Ridger Sports | ’Hawk cagers developing depth and balance

With the ’Hawks basketball team losing heavily to graduation last year, there were pundits who thought that head coach Charley Clarks’ succession of winning seasons may go by the boards this year.

Of course, coach Clark didn’t buy into any of those theories and was actually confident that the 2010-2011 ’Hawks could be as good as any team that he has had during his tenure at Pea Ridge. Thus far into the season, the ’Hawks have rolled up a good 8-3 mark, especially when considering that all three losses have come against large school opponents (Siloam Springs, Rogers, Oklahoma City Southeast).

Last night was an important league game with Shiloh, a team that Clark holds a perfect record against. Coming up Friday is a homegame against 7A school Rogers Heritage.

Ten days later will be the ’Hawks’ trip to Washburn, Mo., for the annual Southwest Holiday Tournament, of which the ’Hawks are multiple defending champions.

Losing starting guard Ethan Higgins to a concussion was potentially a heavy blow tothe ’Hawks’ outlook, but Pea Ridge came up with good play from the bench to help them compete successfully in the Arvest Classic last week in Rogers. The regular starting lineup usually has three solid juniors to go with senior standouts Kasey Cooper and Cameron Thompson. A number of sophomores have shown signs of being solid players themselves in the not too distant future.

Not a lot of 4A class schools will agree to play schools the size of some of the teams that the ’Hawks have scheduled. While victories are harder to come by against schools that have three, four or five times the enrollment ofPea Ridge High School, the experience gained while playing sich schools is invaluable.

I have heard of an old sports saying that you are as good as who you play with. The 2010-2011 basketball ’Hawks are provingthat axiom correct.

Mahlzahn to take Vanderbilt job

After developing Auburn Universitiy’s offense to the point that the Tigers are the top ranked team in the land, former 4A-1 football coach Gus Mahlzahn has been offered a $3 million dollar a year job to be the head coach at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

Although doubted by observers at every rise in the level of competition that the Arkansas native has faced, Mahlzahn has finally proven to any and everyone that follows football in a fair minded fashion that the offensive guru can coach and coach well.

It’s almost impossible to fathom a coach going from a high school coaching salary in 2005 to a salary paying millions a year plus benefits. It’s almost akin to someone being promoted out of the mailroom in some corporation to the job of CEO.

Most collegiate head coaches follow the track that guided the Hogs’ former head coach Houston Nutt. After graduating from college, Nutt spent quite a few years as a graduate assistant, then an assistant,then a head coach at a small college, then a head coach at a larger university before finally landing a position at a major university such as Arkansas. Mahlzahn went through the whole process in five years.

Always a class act, Mahlzahn publicly thanked Frank Broyles for his help in getting him started in college athletics even though Broyles said that he didn’t think that Mahlzahn’s ideas would work on the college level. Many thought back in 2005 that Mahlzahn was offered the offensive coordinator’s job at Arkansas in order to sign Mahlzahn’s star quarterback, Mitch Mustain, who was voted the top quarterback in the U.S. while playing for Springdale High School. That was more than likely true as Mahlzahn was pushed out at Arkansas about the time thatNutt soured on Mustain as a quarterback.

Interestingly enough, Mahlzahn’s latest protege quarterback coaching is Cam Newton who won the Heisman Award last week as the top college player in the country. I would dare say that Mahnzahn is probably the only coach who has coached a high school quarterback to a No. 1 ranking nationally, then later coached a college quarterback to the No.1 ranking on that label.

After Mustain left the tutelage of Mahzahn, he turned out to be less than impressive in his new surroundings. Would have Cam Newton won the Heisman Trophy had he not been coached by Mahlzahn? After all, his years in junior college led no one to believe that he would have had the year he has had.

While he hasn’t actually signed on at Vandy, the Vanderbilt University website had a post entitled “Who is Gus Mahlzahn?” The article detailed Mahlzahn’s career and accomplishments and it was done, I think, to prepare Commodore fans for the eventual arrival of the suddenly celebrated coach.

The university in Nashville has never paid anything like they are prepared to pay Mahlzahn for his services. In a school known first for its academics rather than its sports, I think the school knows the one-of-a-kind person that it wll be getting. On the website, viewers are made aware of Mahzahn’s insistence that his players be leaders on and off the field.

In a throwback to days gone by, Mahlzahn forbids cursing, vulgar language and profanity for the teams he coaches. His belief that players will be better players if they are better people has borne a lot of fruit.

For me, I really hope he goes to Vanderbilt. Besides liking to see him reap the rewards that I believe that he has earned, his leaving may well cause a few of Auburns’ incoming committments to perhaps change their mind and decide to be Razorbacks. And as much as I like Mahlzahn, I like the Razorbacks more and having him coaching against Arkansas a lot less with his departure to the SEC Eastern Divsion is agood thing.

It was just announced Tuesday morning that Mahlzahn would turn down the $3 million Vanderbilt job and stay at Auburn.

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Editor’s note: John McGee is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The TIMES. He can be contacted through The Times at prtnews@ nwaonline.com.

Sports, Pages 10 on 12/15/2010