WEST POINT — Oak Hill Academy football returns with a few new faces in 2024. The team saw 12 starters graduate, players who filled positions on both sides of the ball, and will have new leadership for the 2024 season. 

Tom Goode Jr. took over this summer after Bill Rosenthal stepped down this summer, citing family health issues. Goode was an assistant on the staff last year when the Raiders lost to Winston Academy in the first round of the playoffs. 

“It’s helped a lot,” he said of his experience as an assistant with this team. “I was here last year and I’m very familiar with the kids. I also coached junior high last year so I know all of the kids who are coming up. The transition with the players and personnel has been fairly smooth.”

In 2023 the Raiders went 3-8, losing their first two games by 10 points or fewer. By midseason they were 3-3, but they wouldn’t win another game the rest of the way. 

That frustration stuck with the team, and even with the departure of experienced starters there is a feeling of growth through the adversity of losing. 

“If you look at our schedule last year in the wins and losses, we had two or three that could very easily have been wins if things had been different,” Goode said. “If we had played a little better and made a couple more plays. There’s positive feelings now and we’re just trying to learn from last year and move forward.”

For the Raiders it isn’t just an effort to reshape themselves after a bad year, but an effort to reshape the program after a lengthy postseason drought. 

The Raiders have one state championship in their history, going 11-2 in 1990 to win the title. It’s the school’s winningest season. Two years later in 1992, the Raiders defeated Carroll Academy in the playoffs before a second-round exit.  

The Raiders are 0-12 in the postseason since then. 

It’s a long road back to that level, and Goode is taking it step by step with a young group. 

“What we’ve done this summer and going into the fall is going back to the basics, working on fundamentals, toughness and contact,” he said. “Doing the little things right and being mentally and physically tough is the focus, and our guys are stepping up to do the work and meet that challenge.”

Jackson Holton and Boston Cunningham will compete to succeed Noah Brand, a do-it-all quarterback who graduated last year. As both a runner and a passer, Brand was key to the Raiders’ offense last year. 

Chip Ballard is one of six seniors on the roster, an anchor on the offensive and defensive line whom the team will lean on for leadership on the field. Fellow seniors Harlow Ellis, Mason Pruden, Luke DeSantis, Hazard Zepponi and Aden Nguyen round out a group that will play a big part in shaping a team with several sophomores and freshman coming up. 

“We are very young, we lost 12 seniors last year and have six this year, who are definitely leaders on both sides of the ball,” Goode said. “Most of our starters have experience but we will have to rely on younger guys too. We have a couple of quarterbacks right now, both of them can play the position well and bring us a different skill set, but they both share a lot of traits as well. I think both of those guys will help us out a lot.”

There is a lot of work to be done, but Goode senses a positive feeling and a new opportunity to usher in the young players. 

Amid the stresses of the job, Goode is trying to take time to enjoy it. Football runs in his family. His father is a Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer who snapped the game-winning field goal in Super Bowl V. Goode Jr. has played and coached at both the high school and college level. It wasn’t something he imagined he would do again, but he is embracing the opportunity to continue working with the Raiders and be a head coach once again. 

“It’s been an exciting time,” he said. “I appreciate the administrators who put me in this role. It’s been a few years since I was a head coach but I’m excited and I hope that excitement is rubbing off on the players.”

COACHING STAFF

Tom Goode Jr., Head Coach,  

Assistants: Clay Colvin, Steve Denson, Carl Middleton, Jason Rustin, Tony Stanford, Benaiah Stevenson

ROSTER

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