When the final horn sounded to end Oak Hill Academy’s 2020 football season, the Raiders left the field disappointed. Their 2-6 record did not reflect the work they had put in during the spring, summer and fall.

After a narrow defeat in their opener, the Raiders suffered a much more catastrophic loss during their second game as quarterback Cameron Dill broke his thumb. Dill missed a majority of the season because of the injury.

“We did have people step up, but we had several other key injuries and had to move people around,” Raiders coach Bill Rosenthal said. “They have to stay healthy just because we don’t have a lot of players on the team.”

Although they were shut out in two games, the Raiders were able to put up a good number of points in the rest. The real tear in the Raiders’ sail was their defense. Oak Hill lost games in which it scored 34, 32 and 30 points. If the Raiders want to put it together in 2021, they will have to string more big plays together on defense.

“I thought we played hard,” Rosenthal said. “I thought we did some good things at times, but we’ve got to get better on defense. That’s the big thing.”

Oak Hill will miss a small corps of key contributors from the Class of 2021, chief among them wide receiver and linebacker Manning Huffman. Huffman filled in at quarterback while Dill was sidelined. 

Other key players in the 2021 class were offensive lineman Kip Alpe, running back Drew Wright and receivers Aiden Henson and Joseph Crandall. 

Rosenthal said a few of the contributions from younger players during a spring scrimmage against Winston Academy were encouraging, and he had seen younger players do a good job replacing injured players last year as well.

Despite the graduation losses, much of Oak Hill’s production on both sides of the ball is returning. Rosenthal said that the main thing is staying healthy and keeping his best players on the field.

Rosenthal expressed strong confidence in Dylan Bryan, who will play on both lines this season. The coach Bryan will need to be a leader and anchor on an offensive line which was very young last season. Defensively, Rosenthal is expecting big things from linebacker John Ross Craven.

Oak Hill has several players who are expected to make an impact on the offensive side of the ball. It’s imperative for Dill to stay healthy, and, at receiver, Rosenthal is looking for big things out of Jake Glusenkamp, Nathan Harrington and Brian Buchanan.

Oak Hill moved up this year to MAIS Class 4A from Class 3A, and Rosenthal said games against Marshall Academy, North Delta Academy, Kirk Academy and Lee Academy are huge if the Raiders are to make the postseason in 2021.