OC’s Cyber Eagles Team Soars to New Heights

Through Oklahoma Christian’s Cyber Eagles club, students are empowered to gain hands-on experience and grow as future cybersecurity leaders by tackling today’s biggest security challenges.

Led by industry expert Professor Curtis Coleman, Cyber Eagles members participate in eight weeks of skill training that helps them develop essential cybersecurity skills, such as password cracking and cryptography.

Cyber Eagles' training culminates in biannual National Cyber League (NCL) competitions, where OC students compete against other cyber security students from around the world to solve real-world security challenges.

To succeed in the competition, students must demonstrate expertise in open source intelligence, cryptography, password cracking, log analysis, network traffic analysis, cyber forensics, scanning & reconnaissance, and web exploitation.

This spring the Cyber Eagles team soared to new heights by reaching milestone accomplishments in the NCL competition. A total of 69 students– 17 high school students and 52 college students–made up the ten Cyber Eagles teams who competed in the spring 2022 NCL competition.

This year, the Cyber Eagles team placed in the top 50 out of more than 500 colleges and over 10,000 students. In a fierce competition where scoring more than 1,000 points is an impressive feat, a Cyber Eagles team, “Those Engineers”, demonstrated exceptional skill by scoring over 2,000 points.

OC students Connor Coleman (‘23), Nathan Lalli (‘23), Quilan Heitman (‘25), and Lane Skinner (‘26) set another milestone achievement for Oklahoma Christian by placing in the top 5% of the nation for their cybersecurity performance.

To build upon their success in the NCL, Coleman, Lalli, Heitman, and Skinner have formed a collegiate team and will be representing OC at an elite cyber competition this October, called the "International Cyber League: Collegiate Cup"

Placing in the top 10% at the NCL competition not only marks an impressive accomplishment for the Cyber Eagles club, but it also points to an exciting future. By competing at a high level, these students are growing their resumes and demonstrating a mastery of the skills that are in high demand in today’s fast growing cybersecurity industry.

Congratulations to our cybersecurity students on your exceptional accomplishments at the NCL competition! We’re proud to call you OC Eagles.