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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Oak Mountain Eagles wasted little time filling out their soccer staff after naming Keegan McQueen as their new head boys soccer coach on June 20, and their latest assistant hires should be familiar to the Birmingham-area soccer community.

Oak Mountain High School named Landon Gaskins and Wes Patridge as program assistant coaches after the Shelby County Board of Education meeting on Thursday, June 26.

“We pride ourselves at Oak Mountain of a team approach to our soccer staff and these two are coming in to be program assistants, but it’s going to enhance the level for everyone, including myself and coach McQueen,” Oak Mountain athletic director Chris Blight said. “It’s two very dedicated, very experienced staff members. They’ve both been involved in head coaching, and we want them to come in and bring that same role into Oak Mountain soccer, and we think that their additions are incredibly valuable to our staff.”

The pair will serve as assistant coaches for both the boys and girls teams, creating continuity across the varsity programs with the same four coaches. McQueen will be head coach for the boys and assist the girls team while Chris Blight will continue as girls soccer head coach and boys assistant.

Gaskins comes to OMHS from Calera, where he coached the varsity boys soccer team for the past three seasons. He made history in his first season with the Eagles when they advanced to their first-ever Final Four. That appearance came by way of a forfeit from McAdory in the quarterfinals due to an ineligible player appearing in the playoffs.

Calera won the Class 6A, Area 5 championship in each of the three seasons that Gaskins was the head coach, posting an 11-1 area record in the process. The Eagles followed up that Final Four run with a trip to the second round in 2024 and quarterfinals in 2025.

Gaskins has deep ties to the county as he played for Helena in high school. He was a two-time All-County selection as a midfielder, first as a First Team pick in 2016 and an Honorable Mention in 2017.

Patridge spent the last seven seasons at John Carroll Catholic High School as the head varsity girls soccer coach. The Cavaliers won the area championship in each of the last four seasons, first in Class 4A-5A, Area 8 in 2022 and then at the Class 5A level from 2023-25.

He is also active at the club level with Birmingham United Soccer Association (BUSA) and as the assistant coach for Birmingham Legion FC II in USL League Two.

Gaskins is thrilled to coach at Oak Mountain, a team that he has long looked up to as a Shelby County resident.

“I’m stoked,” Gaskins said. “I’m ready to get to work with the guys. It’s a dream come true. Ever since I’ve been in Shelby County since I was a kid, I’ve watched Oak Mountain and played against Oak Mountain, and it’s an honor to even be offered the job to go there.”

For Gaskins, much of the appeal in going to Oak Mountain is the school’s high standards both in the classroom and on the pitch. He was also sold on the idea of working on both programs in the new plan for OMHS soccer.

“I was ready for a new challenge,” Gaskins said. “Obviously, the prestige of Oak Mountain had a lot of weight to it, but academically as well and Blight’s vision for the program as a whole just really motivated me and made me consider it, and I’m glad I took the job.”

Even with three years as a head coach and three playoff appearances under his belt, Gaskins admits he still has room to grow as a young coach. He hopes learning from an experienced former assistant in McQueen and two legendary girls coaches in Blight and Patridge can help him learn even more.

“I think I have a lot to learn because I’m only 26,” Gaskins said. “I don’t feel like I know it all. I’m ready to go in with an open mind and just take in as much as I can and learn as much as I can and offer as much as I can to both programs.”

Gaskins has nothing but positive thoughts about his time at Calera. He is grateful for the city for welcoming a first-time coach into their arms and getting behind his vision for the program.

He said it was simply time to move on and take the next step in his coaching journey.

“I called Calera home for three and a half years,” Gaskins said. “It was my first serious job. I obviously made a ton of memories with the guys there and I couldn’t say enough good things about the people of Calera, my coworkers, my administration. It was just the right time for me to move, but I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Calera.”

McQueen said that the hires will ease his transition into becoming a head coach because of Gaskins, Patridge and Blight’s experience as head coaches themselves. It gives him more freedom to delegate during training since he can trust they will bring a head coach’s voice to their shared vision for the boys program.

“We are going to have an absolutely loaded staff, which is awesome,” McQueen said. “To have assistants that have head coach experience, that played at high levels, is huge. It allows you to do more during sessions and training because if you can send them to go work with defenders or go run drills with attackers, and you don’t have to worry about micromanaging or watching them or anything like that.

“We’re very fortunate that we’re going to have the staff that we’ll have, and I’m super excited to work with them.”