After completing his first year as the head varsity football coach at Paulding County High School, Scott Hamilton and his team are working hard during the summer to see major improvement in the upcoming season.

Since June 4, the Paulding County football team has been working out three mornings a week in preparation for its season opener Aug. 24 against New Manchester High School.

“We work out in the mornings to make sure the players and coaches get their training, but also so they can spend time with their families, especially since summer break has gotten shorter,” Hamilton said. “Summer workouts are that much more important for us since we play a week earlier than everyone else.”

For the summer workouts Hamilton said his team goes through more than one type of training.

“We have dual summer training where we have 50 minutes in the weight room and 50 minutes on the field doing tires and other stuff to get their hands dirty. We also do 30 minutes of position training,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton has been coaching for 20 years, getting his start at East Paulding High School in 1992. He has been coaching at Paulding County for five years, but has only been the head football coach for one year — leading the Patriots to a 2-8 record in 2011.

“My first year, we had some issues since I was the third coach in three years. I had to convince the guys I would be around for a while. The record was not as good as I had hoped, but we corrected a lot of issues. I believe our footing was a lot better at the end of the season than the beginning,” Hamilton said.

The 2010 record was 1-9 and the team averaged 7.2 points per game, but the 2011 season saw improvement as the Patriots averaged 14.5 points per game.

Since last year Hamilton said his team has gotten stronger physically.

“Last year none of the linemen could bench close to 300 but now everyone is at or above 300. We’ve definitely gotten stronger,” he said.

As for the issue of Hamilton sticking around as the head coach, Hamilton explained why he has no plans of leaving.

“A lot of people go somewhere and use it as a start, but I plan on being around for a long time.

“This is my home; my kids go to school in this county too. This is not a stepping stone for me, this is where I want to be. I’m trying to help us build a program at Paulding County, not just a team,” Hamilton said.