PEA RIDGE — I wondered how long it would be until someone would come up with a sports media deal to offer to the Arkansas Activities Association, and the answer is next year as the AAA announced a partnership with 24-7 Prep/Foxwood Sports for the 2012-2013 season, or school year.
Foxwood Sports is not associated with Fox, in case anyone (like yours truly) was wondering.
It is actually a firm that is headquartered in Little Rock, as is the AAA.
The head of Foxwood Sports is Ron Crawford, a person I worked with for a time when he was the overall president of the Arkansas Athletic Union while I served a number of years as the state track and field chairman. He is about the most organized man I have ever known, as he ran his private business, headed the AAU and led and coached the Arkansas Wings AAU basketball team, perhaps the most successful nonschool related amateur sports team in the state, all at the sametime. This sports media thing ought to be great for the state as he will be a person who most likely will be keenly concerned with the quality of the product.
I have increasingly used Max-Prep/Freeman CBS Sports which runs a web site highlighting high school athletics. They have a computer system for rating every single high school team in football and basketball in the U.S. On MaxPreps, you can get your ranking in your classification, your overall ranking in the state counting all classes and your ranking among all schools in the U.S.
The AAA’s polling had Pulaski ranked ahead of Clarksville this year, whereas MaxPreps ranked Clarksville and picked them to blow past Pulaski, which they did in claiming their second state title. Foxwood Sports will likely have more manpower and focus for Arkansas teams than Max-Preps probably could or would have. In addition, the head of Foxwood, Mr. Crawford, personally knows a lot of the coaches on the better athletic teams in the state.
The announcement mentioned Foxwood Sports either televising or web streaming state championship games in the various states. There was mention of a type of social networking with teams having a web page to post photos, news, etc. Maybe it will be like a Facebook-ish sports site.I am looking forward to seeing how it pans out.
With the 2012 football season looming in the distance, I will use both services to see how they pan out and compare. I am excited about the fall campaign for Tony Travis’ Blackhawks and it’s good to know that there will be competition for providing exposure for high school athletics even down on the 4A level.
The AAA looked bad last fall when they stuck Fayetteville High School with a big bill after some high school students set up a webcam for the 7A state title game. The kids did a live webstream for the students and supporters who couldn’t come for the game at War Memorial Stadium. Although the young people didn’t charge anyone to watch and even though they had no paid advertising and did not make a single cent on the deal, the AAA demanded their money as if the Fayetteville students were the equivalent of CBSSports.
* Razorbacks ranked third in nation
The Arkansas Razorback baseball team improved to 19-2 on the young season and were listed as the No. 3 collegiate baseball team on every major poll last week.
With a deep killer bullpen, Arkansas pitching is a major strength this year along with its great defensive play and hot bats.
As a matter of fact, last Friday left fielder Matt Vinson made a defensive play that was named the ESPN College Baseball Play of the Week. With a fly ball heading for the Alabama bullpen just behind the left field fence, Vinson climbed the fence then leaped imto the air to backhand a ball that had cleared the wall but not Vinson’s glove.
The Hogs swept all three games with the Crimson Tide on the opening weekend of SEC play. They played last night and will again tonight hosting Nevada, this is, weather permitting. Tickets can be bought on the Razorback website.
Arkansas played Mississippi State last weekend in Starkville,Miss., and they will follow that this weekend by playing LSU in Baton Rouge. Mississippi State was nationally ranked until this week and LSU is close to being ranked in the top 10. LSU also has bragging rights as having the largest crowds in the nation attend their games so the Hogs will be playing in a most hostile environment.
There are those who believe this will be the year the Hogs might take the NCAA National Championship and the path that lies before if gives them that chance.
* Just when you thought Tebow mania had quieted
It seems that Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow has been demoted to playing back up again as Denver just signed former NFL MVP quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning was recently cut by the Indianapolis Colts who didn’t want to pay Mannings’ bonus and salary if he had stayed in Indy. Manning has had three necksurgeries in the past year and at age 35, his play might be somewhat of a gamble.
