The past few years has seen Pea Ridge Blackhawk athletic programs ascend to heights that would have been impossible to foresee a dozen years ago.
The latest honor took place in Little Rock last Saturday where recently graduated tailback Drew Winn was honored at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette All-Arkansas Prep dinner. Winn, 4A All-State performer, was one of 22 players from six classifications to be honored for their offensive production this past season.
Receiver Treylon Burks of Warren was the only other 4A athlete selected for the offensive honors. Three 4A athletes (Zach Williams, Robinson; Ladrious Bishop, Ashdown; and Victor Tademy, Arkadelphia) were honored among the 22 defensive honorees.
Winn was a part of a vanguard of very talented athletes who helped turn a moribund football program into one of the state's elite programs. Pea Ridge was the only school to have reached the 4A state playoff semifinals in each of the past three years, playing in the championship game in 2016.
A recent signee with Pittsburg State University in Kansas, Winn will be taking his talents to one of the best mid-major football programs in the United States with many trips to Division II playoff games. He will join former Blackhawk teammate Britton Caudill who was on the Gorillas roster this past fall in Pittsburg.
The eldest Winn brother, Dayton Winn, a former Blackhawk and former NCAA All-American running back for Hendrix University, will be headed back to Denmark soon for his second season playing for the Copenhagen Towers. Winn was the MVP for the champion Towers in their European football league last fall.
The speaker headlining the Little Rock event was former Olympic track and field champion Jackie Joyner Kersee. The last time I saw Jackie Joyner personally was when she was a 12-year long jumper competing for the East St. Louis Railers. I was running a long jump competition at an AAU track and field in Poplar Bluff, Mo., when this skinny kid began besting the competition by three or four feet. She was leaping close to 16 feet at the time. She went on to have a storied Olympic athletic career and has embarked on a successful mentoring and speaking career.
Two diamond athletes chosen all-state
One baseball player and one softball player were honored with an inclusion to the 4A All-State teams.
Tyler Odell was selected for the All-State team for baseball with Stephanie Chase getting the nod for softball All-State honors. In addition, Chase has been named to the Arkansas All-Star West Squad for the annual all-star sports competition in July.
Chase was chosen from graduating seniors of all seven classifications across the state. She may be the first Pea Ridge player to be named for this honor.
Hogs barbecue Longhorns to open NCAA World Series
The nationally fifth-ranked Razorback baseball team beat down former baseball super power Texas 11-5 in the first round of the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
The Hogs scored in the first inning to to go up 1-0 but Texas tied the score at 1-1 in the third. The Longhorns went up 2-1 in the top of the fifth but a two-run homer in the bottom of the same inning by Luke Bonfield sent the Hogs on top 3-2 and the 'Horns were left in the dust when Arkansas scored 8 in the sixth to jump ahead 11-2. Bonfield's homer was the team's 95th long ball this season, an all-time Razorback team record.
The Hogs were to play the winner of the Florida-Texas Tech game Tuesday night in the second round. Should the Razorbacks have won, they will play again this Friday, facing the survivor of Texas/Florida/Texas Tech. Had they lost, they would drop into the losers' bracket in the double elimination bracket play, playing Thursday with the winner of that game playing the winner of Tuesday night's game.
If the Hogs won Tuesday and win Friday, they move into the final three-game series with the winner of the other bracket. North Carolina and Mississippi State won their opening games against Oregon State and Washington. The winner of the best two of three will be the 2018 NCAA baseball champion. The final series will start at Ameritrade Park in Omaha on June 25.
The University of Arkansas has never won a World Series title but perhaps this is their year to do it. They have the pitching, and they sure have the hitting to get the job done.
It's siesta time
If you drive by the Blackhawk athletic facilities and you notice not much going on, it is because we are now into "dead week" -- a two-week time prescribed by the Arkansas Activities Association to prevent any athletic meetings, practices or events from taking place. This policy was put into place to give athletes across the state some time off from their sporting careers.
Sure enough, there have been some athletic programs in the state that were requiring their students be present nearly the whole of their summer break, messing with family vacations and just some off time. The rule was put into place to force schools to allow their charges at least a little breathing room.
I have noticed that there are a whale of a lot of sports camps operating during this two-week time and I suppose there are kids who don't want time off from their athletic endeavors.
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Editor's note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, sports writer and art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 06/20/2018