The start of winter sports is just around the corner.

In anticipation of the upcoming season, the boys basketball program began practicing Oct. 24.

The date was the first official day in which both the basketball and wrestling programs could begin practicing.

Boys basketball head coach Thad Burgess has had a hugely successful career at Dawson County High School. During the last five years he has compiled a 92-48 record. Since his arrival at the school he has taken his teams to the state playoffs on five occasions.

Last season the Tigers missed the postseason for the first time in five years after finishing with a 16-9 mark. The team was eliminated from postseason play with a 69-56 loss to Hart County in the Region 8-AA tournament.

"Our players have been participating in optional fall weightlifting and conditioning since Aug. 10," Burgess said. "We would lift and run three days a week for those athletes not participating in football or cross country. We really have put an emphasis on becoming stronger since last spring and held weight workouts where we have been doing a lot of lower leg weights with higher reps."

The Tigers were missing several players when practice began on Monday because of cross country and football.

"Several of our varsity players are participating in either cross country or football so the number of boys that will be available for the beginning of practice on Monday will be limited. We will hold tryouts before school next week so that these boys involved in those sports will not have their fall sports afternoon practices affected," Burgess said.

There will about 10 players that will be able to practice until fall sports are over, according to Burgess.

"Our job will be to develop some depth with the boys that will be with us until all players are out there. We have already put most of our offense and defenses in during June, knowing that we might not get several boys until possibly a couple of days before we play," he added.

The Tigers will host a scrimmage game on Nov. 7 against North Forsyth. The scrimmage will be varsity only. The girls' game will begin at 6 p.m. and the boys' game will immediately follow.

The Tigers will open the regular season Nov. 15 with a home game against Tallulah Falls.