The budget deficit is exploding, unemployment is rising, violence in Iraq and Afghanistan is climbing, school test scores continue to lag, and Bob Johnson says he may run for the United States Senate. Will the bad news never cease?
A Republican blog leaked the word last week that “Death Star Bob Johnson,” as the Arkansas Times calls the state senator from Bigelow, was thinking about running against Senator Blanche Lincoln for the Democratic nomination next year. Yes, he confirmed, all kinds of people are encouraging him to run and he may have to give in. He thought people would like to have a Democratic senator who would kick the traces of the party’s leaders, in her and his case Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader.
Hardly any Democrat follows the party’s leadership less often than Blanche Lincoln, unless it is Mark Pryor. A real alternative would be someone who votes with the Republican leadership all the time. There will be plenty of them running. We suspect that most people, regardless of their political allegiance, would take a real Republican over a faux Republican. Something there is to be said for the straightforward honesty of identifying yourself with the ideas and the party with which you have concert.
If running against Lincoln from the right in the Democratic primary does not seem awkward and unproductive, Bob Johnson is burdened by his record in the state Senate and House of Representatives. People may remember him for leading the battle in the legislature four years ago to allow Deltic Timber to clear the hillsides around Lake Maumelle for luxury estates, which would risk polluting the pristine waters that provide drinking water for most of us in central Arkansas. Johnson is the master of power building and logrolling in the legislature, but for one of the few times he was bested in that effort by his successor as speaker of the House of Representatives, Bill Stovall of Quitman. Johnson tried to make amends to the clean-water people (that is, most of us) this year, but it is hard to forget what were his first instincts.
Johnson organized what became known as “The Brotherhood,” a consortium of conservative senators from both parties who controlled the Senate and directed tens of millions of dollars in state appropriations into political projects that helped legislators get re-elected. How he did it happened to be illegal. Mike Wilson of Jacksonville sued, saying that the earmarks violated the constitutional prohibition against local and special acts, and the Arkansas Supreme Court said he was right.
But the cronyism did not reach its pinnacle until this summer. Johnson helped ramrod the lottery-enabling bill through the legislature and installed his mentor, Ray Thornton, as a member of the Lottery Commission and then as its chairman. Johnson had his aide find an expert to tell them how to run a lottery right and she landed Ernie Passailaigue of South Carolina, now the $324,000-a-year director of the lottery. When the fat salaries began to be handed out to the right people for sinecures on the lottery team, Johnson and Thornton pronounced them fine.
The best that can be said about Johnson’s credentials as a Democrat is that as speaker of the Arkansas House, he gave Governor Mike Huckabee fits. That ought not be enough. Huckabee was right on occasion.
Johnson called himself a “Harry Truman Democrat.” Everybody in America, conservative or liberal, eventually became an admirer of Harry S. Truman, so it is hard to know what that means to Bob Johnson. Even Republicans invoke Truman’s name at their quad- rennial presidential conventions. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush claimed his mantle.
Truman bucked the prevailing passions of the time and called for a national health-care system for every American, full civil rights for African-Americans and a massive American aid program to rebuild war-ravaged Europe. He fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the conservative icon who wanted a wider war with the communists. Truman fought for greater protections for workers to organize unions and to strike, and he vetoed the anti-labor amendments that unions now seek to change with the so-called card-check bill. Congress had to pass Taft Hartley over Truman’s veto. He promised to win back workers’ organizing rights, but a conservative Congress never let him.
Is that the Truman Democrat that Senator Bob Johnson would be? The Stephens financial interests, who are his big backers, and the other people who are after him to run for the Senate, do not have that in mind. We are sure that Johnson doesn’t either.
But if he does, he ought to let everyone know up front. We could reassess Bob Johnson. We are not holding our breath.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
TOP STORY >> Elderly find comfort at area centers
By SCOTT LOFTIS
Special to The Leader
August in Arkansas means the heat is on, and temperatures that can be an aggravation for some local residents can be a real danger for others – especially the elderly.
Many local seniors live on fixed incomes and can’t afford to run their air conditioners during the hot summer months. One alternative for some of those residents is the Jacksonville Senior Center.
Center director Christy McMillion said it’s not uncommon for seniors to spend the entire day at the facility.
“I have a couple of them I know that are here before I get here in the morning and stay until we have to ask them to leave,” McMillion said. “Some of them go to other businesses in town and wait for it to cool off.”
McMillion said the center has seen an increase in registration.
“We’ve had 10 people sign up this week,” she said. “I’m not necessarily saying it’s because of the hot weather but we have had more people coming in.”
In the past, McMillion said the center has provided fans to seniors who couldn’t afford to use their air conditioners. But she said donations of fans have dropped dramatically, from a truckload in 2007 to none this year.
“We haven’t received any this year,” she said. “In the past we’ve had people contact us about donating fans but this year we haven’t.”
McMillion said employees of the center are working with some of the seniors to improve their housing situations, but the center doesn’t have enough funding to assist with high utility bills.
The center did receive $15,000 in federal stimulus funding, McMillion said, but the bulk of that was specifically earmarked for meals that are served in the center.
The number of meals that the center serves both in-house and through its Meals on Wheels delivery program also is on the rise, McMillion said.
“We had a record month in July,” she said. “We served a little more than 1,000 meals inside the center.”
Including the home-delivered meals, McMillion said, the total was more than 4,000 in July.
“We have 180 people on home-delivered meals,” she said.
That program relies heavily on a crew of 60 to 70 volunteers, McMillion said.
The senior citizen centers in Cabot and Beebe had no increase in the number of clients served due to heat.
Sharon Anderson, director of the Lonoke County Council on Aging which runs the center in Cabot, said the temperatures have not been hot enough this year to open the center as a cooling station.
“We had a little hot stretch in June but it was cooler in July,” Anderson said. “I don’t think we ever reached triple digits.”
Last year was a different story though. The hot temperatures came late in the year, she said, and by the time she needed to ask for donations of air conditioners, they were all gone. Wal-Mart in Lonoke sent a few fans instead.
Karen Alcott, director of the Beebe Senior Center, which is open from 8:30 a.m. to noon, said the center serves lunch to up to 16 area residents and those numbers
have not increased this summer.
Leader staff writer Joan McCoy contributed to this report.
Special to The Leader
August in Arkansas means the heat is on, and temperatures that can be an aggravation for some local residents can be a real danger for others – especially the elderly.
Many local seniors live on fixed incomes and can’t afford to run their air conditioners during the hot summer months. One alternative for some of those residents is the Jacksonville Senior Center.
Center director Christy McMillion said it’s not uncommon for seniors to spend the entire day at the facility.
“I have a couple of them I know that are here before I get here in the morning and stay until we have to ask them to leave,” McMillion said. “Some of them go to other businesses in town and wait for it to cool off.”
McMillion said the center has seen an increase in registration.
“We’ve had 10 people sign up this week,” she said. “I’m not necessarily saying it’s because of the hot weather but we have had more people coming in.”
In the past, McMillion said the center has provided fans to seniors who couldn’t afford to use their air conditioners. But she said donations of fans have dropped dramatically, from a truckload in 2007 to none this year.
“We haven’t received any this year,” she said. “In the past we’ve had people contact us about donating fans but this year we haven’t.”
McMillion said employees of the center are working with some of the seniors to improve their housing situations, but the center doesn’t have enough funding to assist with high utility bills.
The center did receive $15,000 in federal stimulus funding, McMillion said, but the bulk of that was specifically earmarked for meals that are served in the center.
The number of meals that the center serves both in-house and through its Meals on Wheels delivery program also is on the rise, McMillion said.
“We had a record month in July,” she said. “We served a little more than 1,000 meals inside the center.”
Including the home-delivered meals, McMillion said, the total was more than 4,000 in July.
“We have 180 people on home-delivered meals,” she said.
That program relies heavily on a crew of 60 to 70 volunteers, McMillion said.
The senior citizen centers in Cabot and Beebe had no increase in the number of clients served due to heat.
Sharon Anderson, director of the Lonoke County Council on Aging which runs the center in Cabot, said the temperatures have not been hot enough this year to open the center as a cooling station.
“We had a little hot stretch in June but it was cooler in July,” Anderson said. “I don’t think we ever reached triple digits.”
Last year was a different story though. The hot temperatures came late in the year, she said, and by the time she needed to ask for donations of air conditioners, they were all gone. Wal-Mart in Lonoke sent a few fans instead.
Karen Alcott, director of the Beebe Senior Center, which is open from 8:30 a.m. to noon, said the center serves lunch to up to 16 area residents and those numbers
have not increased this summer.
Leader staff writer Joan McCoy contributed to this report.
TOP STORY >> Junior auxiliaries help students
By JEFFREY SMITH
Leader staff writer
The Jacksonville Junior Auxiliary and the Junior Auxiliary of Cabot made sure needy school children were prepared for the first day of school with free backpacks and supplies.
A Backpack Blast-off was held by the Jacksonville Junior Auxiliary on Aug. 8 at the Jacksonville Boys and Girls Club. The auxiliary gave out 220 backpacks to students from kindergarten to 12th grade. The backpacks contained paper, pencils, crayons, glue, folders, scissors, markers and tablets.
Along with the backpack giveaway, dentists with Central Arkansas Dental Associates provided free dental screenings.
Auxiliary president Lindsey Beavers said, “We had a very good turnout. We had 10 to 15 backpacks left over that were given to the boys and girls club to be distributed as needed.”
Beavers said the Jacksonville auxiliary will continue to help children during the school year by providing Walmart gift cards to school counselors to use if a student is in need of clothing, shoes, school supplies or a coat.
During the Christmas season, the Jacksonville auxiliary assists students in the Jacksonville area through its Christmas Wish program. The auxiliary along with residents and businesses provide Christmas gifts to 10 needy children at each of the eight elementary schools and at the Lighthouse Academy charter school.
Another way the auxiliary is assisting needy students is through a scholarship program.
Beavers said the auxiliary has scholarships available for two girls in their junior year of high school, one for a Jacksonville High School student and the other for a North Pulaski High School student.
The scholarship recipients receive $500 their junior year and $500 their senior year. The funds are used to cover their senior year expenses such as college entrance-exam testing, a class ring, cap and gown and graduation invitations.
To raise funds for their projects, the junior auxiliary has a boxed-lunch program in which members sell boxed lunches four times a year to local businesses, chamber of commerce members and others within the community.
The Junior Auxiliary of Cabot has been assisting students of low-income families for several years. One such program is the Backpack Brigade. The program provides backpacks for students in need at all the schools in the Cabot School District.
Kristi Johnson, Ward Central Elementary School counselor, said the Junior Auxiliary of Cabot has had a long-term partnership with the school and members can be counted on to help students who need it.
“They are always helpful. Whenever we have a special need, they go out of their way to help,” Johnson said.
