Douglas Oliveira

Position

Head Coach
Alma Mater

Indiana Wesleyan
Graduation Year

2018
Email

doliveira@daltonstate.edu

Douglas Oliveira was hired as the third head coach of Dalton State men's soccer on April 21, 2025. He came to DS from Liberty University, where he served as an assistant coach for five seasons.

PATH TO DALTON STATE
Oliveira comes to the Roadrunners after a successful stint as an assistant coach at Liberty University. He joined the Liberty men's coaching staff during the fall of 2020 and helped guide the Flames through the postponement of the 2020 season in his initial year on campus. While at Liberty, the Flames went 33-31-13 overall, playing in the A-SUN before moving to the OVC in 2023.

Oliveira brings from LU a strong desire for competition to test his team, as the Flames never hid from good competitors, as they played such powers as Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Clemson, UCLA, Maryland, and Navy.

Before joining the Flames staff, Oliveira served as an assistant coach for two seasons with the Mississippi Brilla FC. Based in Clinton, Miss., the soccer ministry and USL-2 team is Mississippi's only Premier Development League (PDL) franchise and performs ongoing inner-city work through its Urban Soccer Project. Also, while working on his master's degree in human performance at Liberty, Oliveira served as the Flames team manager from Feb. 2019 through May 2020.

The Campinas, Brazil native has NAIA experience, having played two collegiate seasons at Indiana Wesleyan and two collegiate seasons at John Brown (Ark.). He was part of Indiana Wesleyan's NCCAA National runner-up squad in 2017. In addition, he played for the PDL's Charlotte Eagles from 2016-18. In 2017, he was named to the All-Eastern Conference team, as the Eagles won the PDL title.

Oliveira graduated from Indiana Wesleyan with a bachelor's degree in exercise science with a minor in coaching. He earned a master's degree in human performance with a strength and conditioning cognate from Liberty in May of 2020.

He holds a National "B" Coaching License from U.S. Soccer.

TIME WITH THE ROADRUNNERS
In his first season at the helm, head coach Douglas Oliveira guided Dalton State to a 9–4–5 overall mark and 3–2–4 in SSAC play, including an unbeaten road slate (4–0–3) that underscored the team’s resilience away from Dalton Stadium. The Roadrunners opened with a sweep of the Dalton Classic and a four-match home run, Brescia (Ky.) (3–0), Campbellsville (Ky.) (4–0), Bryan (Tenn.) (5–0), and Union (Ky.) (1–0), that set the tone for the Fall and helped vault the program into the national conversation, where DS spent stretches of September and early October inside the NAIA Top 25 and even held the No. 1 ranking.

Conference play featured a gritty 1–1 draw at Faulkner (Ala.), an OT quarterfinal win at UT Southern (Tenn.) (1–0), and a physical 2–0 semifinal against Life (Ga.) in Montgomery. Dalton State earned an at-large berth to the NAIA Men’s Soccer Championship and traveled to West Palm Beach, Fla. and the Keiser bracket, where the season concluded in the first round against Warner Pacific (Ore.) (2–0). Goalkeeping was a throughline: Nestor Mendez delivered late stops at Faulkner (Ala.) to preserve the draw, while Bernardo Manzano registered five saves in the SSAC semifinal to keep the Birds in touching distance.

Individually, Dalton State’s impact was reflected in the league’s postseason awards. Sergej Mišic captured SSAC Newcomer of the Year, Jaime Mendiola and Luis Carrasco were named All-SSAC First Team, and Jesús Huitanda and Hugo Martinez earned Second Team honors. Throughout October, the Roadrunners remained a fixture in the NAIA Top 25, reinforcing the program’s standard of defending with organization, competing in transition, and carrying a November mindset.

Coaching Experience

Years	School	Position	Record
2025-Present	Dalton State	Head Coach	9-4-5
2020-2025	Liberty	Assistant Coach

Year-by-Year At Dalton State

Year	Record	Pct.	Conference	Record	Pct.	Finish
2025	9-4-5	.639	Southern States	3-2-4	.556	5th