7-on-7 Camp Hustle: Summer work yields fall dividends

KEN KOONTZ | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Camp Hustle founder TJ Mixon (in white) talks to his team during a 7-on-7 tournament. Mixon, an All-American receiver at Howard during his playing days, is receivers coach at West Charlotte High.

America’s summer football landscape features 7-on-7 matchups of quarterbacks, receivers and defensive backs.

The objectives of these tournaments are to teach and develop skills of young athletes hoping to earn college football scholarships. For many, their ultimate goal is a professional contract at the top level of the sport: the National Football League team. The actual impact and results of those development campaigns shows in the fall.

One such 7-on-7 program is Camp Hustle, organized by West Charlotte High receivers coach T.J. Mixon, a two-time All-American wide receiver at Howard. “I sure hope that some of my guys attain All-American status,” he says.  

“We have had phenomenal success with our boys,” Mixon said. “Camp Hustle includes about 40 youngsters. How they actually perform on the field in actual game conditions sets the tone for their chances of success.”

Mixon said what he and his coaches teach in the summer is measured by team competition, and ultimately the full effect comes in real games in. Camp Hustle has been a success in summer skills competitions, with wins in eight of 10 tournaments they competed.

That real life game time has run its regular season course and now into the playoffs. Mixon highlights a couple of his Camp Hustle teammates: Joshua Dobson, a sophomore at Catawba Ridge High in Fort Mill, South Carolina, is tied for fourth in interceptions among Palmetto State defensive backs. He has been with Camp Hustle since he was 13 years old. Dobson, 16, has scholarship offers from at least six NCAA Division I programs.

Mixon says he sought Dobson’s mother’s approval for him to participate with Camp Hustle. Having taught Mixon when he was a West Charlotte student, Nard and Stacie Dobson agreed to let their son join the team.

Now three years later, 247 Sports ranks Dobson 28th in the nation among high school prospects in the 2027 high school graduating class. His options are wide open as he is also a competitive sprinter in the 400, 200 and 100 meters.

K.D. Cotton, a junior at West Charlotte, was among five finalists for WSOC-TV’s Big 22 Player of The Year and offers from 14 Division I schools. As well as Ivy League programs.

“Seeing mom work hard every day inspired me,” Cotton said. “And I hope to get to the NFL and eventually return to coaching.”

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