Cabot auxiliary president Natalie Berry said, “There are so many children in our community in need. We are fortunate enough to provide help.”
Johnson added, “About two weeks before school starts, I began receiving phone calls asking for help with supplies, backpacks or both.
“The parents in the community are very appreciative of the help. When things are looking up for them, they turn around and help others,” Johnson said.
Along with new backpacks for the new school year, the auxiliary provided each elementary school in the district with five head lice removal kits.
Berry said, “The lice kits are very expensive, especially for the families that are already in need of financial support. There are many people who will send their children to school with lice or who do not know how to check for lice.
“When there is a lice outbreak in a school and a child is sent home, it is the parents’ responsibility to buy the medicine and make sure the child, house and everything in their home is treated and lice-free before the child can return to school. This puts a huge burden on an already depressed situation,” Berry explained.
Members of the Junior Auxiliary of Cabot were required to provide one lice kit during their July meeting.
Usually during the July meeting, members bring new socks or underwear for youngsters. The auxiliary required members to purchase lice kits because they had a surplus of clothing this year. Berry said they had to do something because last year there was a great need for the kits during the school year.
To raise funding for their projects, the auxiliary holds a bunko bash in the fall, the Cabotfest Pageant and Strawberry Festival.
The Junior Auxiliary also has a cookbook for sale.
The Junior Auxiliary of Cabot has several projects towards assisting students in the Cabot School District. Christmas Blessing helps to provide gifts to children in need within the Cabot School District with help from the community.
Another project is the Glass Slipper program, which provides prom attire to Cabot students who need the help. Another program provided by the auxiliary is crystal-meth awareness classes for 10th graders. Auxiliary members show a presentation on the dangers and the effects of methamphetamine during science classes.
At the elementary school level, the auxiliary has a Reading First program, where members read to first-grade students. As part of the program, the students are given books of their own to take home.
For second-grade students, the auxiliary provides free dental screening with the help of local dentists.
Leader staff writer
The Jacksonville Junior Auxiliary and the Junior Auxiliary of Cabot made sure needy school children were prepared for the first day of school with free backpacks and supplies.
A Backpack Blast-off was held by the Jacksonville Junior Auxiliary on Aug. 8 at the Jacksonville Boys and Girls Club. The auxiliary gave out 220 backpacks to students from kindergarten to 12th grade. The backpacks contained paper, pencils, crayons, glue, folders, scissors, markers and tablets.
Along with the backpack giveaway, dentists with Central Arkansas Dental Associates provided free dental screenings.
Auxiliary president Lindsey Beavers said, “We had a very good turnout. We had 10 to 15 backpacks left over that were given to the boys and girls club to be distributed as needed.”
Beavers said the Jacksonville auxiliary will continue to help children during the school year by providing Walmart gift cards to school counselors to use if a student is in need of clothing, shoes, school supplies or a coat.
During the Christmas season, the Jacksonville auxiliary assists students in the Jacksonville area through its Christmas Wish program. The auxiliary along with residents and businesses provide Christmas gifts to 10 needy children at each of the eight elementary schools and at the Lighthouse Academy charter school.
Another way the auxiliary is assisting needy students is through a scholarship program.
Beavers said the auxiliary has scholarships available for two girls in their junior year of high school, one for a Jacksonville High School student and the other for a North Pulaski High School student.
The scholarship recipients receive $500 their junior year and $500 their senior year. The funds are used to cover their senior year expenses such as college entrance-exam testing, a class ring, cap and gown and graduation invitations.
To raise funds for their projects, the junior auxiliary has a boxed-lunch program in which members sell boxed lunches four times a year to local businesses, chamber of commerce members and others within the community.
The Junior Auxiliary of Cabot has been assisting students of low-income families for several years. One such program is the Backpack Brigade. The program provides backpacks for students in need at all the schools in the Cabot School District.
Kristi Johnson, Ward Central Elementary School counselor, said the Junior Auxiliary of Cabot has had a long-term partnership with the school and members can be counted on to help students who need it.
“They are always helpful. Whenever we have a special need, they go out of their way to help,” Johnson said.
Cabot auxiliary president Natalie Berry said, “There are so many children in our community in need. We are fortunate enough to provide help.”
Johnson added, “About two weeks before school starts, I began receiving phone calls asking for help with supplies, backpacks or both.
“The parents in the community are very appreciative of the help. When things are looking up for them, they turn around and help others,” Johnson said.
Along with new backpacks for the new school year, the auxiliary provided each elementary school in the district with five head lice removal kits.
Berry said, “The lice kits are very expensive, especially for the families that are already in need of financial support. There are many people who will send their children to school with lice or who do not know how to check for lice.
“When there is a lice outbreak in a school and a child is sent home, it is the parents’ responsibility to buy the medicine and make sure the child, house and everything in their home is treated and lice-free before the child can return to school. This puts a huge burden on an already depressed situation,” Berry explained.
Members of the Junior Auxiliary of Cabot were required to provide one lice kit during their July meeting.
Usually during the July meeting, members bring new socks or underwear for youngsters. The auxiliary required members to purchase lice kits because they had a surplus of clothing this year. Berry said they had to do something because last year there was a great need for the kits during the school year.
To raise funding for their projects, the auxiliary holds a bunko bash in the fall, the Cabotfest Pageant and Strawberry Festival.
The Junior Auxiliary also has a cookbook for sale.
The Junior Auxiliary of Cabot has several projects towards assisting students in the Cabot School District. Christmas Blessing helps to provide gifts to children in need within the Cabot School District with help from the community.
Another project is the Glass Slipper program, which provides prom attire to Cabot students who need the help. Another program provided by the auxiliary is crystal-meth awareness classes for 10th graders. Auxiliary members show a presentation on the dangers and the effects of methamphetamine during science classes.
At the elementary school level, the auxiliary has a Reading First program, where members read to first-grade students. As part of the program, the students are given books of their own to take home.
For second-grade students, the auxiliary provides free dental screening with the help of local dentists.
TOP STORY >> Mixed report card
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
The Pulaski County Special School District has received an overall C- and a D in math for the 2007-2008 school year from the Arkansas Policy Foundation.
The foundation, which looks at districts’ test scores statewide, gave Searcy all A’s, Cabot and Beebe all B’s and Lonoke all C’s.
PCSSD has fallen slightly since the 2004-2005 school year, the first time the state group ranked the school district. It received straight C’s across the board then.
The foundation grades districts in math and reading and then gives an adjusted overall grade.
The grades are based on student performance on national exams at the first- and ninth-grade levels. Through a formula, the test score averages are converted to a grade- point average between zero and four and then the district is given the corresponding letter grade.
In the latest study, 16 other school districts besides Searcy received either an overall A or A-. Nine districts received an overall F.
Searcy has continued to do well. In the first year of this type of analysis, the district received a B in reading, an A in math and an A- overall. In the latest study, the district had A’s in all three categories. It was one of nine districts in the state to get an overall A.
Cabot had a B in reading and math and a B- overall in the 2004-2005 study. In the 2007-2008 study, Cabot had B’s across the board. It was one of 33 districts to get an overall B.
Beebe had mixed results in the first study with a C in reading, an A in math and a B overall. In the latest ranking, Beebe had B’s in every category.
Lonoke has remained consistent with C’s in all areas in the first study and the same in the latest ranking. Lonoke was one of 58 districts to get an overall C.
PCSSD also had C’s in every area in the 2004-2005 study, but in the latest analysis scored a D in math, a C in reading and a
C- overall. The district was one of 25 districts to receive a C-.
The study also showed a relationship between the percent of single-parent families, students on free or reduced lunch, and parents’ education and the district’s grade. There was also a correlation between teacher pay and grades.
The more students on free or reduced lunch, in other words, low-income status, the worse the grade was for the district.
Districts receiving an A averaged 48 percent of their students on free or reduced lunch, while districts receiving an F were at 95 percent.
Again, in districts with the higher grades, there were fewer single-parent households. Districts with A’s had about 10 percent single-parent families compared to 19 percent in districts receiving F’s.
About 87 percent of parents in the top districts had a high school education compared with 68 percent in the failing districts.
In districts receiving A’s, 23 percent of the parents had a four-year college degree compared to 10 percent in the failing districts.
Also, in most cases, the higher the teacher pay, the better the districts’ scores. In districts receiving A’s, the average teacher pay was $47,980, but in failing districts, the average pay was $42,201. However, the most underpaid teachers, at $39,035, worked in districts receiving an overall D+.
Arkansas Policy Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that analyzes the impact of public policy on Arkansas and makes recommendations.
The foundation emphasizes the importance of tax policy and education reform.
In the arena of education reform, the group, according to its Web site, seeks intellectual honesty and complete openness in reporting the lack of academic progress in Arkansas’ school system.
Leader staff writer
The Pulaski County Special School District has received an overall C- and a D in math for the 2007-2008 school year from the Arkansas Policy Foundation.
The foundation, which looks at districts’ test scores statewide, gave Searcy all A’s, Cabot and Beebe all B’s and Lonoke all C’s.
PCSSD has fallen slightly since the 2004-2005 school year, the first time the state group ranked the school district. It received straight C’s across the board then.
The foundation grades districts in math and reading and then gives an adjusted overall grade.
The grades are based on student performance on national exams at the first- and ninth-grade levels. Through a formula, the test score averages are converted to a grade- point average between zero and four and then the district is given the corresponding letter grade.
In the latest study, 16 other school districts besides Searcy received either an overall A or A-. Nine districts received an overall F.
Searcy has continued to do well. In the first year of this type of analysis, the district received a B in reading, an A in math and an A- overall. In the latest study, the district had A’s in all three categories. It was one of nine districts in the state to get an overall A.
Cabot had a B in reading and math and a B- overall in the 2004-2005 study. In the 2007-2008 study, Cabot had B’s across the board. It was one of 33 districts to get an overall B.
Beebe had mixed results in the first study with a C in reading, an A in math and a B overall. In the latest ranking, Beebe had B’s in every category.
Lonoke has remained consistent with C’s in all areas in the first study and the same in the latest ranking. Lonoke was one of 58 districts to get an overall C.
PCSSD also had C’s in every area in the 2004-2005 study, but in the latest analysis scored a D in math, a C in reading and a
C- overall. The district was one of 25 districts to receive a C-.
The study also showed a relationship between the percent of single-parent families, students on free or reduced lunch, and parents’ education and the district’s grade. There was also a correlation between teacher pay and grades.
The more students on free or reduced lunch, in other words, low-income status, the worse the grade was for the district.
Districts receiving an A averaged 48 percent of their students on free or reduced lunch, while districts receiving an F were at 95 percent.
Again, in districts with the higher grades, there were fewer single-parent households. Districts with A’s had about 10 percent single-parent families compared to 19 percent in districts receiving F’s.
