Neighbors helping neighbors

Battles strengthen us.

Despite prognostications to the contrary, the Pea Ridge Blackhawk football team won the second and third round of state playoffs. The young men on the team have battled wind, rain, cold and injuries to come home victorious.

And their fans have been watching, cheering them on, standing with them in the fray. Last Friday night, there were more people in the visitors' stands than the home stand. The rain was incessant, temperatures continued to drop, but the fans' enthusiasm didn't wane. They sat and stood, beneath ponchos, rain coats and umbrellas cheering and supporting their sons, grandsons, neighbors.

Regardless of whether you're a sports fan, there's something here that's worth noting. These young people are learning the value of supporting one another, of caring for someone other than themselves. And, they're battling public opinion, winning in spite of predictions that they would not.

The community stands behind these young people. On Friday, before the team left for the game, many people gathered on the sidewalk and side of the street in the rain and cold holding signs and cheering the athletes and coaches as they left town in the school buses, escorted by police and fire vehicles. They plan to do it again this coming Friday as the team leaves for Nashville.

Some of the young men and women in this town think there will be nothing better than to grow up and get as far away from their little home town as possible. Few probably really see the value in living in a small town. But, it is here they have been nurtured, trained, taught, discipled and encouraged. Yes, there are "tattle tales," "tongue waggers," -- people only too quick to call their parents and tell them when they're caught doing wrong. But, those busy bodies may be just as glad to catch them doing right, too.

Neighbors can be quite an asset, especially when they're truly looking out for one another's welfare.

While these football athletes are heading to the semi-finals games, some of them have basketball team mates who are entering into basketball battles without them. Those athletes, all six of them, are playing their hearts out on the court and putting their all into the game. In their first contest of the season, they lost by one point, although they had been ahead at several points in the game to a team that had three times as many players and the advantage of being able to rest their players. Then, again this week, they played in the Paris Invitational in Lavaca, winning Monday's game. (Wednesday's game has yet to be played.)

What is the value of sports during school years?

These young men and women are learning team work, how to face challenges of winning and losing, how to discipline themselves to persevere. The coaches are dedicated men and women who want to build good character into these maturing men and women to help them become responsible adults, leaders for tomorrow.

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Editor's note: Annette Beard is the managing editor of The Times of Northeast Benton County, chosen the best small weekly newspaper in Arkansas for five of the past six years. A native of Louisiana, she moved to northwest Arkansas in 1980 to work for the Benton County Daily Record. She has nine children, four sons-in-law, seven grandsons and two granddaughters. She can be reached at [email protected].

Editorial on 12/02/2015