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The Charles Henderson Trojans hosted a three-team organized team activity (OTA) on Thursday, along with Stanhope-Elmore and Hillcrest-Evergreen.

As opposed to 7-on-7 competition, OTAs give teams more of an opportunity to get in work in a situation that comes as close to a practice as possible during the fall.

“The OTAs are more of a practice, so we get to do some inside run stuff with the linemen and linebackers,” CHHS Coach Quinn Hambrite previously said. “We can work on our first and second down stuff and work on some third down and situational stuff, too. Getting them back into a team feel is important after doing 7-on-7 stuff. I don’t like the 7-on-7s because we play (football) with 11, so I think OTAs benefit us more, especially getting to do some of those situational things against other teams.”

Charles Henderson also competed in an OTA in Auburn last week. Hambrite was excited with the way his team performed in the OTA at home.

“It went smooth,” Hambrite said. “I think the schedule was pretty good and organized, as far as having three teams on one field. The good thing about that is that teams got breaks at certain areas throughout the OTA, which kept them fresh for the whole two hours we were out there.

“Stanhope is really athletic and Hillcrest will always have good skill players. Both have really good coaches, so we got some good work in.”

The Trojans, coming off a state runner-up finish last season, have put in plenty of work this summer. After competing in a 7-on-7 at Troy University, CHHS went to Alabama State and won a 7-on-7 Tournament before taking part in various OTAs.

“We’ve competed very well,” Hambrite said of the summer. “We still have to capitalize on big plays and other team’s mistakes more. We have to continue to develop and lessen our mistakes. We’re still having mental busts, which comes with the territory because it’s still summer. I’m pleased with the way we’ve competed and have faced adversity this summer and hopefully continue that trend going into fall camp.”

Heading towards fall camp, Hambrite said that his Trojans are just trying to perfect what they already know.

“The biggest goal right now is fine tuning and perfecting what we already know and do,” he said. “There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel right now. We have a system and it’s working and we have to perfect it. Once we perfect it, then we can continue to add on and add on and add on. Right now, we really want to develop our young guys.”

Charles Henderson will begin fall camp the first Monday of August.