About 87 percent of parents in the top districts had a high school education compared with 68 percent in the failing districts.
In districts receiving A’s, 23 percent of the parents had a four-year college degree compared to 10 percent in the failing districts.
Also, in most cases, the higher the teacher pay, the better the districts’ scores. In districts receiving A’s, the average teacher pay was $47,980, but in failing districts, the average pay was $42,201. However, the most underpaid teachers, at $39,035, worked in districts receiving an overall D+.
Arkansas Policy Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that analyzes the impact of public policy on Arkansas and makes recommendations.
The foundation emphasizes the importance of tax policy and education reform.
In the arena of education reform, the group, according to its Web site, seeks intellectual honesty and complete openness in reporting the lack of academic progress in Arkansas’ school system.
SPORTS >> A new coach gets first look at new team
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The Rick Russell era of North Pulaski football began with a pair of hard-fought scrimmages against Greenbrier and Pulaski Robinson, and ended with a scary arm injury to sophomore running back Derrick Hart.
“There’s some things to build on,” said Russell, a long-time defensive coordinator at Jacksonville High who took over for Tony Bohannon in the spring. “There are things we will have to correct, but overall I thought it was a good night for us. After we watch the film, we will have more positives and negatives to address.”
The Falcons trailed 6-0 late in the scrimmage against Robinson when linebacker Vinnie Osmun recovered a Senator fumble.
Hart gave the Falcons a spark, breaking for an eight-yard run, followed by a 12-yard run on a pitch left. They called his number again, but on an off-tackle run, Hart’s right arm made contact with a Robinson player’s face. The game was called with just over a minute left, and Hart was taken to a nearby hospital, where he had 25 stitches put in just below his elbow. He is expected to be out for at least two weeks.
“That was a very scary situation,” said Russell. “It could have been a lot worse. You always worry about exposing the joint or infection, but Children’s Hospital did a good job of getting that young man patched up.” Hart returned to school the following day on Tuesday.
The Falcons moved the ball well in their first scrimmage against Greenbrier, picking up 172 yards. But the Falcons were able to turn that into only one score on a 62-yard sprint down the right sideline by Darrius Washington.
Washington also had big plays on the defensive side. The Panthers moved the ball methodically out of the spread, going on a 14-play drive starting at their own 30 on their first possession, but Washington pulled down an interception in the end zone to stop the threat. A fumble gave the ball right back to Greenbrier, which then scored on a halfback draw from 22 yards out.
Junior Billy Barron had four runs for 20 yards from his fullback position, but it was the defensive side where he came up big.
Barron had eight tackles including two for no gain.
“He’s an aggressive young man, and he likes to make contact,” said Russell. “For a big fellow, he moves well. I was proud of what Billy did.”
The Panthers added two scores in the second half on passes of 53 yards and 16 yards. The 16-yard strike came in the final two minutes on fourth and 11.
The Falcons found moving the ball more difficult against Robinson’s physical defense. Penalties and high snaps also counted against them, as North Pulaski finished with 57 yards of offense.
Robinson scored the only touchdown of the second scrimmage on its first drive of the second half. The Senators went 72 yards on 10 plays, and eventually punched it in from one-yard out.
Sophomore quarterback Shyheim Barron displayed maturity on the field. He went 6 of 7 passing for 35 yards, and fell on a pair of snap miscues to avoid turnovers. His biggest play of the night, however, was early in the first scrimmage when he broke free for a 26-yard keeper.
“He got a lot of game-time experience,” said Russell. “You improve the most from your first game to your second game, and he was able to get a lot of reps out there.”
Senior Marshall Shipley saw time under center near the end of each scrimmage.
Darius Cage made a pair of stops in the first scrimmage against Greenbrier, while sophomore Nick Dunn turned in a solid defensive effort against Robinson.
Russell said he was also pleased with the effort from senior receiver/cornerback Arlando Hicks, who had five receptions for 32 yards and broke up a pass in the end zone against Greenbrier.
Leader sportswriter
The Rick Russell era of North Pulaski football began with a pair of hard-fought scrimmages against Greenbrier and Pulaski Robinson, and ended with a scary arm injury to sophomore running back Derrick Hart.
“There’s some things to build on,” said Russell, a long-time defensive coordinator at Jacksonville High who took over for Tony Bohannon in the spring. “There are things we will have to correct, but overall I thought it was a good night for us. After we watch the film, we will have more positives and negatives to address.”
The Falcons trailed 6-0 late in the scrimmage against Robinson when linebacker Vinnie Osmun recovered a Senator fumble.
Hart gave the Falcons a spark, breaking for an eight-yard run, followed by a 12-yard run on a pitch left. They called his number again, but on an off-tackle run, Hart’s right arm made contact with a Robinson player’s face. The game was called with just over a minute left, and Hart was taken to a nearby hospital, where he had 25 stitches put in just below his elbow. He is expected to be out for at least two weeks.
“That was a very scary situation,” said Russell. “It could have been a lot worse. You always worry about exposing the joint or infection, but Children’s Hospital did a good job of getting that young man patched up.” Hart returned to school the following day on Tuesday.
The Falcons moved the ball well in their first scrimmage against Greenbrier, picking up 172 yards. But the Falcons were able to turn that into only one score on a 62-yard sprint down the right sideline by Darrius Washington.
Washington also had big plays on the defensive side. The Panthers moved the ball methodically out of the spread, going on a 14-play drive starting at their own 30 on their first possession, but Washington pulled down an interception in the end zone to stop the threat. A fumble gave the ball right back to Greenbrier, which then scored on a halfback draw from 22 yards out.
Junior Billy Barron had four runs for 20 yards from his fullback position, but it was the defensive side where he came up big.
Barron had eight tackles including two for no gain.
“He’s an aggressive young man, and he likes to make contact,” said Russell. “For a big fellow, he moves well. I was proud of what Billy did.”
The Panthers added two scores in the second half on passes of 53 yards and 16 yards. The 16-yard strike came in the final two minutes on fourth and 11.
The Falcons found moving the ball more difficult against Robinson’s physical defense. Penalties and high snaps also counted against them, as North Pulaski finished with 57 yards of offense.
Robinson scored the only touchdown of the second scrimmage on its first drive of the second half. The Senators went 72 yards on 10 plays, and eventually punched it in from one-yard out.
Sophomore quarterback Shyheim Barron displayed maturity on the field. He went 6 of 7 passing for 35 yards, and fell on a pair of snap miscues to avoid turnovers. His biggest play of the night, however, was early in the first scrimmage when he broke free for a 26-yard keeper.
“He got a lot of game-time experience,” said Russell. “You improve the most from your first game to your second game, and he was able to get a lot of reps out there.”
Senior Marshall Shipley saw time under center near the end of each scrimmage.
Darius Cage made a pair of stops in the first scrimmage against Greenbrier, while sophomore Nick Dunn turned in a solid defensive effort against Robinson.
Russell said he was also pleased with the effort from senior receiver/cornerback Arlando Hicks, who had five receptions for 32 yards and broke up a pass in the end zone against Greenbrier.
SPORTS >> Rivalry week kicks off with a few laughs
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sportswriter
It was a tailgate party coaches and players could actually attend.
With just over a week to go before the season-opening, “Backyard Brawl” between Cabot and Jacksonville, key figures from both teams gathered Monday for a cookout and press conference hosted by sponsor First Arkansas Bank and Trust in Cabot.
As Arkansas’ first televised high school football game, “The Backyard Brawl,” which takes place Tuesday at Cabot’s Panther Stadium, is guaranteed to make history, and history was on Cabot coach Mike Malham’s mind as he discussed the long-time rivalry with the Red Devils.
“It has swung both ways,” Malham said, noting the population shifts that have allowed Cabot to overtake Jacksonville in size and force the schools, who once played in the same conference, into different athletic classifications.
Cabot will play another year in the 7A-Central Conference and Jacksonville is in the smaller, 6A-East. However, the schools are slated to reunite after a round of reclassification next year.
In his press conference remarks, Malham recalled how Cabot and Jacksonville used to meet in the last week of the season when both played in the 5A-East during the 1990s.
“It always came down to Jacksonville and Cabot,” Malham said. “Half those games were for all the marbles.”
Cabot won the first Backyard Brawl 41-15 at Jacksonville’s Jan Crow Stadium last year, and Jacksonville Coach Mark Whatley doesn’t expect things to get easier on Cabot’s home turf.
“It’s always a tough battle when you come over here and play the University of Cabot,” Whatley said jokingly of Cabot’s size and modernized facilities. “But we’re excited about coming over and playing in a lovely place and playing on a lovely field with lovely fans. We’ll bring our lovely fans and our football team and we’ll get it on.”
Malham, who has been at Cabot since 1981, was a Jacksonville assistant when Whatley was a senior player for the Red Devils in the 1970s. The two recalled beating Cabot during that era, something only Whatley wants to see happen Tuesday.
“We’d definitely like to take this thing back,” Whatley said glancing at the traveling trophy won by Cabot last year. “That’s what we’re coming over here to do.”
The Jacksonville contingent, which included Whatley, athletic director Jerry Wilson and players Doug Sprouse, Nick Nowden and Jacob Hicks, arrived first on Monday.
“We like to call it a friendly rivalry,” Wilson said. “When we’re not playing them we’re rooting for them.”
The Cabot group included Malham, athletic director Johnny White, quarterback Seth Bloomberg, linebacker Spencer Neumann and members of the cheer and dance teams. They arrived in the midst of all the red and white looking out of place in a green school van, and Malham joked about the paint job as he and the players, wearing their school color, red and white jerseys, got out.
“A green van for Cabot,” Malham said.
Bloomberg carried the traveling trophy, which is crowned with a football. That seemed fitting, since, as the quarterback, Bloomberg will be handling the ball almost every offensive play and is one of just two returning starters on offense.
“We would like to keep it here but there are no guarantees,” Malham said of the trophy.
Despite the new faces, Cabot is considered the favorite to repeat as the 7A-Central champion, but Malham said the proof would have to come on the field.
“We haven’t proved a thing yet,” he said.
Whatley is entering his fifth season at Jacksonville and noted, for the first time, the Red Devils have enough talent that players shouldn’t have to play both ways.
“That’s going to make a big difference, we hope,” Whatley said.
As for the hoopla surrounding the historic television broadcast — the game will air on KARZ-TV Channel 42 — Whatley said that should only liven things up more.
“It’s got to be a plus,” Whatley said. “A Cabot-Jacksonville game, there’s electricity every year. It’s just going to add to it.”
Leader sportswriter
It was a tailgate party coaches and players could actually attend.
With just over a week to go before the season-opening, “Backyard Brawl” between Cabot and Jacksonville, key figures from both teams gathered Monday for a cookout and press conference hosted by sponsor First Arkansas Bank and Trust in Cabot.
