Oakwood primed for breakthrough season

Volleyball has always been a winning sport at Oakwood Christian High School and, in the past few years, basketball has started to become another sport that OCA can look toward as being championship contenders.

Now, Eagle Nation is primed to add soccer to that growing list.

After taking their lumps and enduring some growing pains, the OCA soccer program turned the corner last year and advanced all the way to the Southern Christian Athletic Association’s championship match.

Now, using last year’s disappointment as extra motivation, the Eagles have restocked their roster and look ready to win the program’s first conference title on the pitch in 2019.

“We’re looking good,” said Dirk Dickson, now in his second year at OCA. Dickson will serve as head coach for the high school program this fall and the middle school team later in the spring. “Last year, we had a really successful team full of great athletes, but for the (Class of 2019) seniors we lost, we’re getting freshmen that are soccer athletes who are just as good, while still maintaining our core.”

The Eagles will be led by a quartet of seniors who have been in the Oakwood program for years and who are standouts in other sports as well.

Andrew Phillips, a forward last year, will move to the back row to bolster the defensive ranks this season. Dickson said Phillips “sees the team before himself” and said it was Phillips who suggested the move to fill in gaps left by graduated seniors and to give some talented underclassmen a chance to contribute. He will be joined on the outside