#HSFT19 Stop #38 — Oak Hill Academy Raiders

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WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) — “Oak Hill Academy…that’s a special place for me. It’s like a family here. Everything I’ve gone through in my life I’ve been able to rely on these people to help me through it,” senior TE/DE Daniel Harrington said.

There’s a special and unique bond for the players at Oak Hill Academy. These guys have grown up together and formed a tight brotherhood which is translating on the field.

“The tighter you are as a team I think the more you’ll be able to get through tough times,” senior OG/MLB Jaden Craven said. “Football is a game of adversity. Who can overcome the adversity. A close knit group of guys can do it better than guys who are just out there trying to win a football game.”

“They are a byproduct of an endeavor over the past five, six years,” head coach Chris Craven said. “I’ve been here thirteen years, fifteenth year as a head coach. So these guys are a year four, year five product of that. We’re strong. That’s what it takes to compete in the game I coach.

The Raiders welcome back plenty of experience on both sides of the ball with a good amount of returning seniors that are hungry for wins.

“A 21 man roster and 11 of them are seniors. We do have a lot of returning starters on both sides of the ball. They have to play both ways but I have high expectations from them. They have high expectations from us as a coaching staff. You know we work hard in the off-season so we can win. That’s what we want to do when it’s time for competition. We want to win,” Chris Craven said.

“We have something to prove. People have been saying we’re just going to be average this year and we want to come out and shock the state of Mississippi,” Jaden Craven said.

That all gets started with a match-up against Mantachie. The Mustangs are a team that Oak Hill has never competed against before. The Raiders say that they’re ready for a brand new challenge.

“I love it,” Harrington said. “They don’t know anything about us and we don’t know anything about them. So it’s like a clean slate. I think they already think that they’ve won, but we’re preparing for them right now. We’re getting ready for them. I think we’re going to shock them.”

That first match-up against Mantachie will kick-off Oak Hill Academy’s season on August 23rd.