DALTON, Ga. — If you’re ready for some football and the four weeks until high school action starts is too long to wait, you are in luck.

The former owners of the now defunct Georgia Rampage indoor football team, Kacee Smith and his father Mike Smith, are keeping semi-pro football alive in Dalton with the Dalton Danger.

The Danger play in the World Developmental Football League, a semi-professional outdoor 11-on-11 league, with their home games at Lakeshore Park. Dalton won its inaugural game on the road in Chattanooga last Saturday 26-18 against the Tennessee Cobras. The Danger’s first home game is Saturday at 7 p.m. against the Georgia Patriots, based out of Dacula.

The Georgia Rampage played at the trade center for the last three springs, but low attendance and overhead costs caused the team to fold. Kacee Smith is confident the outdoor product will be more successful, with several holdovers from the Rampage, including Dalton High School class of 2010 alumnus Jalen Fields, on the team.

“We are hopeful that this will be more successful because the admission cost is lower and the expenses for us will be lower,” Kacee Smith said. “We knew (indoor football) would be tough and when we looked at the league at the end of last year we just saw that it was tough for teams in smaller markets to have enough corporate support. This will be cheaper for us to maintain and will also be cheaper for the fans.”

The cost of admission for the Danger home games is $8, with children ages 12 and under free. According to the Georgia Rampage Facebook page, tickets ranged from $8 to $20.

Smith and his father Mike also have more support at the ownership level. John Caudill, a former player and general manager for the Tennessee Crush — a former outdoor semi-pro team based in Chattanooga — is a third partner who will help assume some of the costs.

Caudill said he approached the Smiths about starting an outdoor team because he believed there was untapped potential in Dalton and that the team could be successful by infusing talent from the Crush.

“I was a GM and formerly a player for the Tennessee Crush and our owner decided to take this season off,” Caudill said. “I was looking to create something that could be an outlet, especially for the Crush players, and looked to go to Dalton. I know Kacee through the Rampage and contacted him about being my general manager, and from there one thing led to another.

“We are bringing three league championships and one national championship from the Crush. We probably have about 20 former Crush players on the team and I knew we could bring the players. Plus, Dalton is kind of an untapped market. The Rampage did the best they could, but I think it was kind of a situation of wrong place at the wrong time. The costs of running an outdoor team are much cheaper and we bring that tradition of a well-established team and veteran players from the Crush.”

Kacee Smith admitted that once the Rampage disbanded, he decided he needed to take a year off from football. He had no plans to start a new team. Caudill approached him late in the process about joining forces.

One of the biggest reasons Smith got on board is because of his passion for the game and trying to provide players with an opportunity to be successful. That is fueled by his own experience with missing out on an opportunity to play the game at a higher level due to an injury following his senior season at Gordon Central High School in Calhoun.

“I broke both of my legs in the Tennessee-Georgia All-Star game after my senior season,” Smith said. “I had a torn hip flexor at the beginning of the season, but was still able to have a good season. Some schools like Shorter and Tennessee Tech were interested and when I got invited to play in the All-Star game, we told them to come see me play. On a kickoff return, a guy went low on me and the pain was excruciating. I found out what I thought had been shin splints had actually been hairline fractures all down both of my legs.

“The whole reason I am (starting another football team) is for the players. My heart always goes out to the athletes. I thought I would take a year off from football, but when John approached me it didn’t take long to get me to buy in.”

The Danger will also have the Crush’s former coach, Jeremiah Hammond. A former Shorter College player, Hammond will serve as the head coach and defensive coordinator of the Danger.

Still just 30 years old and having been a player for the Crush for several seasons, Hammond sees himself as a “players’ coach” and says the players will feed off his passion.

“Coming from playing beside some of the guys and now being in charge, I want to lead by example, but at the same time I want to chest bump and high five the guys too,” Hammond said. “I’m only 30, so I feed off their energy and they feed off mine. Sometimes I have to catch myself because I want to run on the field, then I realize I don’t have any equipment on.”

Hammond insists the Danger will play a very exciting brand of football.

“We want to succeed in bringing in a new generation of offense and defense,” Hammond said. “We will run a hybrid 3-4 defense and I’ve been doing some research into how Oregon runs it. Basically it gets athletes in space and we may show blitz 80 to 90 percent of the time. It gets the offense off guard.

“On offense we will have the same type of mentality. We are going to use a mix of the spread option and read option. We have very athletic quarterbacks and receivers and we are absolutely loaded at running back. Our personnel will be hard to match up with.”

Two of the guys expected to be making big plays for the Danger are quarterback Jamie White and Fields, a defensive lineman.

White has lots of experience playing semi-pro football, while Fields initially signed with the University of Georgia out of high school, but never made it to campus. Fields had stints playing college football for the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and California University of Pennsylvania.

Hammond used some lofty comparisons to help describe White, and said Fields has NFL-level talent.

“(White’s) a Michael Vick type but with more of a Peyton Manning mindset,” Hammond said. “He has a chance to really grow in this offense. He knows his teammates well and can throw the ball all over the field.

“Jalen is a hometown guy and he’s an animal. I hate he’s not playing in the NFL because I think he can. I can ask him to do anything and he will do it full speed. Everything is full speed with him. They were two of my captains last week.”

Dalton claimed a 20-6 halftime lead over the Cobras, only to see much of it evaporate in the second half. While leading 20-18 in the final minutes and trying to run out the clock, Dalton was able to score a touchdown to seal the win.

Considering it was the first time the entire team had been together with pads, Hammond was pleased with the win. He believes the Danger have a roster that can be very competitive right away.

“I knew we would be a little shaky at first, but with the talent we have, I expect us to have success,” Hammond said. “I am not going to say we will be, but I think we have talent to be in the (league) finals and hopefully we can complete the drill.

“Week one was more like a scrimmage for us. It was the first time we had pads on all together and it was a little sloppy, but it was all things that can be corrected.”

The WDFL has 23 teams listed on its website, including 13 from Georgia. There are also teams in Alabama, Delaware, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.