Coach David Oakes guided football, basketball, baseball, and track teams for 38 years at Utica, Hattiesburg, Bruce, Franklington, Louisiana, Greensburg, Louisiana, Bloomfield, Iowa, Hillsboro, Missouri, Brookhaven Academy, Pearl River Central, Philadelphia, and St. Martin. David hails from Kosciusko where he was two-time Most Athletic Boy and All-Choctaw Conference in football. David was a three-year starter in baseball and football and a two-year starter for the basketball team. He played football at Holmes Junior College in Goodman where he was Honorable Mention All-State in 1954. He earned his college degree at Mississippi State before entering the coaching profession in 1957 at Utica High where he was head football coach, head basketball coach for the boys and girls teams, and head coach for girls track. After leading Utica to a Rebel Bowl appearance in 1958 and district titles in boys and girls basketball, he arrived at Hattiesburg High was an offensive line coach for two seasons. He was named head coach at Bruce where he stayed one season leading the team to a record of 3-7 at a school that had a record of 1-36 for the previous four seasons. He worked in private business in 1964, but returned to coaching at Franklington High in Franklington, Louisiana, to work as an assistant football coach and baseball coach whose teams would claim a district title and a third round playoff appearance. After one season, he was named head football coach at Greensburg, LA, High where he led the gridiron program for 5 years. At Greensburg, he was District Coach of the Year and started the track program at the school that produced district championship runners. Coach Oakes changed states again working first as assistant head coach for a Davis County team at Bloomfield, Iowa, that finished 0-10. Named as head football coach, his team promptly went 6-3 and finished second in the conference. For his efforts, David was named Southeast Iowa 3A-4A Football Coach of the Year. He was the coach of the first ever girls basketball team at Davis County and led the team to two district titles along with district titles in girls track, and softball. David spent 5 years at Hillsboro High in Hillsboro, Missouri, where he paced his team to a conference title in 1976 after turning around a program that had been 2-28 in the previous eight seasons. Returning to Mississippi in 1978, he worked as head football coach at Brookhaven Academy before leaving the profession for a year to work at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant. David came back to coaching in 1980 at Pearl River Central in Carriere and guided his teams to two Ladner Bowl Championships, an Oil Bowl title, and two district crowns with a second round appearance in the playoffs in 1988. Again, Coach Oakes turned around a program that had not had a winning season for 10 years and was 0-9 before David’s magic coaching touch yielded a 6-4 mark and an Oil Bowl crown in Citronelle, Alabama. In addition to the football success, his PRC girls track team won 2 district titles and the boys track squad claimed one district crown. Coach Oakes was at Philadelphia from 1987 to 1992 where his teams earned three district championships, a South State crown, a Shrimp Bowl title, and a third-round playoff appearance. Coach Oakes’ Philadelphia football teams had 4 straight playoff appearances. His boys track team won 4 district championships. David concluded his coaching career from 1992 to 1996 at St. Martin as head football coach. Before his arrived, St. Martin had only had one winning season since 1979 and had only won one game the previous season. Coach Oakes led St. Martin to a winning mark in his first seasons and an appearance in the Shrimp Bowl. Overall, David led his football teams in 351 games with 218 wins, 129 losses, and ties for a 62.7% winning mark. Coach Oakes had a distinguished career that included two Deep South Conference Coach of the Year Awards, a Southeast Iowa regional coach of the year honor, a district coach of the year award in Louisiana, and the Gulf Coast Hall of Fame Twig Branch Award for coach of the year in 1984. David was an All-Star coach in the 1986 Bernard Blackwell All-Star Classic and was an assistant coach for the first Mississippi team to beat Alabama in the 1992 Mississippi/Alabama All-Star football classic. He served his profession as a member of the Board of Directors of the Iowa Football Coaches Association, the MHSAA as track advisory committee member, and district representative for the MAC. David also served as president of the Deep South Conference in 1985-86.