Photo by Dana Rene Bowler

Oaks Christian School's football team lost three games n 2007, but delivered the school's fifth consecutive CIF-Southern Section title.

Photo by Juan Carlo
Star staff

Oaks Christian's Megan Schoppe (9), Sam Nordlund (19) and Melissa Dahl (12) congratulate Kristen Clark after she scored the winning goal against Oak Park High in the CIF-Southern Section Division V semifinals.

The streaks just keep on coming for Oaks Christian School athletic teams.

Shaking off an end to its 48-game winning streak, the school's football team won a fifth consecutive section title.

The boys' volleyball and boys' swimming teams extended their section championship streaks to four.

For the fourth time in the last five years, the girls' soccer team claimed another CIF crown.

And, for the sixth straight year, Oaks Christian has won outright or shared the Star Cup small schools all-sports title.

In an oddity for a program considered one of the strongest among small schools in Southern California, the Westlake Village school saw a drop in league titles and an increase in section championships during the 2007-08 school year.

A two-year affiliation with the Tri-Valley League — a future that hangs in the balance of a Northern Area releaguing meeting next February — has seen Oaks Christian's share of league titles drop from 14 during the 2005-06 school year in the Frontier League to 10 in 2006-07 and eight in 2007-08.

Oaks Christian won a school-record five section titles to increase its total over the last six years to 24.

"Moving into the Tri-Valley League, I still believe, was a very positive thing to do for the league," said Oaks Christian athletic director and girls' soccer coach Jan Hethcock.

"We haven't won as many league championships. We're not dominating. That is a good thing. We don't want to be in a situation where you win everything. Then, it becomes ho-hum.

"The TVL has brought the level of competitiveness up for us. Our teams have had to work harder. The kids have had to dig deeper. The coaches have had to prepare better."

That, in turn, has helped slingshot Oaks Christian into the postseason with teams peaking.

Last fall, Oaks Christian won its first state cross country team championship as the girls swept to the Division IV title.

Two more firsts followed in the winter as the boys' soccer team won the Division V title on the same day that the school's girls' soccer team won its first outright section championship after settling for co-championships four times.

Twenty of its 21 teams advanced to the playoffs. Six of its teams won 19 or more events: girls' soccer (24-4-4), girls' volleyball (23-4), boys' basketball (21-10), boys' volleyball (20-4), boys' soccer (19-5-3) and girls' basketball (19-5-3).

Year in and year out, Oaks Christian has had a solid core of programs.

Although the softball team lost in the first round of the Division III playoffs, that program had a stretch of four straight section championship game appearances.

One program that continues to be on the rise is girls' volleyball. Oaks Christian advanced to the III-AA quarterfinals with fellow TVL schools La Reina and Oak Park.

Girls' volleyball had struggled in its infant years at Oaks Christian after going through four head coaches in four years.

The hiring of George Hees, who also serves as the boys' volleyball coach, helped turn the program around.

"It helped to finally have some consistency in our coaching," said Hethcock. "George has done a tremendous job with both programs."