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The Charles Henderson Trojans opened up fall camp last week and closed out week one with the first scrimmage of the season on Aug. 11.

The Trojans battled the heat in week one leading up to the scrimmage.

“It’s going as good as we felt like it would so far,” CHHS Coach Quinn Hambrite said of fall camp. “The heat has gotten to us a little bit, which is evident at the end of practices but the kids are fighting through it and we’re taking it day by day. I think we’re progressing pretty well.”

The Trojans are coming off a state runner-up finish in 2022 and return a number of starters from that team. Last week, CHHS landed at No. 2 on the first preseason poll for Class 5A. Hambrite says, though, the Trojans are focusing on themselves.

“We’re really just focusing on ourselves, trying to find our identity offensively and defensively,” he said. “This is a new team; a lot of new faces but a new team. We’re trying to establish some true camaraderie on the offensive line and defensively, we’re trying to not do too much, so the kids don’t have to think too much and are able to play fast. We’re harping on special teams because that was an issue early in the season last year. Those are really the key factors we’re focusing on right now.”

Charles Henderson used Friday’s scrimmage as a chance to work on a number of situational drills.

“It was real low-key, it was a scripted scrimmage,” Hambrite said. “We did situational stuff like being backed up at the 1-yard line, red-zone situations, goal line situations, two-minute drill and four-minute drill. We also incorporated some special team stuff in there.

“It was a more scripted type of scrimmage, just trying to give us a lot of situational things that we’ll face in games. A lot of people came out and watched, which I didn’t really expect because we didn’t advertise it or anything. I was happy with that.”

Charles Henderson will close out week two of spring practices with the Meet The Trojans event at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Aug. 18, which will feature another scrimmage with the middle school varsity and junior varsity teams beginning at 6 p.m.