Christian Heritage School’s Cal Paige (85) readies to catch a pass as Wesley Hagan defends during a spring practice session on Tuesday. Christian Heritage is in Dalton, Ga.

DALTON, Ga. — More and more with every passing season, football is becoming a year-round sport. Between recruiting coverage exploding, college spring football scrimmages being attended by tens of thousands of fans, the spectacle of the NFL draft, mini-camps and free agency, there is always something pigskin related to talk about.

High school football spring practice has followed the trend with more emphasis being put on those 10 practices than ever before. Five area football programs — Christian Heritage, Coahulla Creek, Murray County, North Murray and Northwest Whitfield — are currently in the midst of their spring camps. Dalton and Southeast Whitfield chose not to hold spring practice this season and instead will play an extra preseason scrimmage in the fall.

Some of the programs are looking for new starters at key positions. Two schools are going through their first practices with new coaching staffs. Others are simply looking to fill a couple of spots and add depth.

Here is a look at each of the five schools and what they are hoping to accomplish this spring:

Christian Heritage (6-6 in 2015)

The Lions are entering a new Poag era as Jay Poag was hired as coach after his brother, Preston, left for North Murray. Jay Poag, the elder of the two brothers, has coached at both the high school and college levels previously and will look to continue the level of success the Lions have enjoyed the past few seasons as they made the state tournament three years in a row.

But the biggest question surrounding Christian Heritage, which is one of the smallest football-playing high schools in the Georgia High School Association, is always the amount of players. Jay Poag is pleased with where the Lions are in that regard.

“I’m very excited about our numbers,” Poag said. “We have about 40 out here for spring, which is more than we’ve had here. We have a very large senior class with 14 players and a lot of them have a lot of experience. So we will be a senior-laden team this year.”

Christian Heritage was hit by a few transfers leaving the program this spring and must look to replace them. But the biggest void could be at quarterback where The Daily Citizen’s 2015 player of the year Tyson Cooper graduated.

Cooper had more than 3,000 total yards and led the Lions to the Class A private school quarterfinals, where they were one point away from upsetting second-ranked Aquinas. Looking to take over as signal caller is Brandon Poag, Jay’s son.

“Tyson had a really good year and my son Brandon is taking over that spot right now,” Jay Poag said. “He played quarterback in rec leagues in North Carolina and he’s a big kid that can throw it, he just hasn’t played there in high school yet. He broke his ankle playing basketball and then had a knee injury last year and missed football season. But he has senior maturity and should do a good job for us.”

The area of strength for Christian Heritage, according to Jay Poag, will be the line of scrimmage, but he also pointed out a few other players who he expects to be playmakers.

“We have some big kids up front,” Jay Poag said. “It’s always critical to stay healthy but we got some kids who are six-foot-six and six-foot-five. They’ve got the size and the skill, which I’m excited about. That’s where you want to be strong and those guys will definitely be our strength.

“Avry Thomason was an undersized lineman last year but we are going to put him at fullback and we think he will do well there. Zach Gentry is our tailback and he is a great athlete and is a very savvy player. And we were fortunate to get a couple basketball players too. Christian Koneman is going to play wide receiver. He’s played some in the past but he is going to be a big target for us. Cal Page is a tight end and runs well at 6-foot-4. Then Wesley Hagin is probably the fastest kid on our team.”

Poag also touted the addition of several new coaches which he believes will help the team, including former Northwest Whitfield standout Dean Haynes and Hal Gruetzmaker, who comes to the Lions from Chattanooga Christian.

“Our coaching staff has a lot of experience and excitement,” Jay Poag said. “Dean played at North Carolina State and then went to UT Chattanooga. He’s going to coach our secondary and be our strength and speed coach. He has a magnetic personality. Hal is going to coach our wide receivers and he comes from a really good program in Chattanooga Christian. I’m really excited about those guys.”

Coahulla Creek (2-8 in 2015)

The Colts are looking to keep some momentum going from last season as Coahulla Creek went from a winless team in 2014 to two wins in 2015. Coahulla Creek began spring practice on Monday and will have its spring game on May 21 at 10 a.m.

Coach Chad Barger said the Colts have a lot of inexperienced players that he is hoping will step up and claim starting roles throughout spring practice.

“We have a lot of new faces, we had a lot of seniors that played quite a bit last year,” Barger said. “A lot of kids are at new positions. Our first day was a little rusty but day two was 110 times better. Our numbers are good, not great. We have about 55, but that’s without a lot of freshmen as the eighth-graders are on a trip to Washington right now. But I think we will have 70 or so next week.”

The two biggest areas of need for development are offensive line and quarterback, Barger said.

“We have to find a quarterback and we lost a lot on the offensive line,” Barger said. “Quarterback is probably a two-man race between Bryan Ray and Maddux Adams. They are both a little more athletic than (previous starter) Luke Brock was. They don’t have the arm strength but it will be a plus for us to have somebody that can move if our offensive line is still developing. We will adjust what we do to suit their strengths.”

The strength of the team so far has been the back end of the defense, where the Colts have some returning players, and at running back.

“Our secondary and linebacking corps are going to be better,” Barger said. “We are going to be faster at linebacker. We have two running backs who have experience in Darius Smith and Cody Baker, so we feel really good there, too.”

