Ridger Sports | The hottest ticket in town

— Over the years I have been asked why I chose to teach and work in a small school and community like we have in Pea Ridge and, of course, the person usually asking is from a larger town or community. They might ask, what is there to do in a small place like Pea Ridge.

Fact is, without the school there would be a whole lot less to do or be involved with. However, the school is here and tickets to sporting events are “the hottest tickets in town.”

Taking in a lot of last week’s district basketball tournament, anyone can readily tell that the packed gym was full of people there to support their team and their kids. The games were held with the added importance of being the tournament where some schools seasons would end and somewould go on.

I have been to games at larger schools and the atmosphere just isn’t the same.

If I were to, say, work at an elementary school in Rogers and attend a high school basketball game, chances are that I wouldn’t know a single player on the team. Fans who support large school teams generally support the teams without having much or any personal knowledge of the kids on the team away from their participation in the sport.

At the ’Hawks games, there are a whole lot of people who can remember watching the current varsity ’Hawks when they played elementary ball. They also know them from church, from being in their kids’ or grandkids’ classes, from seeing them in town or reading about them in the local newspaper. While, for instance, Kasey Cooper has left me with some memories of some of the fine games he has played in high school, I can also remember the time when he nearly knocked himself unconscious in art class, or the time his face was nearly swollen shut when he used his face to knock down a baseball.

I can recall that I once had a not particulary-large Cameron Thompson in class years ago, a rather quiet, wellmannered, good student. I can attest that Dakota Woodward’s merry making goes waaaaaaaaay back and Ethan Higgins was an extremely pleasant, conscientious student as well as athlete.

While there are some move-ins that never had art in Pea Ridge elementary schools, I did know mostof the high school athletes when they were in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Although its been years since these young men were in the elementary school, I can tell that while they have grown more mature mentally as well as physically, they are still who they were to a large degree.

The current crop of high school athletes we have at Pea Ridge, both boys and girls, deserve to get as some much recognition as we as a community can send their way. Putting on the Pea Ridge uniform, they become the ambassadors of our school, our community and, of course, ourselves.

The ’Hawks are in a tough regional playoff in Pottsville this week and everyone who might be able to get down there ought to. Should they win Wednesday (tonight), they play the winner of Farmington/Mena at 5:30 p.m. Friday with the championship game set for Saturday if they win Friday.

Next week the state playoffs begin in Heber Springs and the ’Hawks will be in it if they can defeat Subiaco tonight.

And they wonder...

Anyone who has been around Pea Ridge for long knows that Shiloh School in Springdale is not held in particularly high regard in these here parts. Some of the thingsthat happened at the tournament last week could give you a clue.

I was wondering why the ’Hawks were sitting on the visitors’ bench when I came in Saturday and I found out that Shiloh got to the gym floor first to warm up and decided to take the ’Hawks usual team spot. To our home boys’ credit, they didn’t make a big deal out of it but some of the Pea Ridge fans were incensed, which I suspect was our “guests’” intentions in thefirst place.

The Shiloh player who tried to pull down one of our player’s shorts was something I had never seen in a high school game, and I have been to literally hundreds.

Some of the other unsportmanlike conduct I observed was stuff I never see when we play the public school teams.

When Gravette girls were on the verge of pulling off an upset of the Shiloh girls, the lady Lions had the vocalsupport of a lot more people than the folks at Gravette. I’m just proud that the kids at Pea Ridge conduct themselves in more of a Christian manner than do those that attend “Christian” schools.

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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 [email protected].

Sports, Pages 10 on 02/23/2011