Joining the school’s football and cross country teams, the boys basketball team has earned a spot among the top five 4A schools in the inaugural MaxPreps-CBS/Freeman state basketball poll.
With the football team once ranked as high as fifth and the cross country boys finishing as the third best team in the state, the hardwood ’Hawks are demonstrating to the state that Pea Ridge has a lot of good athletes in a variety of sports. The just-released rankings also have the boys on the top of the 1-4A conference as far as polling goes.
Subiaco Academy, a member of the 4-4A conference as well as the northern region, is the state’s initial No. 1 4A team with many victories and competitive games against larger schools. The Trojans play in the same region as do the Blackhawks. With Pottsville in at the No. 4 slot, three of the current top five teams in the state reside in the northern region.
Farmington was the only other conference member who ranked in the top 10, with the Cardinals coming in at the 10th spot. No other league school was ranked among the top 20 schools.
The 2013 state tournamentwill be a year of transition with the state’s top two teams from a year ago, Clarksville and Pulaski Academy, moving up into the 5A classification for at least the next two years. Clarksville is now the state’s top-ranked 5A school and is the odds on favorite to win another state championship.
Pulaski, on the other hand, has had a very rocky start to their season and are rather poorly ranked, having a 17th ranking among 32 schools.
Clarksville is also ranked the No. 5 team in the state among all classes.
The Blackhawks with their run out to a 10 win season before the Christmas break, is also ranked 50th among all schools in all classes. About 300 Arkansas schools participate in boys basketball.
The state 4A top 10 and other conference member rankings are:
MaxPreps/CBS State 4A Basketball Poll (Dec. 21)
1). Subiaco
2). Pine Bluff Dollarway
3). Monticello
4). Pottsville
5). Pea Ridge
6). Central Arkansas
7). Maumelle
8). Brookland
9). Valley View
10). Farmington
Other 1-4A members:
22). Lincoln
23). Gravette
26). Berryville
29). Ozark
35). Prairie Grove
36). Gentry
1-4A boys basketball standings
1). Pea Ridge 3-0
2). Farmington 3-0
3). Ozark 2-1
4). Lincoln 1-1
5). Berryville 1-2
6). Gravette1-2
7). Gentry 0-2
8). Prairie Grove 0-3
Who is Subiaco?
With the ascendance of the Subiaco Trojans into being the state’s No. 1-ranked team, lots of folks may be asking “Just what is Subiaco Academy?” Is it a private institution like the church school down in Springdale?
Subiaco Academy is located in the small, rural community of Subiaco not farfrom Paris, Ark. The school is situated on 1,800 acres of pristine countryside belonging to the Catholic Church, land that it obtained in the 1880s.
The land was originally owned by the Little Rock-Fort Smith Railroad Company and, for whatever reason, they had a policy of selling Arkansas land to German Catholic immigrants whenever possible. The Catholic Order of St. Benedict was the group that took possession of the property and is still charged with the responsibility of running the school and grounds.
The academy today is the only private school in the state where nearly all the students in the all-boy school live on campus. Most of the students are not from Arkansas, with a large portion of them actually from other countries.
The school started in the 1800s as St. Benedict College. The college didn’t make it financially and was eventually closed. Another school started up on the site, renamed “The Scholasticate” featuring classical learning and an emphasis on the fine arts but it didn’t make it either. The Catholic Church eventuallydecided that the land ought to be used for a high school with students coming to live on campus from dozens of countries from around the world.
In the earlier years, Benedictine monks from Switzerland were sent to Subiaco to fill out their staff but today most of their staff are lay people. The school is a highly-ranked academic institution with 100 percent of their graduates going on to college. The first nonchurch official teachers were coaches who were brought in to coach the various team sports.
Pea Ridge could cross paths with the Trojans when the Regional is played at the end of the season. The top four teams from the 1-4A will take on the four best finishers from the 4-4A District to fight for spots in the 2013 state tournament. The 1-4A champion will open with the fourth place finisher fromthe 4-4A in the region’s first round with the 4-4A champ playing the 1-4A’s fourth place, etc. Whichever two teams make the regional final will be guaranteed a spot in the state tournament quarterfinals. Once every three years, the top two from the North Region get byes into the second round and 2013 is our year.
Subiaco has been playing very well to date. Due to the nature of their enrollment, with a lot of students coming and going, it makes for a situation that sees its share of ups and downs. It looks like 2013 may be a year of “ups” for the Logan County school.
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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 8 on 12/26/2012