Murray County (4-6 in 2015)

One of the most telling signs of a healthy program is the number of seniors on the roster who were four-year players. Murray County coach Chad Brewer has worked hard to change the culture with the Indians and get players excited about the team. He is seeing the fruits of that labor this spring as he has 20 seniors, 16 of which have played football all four years.

“That’s the biggest senior class we’ve had in my four years at Murray,” Brewer said. “Any time you have that you know you’ve got some committed, experienced players. They’ve been committed in the weight room and we’ve seen the results. They’re a really dedicated group.”

The Indians began practice on Monday and will have their spring game May 20. Experience is certainly not lacking at several key positions for Murray County, including at running back and quarterback with all-area selections Tucker Gregg and Dominick Genitempo. But Brewer is most pleased with the depth and experience along the line of scrimmage.

“The biggest plus for me is having those guys up front,” Brewer said. “We have every offensive lineman back, every defensive lineman back. Those guys are a year older and a year stronger. I’ve always believed you win and lose games up front. I’m very comfortable where we are going into spring ball. But we just need to find some depth.”

There are a couple other positions where the Indians are looking for someone to provide depth or secure a starting position. Two starting receivers, a couple players in the secondary and some depth at linebacker were the specific spots that Brewer identified.

But he admitted things are a lot easier when you have one position settled and that is at quarterback.

“Yes it certainly does (make things easier having Genitempo),” Brewer said. “He knows the system. We are going to run the same stuff we ran when he was an eighth-grader. You want an experienced guy back there. He’s very smart and very committed, but his best quality is his competitiveness. That’s what you want in a quarterback.”

Northwest Whitfield (7-4 in 2015)

The Bruins began their spring camp on May 3 and conclude tonight with their annual spring game at 6:30 p.m. Northwest is faced with retooling a defense which coach Josh Robinson said during the year was one of the top three units he’s coached in his 14 years at the school. The Bruins must replace four all-area selections on that side of the ball including linebackers Cyrus Addison and Austin Morrison, defensive lineman Kobe Hull and defensive back Cam Heard.

Robinson said through the first week of practice that he has definitely seem some players rising to the occasion and filling those roles, particularly in the middle.

“At linebacker we have to replace two really good guys,” Robinson said. “But we’ve had a solid spring as Jon Connor and Hunter Reece have done really well. Dominique Sistrunk will also provide depth for us there.”

The Bruins have dealt with a few injuries along the line of scrimmage, but Robinson said that has created opportunities for players to show they can provide depth and they haven’t disappointed.

“We lost some lineman and some other guys moved in and have done a really good job,” Robinson said. “River Lang and Brett Norris have done well. Chase Burton is one of our best lineman on both sides of the ball, but has an injury. It’s non-surgical though and he should be very productive for us. We are going to be much deeper on the offensive line.”

Another example of the health and depth of the program was the ability for Northwest to hold a separate camp for freshmen. That group started May 4 and the coaches have worked with them individually apart from the varsity. The freshmen will have a special spring game on Monday just for those players.

“We started our freshmen one day later and were able to meet state requirements for participation and they can have a freshman-only spring game on Monday,” Robinson said. “They’ve always missed the spring game in the past, but having one on Monday they can play. We are excited to see those guys. One or two have moved up to JV but we have a really solid group coming in.”

North Murray (4-6 in 2015)

The Mountaineers are entering a new era with new coach Preston Poag now leading the program. Poag coached Christian Heritage the last five seasons.

North Murray began practice last week and concludes with the black and gold game on Saturday at 6 p.m. With the first five practices with the Mountaineers under his belt, Poag said some of the things he is the most excited about is the program’s support and participation.

“We have a lot of kids that work hard and want to be successful,” Poag said. “It makes it easy as a coach. There is a lot of support and a lot of excitement around the program. That’s something I thought was here when I took the job but it’s nice to see it first hand.

“We are going to have a lot of depth. At Christian Heritage we had to play a lot of kids both ways, so it’s different to have so many kids at practice. We have a lot of freshmen too and we had to split them up from, where we always practiced together at Christian Heritage.”

Poag was a quarterback at Dalton High School and in college at North Carolina State University, so his evaluation of the that position will be important this spring. Blake Davis started all but one game in 2015 and will be back as a senior in 2016, but he recently had surgery on his foot and is out for spring practice.

Several other quarterbacks have been taking snaps for the Mountaineers and Poag acknowledged there will be a tough competition to see who will start.

“Blake is the returning starter and he’s a competitor,” Poag said. “He’s a good athlete and is committed to UT Martin for baseball. Waylyn James and my son, Preston (Poag Jr.) and Nik Malchesky are in the battle as well. They are all really good athletes who can really run the football. (James and Poag) are kind of mirror images of each other. One is left handed and the other is right handed.

“Nik is also in the mix at quarterback and he can help us out in a lot of different ways. It’s going to be a good competition throughout the summer and into the fall.”

The area which Poag says the team is most ahead of the curve, however, is at the line of scrimmage.

“The positions we are really good at is at the line of scrimmage,” Poag said. “We are going to have a very big offensive line for high school football. And we have a ton of depth there. That has been a really nice surprise.”