With just a little time left in 2011, and even less time left before I check into a hospital for surgery (which will put a crimp on my writing for awhile), I thought I would go over the highlights of the year in sports, at least how it pertains for local sports fans.
The boys’ basketball team, which most prognosticators and pundits thought would have a down year, had perhaps their best year ever since leaving the ranks of 1A and 2A schools.
I might even consider 2011 the best year ever period, but I haven’t much knowledge of Blackhawk round ball before 1997 when the school was still 2A, so I really could not make that kind of a statement.
I remember coach Charley Clark saying that “everyone thinks that my team in 2010-2011 will be garbage but I happen to think that we are going to be pretty good.” He was right on in his beliefs as his team won a pile of team trophies and advanced to the state quarterfinals before being stopped by the defending state champion Westside Warriors. Westside’s big center, Hunter Mikkelson, is now patrolling the paint for the University of Arkansas, a team that I think is destined for greatness.
Clark lost most of his starters from last spring but what he hasn’t lost is his enthusiasm and his belief in the kids he coaches.
I know people say that you can’t win the races if you don’t have the horses.
While that may be partially true, it is also true that you can build your own horses.
I don’t think Clark will ever have a bad team.
The big news of last summer was the emergence of the new multi-purpose indoor football practice building. It is the finest facility in Arkansas on a 4A school campus and I have mentioned before that it probably outranks anything in Arkansas until you get into some of the 7A programs. The building was used just this past weekend for a whole bunch of teams in a cheerleader competition and the place was packed. Peoples’ awareness of Pea Ridge and its school system was greatly enhanced and the district is fast becoming what some call “a school of choice.”
This past fall, the football team came within five points of upsetting Shiloh and earning a seed into the state football playoffs. Even bigger was the fact that the ’Hawks outgained Shiloh by 200 yards and should have won the game. Shiloh ended the season with a 5-6 record while Pea Ridge was just a half game behind at 4-6. When you compare all that to the previous season, the ’Hawks improved by leaps and bounds.
While this kind of sports fact will not make its way into the main news outlets, the new football arena has been visited by the Farmington Cardinals as they prepared for the variousplayoff games they were involved in. They upset the No. 2 team in the state and fought their way to the quarterfinals before losing to a fast Malvern team. The Cards practicing in our facility produced a mountain of good will, something there can never be too much of.
The teams that we play should never be thought of as “the enemy,” not even that school in Springdale, though it took me awhile to actually put this sentence on the page. Kids are kids (even though we have the best kids) and I am much more for the concept of winning a game as opposed to just “beating” someone. It is true that for every game or contest that is entered upon, someone loses and someone wins.
There are sometimes small victories in a loss like the one basketball game where the defending national Connecticut team just got by the Razorbacks. The Hawgs out hustled and out rebounded the Huskies but shot only 31 percent to lose in what was supposed to be a blowout for Connecticut.
Playing mostly freshman with a few sophomores, the current edition is going to make some big noise in the near future.
Another team surprising the experts was the recent Lady ’Hawk cross country team. Not even listed as a team with even an outside, remote, fantasy inspired chance of being a factor in the state championships, the Lady ’Hawks confounded the experts by taking the team runner-up state trophy. Even more shocking was that they lost the state title by just a single point. With only a single senior graduating and with other talented girls who are talking about joining the running crew, 2012 may well see the school’s first state championship trophy in any sport.
Getting to Hawg football, it was announced Sunday that the football Hawgs were going to be playing in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. They will take on the Big 12’s Kansas State, the nations’ eighth-ranked team. Arkansas is currently ranked sixth and could move up a couple of spots if they win big in Dallas.
Dallas folks are ecstatic that Arkansas is returning to the city. Arkansas fans are notorious big spenders and the largest profits the city sees from athletic venues are the times the Razorbacks are involved.
There will be quite a few fans who will travel to Dallas then watch the game somewhere on a TV if they can’t locate late selling tickets.
It is kinda funny the Big 12 is called the Big 12 after Colorado left last year.
With Missouri and Texas A & M leaving that league for the solaces of the SEC, that league is now down to the Big 9.
There is a story circulating that Texas and three other power schools in the Big 12 were close to signing a merger deal with the Pac 12. However, Texas officials were so demanding, arrogant and domineering that the PAC 12 told theerstwhile members just to go to ... some other place than the Pac 12. Soon afterwards, it was no secret that Texas A & M wanted to go to another conference that didn’t have a Texas team in it. They were prepared to go independent if need be to escape Texas University.
So at present, Arkansas is ranked No. 6 in the country and is in place to rise as high as No. 4 if they win their game. That kind offinish will do wonders for recruiting, though not to say recruiting hasn’t been outstanding, because it has been.
The saddest development has been the impending resignation of the Razorbacks quarterbacks coach Garrick McGee. McGee has been named as the new head coach of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
The coach who guided the career of now pro playerRyan Mallett and now star quarterback Tyler Wilson has been named as one of the best five assistant coaches in America and has a chance to be named the nation’s best coach later this month.
I just hate anyone with the last name of McGee leaving the state, especially to go to Alabama.
He’s a good man and will be missed.
Anyway and anyhow, itwould seem that both the Blackhawks and Razorbacks are on the rise, albeit on different levels. The year 2012 will be a good year to watch.◊◊◊
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 8 on 12/07/2011