Tri-Cities establishing 'mental toughness' as they get set for the 2024 season

With the 2024 Georgia High School Association football season just weeks away, the Tri-Cities Bulldogs are looking for year number two under head coach, Rodney Hackney, to be one in which they can build off of the positives from the 2023 season. “I think one of the main things is our kids bought in,” Hackney said as he reflected on the Bulldogs’ 2023 campaign that ended with them graduating just four seniors.

And in addition to returning a large number of players, Hackney also spoke highly of how well his players worked through the adversities of last year, something he hopes they will utilize to push themselves even further this year. “Despite the losses, the kids pretty much fought the whole year so we were excited about that part coming back,” Hackney said as they get ready to kick off the season when they face M.L. King on August 22 adding that ‘togetherness’ between his players has been pivotal throughout summer workouts.

“Just watching the guys cling more, it started in the offseason, they worked really hard. The numbers were still low, but the guys that were consistently coming, that core group has now kind of taken over this summer, they’ve kind of maintained that. So what we have established is the mental toughness and we’ve established some endurance. That’s the two things I think we need,” Hackney said of the efforts from his players throughout the summer.

Hackney continued that he and his staff also understand that with a smaller roster in comparison to other programs throughout the Atlanta metro and Georgia, mental toughness is the one area that they focus on more than anything as they believe in how huge of a role in strengthening their team.

“We focus on how can we push our kids to the level of brink and then push them a little further, because I feel like that’s what happens in a football game,” Hackney said, however adding that the intention is not to mentally break a player, yet get them to a level to help them overachieve. “We constantly talk about it,” the Tri-Cities head coach said, later adding “mental toughness is usually why a team wins and loses football games,” Hackney said as the Bulldogs look to do more of the winning this season.