Travis guides Blackhawks to perfect regular season

Staff Photo J.T. Wampler Tony Travis, left, and Seth Brumley, both of Pea Ridge, are the All-NWA Media Coach of the Year and Player of the Year, respectively, for Class 5A and below.
Staff Photo J.T. Wampler Tony Travis, left, and Seth Brumley, both of Pea Ridge, are the All-NWA Media Coach of the Year and Player of the Year, respectively, for Class 5A and below.

The 2013 season was a tough one for Pea Ridge. A year after making the playoffs, the Blackhawks returned just one starter and they struggled to get in the victory column.

In fact, Pea Ridge had to forfeit two games as they officially finished 1-9.

All-NWA Media Coach of the Year

Class 5A and below

Tony Travis

School: Pea Ridge

Position: Head football coach.

Notable: Pea Ridge completed its fitst 10-0 regular season this past year. … Pea Ridge has been to the Class 4A playoffs in two of the last three years.

But in the closing weeks of the 2013 season there was a light at the end of the tunnel for the Blackhawks.

"We beat Farmington, and we played Prairie Grove down to the last seconds of the game," head coach Tony Travis said. "We lost to Berryville with under a minute to go. We lost to Ozark when they scored with about four minutes to go and we dropped a pass in the end zone that would have won it."

There was no such disappointment in 2014.

Thanks to a stingy defense and an efficient offense, Pea Ridge had no equal during the regular season. The Blackhawks gained confidence with a big road win at Paris early in the season and they never looked back in winning the 4A-1 Conference championship with a 10-0 overall record.

For his efforts, Travis is the NWA Media All-Area Team Class 5A-below Coach of the Year.

With 23 seniors on the roster entering August drills, Travis said he knew the Blackhawks would be better.

"You never sit there in the summer and say you have a chance at 10-0," Travis said. "But I knew we would be better. We started out with a goal of winning our nonconference schedule, and when we won our first two games we wanted to go undefeated in our non-conference schedule.

"We just kept to adding to that list of goals."

Quarterback Seth Brumley said that a win at a good Class 3A school in Paris was an early turning point in the season.

"Not many people picked us to win that game and we went down there and played really well," Brumley said.

Because the schedule was adjusted to add Huntsville and Shiloh Christian back into the conference, Pea Ridge had to make a second straight trip to Prairie Grove this season. The showdown came the seventh week of the season with Shiloh Christian being the final regular season contest

"When it came out, I said, 'How unlucky can it be that we are going back there?'" Travis said. "But I think it worked in our favor after what happened the year before. Our players felt like we let one slip away and that was fresh in their memories.

"We didn't want to let it happen a second time."

It didn't.

Pea Ridge defeated Prairie Grove and they rolled off victories over Berryville and Huntsville to set up a critical game with Shiloh Christian for all the marbles.

"All everybody wanted to talk about was that Shiloh game," Travis said. "But we had a great week of preparation leading up to that game. We had a good feeling going into that game."

That proved to be correct as Pea Ridge played its best game of the year in a convincing victory over the Saints before a packed house at Blackhawk Stadium.

"Our town supports our athletic programs," Travis said. "But when you are winning, it multiples the excitement, it multiplies the number of people that are here. You can feel it more when you experience that."

Sports on 01/07/2015