Ridger Sports: It’s been a September to remember

— The month of September will be one to remember for a long time.

Former superintendent Roland Smith predicted that good things were in store for Pea Ridge Schools and that things were good and going to get better. I just didn’t realize how sharp the improvement curve would be. Athletically, the list of accomplishments are almost too many to mention.

First of all, the high school football boys ended the month with a 5-0 record and aspotina4Atoptenstate poll. The cross country girls, after failing to get enough girls together to compete in their first meet, came back and won meet champion- ships at Siloam Springs and then Van Buren. The boys cross country team coun- tered with a pair of titles themselves, first in the El- kins Invitational and then in the Pointers Invitational.

The links boys got into the act, taking the team title in the 4A-1 District Golf Championship to qualify for the state championships this month. The fairly new girls volleyball program was also bringing home the hardware after taking second place trophies in a couple of tour- naments.

While I was sitting in the Lincoln press box last Friday, I got into a conversa- tion with some of the locals down there. The Lincoln system is also in a building mode with their new foot- ball complex to open in 2013. We got to talking about all our new athletics facilities that have been built and will be built in the near future here in Pea Ridge.

Anyone who doesn’t know about the building program in Pea Ridge is always im- pressed when told about

it. The indoor facility is unheard of in a school the size of Pea Ridge and prob- ably beats any other school facility south of the 7A clas- sification.

One of the folks I was talking to then asked me, “yeah ... but what about the academics? A lot of schools get caught up in sports fever and kind of push academics aside. How are you in that regard?”

Of course, I was hoping that particular question would get asked. I replied, “Well, just a couple of weeks back, the middle school in Pea Ridge was accorded the honor of being named an Ar- kansas Exemplary School, an honor reserved for very few schools in the state. Addi- tionally, the schools bench- mark scores were and have been among the states best, and there have been many, many students and teach- ers who have been awarded honors for things academic.”

Of course, I did not know that Saturday morn- ing there would be a press release commending a few northwest Arkansas schools for being accorded high achievement status. Men- tioned were Springdale, Ben- tonville, Rogers, Fayetteville — and Pea Ridge! I wish I had known that Friday night.

The high school now has

classes for broadcasting, and how many know outside our community that a weather station has been placed at the high school, the only small school with such a thing as far as I know.

What does all of this mean? It means that the Pea Ridge School District is a place that stresses success in whatever venue a student may pursue. Winning begets winning and winning is in- fectious.

As a student at Monett High School in the ’60s and ’70s, we went from being a kinda run-of-the-mill school to a place where being successful was stressed in everything. State champion- ships were won in football, jazz band competition and debating and we were dis- trict champs in just about every sport or activity over a four-year period. Academics were high, school spirit was high, athletics were success- ful, and there was something for just about everyone to participate in. At the same time, school discipline was much improved, school drop outs were fewer and fewer, and substance abuse went lower and lower. The greatest thing con- tributing to the recent successes is, of course, the students. More students than ever are involved in school activities and student pride in our school is driv- ing that. Students’ pride in their school is really pride in themselves, and it is the good kind of pride which is pride in achievement. Yes, we have a great faculty, out- standing coaches, a commit- ted administration and sup- portive community. Those

things set the table for the students to be able to shine and shine they have.

For my part, I have never been shy of letting folks know how well our students excel in the fine arts. The elementary musicals have been nothing short of fan- tastic and there have been dozens of local artists win- ning awards of one kind or another.

To sum things up, the Pea Ridge School District is on a winning streak, and I do mean the whole district. The culture is positive and I have always believed and observed that success is built on success. It is hard to establish, and takes a lot of work to maintain but is something to be pursued.

Everyone has heard that “you have to pay the price to succeed.” Not pursuing suc- cess, not seeking excellence, not being the best we can be at the objective at hand, those things will exact the higher price in the end.

I mentioned my own high school experience to let folks know that I have per- sonally experienced what it is like to attend a successful school. It felt and still feels good even at my age (nearly 60). Teaching and working here evokes that same kind of feeling.

It feels good.

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Editor’s note: John McGee is an award-winning colum- nist 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 prt- [email protected].