By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

His goal is to give his wrestlers an idea of what they can expect a few months down the road.

While a new wrestling season won’t begin until November, members of the Callaway team are hard at work participating in summer workouts.

Jason Boatman, who is heading into his second season as Callaway’s head coach, wants to give the team members a feel for what things will be like when official preseason practice kicks off this fall.

“This year, we do the same exact warmup we do during the season, just trying to implement all of it,” Boatman said. “We’re just trying to get them as used to the regular routine as possible. It’s really been like practice without the conditioning.”

The Cavaliers began summer workouts last week, and Boatman has been pleased with the turnout so far, with as many as 16 wrestlers showing up.

Many of the wrestlers also play football, so those guys are pulling double-duty during the summer.

This week, almost half of the wrestlers who have been coming to summer workouts are in Cochran for an offensive-line camp.

“I think we’ve got seven that are there right now,” Boatman said.

In addition to the workouts, the wrestlers are also participating in weight-lifting sessions at the school.

“All of these guys just lifted for two hours, and then they came here,” Boatman said. “They’re doing it. They’re pushing through it.”

The Cavaliers are coming off a successful season that ended with Justin Kiss losing in the state-championship match at 113 pounds, and fellow senior Matthew Wingate also made it to the state finals.

While Kiss and Wingate have graduated, Callaway has a talented group of wrestlers returning, four of whom qualified for the state sectional last season.

Joining the returnees will be some newcomers who are getting to learn the ropes this summer.

“It’s a bunch of new faces,” Boatman said. “We’ve got a lot of freshmen involvement.”

The wrestlers will come out for conditioning Monday through Thursday through the end of June, and then everyone will take some time off for the GHSA-mandated dead week in July.

“I told them, it’s kind of like our spring practice,” Boatman said. “We’ve got to treat it like that.”