There's a change in the air

The Arkansas Activities Association directors voted in some significant changes in last week's annual meeting.

The idea of advancing the football season one week earlier failed to pass. Last year's delayed playoffs due to winter weather stampeded a few individuals into clamoring for an earlier season so as to avoid the possibility of weather repeating the circumstances of 2013.

The chance of heat problems by an earlier season was far, far more significant than the possibility of cold and icy weather in the current program. At its worst, the winter weather of 2013 affected a relatively small number of teams. The problems of hot weather would have endangered every team in the state, not just a few.

Some of the worst laws written and passed by governing bodies are the ones written to address a single need or single circumstance. One bad winter does not a climate change make. It's ironic that there are those who insist this past winter was an anomaly, believing that the climate is getting irreversibly warmer while the ones pushing for this rule change thought a new ice age was coming.

What did pass was that in two years time, Arkansas high schools will be experiencing a new blended conference alignment system in many sports. Members of 5A will be blended with 6A schools with 3A schools blending with 4A institutions to form new competitive conferences with geography to play a key role in conference assignments.

As far as it relates to Pea Ridge, it would appear that their basketball/softball/baseball/volleyball leagues may be composed of current 4A-1 members Pea Ridge, Gravette, Gentry, Prairie Grove, Lincoln and Shiloh for the bulk of the conference. Based on geographic considerations, it may well be that 3A members Greenland and West Fork get moved into the mix, with current 4A-1 members Huntsville and Berryville joining with a 4A-3A mix further east.

Farmington, just now dealing with being the smallest member of 5A classification this year, will be moved into a 6A/5A blend, putting them in the same league with 6A schools Siloam Springs, Alma and Greenwood. As the Cards haven't done especially well as one of the biggest schools in the state in 4A, their immediate future looks kind of bleak.

In the aforementioned sports, when conference play is over, they will then play a district tournament with members of their same class. It could be that after conference play, Huntsville and Berryville would then compete with their old 4A-1 foes for district honors.

Football won't be affected in any case due to the nature of the sport and also due to the fact that they only play once a week on Friday. With only seven conference games on their regular schedule, just three or four are on the road, so the travel isn't nearly as a big of a problem as it is when the league is playing 14 games with half on school nights.

Sports like track, cross country, golf, etc aren't affected as they don't have home and away conference schedules like other sports do. They generally meet as a conference in their district championship meet.

The rule limiting the days of contact in football passed and while I thought it was a bad idea, I am open to see how it plays out. If injuries over a season's duration begin to decline, it could be that I was wrong to oppose the new rule. If injuries increase, however, it will be due to over managing from the top.

Football scrimmage set

Pea Ridge will have their first inter-school football experience on Aug. 25 when Greenland comes to town to scrimmage. Greenland had long been a football opponent on the Blackhawk schedule when the Pirates decided to end that rivalry in 2014.

In the many years that Greenland has played the 'Hawks under the current coaching staff, they have won but one time. With the past three years seeing the 'Hawks run rampant over the Pirates, Greenland decided to look for greener pastures. The large and talented junior high team the 'Hawks boasted last year was likely a big consideration in their thinking.

Arkansas schools can have a scrimmage against another AAA school in the week prior to the first game of the season. Having the game on a Monday of the week prior will give the locals 10 days to correct any noticed deficiencies before their first game for real against the Elkins Elks.

Games of note

Sometimes it is hard to schedule those three non-conference games at the beginning of the season.

Maybe that is why Bentonville is playing host to a squad from New Jersey this year. The Tigers have been one of the best teams in the U.S. these past few years, and not many schools have much interest in scheduling them.

Meanwhile, Prairie Grove couldn't get a game with anyone in the second week of the season. They had scheduled Morrillton the second week of the season in the last cycle but the central Arkansas team did not want to renew the series. After looking for a new foe in four states as far as legally allowable, they had to resign themselves to the fact they could not get a game inked.

When you only have five home games a year, losing one is a big deal.

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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 on 08/13/2014