Former Mattoon high school coach Tom Oakley and Green Wave soccer great Josh Oakley will be at Eastern this weekend.

But Eastern fans will not be able to root for them this time.

Eastern will host Asbury College, out of Wilmore, Ky., at 1 p.m. Saturday at Lakeside Field with the Eagles, but this time Josh Oakley will be doing the head coaching and Tom Oakley will be his assistant.

Mattoon’s prodigal son, the Decatur Herald & Review Soccer Player of the Year in his senior season, played one season at Indiana Wesleyan and then three more at Monmouth before returning to be an assistant coach for his father at Mattoon.

After taking over the head coaching position at Mahomet Seymour High School, Tom Oakley came to work for Eastern head coach Adam Howarth as a top assistant from 2000-01.

Oakley has tried to bring one important value from his days at Eastern to his new job with Asbury.

“I have tried to bring the professionalism with me to Asbury,” Josh Oakley said. “Eastern is a very competitive environment where winning is expected. The only pressure (at Asbury) to win is put on you by yourself, but I put a lot on myself.”

Josh Oakley has brought on his father, Tom Oakley, to be his assistant and goalkeepers coach in hopes of bringing his defensive pedigree to the college game.

“He volunteers in the preseason and works with the goalies,” Josh Oakley said. “It’s a part-time deal but he tries to make it out to as many games as possible.”

In nine seasons as head coach of the Green Wave, Tom Oakley coached stellar defensive teams, including the sixth-best defense in Illinois soccer history during the 1992 season.

His team allowed only 13 goals in 20 games that season, a 0.65 goals against average. Tom Oakley left Mattoon High School with a career 0.99 GAA.

The father-son duo will be hard pressed to have that kind of defensive effectiveness against the Panthers, as Asbury competes at the NAIA level, three rankings below Eastern’s D-I level.

The Panthers took on the Eagles last season in a scrimmage game Howarth was able to put together after a cancellation on Eastern’s schedule.

“They came out real quick last year,” said senior defender Phil Clemmer. “NAIA schools are always trying to prove themselves against a D-I team.”

The Panthers follow up their game against Asbury with a Saturday game against the Missouri-Kansas City at 3:15 p.m. at Lakeside Field.

Senior defender Mike Comiskey, a Kansas City, Mo. native, said he knows a lot of players on the team and knows how they have played in the past.

“They always seem to put 11 solid guys on the field,” Comiskey said about the Kangaroos. “But beyond their starters, their depth is poor.”

Howarth has decided to honor each of his seniors by designating a day for each of them, with Sunday being Comiskey’s day.