Dragons defender poised to step up in junior season

The Carroll boys soccer team has developed a reputation for being a perennial playoff team and is almost always a rival to make a run at a state title.

This is due in large part to the coaching of Greg Oglesby, as well as the development of great players in the soccer program season after season.

When one standout graduates, another is there to take the reins, and this is no different in the case of Corey Dotson, who was selected as this year’s District 7-6A Utility MVP as a sophomore.

Oglesby said that Dotson has emerged as one of his stronger players and said that he brings a lot to the table.

“He has a great attitude and a tremendous work rate,” Oglesby said. “He is a quiet leader and has tremendous athleticism. He has great size, speed and agility. He has great quickness, and also has a real team-first attitude.”

Dotson scored three goals for the Dragons last year for a total of six points from the defender position and helped lead the team to a 10-8-5 overall record for the season.

Oglesby said that he has a couple of things he wants Dotson to work on during the off-season.

“All of the boys have an individual conference with us,” Oglesby said of he and his coaching staff. “We do a summary and recap of the season and talk to them about, here’s what we see moving forward and where we see you. We talk to them about what the team is looking like and what they need to work on.

“He just needs to continue to work on his technique, and he knows that, and he’ll probably continue to do that over the summer. He’s got to become a little bit more efficient technically, because the game is so fast and the players are so much better now than they were 10 or 15 years ago.”

Carroll advanced to the area round of the playoffs last season before losing to Flower Mound.

Oglesby said that Dotson will need to provide leadership next year to help the Dragons to another good season.

“He’s got a great year of varsity experience under his belt, as well as playoff experience,” Oglesby said. “We’ll probably play him in the middle somewhere. His quite confidence and composure will help us a lot. Highs don’t get too high and his lows don’t get too low, and I think the kids will feed off of him because of his consistency.”

This story was originally published June 8, 2015 at 4:34 PM with the headline "Dragons defender poised to step up in junior season."