THOMASVILLE — Major League Baseball teams deal with the concept of “dog days of summer” every year. It’s that point in the season where players have to overcome the mental and physical grind of playing every day no matter how hot and uncomfortable the conditions are.

The same concept can be applied to high school football summer workouts.

It’s the middle of July. There’s still two weeks left before Georgia High School Association schools can practice in full pads. These can be the “dog days of summer” if teams are not careful and plan accordingly.

The Thomasville Bulldogs football team is avoiding the monotony by shifting its schedule this summer. There are always variations in the routine that allow the Bulldogs to stay focused and energized, as they gear up for fall practice.

“I think you could (struggle in the summer) if you went in and did the same thing every day, all throughout the summer. If you came in and said, ‘We’re going to lift first. We’re going to work out first. We’re going to practice first. We’re going to do this Monday through Thursday.’ I think if you got that monotonous of a schedule, absolutely,” Thomasville coach Zach Grage said. “I think we’ve done a real good job where when the kids are off, they’re off. They go Monday through Thursday, but then you’re off Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I think it’s just as important for your coaches.

“I think we’ve done a really good job, especially this summer, we practiced a couple of times against each other and then we had a throwing day. Brookwood came over. We went to Pelham a couple of weeks ago. We had Lee County after dead week. We’ve thrown against Valdosta. We went to Florida State for a day.”

It has added up to a team thriving with energy and intensity, less than a month away from its preseason scrimmage.

“It’s very easy to get monotonous, very easy to feel like, ‘Man, we’re going to do this forever.’ But you start realizing, it’s really not that many days (left),” Grage said.