Ridger Sports Blackhawks ended season on a high note

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

— The gridiron Blackhawks ended their season on a high note, doubling their victory total from a year ago with their second win of the 2009 season, a 30-12 thumping of Berryville.

I was in a teacher conference in Little Rock until late Friday afternoon, and a series of traffic snags and delays kept from getting back to Pea Ridge until after the game was over. At press time Monday, I had not been able to get statistics with which to build a game story.

The recently completed 2-8 season, in spite of the won/loss record, was in many respects a remarkable one. Not only was Pea Ridge pegged to finish last in the 4A-1 District, they were predicted to go winless in all games with most pundits predicting that the ’Hawks would lose them all by wide margins. With theshortest roster of players, along with being the least experienced one to boot, anyone predicting a 2-8 finish this season would have been labeled overly optimistic.

But, they did win a pair and could have won some others as well. At any rate, the football ’Hawks made progress, the Junior High team has a good season, and with two of the three elementary teams going undefeated, there does appear to be some light at the end of the tunnel. In my 41 years being attuned to high school football, I can see foundations being laid here that will ultimately bearfruit. Success won’t come easy and it won’t come overnight but it will come if the school and community can just keep up their support and spirit.

Harriers finish 6th at state

The Pea Ridge boys Cross Country team took sixth place at the 4A State Championships in Mountain Home last week.

Led by Colton Hotgrewe’s 12th place finish among the 111 runners in the race, the ’Hawks took 19th (Colby Schooley), 45th (Dakota Woodward), 75th (Dalton Fisher), 76th (Austin Easterling), 80th (Briar Sample), 93rd (Ryan Roughton) and 98th (Dayton Winn).

Their score of 177 was just behind fifth place finisher Berryville who scored 155. Shiloh was the meet champion with a low score of 25 with DeQueen in second place with 50. Heber Springs was third with 67 with fellow 4A-1 Conference member Huntsville fourth with 109.

Among runners from the 4A-1, Holtgrewe was sixth and Schooley was eighth.

The first four finishers from the 4A-1 were Shiloh runners who also finished 1-2-3-5 in the overall as they ran off with the state title.

Northwest Arkansas remains XC power

Northwest Arkansas has been and remains the power center of the state when it comes to distance running and cross country.

Of the 12 state champions crowned in the state meet held last week in Mountain Home, seven of them were from northwest Arkansas. That’s even more impressive when you consider that there are no schools that are in the 6A classification up in this part of the state along with the fact that the only 2A school in northwest Arkansas with a team is Eureka Springs.

Three schools pulled a double sweep as Elkins, Shiloh and Bentonville all won both the girls’ and boys’ titles. The Bentonville 7A girls have long been a cross country power but the Tiger boys really haven’t been statewide competitive since they won a 3A crown back in 1982. For the Tiger boys to beat Rogers (which took second place) was a shock to many.

3A Elkins is quite a story. They didn’t really have a team until Grace Heysfield came along in 2006 as a freshman sensation, winning all golds in every state race she has run since her debut. Her success encouraged her school to commit to having a competitive program with the team entered in weekly competitions throughout the season.

Grace’s brother, Christian,won the boys’ individual title, leading a team of five sophomores, one freshman and one junior that claimed the team championship. Cross country is one of the very few team sports where a squad can go from nothing to state competitive in short order since most smaller schools don’t put much into their cross country programs.

4A Shiloh has rounded up some new students and with the help what some describe as some of the finest training facilities anywhere in the state for a high school to go with coaching by former Razorback All-Americans, they now pretty much own cross country in their classification. The boys’ score of 25 was about as low as I have ever seen at a state meet.

The other school winning a state title was 5A Siloam Springs, who won another boys’ title to go with their many previous championships.

Second-place state team awards went to Fayetteville’s boys, Rogers girls and Green Forest’s girls. Third place team finishers include Rogers boys, Fayetteville’s girls, Huntsville’s girls, Siloam Springs’ girls and Cedarville’s girls.

Football playoffs gear up

As expected, Shiloh won the district, claiming the top seed and top ranking in the 4A playoffs. The other top seed is Booneville, the school from which PeaRidge head coach Tony Travis hails. Those two schools will have a week off while the other 28 playoff schools battle it out.

The second place finisher Gravette Lions will host the fourth place finisher in the 4A-3 District in Valley View. Third place Farmington will travel to face the 4A-7 runner-up team in Ashdown. fourth place Prairie Grove will go way on down to Dumas which finished third in the 4A-8 District. The fifth qualifier from our league is again Huntsville. Playing in their last 4A season, the Eagles will travel way east to take on the speedy state power Osceola team.

In other local teams, Bentonville lived up to the pre-season hype by shutting out previously undefeated Springdale Har-Ber 17-0. The win gave the Tigers home field advantage throughout the playoffs until the state final in Little Rock. They get the week off, facing the winner of the Bryant/Fort Smith Southside game. Southside finished 5th in the 7A West but was the only team to beat Bentonville this year.

Rogers Heritage was quite a surprise this year, taking third place in a very tough conference in only their second year of competing as a high school.

They were last in 2008.

I would almost bet that 7A West schools could win every game they play when playing non-7A West schools. I predict the 7A semi-final will be all 7AWest schools.

Siloam Springs had a rude awakening this season after so many years as a playoff team. They lost every conference game to finish 0-7 in the league after opening 3-0 in nonconference play. The Panthers’ head coach from last year, Clint Ashcraft, is at Conway this season with the Wampus Cats greatly improved, qualifying to play Fayetteville in the first round at Fayetteville. If any 7A West team is to lose in the playoffs this year to a non-7A West team, this might be the game.

Mahlzahn stock improving

Wherever Arkansas native Gus Mahlzahn has gone, success has followed him. He made Shiloh into a state power under his tenure, and he made Springdale a national power under his direction.

In the short time he was at Arkansas, his “Wildcat” offense sparked the Razorbacks to a 10-game winning streak. His two years running the Tulsa offense made the Hurricane a national threat with the nation’s most productive offense. He went to Auburn this year and he has turned the anemic 2008 Tiger offense into one of the nation’s best this year.

It’s kind of interesting that teams that lose his services have such nosedives immediately afterward.

It won’t be too long that he is head coaching somewhere.

Sports, Pages 8 on 11/11/2009