During the summer months, football teams on all levels are doing their best to prepare for the upcoming seasons.

With camps, conditioning and other drills, there area lot of requirements that go into a football player’s life when the season is not going on.

This week, players from three local high schools were able to be a part of something that not only focused on helping them become better players on the field, but also, better people in life.

The National Guard and the National Football League joined together to form the NFL High School Developmental Camp and Charles Henderson, Goshen and Carroll were all joining in on the action, at Charles Henderson High School.

“This is a great opportunity for everyone,” CHHS defensive coordinator Tyrone Black said Tuesday morning during the camp.

“Things like this don’t happen in Troy all that much, so to be able to get all three of these schools together, working with each other and learning is a pretty special thing.”

The camp, which began on Monday and will end today, started at 9:30 a.m. and ended at Noon.

During that time, close to 240 football players, combined from all three schools, worked on both their individual offensive and defensive positions with the team’s coaches.

Both the NFL and the National Guard provided jerseys and footballs along with other items while CHHS provided football equipment.

But teaching football skills was not the only purpose of the camp.

Each day, there was a portion where the kids would learn about the importance of character skills not just in the game of football, but also in every day life.

“A player’s talent can only take them so far,” Black said. “Having the right mentality and character is just as important today, and something that can be the difference for someone who wants to play in college or in the NFL.”

Three of the different items addressed to the players were teamwork, sportsmanship and time management.

“These are all very important things kids need to know about,” CHHS head coach Hugh Fountain said.

“This camp has been great way for all the kids to get together, work with one another and learn from each other.”

Goshen head coach, Bart Snyder, said this was a very special event to be apart of.

“To have these three schools come together and work together like this is pretty amazing.

“A lot of good can come from something like this. The kids can get better at football and also learn what it means to be a good person.”

Along with the Eagle head coach, the other visiting coach also said the liked what was going on at the camp.

“Anytime you are able to get some hard work in, it’s always a positive,” former CHHS assistant coach and current Carroll head coach Chad Lapp said.

“We have been able to do a lot of good things out here and I think the kids have learned a lot.”