PEA RIDGE — After a series of setbacks and disasters suffered by Great Britain in the early stages of the World War II, the British began to right their ship and successfully turned back a Nazi invasion.

Referring to their good fortune, Prime Minister Winston Churchill cautioned his country saying: “Now, this is not the end.

It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

While not trying to equate something like a world war with a high school student’s game, there are universal lessons that can be learned in life from people about their struggles and those facing trials. The British people subdued their enemies with a “refuse to lose” attitude.

Churchill often said that the Second World War was really won on the playing fields of Eaton.

Eaton was a boys schools attended by those who would eventually go into military service for the their country. The student sports leaders at that school in the 1920s and early 1930s became the officers and heroes of the war that followed.

Tradition and marketing aside, the sport of football really is America’s pastime, and I don’t say that to the detriment of any other sport. The sheer numbers required by schools participating in football demand that every player reach his potential, to be able to do what he can when his number is called, or when the time comes to where he can make a difference.

Football locally over the past few years has been less than scintillating, with a lot of reasons cited and conditions pointed to that might explain the lack of success that seems to be the lot of those in Pea Ridge.

The past couple of games have been illuminating. Those who are playing are not so concerned with who isn’t playing as they are with who is.

The victory at Elkins could have easily beena last second loss and it probably would have been had the game been played with the same conditions a couple of seasons ago. The victory over Green Forest was, in a sense, epic.

The boys came out, in the coach’s own words, less than ready. They fell far behind but before falling into a hole that couldn’t be overcome, the ’Hawks toughened up enough to stop the bleeding.

After a rousing “speech” by head coach Tony Travis, the ’Hawks came back to battle with better attitude and resolve. (By the way, Travis does not curse. He was asked by another sportswriter present who assumed that Travis probably “let it fly” because the writer has often witnessed other coaches who have cut loose with a lot of “rough” language as a way to motivate players.)

The blocks and tackles that weren’t there much in the first half found their way back into the ’Hawks’ arsenal and the home boys erased the first half deficit in the first 10 minutes of the second half. When the ’Hawks’ opponents got their resolve back and battled down to the Pea Ridge 1-yard line at games’ end, the play of the game was set up to turn on which team had the greater resolve and it turned out to be Pea Ridge.

While I think we are kind of at the end of the beginning, here is a huge “middle” in there to be dealt with.

Like Churchill also said, “Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.” There are always bumps in any road, but as long as you keep going, the journey can be completed.

’Hawks rise in poll

The Blackhawks’ two early season wins have pushed their football ranking up to 37th in the state in 4A, up from 44th to begin the season.

Columnist gets 9/10

I called correctly nine of 10 games last week, missing only Shiloh’s victory over winless Tulsa Webster. My prediction of Webster’s victory was more a hope on my part than a prediction based on facts or analysis.

Gravette pounded Mc-Donald County, Mo., 49-7 in no big surprise to anyone.

While I thought Farmington would beat West Fork, the Cards were probably outplayed by the Tigers but turnovers and mistakes led to a 12-6 Farmington victory. As I thought, Cassville, Mo., would pulverizePrairie Grove and it did to the tune of 40-14. Cassville is as good as McDonald County is bad.

Ozark ran over Clarksville 41-21 while amassing over 500 yards of offense.

In a near shocker, the state’s number 1 3A team was outplayed by Gentry’s Pioneers. Charleston scored twice to foil a shutout and win the game 14-6.

In another interesting contest, Elkins, the team Pea Ridge beat last week, mauled Lavaca last week 50-7. Lavaca was beaten by Prairie Grove in the first week, but it was fairlyclose affair.

This week: I predict that Pea Ridge will defeat Greenland 28-17. I believe that Berryville will continue its losing ways by losing to Green Forest this week and I also don’t think Shiloh can handle Greenwood this year in the game at Greenwood. I think Ozark will beat Charleston;

Gravette will crush Poteau, Okla.; Prairie Grove will beat West Fork in a close game; Farmington will take Clarksville; and Gentry will have no chance against Siloam Springs, the recentconquerors of Rogers Heritage.

In my two other predictions, Bentonville will overcome Texarkana and the University of Arkansas will hang a bunch of points on Troy. In my two weeks of predictions, I am running at 85 percent (17 of 20).

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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 09/14/2011