Coming into Mount Baker Wild football training camp for the first time, right tackle Ryley McCormack expected the workouts would be pretty strenuous.

But now he knows exactly what their strength and conditioning sessions bring.

“I was expecting it to be tiring, but not exactly this,” said the right tackle.

No pun was intended, but just wait until Thursday when those 220-pound tires the athletes were flipping Tuesday are replaced by 360-pound behemoths.

The football team started its camp last week with twice-daily sessions, including several meant to target a weak point for the Wild last year: their strength and fitness.

The Wild have brought local trainer Steve Macdonald in to lead the sessions, which yesterday wrapped up with the athletes split into two teams and competing in a tire flipping race.

Macdonald, a former member of the British Navy, said a drill like that allows the athletes to get to know about themselves and their teammates.

“In the Forces, you have to find out who you can rely on, and that’s why we do this,” he said. “If it turned out one of them was unable to do it, or unwilling to do it, he’s the weak link. Nobody here’s a weak link at the moment.”

Head coach Don Erichsen is very happy with how the new arrangement is working out.

“It’s probably the best idea I’ve ever had as a coach,” he said. “The kids are buying into it; he motivates them very well and he makes things happen.”

Erichsen said that a lack of team fitness was the Wild’s biggest flaw. He came to that conclusion over the winter, while poring over video of their inaugural season.

“We started off fine and played with most of the teams fairly well for the first quarter, and then it was a steady drop-off until the fourth quarter. We couldn’t do anything,” he said.

More important than having more gas later in the game, Erichsen said a better fitness base would reduce injuries.

“Further into the game, kids are going to be able to maintain form and maintain the technique that we’re teaching them in the game without getting lazy,” he said. “Essentially, it’s laziness or fatigue that often leads to injuries.”

There’s been no laziness allowed at camp, not since Erichsen himself vowed to take part in all the Macdonald-led drills himself.

“They realize that I’m old and they tell me that constantly,” said the 46-year-old. “None of them — not a single one — wants to be beaten by me in any drill, so if I can make them step it up and work that little bit harder so that they beat me, that’s fine.

“Eventually I will catch them. They don’t believe me, but I’m telling them that.”

There was a steep learning curve for some: many a breakfast was lost the first day, including one that briefly belonged to a coach.

“I’m quite proud to say that it wasn’t me,” laughed Erichsen.

A couple of athletes couldn’t hack it and have hung up the cleats, unable to meet the Wild’s fitness standard.

“The big thing that I preach to the kids all the time is: the harder you work to get somewhere in a season, the less likely you are to give it up or let it down when the going gets tough at the end,” said Erichsen.

Fitness hasn’t been an issue for lineman Ryan Grabenhof. He attended the University of Regina Rams high school camp last month, and earlier this summer he was part of the crew doing early-morning workouts with Erichsen.

Grabenhof is a fan of the sessions with Macdonald, and saw the effects poor fitness had on the Wild last year.

“(Some players) didn’t really come to practice on their conditioning days and they weren’t really at their peak,” said Grabenhof, who said unfit players have a hard time keeping up.

“You don’t have the strength to hit other players back. You can’t run fast enough, you can’t run long enough.”

Erichsen anticipates that won’t be a problem in the Wild’s second season, which starts Sept. 2 when they visit the Pincher Creek Pride.

“It’s hard to motivate kids in the summer to want to come out and do this, but the core group of kids that we have here, they’ve really bought into it and they’re taking it to heart,” said the coach.

“They don’t just want to be playing football, they want to play winning football. There is a difference, and they’re paying the price today that will make that difference further on in the season.”