Ridger Sports

Week two of spring football

— The Blackhawk football continues to toil away in preparation of the 2011 football season which begins in just three months.

Coach Tony Travis and staff has been keeping the players moving as they go through their paces of learning routes, techniques, formations and all the other things that they will have to master if this fall will see the beginning of the rise of Blackhawk football.

With the Hogs on the rise in Fayetteville and with the ’Hawks looking to be better as well, local football fans may have something to cheer about this fall.

Some thing to cheer about is that when Shiloh comes to the Ridge in September, that might be the last time the ’Hawks will have to deal with them on the gridiron. They have now officially petitionedthe state to allow their move into the 5A classification, an event that will find no shedding of tears in the 4A-1. AAA officials have said they see no reason why Shiloh cannot be accommodated. So, whether they end up in 3A or 5A, they won’t be in 4A, the classification that the ’Hawks will probably occupy for a long time.

The second thing to cheer about is the fact that nearly all of Shiloh’s out of state and rival school recruits have graduated from and will not be in the scheme of things this fall.

There is a report of a quarterback recruit who sat out last year after transferringfrom somewhere else, but it is highly unlikely that he is anywhere near as good as the departed Kiehl Frazier. Shiloh’s preseason schedule is much weaker than in years gone by and that is perhaps the best indication of a drop-off in talent in 2011. While Shiloh will probably have a good team this year, it will be nothing like the past three seasons.

Blackhawks 2011 football season schedule

Sept. 2 - Elkins (away)

Sept. 9 - Green Forest (away)

Sept. 16 - Greenland (home)

Sept. 23 - Gravette (there)

Sept. 30 - Shiloh (home)

Oct. 7 - Gentry (home)

Oct. 14 - Ozark (there)

Oct. 21 - Prairie Grove (there)

Oct. 28 - Farmington (home)

Nov. 4 - Berryville (home)

Arkansas avoids cellar, wins the division

In a finish that might godown as one of the most bizarre in Southeastern Conference history, Arkansas swept a doubleheader Saturday that gave them the outright championship of the SEC western division.

Ending the conference season at 15-15, that proved to be one game (14-16) better than Auburn, Alabama and Mississippi State and two games (13-17) ahead of Mississippi and Louisiana State. Had the Hogs lost the doubleheader to Mississippi, they would have wound up in last place in the SEC West and out of the SEC Tournament. To have the prospect of finishing either first or last in the division based on one day’s efforts in a three-monthseason is mind boggling.

As it is, they earned the number two seed in the tournament which begins this Wednesday in Hoover, Ala., the permanent site of the tourney. They take onAlabama at 9:30 a.m. in the first round in the double elimination format. If they can get past the Crimson tide, they will then play the winner of Florida/Mississippi State at 4:30 p.m.

Thursday. In case they lose, they will play the loser of the aforementioned game at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday.

The survivors of those contests will play Saturday at 9:30 a.m.

The championship game will be Sunday at 1 p.m. on ESPN2.

The top seed in the tournament is South Carolina, who earned the seed, although tying for first in the east with Florida and Vanderbilt with 22-8 league records. So while Arkansas’ 15-15 record is not nearly asgood as Florida’s and Vanderbilt’s, or even as good as 16-14 Georgia’s record, the Hogs get the second seed for being the West Division champion. Hadthe Hogs lost either game Saturday, they would have been out of the tournament altogether as there would have been a five-way tie for first in the west. On the tiebreaker breakdown, Arkansas would have been the team left out in the event of a five-way tie.

Pity poor Mississippi.

They were ahead 2-1 in the next to last inning Saturday and had they kept their lead, they would have won the division. Instead, a Hog comeback took the victory and dropped the rebels into last place for the season.

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Editor’s note: John Mc-Gee 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 05/25/2011