Solid is a good way to describe The O’Neal School’s athletic program.

Boys, girls, overall – it didn’t matter how the program was broken down as the school walked away with three Wachovia Cups for excellence in sports last year.

Competing on the 1-A level in the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association, the Southern Pines private school claimed the statewide Wachovia Cup for boys’ sports, girls’ sports and overall.

This was the first year that the Cup had been broken into three categories. In years past, the Cup was awarded to the school with the best overall record in state-level competition. This past year, the Cup was awarded on both the overall level and broken into Gender Cups with both boys’ and girls’ programs being recognized individually.

With the girls’ swim team the only sport to win a state title, the school benefited from an overall balance in the final Wachovia Cup 1-A points standings. The school fields 14 varsity sports and last year 13 of those teams competed on the state level. The consistency on the state level led to the school collecting 357.5 points overall. Westchester Academy finished second with 295 points.

In the Gender Cup breakdown, the O’Neal girls ran away from the competition, collecting 172.5 points to second-place finisher Westchester Academy’s 115. On the boys side, O’Neal garnered 185 points to second place Westchester Academy’s 180.

Both the O’Neal School and Westchester Academy compete in the Triad 1-A Conference of the NCISAA.

Steve Dahl, the athletic director at the school since 1992, points to several reasons the school is successful on the state level.

“The coaches we have are in sports they love,” Dahl said. “The coaches are good and talented. The athletes are extremely talented and dedicated. The players just love to complete. There are just over 120 students in the upper (high school level) school, so many of them play two or three sports. Probably over 85 percent of the students at the school participate in some sport.”

Dahl also believes consistency is a key to the coaches building solid programs.

“We’ve had coaches stay in the program,” Dahl said, “Coaches like George Mauser in soccer, Blake Smith in running sports, Cindy Strickland in volleyball and Dan Woodfield in tennis pass along a love of the sport they coach to the players.”

Strickland, who has won over 10 state volleyball titles in her 14 years at the school, is retiring this season and won’t be back next year, but the other three will return.

The school also benefits from volunteers that hold down coaching positions. People like Dr. Darrell Simpkins, who started the cross country program and baseball at the school, boys’ basketball coach Rick Gehl, swimming coaches Ellen Sims and Taylor Cooper, boys’ golf coach Debbi Pepi and Buck Smithson, who will replace Strickland as volleyball coach, all volunteer their time to help the school’s athletic program.

Sims and Cooper are the architect of the lone state champion boasted by the school this past year. She directed the girls’ swim team to the NCISAA 1-A/2-A combined title last winter.

“One drawback to being a small school,” Dahl said, “is that so many of the students play that it doesn’t leave a lot of students to attend games. The parents and faculty make up our fan base. One of our biggest supporters is headmaster Jay St. John. He loves athletics and attends many of the events.”

After the 2000-01 season, the school’s sports program will be taking on larger schools as it will move up to the 2-A level. The NCISAA classifications (1-A, 2-A, 3-A) are based on a school’s enrollment.

“It’s good (that we’re moving up),” Dahl said, “because it means we are growing. But it also means we will be facing tougher competition.”