Northwest Arkansas — With new head coach Tony Travis working hard to increase the numbers of his football program’ participants, it is worthy to note that the head ’Hawk has around 20 participating in off season drills. With basketball season in full swing and with baseball players working mightily to prepare for their spring season, normally athletes are sometimes hard to come by to participate in off-season workouts.
Quite a few of the hopeful ’Hawks haven’t played in a while or ever, so the off-season program Travis is running might just beef up the numbers of players that any successful 4A football team has to have to be competitive. Learning what needs to be known and doing what needs to be done makes success difficult if the prospective athlete doesn’t start until a few weeks before the season begins.
In addition to the added numbers, Travis recently got the weight training room painted and cleaned up. While no weight training room at a high school is built to be aesthetically pleasing or to win interiordesign awards, they can often devolve into trash bins or places of general sloppiness.
“For us to be successful,” Travis said recently, “we have to have the right attitude about everything.
Pride in how we practice, how we play, in how we look and in how we treat each other and our surroundings.” ’Hawks up in state poll
While losing to Huntsville last week, the ’Hawks still managed to rise a spot in the MaxPreps/Freeman 4A Basketball Poll.
Pea Ridge rose from 8th to 7th, with four members of the 4A-1 District now holding down a top 10 ranked position.
The MaxPreps poll works from a computer model which takes into consideration your strength of schedule as well as your overall record in addition to scoring totals.
The ’Hawks remain in the third-ranked position as far as the district goes.
4A-1 DISTRICT POLL
1. Farmington
2. Huntsville
3. Pea Ridge
4. Shiloh
5. Berryville
6. Gentry
7. Prairie Grove
8. Gravette MAXPREPS STATE 4A POLL
1. Dumas
2. Subiaco
3. Farmington
4. Huntsville
5. Jonesboro Westside
6. West Fork
7. Pea Ridge
8. Clarksville
9. DeQueen
10. Shiloh GOTR coming to town
What is a GOTR? It stands for Girls on the Run, a running and fitness program that has expanded all across the United States with an interest in getting a group started in Pea Ridge.
I will be meeting with Suzanne Clinard, the executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of the Girls on the Run, as shehopes to get the program branching out into more places and areas. Clinard works directly with the Bentonville group and has been instrumental in getting the word out to more and more parents and girls about this worthwhile program.
With so many stories coming out almost weekly as to the sorry state of our kids health and fitness, there can’t be too many efforts to deal with this burgeoning problem. My experience with the United States AAU program, the United States Track and Field Youth Program, the Hershey’s National Track and Field Program and the National Age Group Track and Field Association tells me that while there are several organizations that have turned out some finely conditioned youth athletes, the general mass of American youth is heading for trouble in the future. Things just aren’t being done well enough to counter-act the rising tide of obesity and physical un-fitness that is afflicting our country’s youth.
I will have more information on this program when it becomes available.
Sports, Pages 8 on 01/20/2010