By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The days of coaches boasting about how their team should have the advantage are over.
The case of Vilonia coach Jim Stanley and Sylvan Hills coach Jim Withrow is proof of that as the two prepare their respective teams for the season opener at War Memorial Stadium on Tuesday night.
The Eagles defeated the Bears handily in last year’s opener 42-14 in a game that saw Sylvan Hills hang in there for a half before Vilonia took control late.
“We got to watch their blue-white game,” Stanley said. “They’re big. They’re bigger, faster – a lot better than they were last year.
“We’ve got a long way to go. We’re missing assignments, just still have a lot of improving to do. We have a couple of returning starters, the rest are sophomores and juniors,” Stanley said.
One of those returning starters for Vilonia is four-star senior running back James Sax. Sax, at 6-1, 212 pounds with a 40-yard dash time of 4.53, is one of the most heavily recruited backs in the state. Sax did not have his way against the Bears last year, but did contribute with an early 27-yard touchdown run.
“I don’t know that you stop him. You just have to see if you can slow him down some,” Withrow said. “You have to know where he is at all times, and you have to make sure you tackle him when you get to him. If he starts breaking tackles, it could be a bad night for us.”
As impressed as Stanley was with Sylvan Hills during its scrimmage, Withrow thought the same of the Eagles in their scrimmage against Marion.
“We watched their scrimmage,” Withrow said. “They looked like a good, hard-nosed football team. James Sax is a stud, and the quarterback did a good job leading the offense.”
Although realistically the two teams have many of the same obstacles to overcome in terms of inexperience and depth, Stanley sees Withrow’s group as having a leg up heading into Tuesday.
“Last year, we were a pretty experienced team,” Stanley said. “That was a good ball team. It’s kind of like a reversal of roles this year. This year, he’s got the experienced team. They’re big and they’re fast, and that’s a scary thing in football.”
Withrow is not as confident as Stanley thinks he should be, but he does like his team’s chances a little better than last year.
“To an extent,” Withrow said. “We don’t have as many guys who never played in a football game like we did last year. Last year, it was almost like we had to piece together a team. Yeah, we’re still young this year, but we’re laying the foundation for success down the road.”
The Eagles beat Marion 27-23 in their scrimmage Tuesday, but Stanley saw plenty of things that made him nervous.
“We’re still trying to get guys lined up in the right spot,” he said. “I mean, there are plenty of things for us to improve on. When we looked at the film and graded everybody out, we realized how far we’ve got to go. I was proud of them in our scrimmage. We have about five or six sophomores starting, and they played hard against a good, quality team.”
The Bears started several seniors last year, but most of them had seen little playing time prior to the start of the season.
“I think we had that false sense of having a few more seniors last year,” Withrow said. “A lot of people felt like we started a bunch of new people last year, and just assumed we would have them back this year. But that’s not the case. The kids we have now, we can build something with. They’re good athletes.”
