Heart, attitude and effort.

That is three things that Cedartown Head Coach Mark Loudermilk is preaching to his football team of only 30 players. And because the upcoming senior class has bought into that mindset – especially quarterback Hayden Privett and fullback John Poulin – then Loudermilk was pleased with the way spring practices went and concluded on Thursday with a controlled scrimmage.

“We had a great spring,” Loudermilk said. “We improved daily and just kept getting better. The upcoming seniors have bought into working hard and developing a strong work ethic and I think it’s showing.”

Loudermilk said two soon-to-be seniors are leading the way.

“(Privett and Poulin) are taking charge and are being leaders,” Loudermilk said. “That whole class has been through a lot during the past three-plus seasons and they know what it takes to win. It’s good to see them out here taking control and pushing everyone to get better.”

As for the controlled scrimmage Thursday, no score was kept and after a certain amount of plays the varsity would take a break to allow the freshmen to scrimmage.

As is common in the spring, the defense appeared to be ahead of the offense early on but that still didn’t stop the offense from making some big plays throughout the scrimmage.

The Bulldogs, who have ran the triple-option offense the past two seasons, will continue to run that offense this year but they’ve added some new wrinkles that were displayed Thursday.

“We’ve added the shotgun package,” Loudermilk said. “It will be similar to what Wofford College runs. We still will run the triple-option out of the shotgun, but we will also throw the ball.”

The defense, under the guide of first-year Defensive Coordinator Terry Morrow, will be operating out of the 4-3 this year. During the scrimmage, the Bulldogs looked comfortable in that scheme.

“Knock on wood, but we are tackling better than we have in the past,” Loudermilk said. “Our starting defensive line looked pretty good today and it looks like we have some kids who are willing to hit people.”

Despite the progress the Bulldogs made this spring, Loudermilk knows Cedartown hasn’t had a winning season since 2003 and that they will face a huge obstacle this fall with only 30 players suiting up.

Still, the fourth-year taskmaster isn’t worried about the naysayers and is telling his team to take one day at a time and just focus on improving themselves.

“We just want to work every day to get better,” Loudermilk said. “We can’t control how many kids come out to play and we can’t control what other people say about us. But what we can control is coming out here, whether it be on the practice field or in the weightroom, and working hard and trying to improve ourselves. And right now that is what it seems this football team is doing, is working to get better.”