The 2014 Pea Ridge varsity football Blackhawks take to the field Monday night as they host the Greenland Pirates in a scrimmage practice.
Unlike other states, Arkansas allows its member schools the opportunity to play against other schools in football in the week before actual official competition begins. It is really just a uniformed practice with two schools. Coaches will be on the field coaching, teaching their charges how they might have done something better or how to attack a particular situation.
Teams scrimmage all the time against themselves, but unless you have a really big squad with lots of depth, it is extremely hard to replicate game situations. The event Monday will go a long way to smooth out deficiencies in both their offensive and defensive schemes.
Another facet of a scrimmage is that it will give players a chance to shine in front of their coaches. Often times, players who are vying for a particular position on the field can use this opportunity to prove to a coach that "I'm your man." NFL pre-season games are like that in that the competition on the field can help the staff decide the depth charts, who should be on the field the most often.
Of course, to die-hard football fans, it's another chance to see your team in action. It's been a long time since the end of the 2013 season, a campaign that did not proceed or end on a particularly good note. This, however, is another year, and with it, another possibility for success.
Talking with assistant coach Lafe Caton last week, he commented that while the total talent/experience level is perhaps not a great as it was two years ago, the team looks further along in many facets in their game. Coach Caton was optimistic that the '14 Blackhawks will surpass the meager prospects that many have forecast for their impending season.
The current team is at once very young, but with seasoned hands at critical positions. The offensive backfield, I believe, has a legitimate chance to rank as the best in the conference.
While half of the team are sophomores, a lot of them will figure heavily in how well the 'Hawks do this year. Several of them have already more than likely earned starting roles in this their first year on the varsity level.
One important thing the sophomores bring with them is their experience as a winning team. Their offense rolled through the junior high season last season, landing the Junior 'Hawks their first ever 4A level football championship, and their first one in many, many years, likely all the way back to their years in the small school 2A classification.
How well the offensive and defensive line play develops will be the major key to the season at hand. If the O-line can give the offensive backfield time to execute their plays, and the receivers time to get open, the Blackhawks will be lighting it up this year.
The thing about high school football is that it is essentially unpredictable. Teams often don't win that are supposed to along with teams that win in spite of all the predictions. This is what makes the sport of prep football so enjoyable to follow.
Every team suiting up this fall has high hopes to build great seasons. Two years ago, Pea Ridge had sports writers disbelieving what was going on, with one sports writer leading a story in a local daily with the headline "Is Pea Ridge for Real" after the 'Hawks started the season 7-0. Last year Lincoln turned everyone's heads, going deep into the 4A state playoffs in 2013 after not even qualifying in 2012.
There will be a surprise team in 2014. Hopefully that team will the Blackhawks.
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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 08/20/2014