The end of an era?

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

— This Friday night might mark the end of an era when Shiloh comes calling for the last time in football.

With a decline in enrollment, the Springdale-based school had been assigned Arkansas Activities Association membership in the 3A-1 District in the 3A classification, an event which might have bruised the Springdale schools’ rather healthy ego.

With the 3A classification kind of below them, and with their mutual dislike of 4A schools in northwest Arkansas, Shiloh decided to go for membership in the 5A class.

This Friday the two teams will face off for the last time after a number of years of playing each other.

I have seen the ’Hawks come within a fumble or interception or two from possibly posting an upset but Shiloh usually had their way. When Gus Mahlzahn, now famously at Auburn University, was the head coach at Shiloh, the school had a much better conduct reputation. Mahlzahn put them on the map, and well heeled athletic boosters used their money and influence to keep them on the map after Mahlzahn left, spending an unknown amount of money to recruit and bring to campus the best players they could find, going even into southern Missouri and eastern Oklahoma to pull in incredible talents.

Shiloh’s utter destruction of Berryville’s hapless football team a few years ago, together with over the top taunting and ridicule heaped on the Bobcats by Shiloh players and fans alike, set in motion a movement to find a way to get rid of what many considered a smug and more than a little dishonest private school. Votes were held to kick all private schools out of the AAA, but all failed as they should as all private schools in the state should not have been punished for the misdeeds of a single member.

Finally the AAA hit on the idea of requiring any athlete that had passed the first day of their seventhgrade year in one school, to sit out a entire year of sports should they transfer to a private school. Had that rule been in place five years ago, Shiloh’s recent years of glory would have never been.

This year, Pea Ridge and Shiloh will meet with both teams having identical 2-2 records. Pea Ridge got there by beating a good team and an average one, while losing to a good team and one great one. Shiloh, on the other had, has beaten two teams that have a combined record of 0-8 this fall. The two losses, on the other hand, have been to teams that currently combine for a 8-0 mark, so it is hard to gauge just how good Shiloh is this year.

Shiloh will not beat Gravette and they might well get upset by other 4A-1 teams as well. Should those upsets occur, there will be a lot of celebrating in northwest Arkansas. At the recent Greenland/Pea Ridge game, when it was announced that Greenwood had crushed Shiloh 55-0 that night, loud cheers went up from both sides of the stadium. A visiting sportswriter was a bit puzzled by what he thought was a strange reaction by a crowd whose team didn’t even play Shiloh.

I don’t wish athletic misfortune on any young person and I hope that all students everywhere can take away from their participation in sports, a sense of honor and dedication and especially sportsmanship. There will always be those that play for the glory and ego, using any means fair or unfair to gain an edge. Those people miss the point, and probably don’t even know what the point is.

With their ability to shop for top athletes taken from them, Shiloh might even have a hard time keeping what they already have.

When the glory is gone, will they be, too?

My predicating is toast?

I took some risks last week and blew half the predictions. I foresaw the Ozark win over Gentry and the Shiloh victory at Berryville as well as Bentonville’s, Greenwood’s and Ft. Smith Southside’s winners. I blew the Decatur loss to Hackett, the ’Hawks’ and Razorbacks’ losses, and the Gentry and Heritage demises as I only scored 50 percent last week. The bad score brought me down to 75 percent for the season.

An insightful person ought to get at least 80 percent.

This week I am taking fewer chances although I am picking Pea Ridge over Shiloh by a 21-19 count.

Shiloh has not had a good year through the air and they are stoppable in the run. If the ’Hawks can play lights out Friday and plug the line, it might force Shiloh to go to the air where they have been picked off a lot this season. Hootens.com rankings is picking Pea Ridge to lose to Shiloh by a whopping 24 points but that same service picked the ’Hawks to lose to Gravette by 21 last week, a team I think is much better than Shiloh. The ’Hawks also beat the spread losing by 14 and it could have been much closer.

There are still some in the media who are still struck by the “aura” of Shiloh and who still harbor beliefs (more like “hopes”) that Shiloh will snap out of it and become the semipro team that we have all come to ... appreciate. As a matter of fact, the usually more accurate Associated Press has the Lions of Gravette ranked as the third best team in the state in 4A while the Hooten’s people rank them 10th, with Shiloh still ranked as high as fourth. Hooten’s even ranks Ozark higher than Gravette as the ’Billies are seventh.

I believe that Farmington will take Prairie Grove in their border battle this week, and Ozark will cruise past Berryville. I don’t think Gentry has a chance against Gravette Friday.

In other games, Bentonville will win a huge game against Ft. Smith Southside to set their path for a showdown (again) against Har-Ber. The Tigers have won 16 straight and it may be the only way to defeat them is to split their high school in half, ala Rogers.

Rogers split the year after their state final appearance and they have not been the same since. This week Heritage plays RogersHigh with the War Eagles most likely winning the city championship again.

Siloam should take Harrison’s measure and I have lost my faith in a Decatur comeback and they will lose to an average or worse Westside team. Finally, the Hogs will beat Texas A & M again this week in a game that might be a season maker or breaker for both teams. Both teams lost last week and two losses this early might bounce the loser clear out of the rankings.

Gravette game not a downer

Everybody likes to win, especially me as I tend to be competitive in a lot of things. There are times, however, when you can take solace and comfort out of a game or contest even when victory eluded your best efforts. Last Friday, Gravette was supposed to beat down the ’Hawks by at least 21 points, and for a while, that prediction looked like it might have favored Pea Ridge as Gravette had built up a 20-0 lead early in the second quarter.

Something happened, though, as the ’Hawks dug down deep and fought back, surprising the Lions with some outstanding plays. Rico Schneider met the Lions’ top running back behind the line of scrimmage so often I think they ended the game on a first name basis. Austin Easterling laid out some pretty nifty passes, and a lot of defenders made some big plays. Though Dayton Winn was a marked man the moment he stepped onto the field, he still scored two touchdowns and was a big play worry for the Lions all through the battle.

Looking through the game program, I was even more encouraged by the fact that the Lions played the game with 25 seniors while the ’Hawks only have four on their roster.

The Lions will lose heavily through graduation this year and while the ’Hawks will lose a few good ones, it won’t be anything compared to Gravette. As a matter of fact, the 2012 season should see Pea Ridge and Ozark as the most experienced teams in the league with the very real possibility that these two teams could be the “class” of 2012.

Shiloh is on the way down while on their way up with Lincoln stepping in to become a 4A school next fall. While the Wolves used to the certain “W” on the schedule, they have been making lots of noise so far in 2011. They had an all-state sophomore quarterback on a 2-8 team in 2010 so the kid must be some kind of passer. They scored 55 on Green Forest last week and are a threat to Greenland’s hopes to win the 3A-1 this year. They will have arguably the best quarterback in 4A next year but how many of his good receivers will be on hand. Lincoln looks like they could make some wish for Shiloh to return - no - wait a minute, what am I thinking?

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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 12 on 09/28/2011