As Arkansas’ first televised high school football game, “The Backyard Brawl,” which takes place Tuesday at Cabot’s Panther Stadium, is guaranteed to make history, and history was on Cabot coach Mike Malham’s mind as he discussed the long-time rivalry with the Red Devils.
“It has swung both ways,” Malham said, noting the population shifts that have allowed Cabot to overtake Jacksonville in size and force the schools, who once played in the same conference, into different athletic classifications.
Cabot will play another year in the 7A-Central Conference and Jacksonville is in the smaller, 6A-East. However, the schools are slated to reunite after a round of reclassification next year.
In his press conference remarks, Malham recalled how Cabot and Jacksonville used to meet in the last week of the season when both played in the 5A-East during the 1990s.
“It always came down to Jacksonville and Cabot,” Malham said. “Half those games were for all the marbles.”
Cabot won the first Backyard Brawl 41-15 at Jacksonville’s Jan Crow Stadium last year, and Jacksonville Coach Mark Whatley doesn’t expect things to get easier on Cabot’s home turf.
“It’s always a tough battle when you come over here and play the University of Cabot,” Whatley said jokingly of Cabot’s size and modernized facilities. “But we’re excited about coming over and playing in a lovely place and playing on a lovely field with lovely fans. We’ll bring our lovely fans and our football team and we’ll get it on.”
Malham, who has been at Cabot since 1981, was a Jacksonville assistant when Whatley was a senior player for the Red Devils in the 1970s. The two recalled beating Cabot during that era, something only Whatley wants to see happen Tuesday.
“We’d definitely like to take this thing back,” Whatley said glancing at the traveling trophy won by Cabot last year. “That’s what we’re coming over here to do.”
The Jacksonville contingent, which included Whatley, athletic director Jerry Wilson and players Doug Sprouse, Nick Nowden and Jacob Hicks, arrived first on Monday.
“We like to call it a friendly rivalry,” Wilson said. “When we’re not playing them we’re rooting for them.”
The Cabot group included Malham, athletic director Johnny White, quarterback Seth Bloomberg, linebacker Spencer Neumann and members of the cheer and dance teams. They arrived in the midst of all the red and white looking out of place in a green school van, and Malham joked about the paint job as he and the players, wearing their school color, red and white jerseys, got out.
“A green van for Cabot,” Malham said.
Bloomberg carried the traveling trophy, which is crowned with a football. That seemed fitting, since, as the quarterback, Bloomberg will be handling the ball almost every offensive play and is one of just two returning starters on offense.
“We would like to keep it here but there are no guarantees,” Malham said of the trophy.
Despite the new faces, Cabot is considered the favorite to repeat as the 7A-Central champion, but Malham said the proof would have to come on the field.
“We haven’t proved a thing yet,” he said.
Whatley is entering his fifth season at Jacksonville and noted, for the first time, the Red Devils have enough talent that players shouldn’t have to play both ways.
“That’s going to make a big difference, we hope,” Whatley said.
As for the hoopla surrounding the historic television broadcast — the game will air on KARZ-TV Channel 42 — Whatley said that should only liven things up more.
“It’s got to be a plus,” Whatley said. “A Cabot-Jacksonville game, there’s electricity every year. It’s just going to add to it.”
SPORTS >> Coach gets just what he wants out of scrimmage
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sportswriter
Jacksonville stuck to coach Mark Whatley’s script in more ways than one Saturday.
Not only did the Red Devils accomplish the coach’s checklist of plays during the Red and White scrimmage at Jan Crow Stadium but, with a handful of key players injured, they also avoided further harm.
“If we all got out of that healthy, I got my goals met tonight,” Whatley said. “Those things, they scare you. It’s like I try to tell them ‘If you play hard, you won’t get hurt.’ We played hard tonight.”
Whatley was forced to hold out defensive tackle Reggie Crudup and linebacker Don Crutchfield. Both have knee injuries and Jacksonville is awaiting the results of the players’ MRIs.
The Red Devils were also without senior wide receiver/defensive back Devin Featherston, who could miss anywhere from two to eight weeks because of a high ankle sprain.
“We need to get everybody healthy and get back going in the right direction,” Whatley said.
Featherston’s absence Saturday may have been the most conspicuous, because he might be the only player on Whatley’s extensive roster who could see action on both sides of the ball.
“He allows us to stretch the field a little bit more than we could tonight,” Whatley said.
Even with the injuries, Whatley had enough players to pit his offensive starters against his defensive first team and to throw his second-string offense against his backup defense.
Whatley hopes the specialization pays dividends when the Red Devils open 6A-East Conference play at Mountain Home on Sept. 25.
“That’s the first time since I’ve been here we’ve been able to do that,” said Whatley, entering his fifth season. “That’s a plus.
That’s one of those things you fight back and forth with. Hopefully it’s going to pay off by conference time where we’re going one way and we learn from our mistakes and get better.”
On Saturday, the Red Devils played four segments in which the defense appeared for the most part to have the upper hand while the offense chipped in the occasional big play.
“We didn’t even keep chains. We scripted everything,” Whatley said. “There was no down and distance. … We stayed pretty basic. Very basic.”
The first segment ended when sophomore defensive back D’Vone McClure hit junior Jon Johnson and forced a fumble after a completion of more than 20 yards from junior quarterback Logan Perry. Senior linebacker Joey Gates had the fumble recovery.
The backups posted the first score when, in the second segment, sophomore quarterback Tirrell Brown hit McClure, who out- jumped a defender for the catch that he turned into a touchdown play of more than 40 yards.
The starters were on the field for the final two segments. Perry connected with Johnson for a 40-yard gain on a swing pass to end the third segment and account for the offense’s last big play of the night.
Gates opened the fourth segment by sacking Perry, then Kenny Cummings had an over-the-shoulder interception of Perry’s long attempt to Price Eubanks on the next play.
The only other offensive big play was the 20-yard completion from Brown to McClure that opened the second segment.
No other play gained more than 10 yards and the scrimmage ended with a three-yard carry by senior running back Doug Sprouse out of the wildcat formation.
“The biggest thing they did is they tackled a lot better than they have leading up to tonight,” Whatley said of his defense. “We felt like they could. Another good sign is you see that many people running to the football. They had a lot of hats around the football and that’s a good thing because we feel like we have a chance to be pretty good on that side.”
The offense gave up its one sack and Perry was hurried on a blitz in the first segment, but otherwise, Whatley said, the offensive highlight was the protection.
“I thought our offensive line held up pretty good,” Whatley said. “They did a pretty good job. We’ve got to space the field better.”
All in all, Whatley said, the scrimmage went just as it was drawn up.
“It kind of turned out kind of like we expected it to,” he said.
Leader sportswriter
Jacksonville stuck to coach Mark Whatley’s script in more ways than one Saturday.
Not only did the Red Devils accomplish the coach’s checklist of plays during the Red and White scrimmage at Jan Crow Stadium but, with a handful of key players injured, they also avoided further harm.
“If we all got out of that healthy, I got my goals met tonight,” Whatley said. “Those things, they scare you. It’s like I try to tell them ‘If you play hard, you won’t get hurt.’ We played hard tonight.”
Whatley was forced to hold out defensive tackle Reggie Crudup and linebacker Don Crutchfield. Both have knee injuries and Jacksonville is awaiting the results of the players’ MRIs.
The Red Devils were also without senior wide receiver/defensive back Devin Featherston, who could miss anywhere from two to eight weeks because of a high ankle sprain.
“We need to get everybody healthy and get back going in the right direction,” Whatley said.
Featherston’s absence Saturday may have been the most conspicuous, because he might be the only player on Whatley’s extensive roster who could see action on both sides of the ball.
“He allows us to stretch the field a little bit more than we could tonight,” Whatley said.
Even with the injuries, Whatley had enough players to pit his offensive starters against his defensive first team and to throw his second-string offense against his backup defense.
Whatley hopes the specialization pays dividends when the Red Devils open 6A-East Conference play at Mountain Home on Sept. 25.
“That’s the first time since I’ve been here we’ve been able to do that,” said Whatley, entering his fifth season. “That’s a plus.
That’s one of those things you fight back and forth with. Hopefully it’s going to pay off by conference time where we’re going one way and we learn from our mistakes and get better.”
On Saturday, the Red Devils played four segments in which the defense appeared for the most part to have the upper hand while the offense chipped in the occasional big play.
“We didn’t even keep chains. We scripted everything,” Whatley said. “There was no down and distance. … We stayed pretty basic. Very basic.”
The first segment ended when sophomore defensive back D’Vone McClure hit junior Jon Johnson and forced a fumble after a completion of more than 20 yards from junior quarterback Logan Perry. Senior linebacker Joey Gates had the fumble recovery.
The backups posted the first score when, in the second segment, sophomore quarterback Tirrell Brown hit McClure, who out- jumped a defender for the catch that he turned into a touchdown play of more than 40 yards.
The starters were on the field for the final two segments. Perry connected with Johnson for a 40-yard gain on a swing pass to end the third segment and account for the offense’s last big play of the night.
Gates opened the fourth segment by sacking Perry, then Kenny Cummings had an over-the-shoulder interception of Perry’s long attempt to Price Eubanks on the next play.
The only other offensive big play was the 20-yard completion from Brown to McClure that opened the second segment.
No other play gained more than 10 yards and the scrimmage ended with a three-yard carry by senior running back Doug Sprouse out of the wildcat formation.
“The biggest thing they did is they tackled a lot better than they have leading up to tonight,” Whatley said of his defense. “We felt like they could. Another good sign is you see that many people running to the football. They had a lot of hats around the football and that’s a good thing because we feel like we have a chance to be pretty good on that side.”
The offense gave up its one sack and Perry was hurried on a blitz in the first segment, but otherwise, Whatley said, the offensive highlight was the protection.
“I thought our offensive line held up pretty good,” Whatley said. “They did a pretty good job. We’ve got to space the field better.”
All in all, Whatley said, the scrimmage went just as it was drawn up.
“It kind of turned out kind of like we expected it to,” he said.
SPORTS >> Elder Moyer bests son at O’Reilly topless
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Two generations of ‘Smooth’ highlighted the O’Reilly Mid South Racing Association’s final trip to Beebe Speedway in 2009.
Batesville drivers swept the top-three finishing spots in the 30-lap topless late- model feature, with Billy ‘Mr. Smooth’ Moyer and son Billy Moyer, Jr., also known as ‘Kid Smooth,’ battling for the race lead for the first 18 circuits. But April winner Wendell Wallace finally played spoiler to the father-son battle.
Moyer, Sr. held on despite a near-flat right rear tire to collect the $2,000 top prize, while Wallace settled for second. The younger Moyer extended his points lead with a solid third-place effort.
