Northern Oklahoma College had two soccer athletes sign with four-year schools this year.
John Woodhead signed with Oklahoma City University while Francisco Lopez signed with Oral Roberts University.
Woodhead, a native of Newcastle, England, actually signed in December and spent the spring semester at OCU.
“His best soccer is ahead of him,” said Mavs’ coach Michael Duroy. “He battled injuries his whole career here at Northern. He had a groin injury that hampered him most of his freshman year. He had an amazing spring and came in very fit to start his sophomore year and broke his foot in pre-season training. He missed the whole year, and most of the spring. This year he was poised to have a break-out year and suffered a high ankle sprain in preseason causing him to miss the first few games of the season. He also went through a position change from forward to midfield.”
“I’m really proud of how much John grew as an athlete and as a person in his time here,” Duroy added. “He is a great example of what Northern can do for students. He came in as a player that needed to work on his fitness and his work rate wasn’t his strongest quality. He left as one of the hardest workers and best leaders we have ever had in our program. On top of that he was a great student and everyone on campus liked him.”
Lopez, a graduate of Tulsa Union High School, played one year at NOC before transferring to ORU.
“Nano was another player that struggled with an injury,” Du- Roy said. He suffered a bad ankle sprain that kept him out of several conference games and limited his ability to practice and play all season. I don’t think he was anywhere close to 100% for the second half of the season. I know he was playing through quite a bit of pain and it really limited what he could do. He is going to have a great career at ORU.
“Nano was also a great student with a 4.0 GPA in the fall and is on his way to another 4.0 in the spring.”
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