East Limestone senior James Oliver recently signed to play college soccer at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee.

East Limestone’s James Oliver hadn’t really thought of playing college soccer at Bryan College, but when the opportunity presented itself, he wasn’t going to turn it down.

Oliver signed a scholarship to play for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school, located in Dayton, Tennessee, earlier this month after a tryout he wasn’t even initially planning to attend brought fourth a scholarship offer.

“My older brother John, who graduated from East two years ago, decided he wanted to go (to Bryan), so their coach emailed him and said he was going to do a tryout,” Oliver said. “I decided I was just going to go tag along and bring my cleats to possibly try out as well. We got up there and toured the campus and then the coach told me to put my cleats on and kick around with them. After that, he stopped both me and John and asked if we wanted to be a part of the program and offered us scholarships. I wasn’t really planning on going there to play soccer, but he gave me the opportunity to give it a shot.”

John ultimately decided not to attend Bryant, but James will be starting in August, quickly preparing for the fall college soccer season.

“Once I get there, preseason training starts pretty quick,” he said. “I’ll have to be ready to go when I get there.”

Bryan plays in the Appalachian Athletic Conference along with 15 other schools. The Lions reached the championship game of the AAC soccer championship tournament the past two years, falling to Reinhardt University and Union College respectively.

Oliver said he isn’t sure what position he’ll play at the collegiate level, but has played a variety of positions at East. This past season, which was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, he played center midfielder and left wing.

Oliver helped lead the Indians to consecutive Limestone County Tournament championships in 2018 and 2019 and the second round of the Class 4A-5A playoffs both years.

He had a hat trick in the final of the 2019 tournament, a 4-0 win over West Limestone, but said his best memory at East was the 2018 tournament final, when the Indians scored a goal with 20 seconds left in the game to defeat Tanner 3-2.

“I’ve got a lot of great memories playing at East,” Oliver said. “But that is the one that stands out as being the best.”

Oliver said the cancellation of his senior soccer season was difficult to take, but was thankful he gets the opportunity to continue his playing career in college.

“(The season cancellation) was very heartbreaking to a lot of seniors,” Oliver said. “Not just for soccer, but for other sports like baseball and golf. It wasn’t as bad for me, but I feel terrible for the ones who don’t get to go to college and keep playing, because that was their final season.”