Moyer, Sr. started on the outside of the front row alongside fast qualifier and July winner Jon Kirby of Russellville. It didn’t take long for the former national super late-model champion to take the lead, as Moyer out-powered Kirby into the first turn.
Moyer, Jr., who started third, got around Kirby for second on lap five and set his sights on dad.
By lap eight, Moyer, Jr. was all over the back bumper of his dad’s familiar J and J Steel 21 car. He had a couple of looks off the exit of turn two, but his better-handling race car couldn’t make up for the years of experience he was surrendering.
“It doesn’t get any more fun than that,” said Moyer, Jr. “I think we had a better car than he did; he’s just a better driver, of course. That was a lot of fun running with him. I got up to his left-rear tire a couple of times, but I could never get right there beside him.”
For Moyer, Sr., it was the second MSRA win of the season in only three appearances.
“It makes it neat to be able to race with him,” said Moyer, Sr. “He’s learned a lot. He’s come on strong this last year, so I’m sure he’s going to be putting it on the old man here real soon.”
A total of 29 cars representing six states turned out for the MSRA’s third and final race at the sandy-clay quarter miler. Kirby took top-qualifier honors with his run from the back to the front to win the second heat, while Wallace, Moyer, Jr. and Louisiana standout Ray Moore won the other heats.
Missouri driver Randy Mitchell and Broken Bow, Oklahoma’s Gary Christian earned the two MSRA provisional spots.
The previous two MSRA events at Beebe went caution free, but a three-car pileup on lap four between Dewaine Hottinger, Clay Fisher and Brian Ritchie brought out the only caution of the race Friday. The scariest moment of the night came when Trumann driver Ian Samuel’s 86 B machine suffered a blown engine down the backstretch. Flames shot out from under the hood as Samuel came to a standstill, but track workers were able to contain the problem and get Samuel safely out of the car.
The crowd got on its feet when Moyer, Jr.’s 21 JR machine tried to pull even with the 21 car of Moyer, Sr. on lap eight. Junior tried the same move one lap later, and got up to his father’s door panel before Moyer, Sr. pulled back ahead.
The back-and-forth battle for the lead allowed fifth-place starter Wallace to catch up to the Moyers by lap 15. Moyer, Jr. moved up high in an attempt to keep Wallace behind him, but the Batesville veteran made his way around on the inside for second.
Wallace made a strong charge for Moyer, Sr. in the final 10 laps, but lap traffic held him off.
“I guess he was right on me there,” said Moyer. “We had a flat right rear tire going on there, so we’re lucky we made it to the end. Up to that point, the car was okay. I saw him up there beside me that one time, so we tried to hold our line and not overshoot the corner.”
Trumann’s Kyle Beard came into Friday’s race trailing Moyer, Jr. by 80 points in the MSRA season standings, but an ill-handling car dropped him to a ninth-place finish, the first car a lap down. Moyer, Jr. made the most of Beard’s misfortune with his 11th top five of the season through 16 events.
“That’s exactly what I needed,” said Moyer, Jr. “We ran third, so hopefully we got a little bit bigger points lead now. We’ve got to have all the cushion we can so if we blow up or wreck one night, or the driver makes an error, we have a little lead way now.”
Moyer, Jr., now in his fourth season in a super late, has enjoyed a breakout season in 2009 with two MSRA wins and a season-long grip on the points lead.
“Finally! We have the best car possible and the best engines now,” he said. “We’re expected to run up front. We shouldn’t be back there running eighth or ninth in the consi (B-main). We’ve got a couple of wins here this year and it’s definitely going to be a breakout year, we just need to get in the win category some more. We’ve got a boatload of top fives, but we need some more wins.”
Kirby held on to finish fourth, while Walnut Ridge veteran Jeff Floyd came from the seventh starting spot to round out the top five.
It was Moyer, Sr.’s first trip back to Beebe in two decades, and the first topless late model race in the track’s history.
“I don’t know that it makes any different characteristics of the car, but you can see better,” said Moyer. “I kind of like it without it on there, really. You can see a little better, and the wind comes through better.”
Texas driver Jon Mitchell was sixth, followed by Eric Turner in seventh and two-time defending MSRA champ Joey Mack in eighth. Beard was ninth with Moore completing the top ten.
Leader sportswriter
Two generations of ‘Smooth’ highlighted the O’Reilly Mid South Racing Association’s final trip to Beebe Speedway in 2009.
Batesville drivers swept the top-three finishing spots in the 30-lap topless late- model feature, with Billy ‘Mr. Smooth’ Moyer and son Billy Moyer, Jr., also known as ‘Kid Smooth,’ battling for the race lead for the first 18 circuits. But April winner Wendell Wallace finally played spoiler to the father-son battle.
Moyer, Sr. held on despite a near-flat right rear tire to collect the $2,000 top prize, while Wallace settled for second. The younger Moyer extended his points lead with a solid third-place effort.
Moyer, Sr. started on the outside of the front row alongside fast qualifier and July winner Jon Kirby of Russellville. It didn’t take long for the former national super late-model champion to take the lead, as Moyer out-powered Kirby into the first turn.
Moyer, Jr., who started third, got around Kirby for second on lap five and set his sights on dad.
By lap eight, Moyer, Jr. was all over the back bumper of his dad’s familiar J and J Steel 21 car. He had a couple of looks off the exit of turn two, but his better-handling race car couldn’t make up for the years of experience he was surrendering.
“It doesn’t get any more fun than that,” said Moyer, Jr. “I think we had a better car than he did; he’s just a better driver, of course. That was a lot of fun running with him. I got up to his left-rear tire a couple of times, but I could never get right there beside him.”
For Moyer, Sr., it was the second MSRA win of the season in only three appearances.
“It makes it neat to be able to race with him,” said Moyer, Sr. “He’s learned a lot. He’s come on strong this last year, so I’m sure he’s going to be putting it on the old man here real soon.”
A total of 29 cars representing six states turned out for the MSRA’s third and final race at the sandy-clay quarter miler. Kirby took top-qualifier honors with his run from the back to the front to win the second heat, while Wallace, Moyer, Jr. and Louisiana standout Ray Moore won the other heats.
Missouri driver Randy Mitchell and Broken Bow, Oklahoma’s Gary Christian earned the two MSRA provisional spots.
The previous two MSRA events at Beebe went caution free, but a three-car pileup on lap four between Dewaine Hottinger, Clay Fisher and Brian Ritchie brought out the only caution of the race Friday. The scariest moment of the night came when Trumann driver Ian Samuel’s 86 B machine suffered a blown engine down the backstretch. Flames shot out from under the hood as Samuel came to a standstill, but track workers were able to contain the problem and get Samuel safely out of the car.
The crowd got on its feet when Moyer, Jr.’s 21 JR machine tried to pull even with the 21 car of Moyer, Sr. on lap eight. Junior tried the same move one lap later, and got up to his father’s door panel before Moyer, Sr. pulled back ahead.
The back-and-forth battle for the lead allowed fifth-place starter Wallace to catch up to the Moyers by lap 15. Moyer, Jr. moved up high in an attempt to keep Wallace behind him, but the Batesville veteran made his way around on the inside for second.
Wallace made a strong charge for Moyer, Sr. in the final 10 laps, but lap traffic held him off.
“I guess he was right on me there,” said Moyer. “We had a flat right rear tire going on there, so we’re lucky we made it to the end. Up to that point, the car was okay. I saw him up there beside me that one time, so we tried to hold our line and not overshoot the corner.”
Trumann’s Kyle Beard came into Friday’s race trailing Moyer, Jr. by 80 points in the MSRA season standings, but an ill-handling car dropped him to a ninth-place finish, the first car a lap down. Moyer, Jr. made the most of Beard’s misfortune with his 11th top five of the season through 16 events.
“That’s exactly what I needed,” said Moyer, Jr. “We ran third, so hopefully we got a little bit bigger points lead now. We’ve got to have all the cushion we can so if we blow up or wreck one night, or the driver makes an error, we have a little lead way now.”
Moyer, Jr., now in his fourth season in a super late, has enjoyed a breakout season in 2009 with two MSRA wins and a season-long grip on the points lead.
“Finally! We have the best car possible and the best engines now,” he said. “We’re expected to run up front. We shouldn’t be back there running eighth or ninth in the consi (B-main). We’ve got a couple of wins here this year and it’s definitely going to be a breakout year, we just need to get in the win category some more. We’ve got a boatload of top fives, but we need some more wins.”
Kirby held on to finish fourth, while Walnut Ridge veteran Jeff Floyd came from the seventh starting spot to round out the top five.
It was Moyer, Sr.’s first trip back to Beebe in two decades, and the first topless late model race in the track’s history.
“I don’t know that it makes any different characteristics of the car, but you can see better,” said Moyer. “I kind of like it without it on there, really. You can see a little better, and the wind comes through better.”
Texas driver Jon Mitchell was sixth, followed by Eric Turner in seventh and two-time defending MSRA champ Joey Mack in eighth. Beard was ninth with Moore completing the top ten.
SPORTS >> Panthers, Wolves get in tune
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sportswriter
Cabot and Lake Hamilton got the benefits from Monday’s benefit game.
But they also got a scare.
The teams scrimmaged for close to two hours and 30 minutes at Panther Stadium, but at least 20 minutes were spent tending to injured Lake Hamilton senior safety Cab Sanders.
Sanders reportedly suffered a concussion, but the injury looked for a time to be more serious as he lay still on the field while trainers, emergency personnel and paramedics treated him. He was eventually taken away in an ambulance.
Sanders, 5-9, 160 pounds, was hurt attempting a tackle early in Cabot’s third offensive possession. He remained on his back while trainers gave him immediate treatment, followed by Cabot Fire and Rescue personnel and then the paramedics who arrived with the ambulance that took Sanders to Baptist Medical Center in North Little Rock.
Sanders’ face mask was removed while his helmet was left on, and his body was immobilized for transport. But Sanders was moving his hands and feet and was expected to stay at the hospital overnight for observation.
“They’re pretty sure it was a head injury or a concussion which is always scary,” Lake Hamilton coach Jerry Clay said. “I don’t think there was any spinal thing. It’s always a precaution. Anytime you have a head injury these days they’re going to immobilize him.”
In a game set up to help both teams, the coaches agreed the injury was unfortunate and expressed their relief Sanders wasn’t hurt worse.
“You can’t live life wondering if you’re going to get hurt every day,” Cabot coach Mike Malham said. “That’s part of life. I didn’t really see it. They said that he got his head down a little bit and a knee caught him. But he was moving everything and I think he just had a concussion so, hopefully, there’s nothing wrong there.”
“It’s part of football, I guess. The chance you take,” Clay said.
Outside of Sanders’ injury, both coaches considered the game a success.
