Calvin West lay on the ground soaked in sweat after completing the Iron Dog Challenge Wednesday afternoon at Georgia Military College’s football field.

The Iron Dog Challenge is a test of brute strength, athletic ability, and mental toughness that each GMC football player must complete.

“It’s a stern challenge,” head coach Bert Williams said. “There’s a lot of distance and a lot of weight. It’s really a gut check, it shows what they’re made of.”

The challenge covers 400 yards and is done in nine consecutive stations, that include pushing and pulling various weights, running, tossing medicine balls and finally diving for a football on a water-covered tarp.

West, a linebacker, posted the best time of the day completing the challenge in 4:01.80.

“For a football player (the challenge) is one of the hardest things you can do to test (yourself),” West said. “It tests speed, strength and cardio. It also tests how much you can push yourself. It’s a good adversity challenge.”

In fact, West is the only player to ever win the challenge, recording the top time last year in the inaugural competition.

“Anything under five minutes is good for the skill guys,” Williams said. “Under six is good for the linemen.”

Wide receiver Jerry Gross notched the second best time of the day with a time of 4:04.47.

“It’s challenging,” Cross said. “It’s actually more than challenging. It’ll pull your heart out. It’s tiring and stressing. You gotta put focus into it to get through it. You gotta have a great mind set and great body conditioning for it.”

Players and coaches agree that it is one of the toughest parts of the team’s off-season training that includes two-hour weight sessions Monday through Thursday as well as running on Tuesdays.

“If it’s not the toughest thing we do it’s right in the same range,” Gross said. “Everything we do is high intensity like this.”

The Iron Dog Challenge was the brainchild of strength coaches Vic Cabral and Chad Lunsford who took the idea from Georgia Southern where they each coached before joining GMC’s coaching staff.

One of the key aspects of the challenge, according to West, is that it builds confidence among teammates.