PEA RIDGE — It was in the last minute of the contest when a Blackhawk crossed into the opponents’ end zone to give Pea Ridge the chance to win the game, a blessed event for a victory-starved football team. For the second Friday night in a row, nearly identical scenarios have confronted the gridiron ’Hawks in their quest to win their first game of the season. It was as some say, “deja vu all over again.”

The first incarnation of the aforementioned situation occurred Sept. 10 with visiting Green Forest providing the opposition. The ’Hawks were trailing 12-6 until they launched a multiple play, time-consuming march on the ground which culminated with a touchdown to tie the score at 12-12 with 0:54 showing on the clock. Avoiding a loss with a chance to actually win the game sent waves of elation through the Blackhawk players and fans. Even though the potential game winning extra point attempt went awry, the ’Hawks were still convinced they had avoided defeat as they had shut out the Tigers for almost two quarters previously so the odds of a late score seemed remote.

That belief quicklywent by the boards on the very next play when a mix-up among the ’Hawk defenders allowed a Tiger receiver to slip behind coverage. The Green Forest quarterback lofted a high arching pass to a wide open Tiger who took it in and ran untouched into the ’Hawks’ end zone to give the visitors the touchdown and the game.

Fast forward to Friday, Sept. 17. After playing for nearly three quarters deadlocked in an 8-8 battle at Greenland, the ’Hawks scored on a short pass to take a 14-8 lead. Just like the week before, the clock was showing 0:54 left in the game. This time, however, the results were far different.

“In the game with Green Forest,” coach Tony Travis said, “We had not prepared our players for the situation that we were faced with in that final 54 seconds. Not only were they young and inexperienced, that were unprepared as well and that was our fault.

This past week, we workedon that so if it ever happened again, we would be ready.”

Travis didn’t have to wait long to see the effectiveness of their instruction as the same situation developed again in the very next game. This time, instead of the ’Hawks hoping to avoid losing, they were playing to win.

Greenland’s only effective attack last Friday was in their passing game and anyone knows that going 65 yards in less than a minute is quite doable through the air. However, moving the ball up field in small chunks at a time is time consuming and with the ’Hawks playing a “prevent” defense, the Pirates did manage to travel 40 yards to the Pea Ridge 25 but at the cost of burning the clock to under 20 seconds.

Having to go for broke with time running out, the Pirates were frustrated by a sticky ’Hawk defense and their last four passes landed incomplete, sealing the victory for Pea Ridge.

The ’Hawks knew what they had to do to win and, as I have often seen posted on team bulletin boards, “when preparation meets opportunity, success follows.”

One of the aspects that I have appreciated aboutthe game of football is that so much of the things that happen mirror the events of real life. Things can be going along just fine but leave something undone or making wrong choices or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time can have significant, if not catastrophic, results.

Head coach Tony Travis is in his second year at the Blackhawk helm. He didn’t come here just to fill a job someplace but he came with a mission. As with most coaches, he wants his players to develop into winners, both on and off the field. To be a winner in football as in life, you have to develop the traits of being hardworking, with character, selflessness and honor coloring the things you do and say no matter your situation.

In Saturday’s Benton County Daily Record, coach Travis got his name in the paper, but it wasn’t in the sports section. It was on the police page where the story was reported concerning the three Pea Ridge football players who were jailed following an assault on another person.

The crimes the players have been accused of committing were done, of all places, on the football field. To be fair, the kids have notbeen adjudicated so the question of guilt has not been settled, but it is fair to say they were probably not thinking about potentially disastrous outcomes whatever they were up to on the evening in question.

As coach Travis indicated, there will be time to sort out what happened and to take whatever steps are necessary.

With a team nearly bereft of previous experience, losing three players is bad enough, but to lose them under these circumstances is especially so. Coach Travis had a full enough plate as it was and this will only add to it.

Wrongly or rightly, most of us are seen as representatives of others in one way or another. When athletes come across the police blotter for crimes committed or accused of, your status as a player of whatever sport is going to be mentioned. I am sure than there are probably several University of Arkansas students get ticketed for DWI violations but the only way it would be a “story” in the local news is if the student in question was a Razorback athlete.

Representing your school, whether as an athlete, coach, teacher or maybe even as a fan, is nosmall thing. People’s perceptions of our school and community are shaped by what they read and hear.

The three players that spent last Friday night in jail could have been at Greenland celebrating the ’Hawks’ first victory of the year. They have undoubtedly spent many and countless hours practicing, sweating and working for just that opportunity or experience only to have all that effort undone in one evening’s activities.

I’m hoping and praying that the victim in the events of last week has a speedy recovery and I also hope and pray that the resulting experience will have a sobering, yet learning, effect on the boys who stand accused.

The lesson that I can take from all of this is that life can change, for the better or for the worse, in as little as 54 seconds.

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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. The opinions of the writer are his own, and are not necessarily those of The TIMES.

Sports, Pages 8 on 09/22/2010