The event gave Lake Hamilton, which plays in the 6A-South Conference and has fewer numbers than 7A-Central member
Cabot, a chance to test and evaluate its first team. The game gave Cabot what will probably be its last, in-depth tune-up before Tuesday’s season-opener with Jacksonville.
Cabot has a Red-White game scheduled for Friday, but Malham is expected to hold out or limit his starters because of the televised Tuesday game.
“We got a lot of plays and maybe they grew up a little bit,” Malham said of his players.
Clay said it was good to see offense and defense in a game situation. Lake Hamilton doesn’t have a Cabot-sized roster, and that sometimes makes it hard to gauge progress during practice scrimmages, Clay said.
“As you can see our second team could never give our first team any kind of look,” Clay said. “Just like we weren’t giving Cabot’s second team a look. It was a complete mismatch when our second team went against their second team. We haven’t been able to run defense because our second team offense is so weak. We couldn’t put in a scout team.”
The teams alternated 15-play possessions but the count did not include punts and field goals.
The scoreboard was used to keep tack of each team’s plays, but if it had counted points it would have shown a 44-36 Cabot victory thanks to the final Red Zone segment in which Spencer Smith, Spencer Neumann and Hunter Sales all scored on short runs.
Lake Hamilton opened the game with a drive capped by Jordan Brown’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Rains. The Wolves added an 18-yard field goal by Brett Miller before using up their first 15-play allotment.
Cabot scored when Seth Bloomberg hit Matt Sayles for a 39-yard catch and run. Lake Hamilton used all of its next 15 plays to get a 1-yard touchdown run out of Chris Jones, then Cabot came back with a 4-yard scoring run by Jeremy Berry.
Perhaps the most impressive play of the night was the 46-yard field goal Cabot’s Logan Spry kicked with distance to spare at the end of Cabot’s second segment. Spry added 27- and 18-yard field goals on the Panthers’ next two possessions and made all of his extra-point attempts.
“And he’s playing D-back,” Malham said. “I don’t know. I hope we don’t get him hurt at D-back, then we lose a great kicker.
But he runs a 4.5 40 and we kid of like him back in the secondary.”
Rains had a 3-yard touchdown run for Lake Hamilton to wrap up the main body of the scrimmage. Brown ran for one touchdown and passed for another during the Wolves’ Red Zone segment, while both extra-point kicks failed.
Malham was pleased with the Panthers’ overall performance but concerned about some of the big plays made against his defense, like the 36- and 40-yard completions that set up Lake Hamilton touchdowns.
“I just though we’d be sharper, I really did,” Malham said. “We’ve just got a lot of work to do. They do a lot of formations and different looks and we didn’t really practice for this. This was more or less a practice. That’s why I like playing in these, you see a lot of formations so we’ve got to get used to lining up right.”
Leader sportswriter
Cabot and Lake Hamilton got the benefits from Monday’s benefit game.
But they also got a scare.
The teams scrimmaged for close to two hours and 30 minutes at Panther Stadium, but at least 20 minutes were spent tending to injured Lake Hamilton senior safety Cab Sanders.
Sanders reportedly suffered a concussion, but the injury looked for a time to be more serious as he lay still on the field while trainers, emergency personnel and paramedics treated him. He was eventually taken away in an ambulance.
Sanders, 5-9, 160 pounds, was hurt attempting a tackle early in Cabot’s third offensive possession. He remained on his back while trainers gave him immediate treatment, followed by Cabot Fire and Rescue personnel and then the paramedics who arrived with the ambulance that took Sanders to Baptist Medical Center in North Little Rock.
Sanders’ face mask was removed while his helmet was left on, and his body was immobilized for transport. But Sanders was moving his hands and feet and was expected to stay at the hospital overnight for observation.
“They’re pretty sure it was a head injury or a concussion which is always scary,” Lake Hamilton coach Jerry Clay said. “I don’t think there was any spinal thing. It’s always a precaution. Anytime you have a head injury these days they’re going to immobilize him.”
In a game set up to help both teams, the coaches agreed the injury was unfortunate and expressed their relief Sanders wasn’t hurt worse.
“You can’t live life wondering if you’re going to get hurt every day,” Cabot coach Mike Malham said. “That’s part of life. I didn’t really see it. They said that he got his head down a little bit and a knee caught him. But he was moving everything and I think he just had a concussion so, hopefully, there’s nothing wrong there.”
“It’s part of football, I guess. The chance you take,” Clay said.
Outside of Sanders’ injury, both coaches considered the game a success.
The event gave Lake Hamilton, which plays in the 6A-South Conference and has fewer numbers than 7A-Central member
Cabot, a chance to test and evaluate its first team. The game gave Cabot what will probably be its last, in-depth tune-up before Tuesday’s season-opener with Jacksonville.
Cabot has a Red-White game scheduled for Friday, but Malham is expected to hold out or limit his starters because of the televised Tuesday game.
“We got a lot of plays and maybe they grew up a little bit,” Malham said of his players.
Clay said it was good to see offense and defense in a game situation. Lake Hamilton doesn’t have a Cabot-sized roster, and that sometimes makes it hard to gauge progress during practice scrimmages, Clay said.
“As you can see our second team could never give our first team any kind of look,” Clay said. “Just like we weren’t giving Cabot’s second team a look. It was a complete mismatch when our second team went against their second team. We haven’t been able to run defense because our second team offense is so weak. We couldn’t put in a scout team.”
The teams alternated 15-play possessions but the count did not include punts and field goals.
The scoreboard was used to keep tack of each team’s plays, but if it had counted points it would have shown a 44-36 Cabot victory thanks to the final Red Zone segment in which Spencer Smith, Spencer Neumann and Hunter Sales all scored on short runs.
Lake Hamilton opened the game with a drive capped by Jordan Brown’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Rains. The Wolves added an 18-yard field goal by Brett Miller before using up their first 15-play allotment.
Cabot scored when Seth Bloomberg hit Matt Sayles for a 39-yard catch and run. Lake Hamilton used all of its next 15 plays to get a 1-yard touchdown run out of Chris Jones, then Cabot came back with a 4-yard scoring run by Jeremy Berry.
Perhaps the most impressive play of the night was the 46-yard field goal Cabot’s Logan Spry kicked with distance to spare at the end of Cabot’s second segment. Spry added 27- and 18-yard field goals on the Panthers’ next two possessions and made all of his extra-point attempts.
“And he’s playing D-back,” Malham said. “I don’t know. I hope we don’t get him hurt at D-back, then we lose a great kicker.
But he runs a 4.5 40 and we kid of like him back in the secondary.”
Rains had a 3-yard touchdown run for Lake Hamilton to wrap up the main body of the scrimmage. Brown ran for one touchdown and passed for another during the Wolves’ Red Zone segment, while both extra-point kicks failed.
Malham was pleased with the Panthers’ overall performance but concerned about some of the big plays made against his defense, like the 36- and 40-yard completions that set up Lake Hamilton touchdowns.
“I just though we’d be sharper, I really did,” Malham said. “We’ve just got a lot of work to do. They do a lot of formations and different looks and we didn’t really practice for this. This was more or less a practice. That’s why I like playing in these, you see a lot of formations so we’ve got to get used to lining up right.”
Friday, August 21, 2009
TOP STORY >> Ex-librarian is arrested for sex with a teenager
A former librarian at Beebe Intermediate School was arrested Thursday for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old boy who was a student at the high school.
Rebecca Sue Harvey, 36, of 5422 S. Hwy. 367, Beebe, was arrested following an investigation by Capt. Eddie Cullum into allegations that she had sexual activity with a minor. Beebe police did not release the age or sex of the minor. That information came from other sources.
Several individuals were interviewed, and Cullum submitted an affidavit to the prosecuting attorney in Searcy, Police Chief Wayne Ballew said in a press release Thursday. “On Aug. 19, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Phyllis M. Hendrix filed a felony information through the White County Circuit Court and subsequently a bench warrant was issued for the arrest of Harvey,” Ballew said.
The warrant charges Harvey with sexual assault in the first degree, a class A felony. The warrant says that on or about January 2009 through May 2009, Harvey “did unlawfully and feloniously engage in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity with another person, not her spouse, who is less than eighteen (18) years of age.’”
School Superintendent Belinda Shook said Friday that Harvey resigned this month, saying she intended to go back to school.
Shook said school employees must go through state-required ethics training every year as a safeguard against improper contact with students. But she also said that even though Harvey was a school employee, the offense she is accused of had nothing to do with her job. Harvey was taken to the White County Detention Center in Searcy, but is out on a $20,000 bond.
Rebecca Sue Harvey, 36, of 5422 S. Hwy. 367, Beebe, was arrested following an investigation by Capt. Eddie Cullum into allegations that she had sexual activity with a minor. Beebe police did not release the age or sex of the minor. That information came from other sources.
Several individuals were interviewed, and Cullum submitted an affidavit to the prosecuting attorney in Searcy, Police Chief Wayne Ballew said in a press release Thursday. “On Aug. 19, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Phyllis M. Hendrix filed a felony information through the White County Circuit Court and subsequently a bench warrant was issued for the arrest of Harvey,” Ballew said.
The warrant charges Harvey with sexual assault in the first degree, a class A felony. The warrant says that on or about January 2009 through May 2009, Harvey “did unlawfully and feloniously engage in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity with another person, not her spouse, who is less than eighteen (18) years of age.’”
School Superintendent Belinda Shook said Friday that Harvey resigned this month, saying she intended to go back to school.
Shook said school employees must go through state-required ethics training every year as a safeguard against improper contact with students. But she also said that even though Harvey was a school employee, the offense she is accused of had nothing to do with her job. Harvey was taken to the White County Detention Center in Searcy, but is out on a $20,000 bond.
TOP STORY >> Sherwood revamping trash fees
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
The Sherwood City Council will vote Monday night on a revamped waste ordinance that includes increasing fees to residents as the city prepares to go to an automated collection system.
The automated solid waste collection system will be the method of collection for household waste within the city limits if the ordinance is approved.
The new system would go into effect by the end of the year.
Each dwelling unit in the city, without exception, will be charged $12 a month and be given one city-owned roll-out cart to use for trash collection.
On trash pickup days, the roll-out carts will be placed on the public street abutting the property or edge of the street where it doesn’t interfere with traffic flow, yet allows the cart to be picked up by the automated trucks.
Other than the pickup day, the carts must be to the side or rear of the home or the resident can be fined.
If the homeowner damages any cart that resident will be charged $50. If it is stolen, the city will replace it the first time. After that, the homeowner is responsible.
A special fee of at least $25, according to the ordinance, will be charged to pick up trash from construction; tree removal, remodeling, fires and general clean up of properties or other unusual, large quantities of solid waste or trash.
Leader staff writer
The Sherwood City Council will vote Monday night on a revamped waste ordinance that includes increasing fees to residents as the city prepares to go to an automated collection system.
