While high school football and collegiate football gets into their first week of erstwhile competition, minor league baseball enters its final week of the regular season. We are a week away from NFL football's season openers with major league baseball teams entering the final 30 games of the 2015 regular schedule.
The prep polls are out with the Hooten's and Maxpreps/CBS organizations with their initial rankings fairly disparate.
The two pollsters have wildly different rankings, which is probably to be expected due to the unpredictability of high school sports. Both polls, however, agree that the 4A-1 Conference has a clear divide among their top four teams and the four who will reside on the bottom side of things. Hooten's picks Prairie Grove to be the league's best this year with MaxPreps tabbing Shiloh Christian as the favorite.
Pea Ridge was picked third in each poll for conference play with Gravette getting the nod for fourth in both lists. There is not much respect for the district's lower tier of teams with MaxPreps ranking the four (Huntsville, Gentry, Berryville and Lincoln) as among the worst nine teams in all of 4A football. Hootens is a tad better rating the foursome among the state's worst 13.
Hootens predicts that the 4A-1 will win five of the eight openers this week. They favor Pea Ridge by 3 over Elkins, Prairie Grove by 1 over Farmington, Berryville by 11 over Decatur, Huntsville by 8 over Green Forest, and Lincoln by 2 over Westville, Okla. Slated for first week losses are Shiloh (by 3 to Charleston), Gravette (by 7 to Pottsville) and Gentry (by 16 to West Fork).
The opening week polls are as follows:
Hooten's state 4A poll
1. Dardanelle
2. Nashville
3. Star CIty
4. Pulaski Robinson
5. Hamburg
6. Prairie Grove
7. Malvern
8. Gosnell
9. Arkadelphia
10. Lonoke
11. Shiloh
13. Pea Ridge
26. Gravette
35. Huntsville
39. Gentry
42. Lincoln
45. Berryville
MaxPreps/CBS state 4A poll
1. Warren
2. Dardanelle
3. Nashville
4. Mena
5. Arkadelphia
6. Star City
7. Shiloh
8. Malvern
9. Hamburg
10. Gosnell
17. Prairie Grove
22. Pea Ridge
24. Gravette
39. Huntsville
44. Lincoln
46. Gentry
47. Berryville
Hogs have 5th toughest schedule in the U.S.
Well, at least it gives the Hogs a chance to go for all the marbles.
Sports prognosticators have ranked the University of Arkansas 2015 schedule as the fifth toughest in major college football. While opening up the possibility that the challenge might be more than the Hogs can meet, it also opens up the possibility that the Razorbacks might have an opportunity to play for the ultimate prize, a NCAA championship.
True enough, the Hogs lost one of the best running backs in the nation in the person of Jonathan Williams, they just might have another "Williams" who could take up the slack. Freshman Rawleigh Williams is having a terrific fall and might be the No. 2 back behind 1,000-yard rusher Alex Collins. Running back and quarterback are two positions for which Arkansas seems to have multiple talented players available.
St. Louis keeps on rolling
In spite of multiple injuries and occasional bad luck, the St. Louis Cardinals are keeping their lead in the National League Central, leading a red-hot Pittsburgh Pirate team by four and a half games as of Monday. The Pirates have been winning 70 percent of their games lately but then again, so have the Cards so the gap between the clubs remains around five games.
Chicago had a superlative run with a long winning-streak but lost four in a row to blunt their drive to catch up to their division rivals. The Cubs' odds of making the playoffs keep improving in their favor, though they will likely have to visit Pittsburg in a one-game playoff to get into the league semi-finals.
Watching the Cards play Arizona last week led me to a "I didn't know that!" moment. The D-backs have as their best closer, Brad Zeigler who led the entire National League in ERA in late July with a 1.08 average, though it is up some to 1.81 this week, still mighty impressive. Zeigler has been in the majors for eight years and has a lifetime ERA of 2.48 which is even more impressive.
What I didn't know was that he was the son of the family minister for the church I attend in Bentonville, Greg Zeigler. I was in his office last week and noticed his rather impressive collection of Cardinal memorabilia. He told me he was now a Diamondback fan as his son pitches for them.
The Naturals head for playoffs
Though they have lost nine games more than they have won for the second half of the season, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals will be in the Texas League playoffs starting next Wednesday.
The Naturals started the year on a tear, cruising to the first half of season championship. In the Texas League, the teams that win the first half of the season, play the team that wins the second half of the season for the right to go to the Texas League Championship series.
After winning the first-half title, the Naturals could have lost every game in the season's second half and still got into the playoffs. They have been coming back around lately, winning eight of their last 10 games and are hopefully gearing up for a run at the title.
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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 09/02/2015