BENTON COUNTY — Dakota Woodward’s basketball career at Pea Ridge had an exclamation point added when the hard-playing point guard was named to the 2012 4A All-State Team.
Woodward got a lot of minutes off the bench as a sophomore player on a tremendous 2009-2010 Blackhawk squad. Although many felt the ’Hawks would be diminished for the 2010-2011 season, Woodward moved into a starting role and helped the the Blackhawks achieve their finest season on record, accumulating considerable hardware and making the state tournament. The ’Hawks were finally stopped that year by the defending state champion Westside Warriors.
Woodward was also named All-District and All-Northwest Arkansas among all the 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A teams in the area.
Numerous high school coaches made public comments concerning Woodward’s play, saying “You just have to deal with Woodward because he is what makes Pea Ridge go.” Woodward was deadly behind the 3-point arc with lots of teams giving him close attention when he was moving around the arc.
Joining Woodward on the All-District and All-Northwest Arkansas teams was junior Jacob Hall. Accumulating a lot of points off the bench in his sophomore year, Hall moved to the role as the go-to man when it came to scoring. Whether it was ripping 3-point shots or driving for layupsin sometimes acrobatic fashion, he, like Woodward, often received considerable attention when he was prowling the 3-point line.
Both players are products of considerable experience playing in the elementary school leagues.
While in junior high, then later high school, both Hall and Woodward continued to improve their game.
Sadly, Woodward is the last of a line of Woodward athletes who have passed through Pea Ridge over the years. As a matter of fact, I can’t remember a Pea Ridge varsity team of some kind not having a Woodward on a roster and I have been here for a kind of long time (14 years).
With Blackhawk athletes under head coach Charley Clark’s tuteluge regularly being named to All-District and All-State teams for the past few years, it makes you wonder who will be the next emerging All-Star in 2013.
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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 7 on 03/21/2012