The Pike County Bulldogs enter the 2015 football season eager to improve on last season’s 7-4 record, a season that saw the Bulldogs lose to Gordo in the State Playoffs.

The 2015 Bulldogs hope that senior leadership will help lead the way to a successful season ending with a long run in the playoffs.

“We are coming along. Right now we are taking baby steps,” Bulldog head coach Fred Holland said. “I think we are further along at this point than we were last year. We are trying to get better skill wise and get better on offense, defense and special teams.”

The leadership and experience begins and ends with all the seniors on the Bulldog roster.

“We need more leadership, and the guys have shown a lot more of that lately. I am proud of them for that,” Holland said. “We are going to have to do a better job at doing our job. I think coming off last year we have an opportunity to keep getting better in all phases of the game. All that is what I look forward to seeing, those are a few things that we stress.”

Coach Holland hopes that he will see marketable improvement in each and every practice.

“We need to have commitment and more team unity,” Holland said. “We need to keep working hard and keep striving to be our best. We will try and improve on something each day, and they will try to be the best player that they can be.”

Coach Holland will look for some specific things during the upcoming weeks leading up the beginning of the season.

“We don’t look at just one thing we will look to improve on everything we do,” Holland said. “Special teams, offense and defense. I think if you can do that you can be very successful.”

With Bulldogs now knee-deep in practice for the fall season, the team has left the workout room and has hit the field for drills and full on contact.

Before hitting the field the Bulldogs spend time in the weight room to build up endurance and strength, before watching film.

Along with other teams one of the challenges that coach Holland and team faces is the new rule that limits the amount of time allowed for teams to practice.

“With the new rules we pretty much have 15-minute sessions, and we move around from special teams to group offense and defense,” Holland said. “We will have passing team with the offense against the defense. We have a good system, the kids really understand it and they really look forward to do it.”

One of the things that Holland and the Bulldogs are getting ready for is the season opening matchup with Charles Henderson on Aug. 21. Even the though game is a preseason matchup, the Bulldogs expect to learn a lot about their team against their rival.

“Right now it’s all about the Charles Henderson game. I don’t look past them,” Holland said. “It’s going to be a tall task for us. It’s a big rivalry game, I know our community loves it and I’m pretty sure their community loves it as well. Right now that’s the only game that stands out to us, we are going to take each game one at a time.”

After their game with the Trojans, the Bulldogs will officially open their season with a home contest with the Goshen Eagles on Aug. 28 at 7 p.m.