The Blackhawk football team is going to play in Little Rock for the Arkansas State 4A Championship. This has never happened before in the 50 plus years of Pea Ridge football. The game will make history.
While the 'Hawk football team is arguably better this year than it has ever been, the team's march to the pinnacle of football success this season didn't start in August, or even last fall when the 'Hawks fought their way to the state semi-finals.
It didn't even start in 2014 when they won the 4A-1 for the first time, or even in 2012 when they made the 4A playoffs for the first time. The success players and fans have been enjoying this year had its roots way back n the 1960s when the community decided it should field a football team.
Playing in the state's smallest division, the Blackhawks had early success as the number of banners hanging in the old gym can attest to. Enrollment in the local school grew at a small but steady rate along with the rest of northwest Arkansas.
Then the 1990s happened. Growth in the area exploded with Rogers and Bentonville schools quickly becoming the largest in the state. With huge numbers of families coming to live in the area, quite a few of them desired choosing an address that placed their children in smaller schools rather than the big ones for reasons with which most folks can emphasize.
The first beneficiaries were the Gravette schools. The Lions had a beautiful school plant with excellent athletic facilities that attracted quite a few new residents of the area to enroll to the west.
Pea Ridge was closer than Gravette to the population center, but the school plant here wasn't impressive and the athletic facilities were likely the worst in the state in their division, perhaps in any division. Then something happened.
Fayetteville assistant coach Tony Travis, looking to head his own program, saw Pea Ridge as a place with potential. Being a part of a state championship team in Fayetteville also gave him knowledge of what could be done and what it would take.
The first few years of the Travis regime saw growth in numbers of students participating in football, and he managed perhaps the greatest improvement possible in any school. He changed the culture.
With the change, expectations rose and I had a chance to talk with him in 2010 after his first year at the Blackhawk helm. I asked him if he thought the team could get a new stadium. His reply kind of surprised me when he said that he didn't want a new stadium before he had new practice facilities. His logic that a new football field meets a need the team had five times a season, but a practice facility meets their needs every day.
Sure enough, when the facility was finished in 2011 with its vast improvements, a year later the 'Hawks swept to a 9-1 record and made the second round of the playoffs. Two years later, the 'Hawks went undefeated in the regular season and things were improving rapidly.
The school plant had become the envy of schools across the state and people began flooding into the school district. Last season, the 'Hawks had a historical best 11-3 record and reached the state semi-finals for the first time.
The team was surprised when Travis, the architect for winning football, decided to move on on. However, it turned out that Stephen Neal, a coach with the ultra successful Tulsa Union football team, was available to come in and take over the 'Hawks.
Though the team was disappointed in Travis' leaving, they soon took to Neal's philosophy and knowledge of the game along new offensive coordinator Crosby Tuck. Added to an outstanding staff already in place, the 'Hawks were primed to make a great deal of noise in 2016.
Fast forward to today. We have a huge senior class of athletes who have had an astounding won/loss record of 34-5 since they first suited up for varsity football in the fall of 2014, far and away the best three-year stint of any class in school history.
The game with Warren will be a tall order. They have placed many athletes into the collegiate ranks and some even into the pro ranks. They are prolific in piling up passing yardage and have a sophomore receiver, Treylon Burks, who already has an offer from the Razorbacks when he graduates in 2019.
The Lumberjacks whipped Prairie Grove last week, jumping quickly ahead of the Tigers 21-0 in the first quarter with lightning strikes through the air. Their success this season has often been their sudden and swift attacks in the first quarter. Senior quarterback Hayden Lassiter is pin point accurate when given the time to throw and his favorite target is Burks but he has others to throw to.
After the first period, Prairie Grove played on a fairly even basis with Warren the rest of the way, but they could not overcome the early deficit. Warren is now the lone undefeated team left in the state.
Pea Ridge has a better rushing attack with Warren depending on their potent passing attack. If the Blackhawk secondary can limit the 'Jacks success through the air, the 'Hawks could pull off the upset.
And more history can be made.
CBS/MaxPreps 4A state poll
Dec. 5, 2016
School^won-loss^pwr rtg^+/-
1. Warren^14-0^37.1^+3.9
2. Pea Ridge^13-1^34.7^+0.2
3. Prairie Grove^12-1^33.9^-6.6
4. Nashville^11-1^28.5^+0.6
5. Robinson^11-2^29.1^-0.2
6. Shiloh^11-3^29.0^-2.5
7. Hamburg^9-4^19.9^-0.3
8. Dardanelle^10-3^16.7^-0.2
9. Gosnell^11-2^14.9^-1.3
10. Stuttgart^8-4^14.0^+0.7
17. Gravette^7-4^7.4^unch
30. Huntsville^4-7^-7.2^-0.1
34. Lincoln^3-7^-10.3^+1.2
40. Berryville^3-6^-17.8^+0.1
41. Gentry^2-7^-19.9^-0.4
•••
Editor's note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, sports writer and art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. The opinions expressed are those of the author. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 12/07/2016