By Jim O'Hara
 
ROME, Ga. – In five days, Shorter University will begin a new football season, one that has been circled on the calendar for a long time for obvious reasons.

Thursday night's opener at Barron Stadium against one of the newest teams the Peach State has seen emerge, Paine College of Augusta, will mark the first game for Shorter's Hawks as a full NCAA Division II and Gulf South Conference member and officially ends what has been a three-year transition process.

It's also just the first time in seven years Shorter has started off a new year playing in front of a home crowd, the last coming in 2006 in the program's second year of existence, and that fact is part of what is the most noteworthy accomplishment for the Hawks when they step on the field.

This is the 10^th season – the decade milestone – of football at Shorter and as far as big games and big openers go, this one has all the ingredients and hype in it that creates excitement.

Here's the catch – head coach Phil Jones, who has been the captain of the Shorter ship since its keel was laid 10 years ago, and every coach and player who will usher in what is also the Hawks' toughest season ever on Thursday are just as excited but for different reasons.

They are excited because they now finally get to play a game, one in which the past doesn't really matter and one that will set the tone for what is to come.

"It is exciting," Jones said after Saturday morning's practice about the importance of the Hawks' new season. "There were a lot of people who said Shorter would never have a football team and now it's been 10 years and we hope to keep it going.

"But the team is more concerned about what we need to do right now," the coach added. "They're excited because they are ready to play a game and have things to prove. That's the way we feel."

With the opener coming during the week, Jones and the Hawks are already in game-week mode, putting in the game plan for an opponent that doesn't have a past and one in which little is known.

Paine's Lions, a member of the Division II Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, has been together for a year but played what amounted to scrimmage games last fall. There is no video available to watch and almost no scouting reports to be found.

The Hawks, however, are using what knowledge they have about Paine as part of the overall scheme to make sure their own house is in order for the next few days.

"We still have work to do, all the way up to the game," Jones said. "You've got to make things better than what they were the day before.

"You've got to be sharp as to what we want to do," he said, "and how we're going to do it each day and still not wear them out right before the game. It's not written in a book what you day this day, this day and this day. It's what you need to do for your team."

Satisfied that the team is well-conditioned and making sure they are fresh and healthy for the opener, Jones and his coaching staff gave the Hawks off on Sunday, asking them to rest and be ready to get back into gear on Monday to start the short week fine-tuning their offensive and defensive schemes.

And, Jones points out, count on what has been a growing sense of leadership that has developed from both veterans and newcomers alike – a family of positive players.

"You're always looking for an edge of some kind," Jones said, "and most of that time it comes from the leadership of the team. It's a matter of getting those leaders speak up.

"We have some good young ones who are a little more mature than normal, but we also have a strong group of guys who have been through it and are now ready to go."

This season all of the Hawks' games can be heard on 99.5 The Jock FM and WGJK-AM 1360 or via the net by going to www.goshorterhawks.com or at www.995thejock.com.