Ridger Sports 4A-1 has team in state final

Spectators abound

Pea Ridge’s 4A-1 district has a team in the final of both the girls’ and the boys’ state basketball championship games to be played this weekend in Hot Springs.

While I predicted that perhaps all four representatives of our boys’ region could make the state semifinals, at least both teams from the 4A-1 made it.

Farmington and Huntsville reached the boys semis with Prairie Grove making it to the girls. Last Saturday both Huntsville and Prairie Grove made it to the last dance of the “big dance.”

Farmington was edged in the final seconds of their semifinal game with Jonesboro Westside, 60-57.

Westside scored a tip in and free throw to upset the Cardinals, the winner of our regional tournament. Jonesboro Westside, incidentally, is actually just Westside School District not even located in Jonesboro as they have their own school board, etc. The town they are in is Bono, which is on the west side of Jonesboro, which I visited several years ago, before they had the infamous school shootings.

Anyhow, Westside will take on Huntsville for the crown with the Prairie Grove girls set to battle Star City.

Marianna was the surprise team of the tournament after a tense 63-58 first round win over our Region’s Subiaco, a team that for several weeks was ranked as the No. 1 team in the state. Subiaco led for most of the game until Marianna rallied to tie it in the final few seconds. A Subiaco player was called for a blocking foul in the final couple of seconds, a call which set off the Subiaco coach into such a rage that he was hit with two technical fouls. The Marianna player missed the first free throw, then nailed the next five to ice the game. The next day Marianna went out to play the state’s current No. 1-ranked team in Dumas, whipping them in a 69-53 shocker. They came up just shy of reaching Cinderella status in the finals in their 2-point loss to Huntsville.

Clarksville, the team that eliminated our Blackhawks, reached the “Elite Eight” with a 53-51 win over Mc-Gehee. The Panthers were then dispatched by Westside High School in thenext round. The other team that was in the state tournament from our district was the Shiloh’s girls team who were upset 51-41 by the Stuttgart Ricebirds.

It’s great to be in Razorback country

Any fan of the Razorback baseball team can tell you of the great experience to be had attending home baseball games. The University of Arkansas has had the second highest attendance records nationally in their home baseball games for the past couple of years. They have had as many as 14,000 fans attend home games with crowds of 4,000 and more attending games in the mid-week bad weather no name opponent games.

The Hogs just back from a three-game series in Berkely, Calif. They played the University of California Bears, one of the top PAC 12 teams on the west coast.

Game attendance for the three games was more than 200 on Friday, more than 300 on Saturday and more than 400 on Sunday. Those are the kind of numbers Arkansas has in the number of people waiting in line at the concession stand.

Arkansas has had very competitive baseball teams for some time, and one of the top reasons is fansupport. Players considering their college to attend can be swayed by the way the team is supported at home. One of the top Hog players is their catcher Mc-Cann who hails from Santa Barbara, Calif. He was recruited by several schools but he was very impressed with Arkansas after attending some home games here as a recruit.

All athletic teams draw strength from their supporters. Pea Ridge has a very fine boys baseball team this year, as they usually do. While their game times (not long after school) aren’t conducive for some fans to be able to attend, anyone who has the time ought to come out and root for the “Hawks.” The same goes for the Lady ’Hawks’ softball team.

I think one of the greatest things about living in northwest Arkansas is the people who live here. Fan support is lively all around with the area’s youth the beneficiaries. Spectator sports need spectators.

Come on out.

◊◊◊

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 [email protected].

Sports, Pages 7 on 03/10/2010