Coach Charley Clarke’s Blackhawk basketball team is holding high ranking positions as the season nears the mid-point.

With only two seniors on the squad, the ’Hawks have rolled to a 13-3 record with all three losses coming at the hands of teams from higher divisions. The boys took second in the Northwest Arkansas Invitational losing to a 5A school and won the consolation crown at the Rogers tourney, losing only to a 7A team. The boys recently won the Southwest Classic, competing with teams around their size in enrollment.

The latest Freeman Poll, a group of sportwriters and statisticians with connections to the CBS Sports Network, has the ’Hawks ranked fifth in the state in Class 4A. Two other teams in the 4A-1 District are ranked in the top 10 as well with Prairie Grove holding down the seventh spot while Farmington is ranked 10th. Counting all schools and all classifications, the ’Hawks rank 42nd among the 240 teams that play high school basketball in the state.

The top 10 ranked 4A schools are:

1. Jonesboro Westside

2. Pulaski Academy

3. McGehee

4. Malvern

5. Pea Ridge

6. Dumas

7. Prairie Grove

8. Batesville Southside

9. Osceola

10. Farmington

The ’Hawks are currently the top ranked team in the 4A-1 District. The rankings are:

1. Pea Ridge

2. Prairie Grove

3. Farmington

4. Shiloh

5. Gentry

6. Gravette

7. Ozark

8. Berryville

Just how good are these ’Hawks this year? If you believe the rankings, they are pretty good and getting better.

One mark of a good team is how they perform on the free throw line.

Besides upping your point totals, being accurate from the free throw line is a great deterrent from teams ”beating up” on your scorers or taking defensive chances stopping plays.

A great example of this could be seen years ago in Shaquille O’Neal’s decision to leave LSU after his sophomore year as a Tiger. He often complained of getting continuallyhammered under the goal by nearly every team he encountered. This was true, but it was true only because O’Neal was a terrible free throw shooter. He was a 50 percent shooter from the line and shot worse on occasion. If you wanted to stop LSU fouling O’Neal when he had a chance to score was a good strategy since he probably would not make his shots from the line.

In the two games I took in at Washburn, the Pea Ridge starters sank 22 of 22 shots from the free throw line. The only miss the ’Hawks had was by a reserve player. Purdy on the other hand, was five of 12. The upset win over Rogers Heritage was due to the War Eagles’ inability to make free shots and the ’Hawks ability to sink ’em.

Teams playing Pea Ridge can’t put much stock in fouling the ’Hawks late in a game in hopes of getting the ball back after missed shots.

I have never seen a high school team as adept from the line as these current ’Hawks. The squad’s chemistry is great, the team is motivated and I don’t know that anyone can really put a limit as to how far they can go this year. Personally I don’t believe there is a team in class 4A that the ’Hawks couldn’t defeat if they are on their game.

They have an inside game, they have an outside game, they have some depth and I think they are on a mission.

They played Gentry last night in a conference game and they have two upcoming league games at home with Berryville coming to town Friday Jan. 7. Seventhranked Prairie Grove will be visiting here next Tuesday, Jan. 11, in an important district match up.

If you haven’t seen the Blackhawks on the hardwoods this year now, is a good time to take them in.

They could be the sleeper team of 2011.

Arkansas Athletic director gets national award

Central Arkansas Christian athletic director Doug Kilgore has been awarded its highest honor by the National High School Federation, the group that oversees high school athletics.

Since I went to Harding University with coach Kilgore back in the 1970s, his decorated coaching and adminstration career came kind of surprise to me as I knew him only as a tuba player and leader of the Harding University band.

He had quite an energy level and was quite gifted in things musical. I knew hehad gone to work for Central Arkansas Christian in the ’70s when the school was just getting on its feet and was based in Jacksonville.

Being in a small Christian school, Kilgore was called on to do a lot of different things and he eventually became their football coach and was the one that led them to their initial rise as a football power. As opposed to some other Christian or private schools, CAC doesn’t recruit athletes, but makes their own through their elementary programs. Current Razorback stars and probable future NFL players D.J. WIlliams and Joe Adams came up through the Kilgore program. Both of those players are known for their work ethics, positive attitudes and their good influence on those around them, traits that I am sure were fostered during their time at CAC.

You never know...

When I was coaching junior high basketball in Missouri back in the 1980s, I had a ninth-grade forward by the name of Doug Weatherly who was one of the best players I had ever coached. He was a tall lanky player who led us to a 12-3 record that year. He went on to play on a high school team that later wona state basketball championship.

While I hadn’t seen him since his high school days, I knew that he had himself gotten into coaching and had settled in Pierce City, Mo. While there, he served as boys football coach, girls basketball coach and in several other areas of the school athletic program. He had also become one of the most popular characters in Pierce City which I could well understand knowing him in his student days.

While matriculating at the Southwest Classic last week I learned from Pierce City folks that coach Weatherly had collapsed and died during a junior varsity girls game earlier in December. To say I was stunned would be an understatement. Whether you have good health or bad in our fast-paced society no one really knows how longthey will be around. Life is a fragile thing and is something we all take too much for granted.

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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 8 on 01/05/2011