A handful of Red Bank High School football players donned the harnesses. Their task was to pull an Isuzu truck.
They tugged and pulled the vehicle across a finish line in the parking lot. Then another set of players tried to accomplish the feat in a few less seconds. Then another team of Lions did the same, and others followed them as well in the conditioning drill.
A fun competition among teammates helped the Lions have a little fun in summer workouts, build camaraderie and challenge each other in something other than sprints and lifts.
"We did relay races, truck pulls, tire-flips and other things to make it fun for them to compete," coach Chad Grabowski said. "I'd give out T-shirts to winners and things like that.
The Lions (6-4) host Bledsoe County tonight in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs.
"They don't want all this getting to this point to be for just one game," Grabowski said. "Getting the kids to believe in us and spending time with them has been a key to getting to this point."
Grabowski is one of seven area coaches who have led their teams into the TSSAA playoffs in their first year with the programs -- or in the case of Dan Duff at Hixson, his first year back with the program.
Each of their jobs had different challenges. Each of the programs were at different stages when they arrived. Some needed a complete overhaul. Some coaches joined established programs.
They all -- Grabowski, Duff, Jason Fitzgerald at Meigs County, Rob Spence at Chattanooga Christian, Ryan Mallory at Central, Ricky Ross at Marion County and R.C. Helton at Whitwell -- put their own imprints on their 2014 playoff teams.
"Last year they won the region and they had set the tone of knowing what it takes to win," said Duff, whose team will host Page tonight in a first-round Class 4A playoff. "These kids already understood what it takes.
"In our program, we don't stress winning, we stress loving each other."
Spence didn't have the luxury of inheriting a legacy. CCS's Chargers went 3-7 last year in their sixth year of varsity competition.
"We did it with the old-fashioned concept of working hard, applying the process to trying to do the fundamentals better," said Spence, whose 4-6 team will play at Notre Dame tonight. "We've never had a winning record and never been in the playoffs before. We've been invited, and that's a step up."
Fitzgerald, who left Hixson for Decatur, said the community, the Meigs County school administration and the players have been instrumental in getting the Tigers (6-4) back into the playoffs. They play at Grace Christian in Knoxville in Class 2A.
It took one victory early this season for everything to fall into place.
"When we beat Rockwood, that proved to the kids that we can do this," Fitzgerald said. "It was about getting them a little confidence.When we took over, they didn't believe they could do anything.
"Then after Rockwood, they believed they could win."
Also in Class 2A, Helton's 6-4 Whitwell Tigers play at Trousdale County while Ross's 8-2 Warriors get a bye into round two. Mallory's 6-4 Purple Pounders visit Livingston Academy in 4A,
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.