GRAND RAPIDS - Daimond Dixon believes that junior Davion Gillen is a diamond in the rough for the Grand Rapids Christian football team.

Dixon, who is Christian's director of football operations and strength and conditioning coach, said he likes what he sees in the 5-8, 162-pound safety.

"He is starting on varsity for the first time," Dixon said. "He had a great offseason and summer coming into the season.

"He looks comfortable out there, for this being his first varsity season."

Gillen has been all over the field making plays on defense for the Eagles, who are 6-2 and 4-1 in the OK Gold Conference, following a key victory over East Grand Rapids.

"He has a good football mind and is the epitome of a player that does his job," Dixon said. "You know as a coach that you can rely on him to know and execute his assignment to the best of his abilities."

In a 41-26 victory over OK Green co-leader Zeeland West, Gillen accounted for 13 solo tackles from his safety position.

"It shows that he is not afraid to come up and hit like a linebacker," Dixon said. "He is very tenacious on defense and has been making big stops for us in key situations.

"He comes up big for us and makes plays from the secondary."

Dixon said that Gillen keeps his demeanor at an even keel and lets his pads do the popping for him.

"He is not a 'rah-rah' type of guy," Dixon said. "Davion leads by example, and others see that and play better as a result.

"With him in the secondary, the players around know that they have him as a key stop guy and the last line of defense."

After starting out the season with a 22-10 loss to DeWitt, the Eagles reeled off five consecutive victories - over Zeeland West, Wyoming (45-0), West Catholic (30-14), Forest Hills Eastern (48-7), and Thornapple Kelloggs (21-14) - before a 24-10 loss to South Christian the week before playing two-time defending OK Gold champion East Grand Rapids.

"Considering that we had to replace a lot of seniors from last year, we have played well," Dixon said. "Our youth shows sometimes, but it's a learning curve in some things that they have responded to by learning from mistakes and moving forward."