OAKLEAF - Oakleaf High football coach Chris Foy is not shy with demanding perfection from his team despite the hoopla of his 2025 guys looking to grab a title or two this season.
As Foy was laying out his schedule for Saturday's football team and individual pictures for the Clay Today preseason magazine, then a community endeavor to shore up some mulch and yard work for a local church and around the Oakleaf High campus, the directions were a good look into the exacting approach Foy has to most things in his life.
Foy, who parked his car with a Jesus message heard on his radio, offered up a quick acknowledgment of his faith.
"All is good with God," said a beaming Foy, as he approached the usually unenviable task of orchestrating nearly 60 people to dress properly, stand in line, take photos, undress properly, ready for yard work, return to school, prepare for a hot, steamy practice and scrimmage, then prepare for an afternoon grilling session somewhere in the community. "Every day we give thanks to everything around us. It all starts there."
For Foy, the start entails his chase of last year's excruciating state title bid that was abruptly taken away by an opportunistic Gainesvlle Buchholz team.

Preseason Classic
Oakleaf at Columbia
Friday, Aug. 15 7 p.m.

Columbia, one of the more storied and successfully state wide programs in Florida, with a handful of past coaches that have accrued the big wins every program wants, is Oakleaf's first look at how they will fare against a tortuous schedule that Foy has welcomed since he arrived in Oakleaf.
"We always say we want to be in the conversation about the teams that the great teams play or that the other teams want to play to prove themselves," said Foy. "Columbia is a good as it gets to start a season. We got a good look against West Orange in our spring game. Now it counts."
Columbia offers a program that has traditionally put on the gloves against the best teams willing, with Coffee, Georgia (15-0 5A champs last year), Madison County (Rural state champs over two-time champion Hawthorne last year), Trinity Christian Academy (1A runnerup last year), St. Augustine (3S runnerup 2023 by two points; 4A Final Four 2024) and Manatee (5A Final Four, lost by three to champion St. Thomas Aquinas who beat Lakeland 34-0 in final). 

Oakleaf returns home to open their arduous schedule with the likes of Riverside, Hawthorne and Bolles in the first half of the season and Mandarin looming on Oct. 24.