Red Raiders have also played a couple of 7 on 7 scrimmages against Moore County this off-season.

“It can get tiring scrimmaging each other all of the time,” Haynes said. “It’s great to have competition from another team, because everybody always has different concepts that they run and it not only gives our quarterbacks and receivers a chance to be able to read different coverages, but it also gives our defense a chance to handle a lot of different formations and motions.”

As the summer months roll through, the Red Raiders will continue to grind towards the 2024 football season and look to improve from the roller coaster that was 2023.