Ridger Sports Blackhawks gridiron season ends

In a season of near misses and disappointments, the local gridiron campaign ended with hope for the future.

The losing struggle with Berryville Friday was between a team stocked with youth and talent as opposed to a senior-dominated team that has finally has a system in place that might make the most of their talent.

Absent mistakes, penalties and injuries, the 1-9 ’Hawks might well have won half their games this year. It just seemed so often this season that the steady improvement shown by these Blackhawks might well lead to some late season victories but it wasn’t to be.

This was a rebuilding year in every meaning of the word and a lot of rebuilding was accomplished. Rebuilding years are especially tough on senior athletes who won’t be around to enjoy the fruits of the rebuilding but who are and will be remembered as instrumental in Pea Ridge turning the tide on their football fortunes. Without the senior leadership this season, the results would have been much less rewarding.

Football is a sport where a great emphasis is placed on winning and, of course, winning is the point of every game.

However, winning should be measured not only in games won and lost but in character and integrity gained and encouraged.

As my high school coach often told us, “It isn’t so much about whatyou may win, but what you may become.”

There are some private schools that have the ability to go out and recruit scores of athletes to just out talent similarly sized smaller schools, but to what end? There is a much larger victory to be won in taking raw, under achieving athletes and teaching them and coaching them to be better persons as well as athletes.

Barton High School once had an unbelievable string of victories under coach Frank McClellan.

Once his program was in place, they just won.

Some years they had lots of talent and some years they didn’t, but the Bears believed in themselves regardless and set records for football dominance.

McClellan eventually retired and Barton’s football fortunes sank like a rock when the succeeding coaches weren’t nearly as good in getting their kids to believe in themselves.

Anyone watching the ’Hawks this fall didn’t see any quit, any sign of giving up. Now that’s a quality that will not only serve the boys well in future seasons but in future life as well.

Playoffs begin

I missed it somewhere I suppose, but the 4A-1 District has five state qualifiers instead of theusual four. There are only 48 teams in a six-district classification. Four qualifiers only allows 24 state entrants, so a limited number of fifth place finishers are allowed into the mix.

Farmington is the beneficiary of this year’s extra qualifier. However, their good fortune will be rewarded by traveling to Little Rock to play the state’s No. 2-ranked 4A team, also considered by some as one of the top 10 overall teams in the state. There are those who think Pulaski could best Shiloh with the two heavily favored to meet in the finals.

Shiloh, the state’s No. 1 4A team will host Warren, a pretty good team currently ranked No. 19. The Lumberjacks will have as much speed as Shiloh, so it ought to be pretty good game for an opening round.

Gravette also hosts a first round game, entertaining 27th-ranked Trumann from northeastern Arkansas. The Lions probably have the best draw of the 4A-1.

Ozark is the third league team hosting with the 20th-ranked Hillbillies going up against 17th-ranked Stuttgart. The Ricebirds also sport a lot of speed and this game could well go to the visitors.

Next to Farmington, Gentry has the toughest row to hoe as they will travel to Nashville, the team that very nearly whipped Shiloh is last year’s state final. Gentry, ranked 29th in the state, is the heavy underdog toseventh-ranked Nashville.

Across Benton County, there are two other schools that made the playoffs with Bentonville and Rogers Heritage making the big dance.

No. 1 Bentonville whipped the state’s No. 2-overall team in Springdale Har-Ber 55-41 last week in a wild contest. The Tigers have been piling up the points this year, averaging over 50 recently. In last week’s game, Har-Ber pulled off two onside kicks at the end of the game to get three straight possessions and threaten to topple the Tigers.

After scoring two quick touchdowns and closing to within 6 of Bentonville, the Wildcats secured their second onside recovery to make the Tiger fans sweat. On a field of giants (multitudes of 300-pound players) perhaps the smallest man on the field, Dakota Baggett used his 5’ 8”-frame to intercept a Wildcat pass and return it nearly 60 yards to ice the game for Bentonville.

At last report, Bentonville was ranked as the No. 10 team in the United States. See what an abundance of students and a few million dollars will do for a school’s athletic department.

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Editor’s note: John Mc-Gee 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 8 on 11/10/2010