The automated solid waste collection system will be the method of collection for household waste within the city limits if the ordinance is approved.
The new system would go into effect by the end of the year.
Each dwelling unit in the city, without exception, will be charged $12 a month and be given one city-owned roll-out cart to use for trash collection.
On trash pickup days, the roll-out carts will be placed on the public street abutting the property or edge of the street where it doesn’t interfere with traffic flow, yet allows the cart to be picked up by the automated trucks.
Other than the pickup day, the carts must be to the side or rear of the home or the resident can be fined.
If the homeowner damages any cart that resident will be charged $50. If it is stolen, the city will replace it the first time. After that, the homeowner is responsible.
A special fee of at least $25, according to the ordinance, will be charged to pick up trash from construction; tree removal, remodeling, fires and general clean up of properties or other unusual, large quantities of solid waste or trash.
TOP STORY >> Motorcyclist guilty in pedestrian death
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
and JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writers
A Lonoke County jury Thursday found an Austin motorcyclist guilty of negligent homicide and second-degree battery in the death of a Cabot man and injury to his wife as the couple walked from a Cabot football game during halftime last September.
The jury of nine men and three women deliberated one hour. On their recommendation, Circuit Judge Philip Whiteaker imposed the maximum sentence on Larry Dalhaus, 40.
Whiteaker sentenced Dalhaus to 10 years for the homicide with a $10,000 fine and three years and $10,000 for the battery, and ran the sentences consecutively.
Jeff and Rebecca Marvin, Cabot residents, were among a group of pedestrians in the crosswalk leaving the game when Dalhaus struck them. He was riding east on Hwy. 38 and passed vehicles on the left that had stopped in the northbound lane waiting for pedestrians to cross.
Lonoke County Prosecutor Will Feland speculated that the jury recommended the maximum because Dalhaus was intoxicated, passing in a turn lane and struck people in a crosswalk.
“It may have been the totality of circumstances,” he said. Dalhaus, who has been working in Dallas, was represented by Mark Hampton.
The traffic death prompted some city residents to ask school and city officials last fall for safer crosswalks.
Mayor Eddie Joe Williams said then that construction of wide, raised crosswalks would be possible only after the railroad overpass was completed and the section of Hwy. 38 from the school to South Pine was released to the city.
Jerrel Maxwell, the city’s public works director, said Friday that even though the overpass is now open, to his knowledge the highway has not yet been turned over to the city. But the city plans to build the crosswalks as soon as possible, he said.
Although the crosswalks will be elevated only four inches, they will make pedestrians visible not only to the first car that stops but also to the ones that line up behind the first one, Maxwell said.
“We’re working to keep people safe,” he said.
and JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writers
A Lonoke County jury Thursday found an Austin motorcyclist guilty of negligent homicide and second-degree battery in the death of a Cabot man and injury to his wife as the couple walked from a Cabot football game during halftime last September.
The jury of nine men and three women deliberated one hour. On their recommendation, Circuit Judge Philip Whiteaker imposed the maximum sentence on Larry Dalhaus, 40.
Whiteaker sentenced Dalhaus to 10 years for the homicide with a $10,000 fine and three years and $10,000 for the battery, and ran the sentences consecutively.
Jeff and Rebecca Marvin, Cabot residents, were among a group of pedestrians in the crosswalk leaving the game when Dalhaus struck them. He was riding east on Hwy. 38 and passed vehicles on the left that had stopped in the northbound lane waiting for pedestrians to cross.
Lonoke County Prosecutor Will Feland speculated that the jury recommended the maximum because Dalhaus was intoxicated, passing in a turn lane and struck people in a crosswalk.
“It may have been the totality of circumstances,” he said. Dalhaus, who has been working in Dallas, was represented by Mark Hampton.
The traffic death prompted some city residents to ask school and city officials last fall for safer crosswalks.
Mayor Eddie Joe Williams said then that construction of wide, raised crosswalks would be possible only after the railroad overpass was completed and the section of Hwy. 38 from the school to South Pine was released to the city.
Jerrel Maxwell, the city’s public works director, said Friday that even though the overpass is now open, to his knowledge the highway has not yet been turned over to the city. But the city plans to build the crosswalks as soon as possible, he said.
Although the crosswalks will be elevated only four inches, they will make pedestrians visible not only to the first car that stops but also to the ones that line up behind the first one, Maxwell said.
“We’re working to keep people safe,” he said.
TOP STORY >> Jacksonville praised for big surplus
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville is in great financial shape and even has about $7 million in reserves, according to an independent audit.
Gerald Clark of McAlister and Co. presented the audit of the 2008 budget at the city council meeting Thursday night.
Mayor Gary Fletcher said, “Everyone thinks I’m Santa Claus because we have a surplus.” But he gave all the credit to former Mayor Tommy Swaim for putting the city in such great shape.
Clark told the council that the city’s balance sheet remained strong at the end of 2008 as total assets exceeded total liabilities by $52 million, even though the city’s total assets fell by about $2 million from 2007.
Clark said that in 2008, sales tax revenue was up 4 percent. Sales tax accounted for more than 60 percent of the city’s total revenue for 2008. Property tax collections, as well as franchise taxes, were also up for the year.
The auditor’s report concluded that “despite challenging economic times affecting many cities in Arkansas and across the United States, Jacksonville remains well positioned financially, with a balanced budget, uncommitted reserve balances in excess of $7 million and very minimal debt.”
Clark added that the solid city budget was “the cumulative effect of cost savings and process improvements put in place in 2008 and prior years. We commend the city’s leadership for being fiscally responsible.”
In other council business:
Police Chief Gary Sipes, in his monthly report, told the council that his department responded to 3,181 complaint calls in July and made more than 400 arrests. More than 1,100 accident or incident reports were filed during the month.
The chief also said that there were 20 curfew violations in July, all nighttime violations.
In his monthly report, Fire Chief John Vanderhoof said his department responded to 103 rescue calls, 47 still alarms, 19 general alarms and had 240 ambulance runs in July.
The council approved an ordinance that updated the language needed for the North Pulaski Waterworks Public Facilities Board to operate.
This ordinance is similar to the updating the council did of the city’s public-facilities board last month.
The council also accepted bids of slightly more than $100,000 for sidewalks along Loop Road and curb, gutters and sidewalks on West Valentine Road.
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville is in great financial shape and even has about $7 million in reserves, according to an independent audit.
Gerald Clark of McAlister and Co. presented the audit of the 2008 budget at the city council meeting Thursday night.
Mayor Gary Fletcher said, “Everyone thinks I’m Santa Claus because we have a surplus.” But he gave all the credit to former Mayor Tommy Swaim for putting the city in such great shape.
Clark told the council that the city’s balance sheet remained strong at the end of 2008 as total assets exceeded total liabilities by $52 million, even though the city’s total assets fell by about $2 million from 2007.
Clark said that in 2008, sales tax revenue was up 4 percent. Sales tax accounted for more than 60 percent of the city’s total revenue for 2008. Property tax collections, as well as franchise taxes, were also up for the year.
The auditor’s report concluded that “despite challenging economic times affecting many cities in Arkansas and across the United States, Jacksonville remains well positioned financially, with a balanced budget, uncommitted reserve balances in excess of $7 million and very minimal debt.”
Clark added that the solid city budget was “the cumulative effect of cost savings and process improvements put in place in 2008 and prior years. We commend the city’s leadership for being fiscally responsible.”
In other council business:
Police Chief Gary Sipes, in his monthly report, told the council that his department responded to 3,181 complaint calls in July and made more than 400 arrests. More than 1,100 accident or incident reports were filed during the month.
The chief also said that there were 20 curfew violations in July, all nighttime violations.
In his monthly report, Fire Chief John Vanderhoof said his department responded to 103 rescue calls, 47 still alarms, 19 general alarms and had 240 ambulance runs in July.
The council approved an ordinance that updated the language needed for the North Pulaski Waterworks Public Facilities Board to operate.
This ordinance is similar to the updating the council did of the city’s public-facilities board last month.
The council also accepted bids of slightly more than $100,000 for sidewalks along Loop Road and curb, gutters and sidewalks on West Valentine Road.
TOP STORY >> Battalion marks Vietnam milestone
By ALIYA FELDMAN
Leader staff writer
Just a few months after the Tet offensive, young men from across Arkansas flew to Da Nang, a major port in south Vietnam for offloading ammunition.
It was 1968 when the group of 100 soldiers went overseas to support operations there even as President Lyndon Johnson began to push for an end to the war.
Johnson activated Headquarters Company of the National Guard’s 336th Ordnance Batta-lion, Ammo Service, in April that year along with thousands of others across the U.S. Sam High of Lonoke was 24 years old when his unit was called to war.
Sending guardsmen to war was rare then. High had been in the Guard for four years. He’s now a veterans service officer for Lonoke County.
“We worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day,” High said about the 336th’s job in Vietnam.
“The unit was in charge of ammunition supply for the northern part of South Vietnam up to the border of North Vietnam. They supported the 101st Air-borne, Americal Division, and 5th Mechanized Division to name a few,” High said.
The soldiers of the 336th were fortunate, unlike the nearly 60,000 of their fellow soldiers who died in the Vietnam War. Soldiers from the 336th all came back alive.
“We all went over together and came back together,” High said.
“ One hundred (from Arkansas) were activated,” he said. “We had all joined the reserve. We went for weekend drills and summer trainings (before deployment),” he said.
Fast-forward 40 years later: on the weekend of Aug. 13-16 at Grand Plaza Hotel in Branson, several of the men came together to mark their safe return home in August 1969.
Many of them included residents of Lonoke County. In addition to High, they are retired colonel and battalion Chaplain George Lassett, retired Warrant Officer John Evatt, Fred Carrigan and Danny Devinney, both of Lonoke as is High, and Buck Buchanan and Arthur Evans of Cabot. “For the last seven years, we’ve met each year,” High said. “This was the third year in Branson.”
Keith Hurst of Little Rock and Gerald Fisher of Vilonia organized the reunion.
“We get together and reminisce,” High said.
They reported to active duty at Finkbeiner Armory in Little Rock in May 1968, moved on to Fort Carson, Colo., in June for special training, and deployed to Da Nang in Sept. 1968.
The 336th received a Meritorious Order of Commendation in 1970. Reserve companies that worked alongside the Arkansas soldiers, attached to them, the 295th, 40th and 571st ordnance companies, also received commendations for their work retrograding unusable ammunition.
“Unlike most Vietnam veterans, this unit came home as a unit and received a nice welcome at the Little Rock airport,” High said. Lt. Gov. Maurice Britt, who grew up in Lonoke and was a Medal of Honor recipient in World War II, was there with the soldiers’ families to welcome them home.
