The line "for the first time in Blackhawk history" has come up so many times in my column for the past several years that I may be wearing those keys off my keyboard.
In this instance, for the first time in Blackhawk history, two local football athletes have been included into the Hootens.com Top 50 Recruits for the 2018 graduating class. This list is derived from scholarship offers and evaluation reports submitted by numerous collegiate football coaches.
Wide receiver Hayden Holtgrewe and running back Drew Winn both received inclusion for this highly select group of athletes from among the more than 200 teams and multiple thousand football players in the state. They are deemed as likely collegiate football players in the future. No other player from the seven other 4A-1 District teams were mentioned in the list.
Among the 50 players, only nine athletes from the 4A classification landed berths on this year's honors list. Ashdown actually had three of their athletes make the list, including cornerback Ladarious Bishop, running back Tre Green and quarterback Jaden Hill. Nashville picked up a couple of selections in Ty Pettway and Dominic Knight who are both wide receivers. Malvern's Damias Jimerson was included for his athletic ability in a number of positions. The other 4A honoree was J.T. Robinsons' wide receiver Nathan Page who was also named the No. 1 overall recruit for this season.
As is often the case, 7A-6A schools took over half the slots with 5A players getting nine selections, like the 4A. Five 3A athletes made the list with no one picked from the 2A classification.
Blackhawk coach makes honors list
Blackhawk head football coach Stephen Neal was among the 45 coaches listed on the annual Farm Bureau Insurance Awards for football excellence.
Neal was nominated to the top three 4A head coaches in the state, with state champion Warren's head coach Bo Hemphree receiving the nod as best head coach. Were it not for a disastrous third quarter in a 2015 playoff loss to eventual state champion Nashville, the Lumberjacks would be working on a three-year streak as state champs. In that game, Warren led Nashville comfortably at the half but a whopping four Lumberjack turnovers led to three Nashville scores and a big deficit heading into the final period. Warren came roaring back in the fourth but came up 5 points short, losing 42-37.
Warren lost a lot of skilled players this spring but still returns a formidable line and they are always good. Nashville was ranked No. 1 most all of last year until the 'Hawks steamrolled over them in the playoffs. Nashville was a true powerhouse under former Bentonville native Billy Dawson but the Scrappers' defense hasn't been the same since Dawson left for Russellville. Dawson wasn't at Russellville for long but while there, he guided them to their first ever 6A state championship. He is now the head coach at Fayetteville which has won the last two state titles with two different coaches. Will they make it three?
Arkansas Activities Association at it again
Last year, the Arkansas Activities Association made a radical change with the way the volleyball, basketball, softball and baseball districts were set up. They decided to blend together 3A and 4A schools into conferences together with the stated desire to decrease travel and increase school revenue. In true bureaucratic fashion, the change instead increased travel and decreased school revenue as admitted by the AAA office.
Beside the other aforementioned disasters, the new set up made district tournament seeding a nightmare, and it made making all-conference and all-state selections even more difficult than they already were.
A new plan is being floated at the end of July for vote by the directors. This new plan will abolish 7A in the above sports, with the top 16 schools to become 6A. The old 6A and their 16 members would become the new 5A with the 16 biggest 5A schools staying 5A. That would then push the 16 smaller 5A schools into 4A status, with the 16 smallest 4A schools pushed down into 3A classification. The final part of the plan would be to simply divide all the teams of the 3A, 2A and 1A classes into equal groups.
For the 2017-2018, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, Pea Ridge is locked into the 4A classification for everything. Even if a bazillion students moved into the Pea Ridge schools, that wouldn't change a thing until the next official count.
How will this affect football you may ask? Not a bit. None of this applies to football. The current football system brings in a ton of money to the AAA so that won't be touched.
What it may mean to Pea Ridge, that with the growth rate the school is experiencing, they will likely be 5A for the 2020-2021 school year. However, if this plan passes, they would probably stay in the 4A class for the sports other than football. The changes will leave the 4A-1 fairly intact, bringing Huntsville and Farmington back into the league along with Pea Ridge, Gravette, Berryville, Prairie Grove and either Gentry, Shiloh or Harrison. Gentry and Shiloh may go 3A which would put Harrison a likely league designee.
Lincoln's tough sledding
got a little tougher
Lincoln, the 4A-1's doormat football team since coach Brad Harris went back to central Arkansas, got some bad news when their current head coach decided to return to coaching in Oklahoma. Another assistant coach also resigned and the School Board's decision was to carry on with just four coaches to run the program rather than the six staff members previously.
A board member was quoting as saying they needed to stop putting money into losing programs. So, if you can't succeed, give up? Less coaches means less preparations, meaning less success. Of course, the students may get the hint and not even go out in the first place.
Lincoln is barely a 4A school and it is conceivable it could get back into the 3A sometime in the future which is where they belong. They are playing in a league with most of the schools with far larger enrollments. In a sport like football, that is more than huge.
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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 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 06/14/2017