PEA RIDGE — With the release last week of the final building plans for the Pea Ridge School District, the longawaited building of a new football stadium was finally revealed.
On this the 50th anniversary of the old football game facility, the door was swung open to the future which includes a synthetic playing surface and an encircling track and field surface as well. Though long in coming, the ‘Hawks’ new digs will be another stepping stone in their rise towards being one of the best school districts in the state.
Of course, the chief focus of a good school is academics. Schools that turn out all star athletes who have a hard time reading or writing or who can’t even pass a college entrance exam are not worthy of the tax dollars expended to keep them in business. Fittingly, the Pea Ridge School District replaced old and outdated buildings with outstanding classroom facilities before taking on this final big building project.
While seen as a pretty good facility in 1962 for aClass A school, the current football game complex ranks near the bottom of the state in a lot of categories. I mean, come on, how many football stadiums are hidden in a neighborhood. Interestingly enough though, a lot of the stadium’s “drawbacks,”, at least to me, are things that compel me to appreciate ’Hawk football and the community around it.
I can remember a few years ago when the ’Hawks were playing Decatur in a wet rainy night. Back in those days you could park your car on the northeast corner of the field just a few yards from the playing field. It was the only time that I covered a football game while situated in an automobile.
There were some games that I just walked in from the downtown school up Davis Street. I was often stopped by people fromother towns looking for the stadium parking lot.
I had to explain that the “parking lot” was rolling hills covered in grass. I also explained how they would need to pay admission while driving to their parking space with some of the visitors looking most incredulous. On those wet nights, I cautioned them about needing to traverse wet grass on the way to the bleachers. As I had to tell one older lady, “No, I’m not kidding.”
Since I inhabit the lower press box at the field when covering the game for The TIMES, I often had the duty of explaining something to visiting coaches and media personnel who walked up to the lower box. I had to explain to then that to get to the “main” press box, they would have to go back down the stadium steps, circle around the bleachers, then ascend two flights of stairs behind the seating.
Guys who had lugged gear up to the lower box either said “You’ve got to be kidding” or you could see it in their eyes.
Blackhawk Stadium is perhaps the only one in the state where an extra pointkick or field goal to the north would wind up in a pasture. Moo.
The greatest thing about the current stadium is that it is, um, how can I say it? Its home-iness? With trees looming over much of the area on the home side, nature lent itself well to a feeling of home and hearth. With the hillside on the home side of the field, dozens of people lay out blankets, bring their own chairs, and generally chat with friends and neighbors prior to the game. I would say that all that is missing would be fireworks but that they have in the event of a Blackhawk touchdown.
Since sidewalks at Blackhawk Stadium haven’t been invented yet, people just kinda go everywhere before, during and after the game. Groups walking hither and yonder, kids running around playing their own games, with certain school officials perched in their usual positions, the crowds sometimes resemble something like an old train station. A good description would have to include the concession area with all the enticing smells emanatingfrom it. Not many concession cooks work within 20 yards from an end zone.
My granddaughter Ava simply loves going to Pea Ridge games. Though not a student here, Ava has found the kids here to be especially friendly. Having attended Bentonville Tiger games, she informed me recently that Pea Ridge games were waaaay more fun. She will be a fixture this year on the ’Hawks’ side of the field.
Board president Josh Ramsey mentioned at a meeting that he hoped they could maintain the charm and hominess that has always been a big part of the Pea Ridge football experience. The land that will soon become the new ’Hawk field is presently flat and treeless, so it will present its challenges.
But, speaking of challenges, the Pea Ridge School District has been meeting a lot of challenges over the past few years. Although I had been around Pea Ridge since the 1980s and have a great number of relatives on my wife’s side living here, my first experiences teaching here in 1998 were less than memorable. I hadjust left a really good school in Batesville to be closer to my and my wife’s families.
Not liking big schools, I thought Pea Ridge was the best situated school geographically for what I wanted to do.
Although there have been challenges along the way, the school and the people of the community have come together to make things better. Better for the kids, better for the community, better for everyone.
There is no better place to get an education and no better place to work.
I will be sad to see the end of ball games at the old “Pea Bowl.” I am eager to see what 2013 will bring, but more that anything, I am eager to see what this year’s crop of Blackhawks will do to make this final year one to remember.
Editor’s note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He 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 9 on 08/10/2012