The Tiger football team beat the heat Thursday morning — but just barely! — in its first official day of practice in preparation for the 2010 season.

Despite the heat and high humidity, the Tigers worked out on the field for about two hours.

“It was a good first practice,” noted Caldwell County head coach David Barnes. “Toward the end we didn’t get as much done, because we had to stop and go over things and because we did a lot of instruction. But overall I was really pleased.”

The Tigers had 52 players out for the first practice, with Barnes noting that four others were absent for different reasons but were expected back.

Caldwell took about half of those players to camp earlier in the week at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

“We took 26 kids to camp and that’s the biggest number we’ve ever taken,” noted Barnes. “Our offensive linemen did real well. All the camp staff that worked with them were very complimentary about how hard our kids worked.”

Caldwell opened practice Thursday with three players working out at the quarterback spot — seniors Blake Hodges and Brandon Sigler and freshman Landon Burns.

Hodges is the returning starter while Sigler, whose throwing is still limited by an arm injury, saw some action at quarterback in Caldwell’s “wildcat” package last season.

However, Barnes said Sigler will still primarily play a running back position in the Tigers’ spread offense.

“We’ve got to get him some reps at quarterback because we saw last year that we can do some things with him there,” noted the Tiger coach. “There will be some transition for him at practice. Some days he’ll work at H or F and some days he’ll be with the quarterbacks, where Blake is going to be there (at quarterback) every day.”

Another player will also get some reps at QB. Tez Sivils, a sophomore who was the backup quarterback last year, worked out with the receivers on Thursday.

“Tez wants to be on the field and the best way to do that is receiver — and we want him on the field because he’s one of our best athletes,” said Barnes. “We’re going to look at Tez at receiver and give him a lot of reps there. But he’s also going to get some reps at quarterback, because we might have to use him as a backup.”

The Tigers worked out in T-shirts and shorts on Thursday. The team is scheduled to add helmets next week, with practices moving to the evenings because of youth camp in the mornings. The Tigers are expected to go to full-gear practices starting Monday, Aug. 2.

Caldwell will take part in a 7-on-7 tournament and “lineman challenge” on Thursday, July 22, at Murray State University.

The Tigers will not have a home scrimmage this season. Their only preseason outing is tentatively set for Friday, Aug. 13, at 6 p.m. at Butler County (the Bears came here for a scrimmage last year).

The regular season opener is just over a month away — Friday, Aug. 20, at Calloway County.

The Tigers will then be off the following week before hosting Hopkins County Central in their home opener on Friday, Sept. 3, at Tiger Stadium.