The Charles Henderson Trojans return 12 out 14 players from last year, including five seniors who hope to use their experience and talent to help the Trojans during the 2015-16 season.

Many of the Trojans are making the somewhat tough transition from playing football and shifting their mindset to basketball. The Trojans are in the early stages of preparing for what they say they hope will be a memorable season. With great expectations comes time and the Trojans, according to head coach Carl Hollis, have a long way to go.

“We look fat, we have a lot of work to do,” Hollis said. “We have that group that is coming out of football, and we need to get them back into basketball shape. We are going to start of a little slow, but we get better and better as we go down the stretch. We are going to get better and better every practice; that is what we are working on.”

The Trojans hope to attack this season with more of a defensive mindset. The Trojans want to be a team that will be able to lock down the oppositions scoring abilities and win games on the defensive side of the ball and, when they can, be able to knock down some crucial outside shots.

“I am hoping we are going to be a better defensive ball club,” Hollis said. “We have some decent outside shooters on this team.”

The Trojans will once again have to battle their way out of a tough region that consists of Eufaula and Rehobeth. The Trojans finished in second place last year before getting knocked out in the sub-regional to Faith Academy. The Trojans are hoping that this year they can take that important next step.

“We have been working really hard,” Hollis said. “We expect greater things this year.”

According to Hollis, the one thing that is separating the Trojans with the upper teams in the state could be their endurance level on both sides of the ball. Hollis said he wants to make sure his team will be able to match with any teams in all four quarters. That and playing physical on defense could be the difference for the Trojans this season.

“We have to build our stamina and be able to play an intense ball game on both sides of the court,” Hollis said. “We have to become more intense on man and pressure defense. We have to become the dictators. I tell them we will not spectate we need to dictate on defense. We have been working on defense. We are not there yet, but we are getting better.”

The five seniors on the roster, Kordel Anderson, Martavius Ginyard, Cyree Foster, Jalante Smith and Omari Vaughn, have been through many battles before and will be relied on to show the younger players how Trojan basketball is supposed to be played at Charles Henderson.

“All of them are great kids,” Hollis said. “Any one of them can lead us at any given time. I am expecting something out of all my seniors.”

The schedule doesn’t do the Trojans any favors, especially early. In the regular season opener the Trojans will travel to Montgomery to play Carver.

Tip off is scheduled for after the conclusion of the girl’s game with tip off at 4:30 p.m.