PEA RIDGE — Nine days from today, the third edition of the Tony Travis Blackhawk varsity football team will begin their season in earnest as they invade Elkins to take on their longtime rival Elks.

The Elks currently own a three-game winning streak against the ’Hawks. All three games were closely fought affairs which could have gone either way, as have most the games in the long Elks/’Hawks series.

The current senior class has not tasted victory in a varsity football battle with their purple rivals, but this year may be the one to turn the tide.

Although the ’Hawks are markedly improved from last season and have steadily improved since the day Travis came onto campus, nothing is guaranteed in the football wars of northwest Arkansas. When asked what his goals were to be this year, coach Travis simply replied, “First, we have to beat Elkins.”

In a league that has shown balance over the years, the 2011 campaign has developed into a real head-scratcher when trying to determine where to rank teams out of the gate. With most of Shiloh’s recruited all-stars gone, the private schoolers from Springdale have lost much of their edge and are not a lock to win the league battle. The bottom tier of the 2010 teams have improved while the top four teams don’t return as much talent as was the case last season. The likelihood of upsets in 2011 is probably more likely than it has been in many, many years.

Today I am going to put down what I think will happen in next week’s opening action, beginning with the ’Hawks game.

GAME No. 1 - PEA RIDGE 20, ELKINS 7

This is where coachTravis made his debut two years ago and it was not only a game that the ’Hawks should have won, but it was a game the ’Hawks probably did win if it weren’t for several serious mis-calls by a less-than alert game official. I think a return to the scene of the crime of 2009 will have a different result. Very few of the current ’Hawks played in that game in ’09 and while I don’t believe coach Travis isn’t into revenge games, he does know that a win to start the 2011 season will do wonders for his young but experienced gridders.

GAME No. 2 - HEBER SPRINGS over SHILOH

This game will actually be played on Thursday, the day before most teams begin play. Heber will take on Shiloh in the first game of a triple-header at Razorback Stadium. Shiloh is favored, but I am picking this one as the first upset of 2011.

One pundit who picked the Springdale private school to win was because of the hard fact that Shiloh was Shiloh. Another scribe cited Shilohs’ “savvy” as the reason they would do well again in 2011. Meanwhile, Heber is ranked No. 4 in the state but only because they have a big, deep squad with speed and a good program in place. A potential win over the defending state champions will have Heber motivated out of their minds while Shiloh has to be worried after the loss ofso many prize recruits and the poor showing they had this summer on the 7 on 7 circuit.

GAME No. 3 - GENTRY over COLCORD

Gentry usually wins this battle of the interstate neighbors and I think 2011 will not be an exception.

Though the Pioneers are down in size and numbers this year, they run a good program and have good enough athletes to put some points on the boards.

This is another game that will be played on Thursday although this one will be played in Oklahoma.

GAME No. 4 - FARMINGTON over HUNTSVILLE

The Cardinals are not as good lately as they have been historically and Huntsville isn’t as bad lately as they have been historically but when the dust settles, the Eagles will probably lose the battle.

The Cards will have a senior quarterback who has never played the position before so you know the depth isn’t there but even so, it ought to be enough to take out visiting Huntsville.

GAME No. 5 - BERRYVILLE over YELLVILLE

The Bobcats ended last year on a high note by defeating Pea Ridge and avoiding the cellar for the first time in years. Yellville has not been what you would call a power team so it would seem that the edge goes to Berryville.

GAME No. 6 - GRAVETTE over JAY

The Lions, like the Pioneers, are opening their season in Oklahoma. Like Gentry, the Lions usually have the edge on their outof-state rival. Gravette is coping with losing a lot of quality players through graduation, but the Lions will again be tough, at least tougher than Jay.

GAME No. 7 - OZARK over BOONEVILLE

This is a hard one to call as the former conference rivals hook it up in a nonleague clash. On paper, Booneville would seem to be the choice, but Ozark ended last season in a rush, making the state playoffs and going deep into it.

Most of Ozarks’ team is back and they are wanting to keep their rise in status.

Because Ozark is hosting the game, I will go with the ’Billies.

GAME No. 8 - PRAIRIE GROVE over LAVACA

Prairie Grove was good last year and have a lot of really good sophomores this season. The Tigers have many edges over their opening day opponent and they play at home.

GAME No. 9 - BENTONVILLE over NORTH LITTLE ROCK

The neighboring Tigers were unbeaten in 2010 and may well repeat the effort in 2011. One of the biggest high schools in the south now, Bentonville has lots of depth, speed and size along with the best facilities and largest coaching staff in the state. The Blackhawks got to see the Tigers up close and personal in a 7 on 7 game this summer.

GAME No. 10 - ARKANSAS overMISSOURI STATE

You would think that a team that lost their All-American quarterback, running back and tight end in the same season might scale back expectations but the Razorbacks look to be even better in 2011 than they were in 2010. While QB Tyler Wilson might not have the arm of former Hog Mallett, he actually runs better and has a better grasp on the mental aspects of the game. Arkansas is deep nearly everywhere and the visiting Bears don’t have much of chance for an upset. Barring a mistake by the Hogs’ offense, the Bears don’t stand much of a chance to even score against the Hogs’ formidable defense.

Anyone wishing to send me their predictions of the 10 games mentioned above, I will tabulate them and publish the name of the best prognosticator. Just pick the winners of games No. 2 through No. 10 and predict the score of the Elkins/Pea Ridge game.

When I went back over my predictions, I realized that I had picked every conference school to win their opener with the exception of the 4A defending state champion. Shiloh is taking on the toughest of the schools that the 4A-1 is opening with, so it could well happen.

AAA comes up with plan

You might remember in last weeks’ column, theArkansas Activities Association had an election recently with four concocted plans that were introduced to the voting body with an eye on fixing the problems that had surfaced when aligning schools and conferences for the 2012-2014 school terms. All four plans were rejected by the voting representatives.

The affected schools met then voted to introduce a plan that will give all 6A schools a berth in the 2011 playoffs. The problem arose when the AAA decided to mix up 6A and 7A schools together into four blended conferences. The plan horrified Siloam Springs, which is just barely out of 5A into 6A for that cycle. The plan has Siloam playing all their 6A league games against all 7A schools. Meanwhile, 7A school Benton gets to play all its league games against 6A opponents.

With all the discrepancies, the AAA will seed all 6A schools into the playoffs. Of course, the Panthers will likely be 0-7 in league games and will draw a very low seed but at least they will play one game against a 6A opponent, that being in the playoffs.

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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 08/24/2011