Not surprisingly, the Tebow haters were crowing with delight and its seems that a lot of the sports talk radio hosts and most TV pundits were so happy that Denver got, as they put it, a “real” quarterback instead of the one they had. Strangest of all, to me, was when I walked into the Office Depot in Rogers recently, I couldn’t but help overhear a heated argument in one of the aisles by a couple of men who were debating the merits of Tebow’s football prowess.
Now, before last fall, I couldn’t tell you who Denver’s quarterback was and I couldn’t care less.
As a matter of fact, there weren’t many QBs in the NFL I could name off the top of my head.
When Tebow was promoted to first team and was met with an avalanche of hate even though he led the team to the division title, a lot of people got on the Tebow bandwagon. With all the naysayers criticizing his play, the real problem most people had with him was that he was a really devout Christian and frequently talked of his faith in public.
This being Christian thing has had many others suffer angry tirades and ridicule because of their beliefs. If folks can remember the Razorbacks Ken Hatfield a few years back, he had and still has the highest winning percentage of any coach in Arkansas history. He had a lot of 10 wins and more seasons, but a lot of important folks didn’t like the “way” he won. He was winning, I guess, in too boring a fashion. Of course, he was getting a lot of heat for speaking in large Christian crusades that were held around the country and he made it plain he was a Christian and did not shrink from showing it.
When he found out that liquor was being sneaked into the fancy box accommodations for rich boosters, he made sure that the practice was halted. Even though such a thing was against university rules and policies, Hatfield still caught flack for doing what he did. The last straw for some was when he didn’t want his team players appearing in Playboy magazine in a football related story. Hatfield finally quit, even accepting a job with Clemson over the phone without even visiting the place.
Along comes Gus Mahlzahn, another one of those Christian problem coaches and he was treated badly by the staff at the UA. Ridiculed by the staff and referred to as “high school” during his short tenure there, Mahlzahn moved on to Tulsa and Auburn leading both schools to great heights offensively. The problem with all these Christian coaches I must suppose is that they don’t curse and swear like their peers and they don’t go out with their fellow coaches to swill some brew together.
Being a Christian or not being one is up to each individual person. I don’t believe anyone should be persecuted for not having any religious beliefs but I sure don’t think that persons of faith should be looked upon as people who are out of touch or crazy. Our nation was formed on the idea of religious liberty. If there had not been been people who espoused Christian principles, there would have never been a United Statesof America.
* Tebow, Tebow, Tebow
I listen to the local ESPN radio station a lot as they carry Razorback baseball games regularly.
I often leave the car with that channel on so when I start the car in the morning, that is the first thing I hear.
Sunday morning, as I got up and started the car to head for a Sunday School class I was teaching, I heard the heated remarks of two people angry over TimTebow playing in New York. One man called it an epic disaster in the making.
After church, and after the extended Razorback victory over Mississippi State, I turned off the car, went inside, then drove to school to work on some things.
After a commercial, another show started on the sports channel and the topic was - Tim Tebow.
When I started my car Monday morning about 6:20 to go to school, two men were arguing over, wait for it - TIM TEBOW.
When I tuned in at lunch, they were argu-talking about Tebow again. On the way to Bentonville to get a pizza Monday evening, I turned on the channel and they were talking about - the Final Four! Yeah! I listened for a few minutes when the announcer said, time out for commercial break, and then the latest on Tim Tebow. I changed the channel.
Since the Hogs don’t play LSU until Friday, I will not tune in again.
* Local monster retailer has it down
While this bit of news is not so much sportsy, it is about the outdoors.
When I went to local giant retailer, you know who, I was met by an aisle full of outdoor grills, and all the things that come with those kinda things - soda pops, charcoal starter, starter fluid, and myriad other things.
I thought, here it is, March 23 and people are already grilling out. Once it stopped raining, I noticed lots of people cutting grass and doing yard work. I also noticed more than few firing up their outdoor grills.
I remember last year was a far cry from this year. Getting back to that retail giant, one of the main reasons it has done as well as it has is its ability to adapt and adapt fast. I doubt that corporate execs had a long standing plan tointroduce that stuff in the middle of March, but hey, the weathers here!
School gets out on May 18, meaning an extra long summer break in 2012.
I can live with it.
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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 9 on 03/28/2012