OMS Football vs Clarksdale. Photo by Lacy Dodd
The 2025 season was a special one for the Oxford Middle School eighth grade football team.
Under the leadership of third-year head middle school coach Luke Dowdy, the Chargers finished with a perfect 7-0 regular season campaign, capped off by a 12-0 shutout victory over Tupelo at Bobby Holcomb Field.
“We knew we had a good group in eighth grade this year because we never had an issue trying to get them to work hard,” Dowdy said. “Even in seventh grade, they were a pretty strong group already. They were talented and there weren’t any issues between them. They were a close group off the field, too. We knew we had a chance to be good.”
The eighth graders outscored opponents 178-61 during the regular season, pitching a pair of shutouts and allowing more than 15 points just once. Defense played a significant role in the dominance the eighth grade team displayed throughout the season.
“They’re just tough, man,” Dowdy said of that defense. “They just tackled well, and there wasn’t really a weakness anywhere on either side of the ball. They were coached really well, Coach (Wren), Coach (Harrison), Coach (Herod). They did a really good job teaching and getting the kids in the right spots, right calls. They’re really coachable, too.”
The season started with a 30-14 pre-regular season jamboree over Corinth, before beating South Panola 22-15, Grenada 35-6 and Clarksdale 39-28 as the month of September wound down. Then, the Chargers played that same group of regular season opponents over the next three weeks at the opposite location, beating South Panola again 14-0, beating Grenada again 28-6 and beating Clarksdale 28-6. On Oct. 16, they put the bow on the perfect season with the aforementioned beating of Tupelo.
It was after that first win over South Panola when Dowdy realized that this had the potential to have this kind of season.
“South Panola beat us twice (when the eighth grade team was in seventh grade last season). When we went there, we jumped on them and got up 22-0. Then they came back and made it a one-score game yet. Instead of folding, our defense stepped up and got another stop. After that, I knew that our group was different,” Dowdy said.
Dowdy and members of his middle school staff assist the varsity football team as well during their season. Having that kind of continuity is something he believes will only help this middle school squad as they advance in their football journey.
“Being around the high school coaches, one of the best staffs in the state, we really do a good job at putting them in a position to succeed both on and off the field. Learning a lot from those guys is definitely a major plus from going from middle school forward,” Dowdy said.
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