Blackhawks ready to soar

TIMES photograph by Annette Beard Blackhawk coach Trent Loyd coaches the team during the final minutes of a game during a tournament in Lavaca in early December.
TIMES photograph by Annette Beard Blackhawk coach Trent Loyd coaches the team during the final minutes of a game during a tournament in Lavaca in early December.

From Staff Reports

Blackhawk coach Trent Loyd has a certain level of understanding with his players, just as they have the same with each other.

It's the benefit of having worked and played together for years for Loyd and the Blackhawks, who hope to take the lessons learned from last season's youth movement and apply them to an expected Class 4A state tournament run this season.

Pea Ridge entered this season loaded with momentum following last year's 20-10 record, an improvement over 14-14 from the year before.

Both seasons came under the watch of Loyd, the 26-year-old third-year coach who has molded the Blackhawks to his liking following two years as the school's junior high coach. He moved up to the high school level two years ago, where he started a lineup last season with three of the sophomores who he once coached in junior high.

Those three -- Joey Hall, Westin Church and Britton Caudill -- are now juniors and at the core of what Pea Ridge hopes to accomplish this season.

"This group of juniors, their entire careers, they've just won," Loyd said. "They won in Little League, they won in junior high and they bring that confidence to everybody else. These guys just believe every game they're in, if it's close, it's supposed to go their way."

Plenty did go Pea Ridge's way last season, when the school finished second in the 4A-1 Conference and second at the district tournament before a season-ending loss in the first round of regionals to Dardanelle.

Hall, Church and Caudill combined to average 32 points per game over the course of the season, doing so as underclassmen in a locker room led by seniors.

There's little doubt this season who has taken charge of the leadership roles for the Blackhawks, and the three returning starters -- along with another junior starter, Cole Wright -- are just fine with that.

"We grew up playing basketball together; we've been friends since I can remember," Hall said. "I remember going to pre-school with some of my teammates, kindergarten, everything."

Hall made a quick transition to the high school level last season, helping Pea Ridge win 16 straight games at one point. The 6-foot-2-inch point guard averaged 14 points and five assists per game, though he was anything but satisfied with his performance.

To help add muscle to his wiry frame, Hall embarked on a 4,000-calorie-per-day diet during the offseason while also growing an inch. He also spent much of his time with the only friends and teammates he's ever known, a group so close they only travel in a pack rather than just pairs.

As good as the Blackhawks were last season, they still haven't forgotten the bitter end -- the regional loss to Dardanelle in which they let a fourth-quarter lead slip away. But rather than dwell on the disappointment, Church said they've used it as motivation.

"We talked about how we should have won that game and we played awful, myself included," Church said. "It made me think we could be a lot better and hopefully meet (Dardanelle) back in the regionals and beat them this year."

Pea Ridge could very well have the offensive threats to do just that this season, with Church returning after averaging 10 points, six rebounds and three assists a year ago. Also, the 6-foot-3-inch Caudill is back after averaging eight points and seven rebounds last season, and he's expected to have frontcourt help from 6-foot-5-inch senior center Bryce Beckmann, who is coming off knee surgery over the summer.

It's a projected mix of talent that's long been in the works for the Blackhawks, one that has their coach eager to tip off the season.

"This group, they expect to be at a certain place at the end of the year," Loyd said. "It goes without saying, they think they should win every game. Will they? No, but they go into every game thinking that."

Sports on 01/06/2016