Leader staff writer
Just a few months after the Tet offensive, young men from across Arkansas flew to Da Nang, a major port in south Vietnam for offloading ammunition.
It was 1968 when the group of 100 soldiers went overseas to support operations there even as President Lyndon Johnson began to push for an end to the war.
Johnson activated Headquarters Company of the National Guard’s 336th Ordnance Batta-lion, Ammo Service, in April that year along with thousands of others across the U.S. Sam High of Lonoke was 24 years old when his unit was called to war.
Sending guardsmen to war was rare then. High had been in the Guard for four years. He’s now a veterans service officer for Lonoke County.
“We worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day,” High said about the 336th’s job in Vietnam.
“The unit was in charge of ammunition supply for the northern part of South Vietnam up to the border of North Vietnam. They supported the 101st Air-borne, Americal Division, and 5th Mechanized Division to name a few,” High said.
The soldiers of the 336th were fortunate, unlike the nearly 60,000 of their fellow soldiers who died in the Vietnam War. Soldiers from the 336th all came back alive.
“We all went over together and came back together,” High said.
“ One hundred (from Arkansas) were activated,” he said. “We had all joined the reserve. We went for weekend drills and summer trainings (before deployment),” he said.
Fast-forward 40 years later: on the weekend of Aug. 13-16 at Grand Plaza Hotel in Branson, several of the men came together to mark their safe return home in August 1969.
Many of them included residents of Lonoke County. In addition to High, they are retired colonel and battalion Chaplain George Lassett, retired Warrant Officer John Evatt, Fred Carrigan and Danny Devinney, both of Lonoke as is High, and Buck Buchanan and Arthur Evans of Cabot. “For the last seven years, we’ve met each year,” High said. “This was the third year in Branson.”
Keith Hurst of Little Rock and Gerald Fisher of Vilonia organized the reunion.
“We get together and reminisce,” High said.
They reported to active duty at Finkbeiner Armory in Little Rock in May 1968, moved on to Fort Carson, Colo., in June for special training, and deployed to Da Nang in Sept. 1968.
The 336th received a Meritorious Order of Commendation in 1970. Reserve companies that worked alongside the Arkansas soldiers, attached to them, the 295th, 40th and 571st ordnance companies, also received commendations for their work retrograding unusable ammunition.
“Unlike most Vietnam veterans, this unit came home as a unit and received a nice welcome at the Little Rock airport,” High said. Lt. Gov. Maurice Britt, who grew up in Lonoke and was a Medal of Honor recipient in World War II, was there with the soldiers’ families to welcome them home.
EDITORIAL >> Health cooperatives and First Electric
That Americans choose to care for those in need, no matter the convoluted route it takes to get there, is proof of our generosity, an ideal that has been maintained throughout our country’s short history. Most milestones in our nation’s history can be traced to some motivation in helping others, even actions we are not so proud of today.
In that vein, it might be called admirable that those who have enjoyed tax-funded health care for years are finally recognizing that many in the country are in need of coverage as well. The problem of offering affordable care while appeasing the insurance sector has led congressional moderates to consider the idea of cooperatives as an alternative to a public insurance plan.
They would be a welcome option if health co-ops were to operate similarly to our own First Electric Co-op, which was created in Jacksonville in 1938 to help poor Arkansans who couldn’t afford to buy it from a privately owned company that then had a monopoly on the state’s power.
But particulars haven’t yet surfaced on how such a system would function. Like most watered-down political solutions created in hopes of pleasing everybody, the co-op idea hasn’t gained a lot of proponents. The insurance industry doesn’t like it because co-ops would mean potential competition for them, the same reason it’s pushed billions of dollars into lobbying Congress in an attempt to get members to abandon a public-health option.
Liberals don’t like the idea either because it doesn’t guarantee that people in need of insurance or improved coverage would get it. Co-ops create buying power; they aren’t necessarily producers. As health insurance providers, they could essentially function as brokers.
Cooperative health-care plans wouldn’t be safeguarded against skyrocketing administrative costs either, which is why Americans now pay too much for care.
There’s more reason to give pause at the government having a hand in setting up quasi-public programs that have to do with health care. In 2003, the Medicare Modernization Act was intended to help seniors pay for prescription drugs. It gave them the option of signing up for privately run programs that paid for drugs to a limit. Remember the donut hole? That’s where millions of seniors were left when the private companies refused to pay for their drugs after they’d maxed out their small benefits. The program shifted costs on to the elderly, their families and state governments.
Seniors aren’t the only ones in need of a fair system who are getting sick in America. Affordable health care needs to be available to young people, too. They deserve higher wages that haven’t been possible in recent years due to employers’ soaring health-care costs.
A sustained America isn’t possible without real health insurance.
—Aliya Feldman
In that vein, it might be called admirable that those who have enjoyed tax-funded health care for years are finally recognizing that many in the country are in need of coverage as well. The problem of offering affordable care while appeasing the insurance sector has led congressional moderates to consider the idea of cooperatives as an alternative to a public insurance plan.
They would be a welcome option if health co-ops were to operate similarly to our own First Electric Co-op, which was created in Jacksonville in 1938 to help poor Arkansans who couldn’t afford to buy it from a privately owned company that then had a monopoly on the state’s power.
But particulars haven’t yet surfaced on how such a system would function. Like most watered-down political solutions created in hopes of pleasing everybody, the co-op idea hasn’t gained a lot of proponents. The insurance industry doesn’t like it because co-ops would mean potential competition for them, the same reason it’s pushed billions of dollars into lobbying Congress in an attempt to get members to abandon a public-health option.
Liberals don’t like the idea either because it doesn’t guarantee that people in need of insurance or improved coverage would get it. Co-ops create buying power; they aren’t necessarily producers. As health insurance providers, they could essentially function as brokers.
Cooperative health-care plans wouldn’t be safeguarded against skyrocketing administrative costs either, which is why Americans now pay too much for care.
There’s more reason to give pause at the government having a hand in setting up quasi-public programs that have to do with health care. In 2003, the Medicare Modernization Act was intended to help seniors pay for prescription drugs. It gave them the option of signing up for privately run programs that paid for drugs to a limit. Remember the donut hole? That’s where millions of seniors were left when the private companies refused to pay for their drugs after they’d maxed out their small benefits. The program shifted costs on to the elderly, their families and state governments.
Seniors aren’t the only ones in need of a fair system who are getting sick in America. Affordable health care needs to be available to young people, too. They deserve higher wages that haven’t been possible in recent years due to employers’ soaring health-care costs.
A sustained America isn’t possible without real health insurance.
—Aliya Feldman
EDITORIAL >> First casualty is the truth
The shocking decline in the fortunes of health reform in this summer of discontent brought to mind a couple of aphorisms of the great humorist Josh Billings, whose fame dimmed too much alongside that of his contemporary, Mark Twain.
Billings, or Henry Shaw as his mother knew him, understood the frailties of the body politic in a democratic society. It is easily swayed by demagoguery, and it just as easily sways the government that it chooses.
“The wheel that does the squeaking is the one that gets the grease” was Josh’s most enduring line. What better describes the plummeting prospects for passage of comprehensive health-care reform in the Congress? Bands of wailing and angry people crowd into town-hall meetings to shout down their congressman, Republican or Democrat, and any voices in the crowd that are sympathetic to reform. Although the booing and screaming delegates are organized and motivated, they are a distinct minority of the public, which wants health insurance reformed so that everyone has access to medical care and it is affordable.
But the noisiness and sheer unruliness of the people persuades lawmakers, and maybe even the president, that perhaps it is best not to do very much after all.
The crowds give the appearance of a spontaneous uprising of the American people, which was the intent of the groups that organized the protests. Everyone with internet access has by now received one or another of the authoritative analyses of the legislation that lists a litany of horrors that the Democrats are trying to foist upon their unsuspecting constituents.
The protests are the same whether the venue is Little Rock, Plymouth, Mass., Dubuque or Colorado Springs. They are replayed on C-Span. Their objections are universally bogus: President Obama wants to emulate Hitler and kill off the disabled and incurably old and sick. The bills would provide free health care for illegal aliens at taxpayer expense. It is part of an Obama/Democratic plan to turn the United States into a socialist tyranny. People would be forced off their private insurance plans into a government-run health plan. Medical care would be rationed. The federal government would run the entire health-care system.
None of it is true although the protesters often claim to have read the place in one of the bills where it says illegals will be guaranteed care or where the aged and disabled will be cut off and allowed to die or where people will not have a choice of insurance plans or their doctor.
Oh, the other bit of wisdom from Josh Billings? “As scarce as the truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.”
There is no demand for the truth. At a raucous forum in Massachusetts the other night, people shouted down their congressman, the terminally gabby Barney Frank, when he pointed out their errors. They insisted that the bill pending in the House of Representatives guaranteed medical care for illegal aliens. Frank thumbed through the bill and read a section that said that nothing in the bill could be construed to provide health coverage to illegal aliens. Someone cited the boilerplate antidiscrimination section of the bill and said it covered illegals. It meant you couldn’t discriminate against people who are in the country illegally, they said. Frank went to that section and read it aloud repeatedly, pointing out each time that it made reference to exceptions elsewhere in the bill — the section specifically omitting coverage for illegals. The crowd drowned him out.
The protests that would be most amusing if they were not so disturbing are from Medicare beneficiaries who universally love the program and object to the government interfering with it. Occasionally, someone will fret that his or her Veterans Administration health care will be sacrificed. Medicare and VA are the two most popular (with their members) and efficient health services in the country. They are government run.
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette published a letter yesterday from a 77-year-old Hot Springs resident, which is typical of many that it runs and typical of the complaints at the forums at Little Rock. He loved his Medicare and was angry that care was going to be rationed. He heard that they were going to cut Medicare costs.
The insurance industry, which has made huge profits from Medicare Advantage plans since Congress and President Bush handed them a big subsidy in the Medicare drug law six years ago, has bombarded seniors with warnings about cutting Medicare and causing rationing. One of the proposals, indeed, is to reduce the taxpayers’ subsidy for the terribly expensive private plans. The big subsidy is speeding the insolvency of Medicare by years.
Here is the largest irony: It is the Republican Party that has demanded the curtailment of Medicare spending. Reining in Medicare was Sen. John McCain’s major plank in his run for the presidency.
The truth in this bizarre campaign is in short supply and in even less demand.
In the richest nation on earth, far more is spent on medical care and insurance than in any developed nation, but it is rationed to a far greater extent than in any of them. It is reflected in every health comparison from longevity to infant death rates.
Let us hope that Congress and specifically the timid men and women we send from Arkansas heed the largely silent and well-mannered majority and try to address the country’s most daunting and dangerous problems, the exploding expense and inefficiency of health care. This year.
Billings, or Henry Shaw as his mother knew him, understood the frailties of the body politic in a democratic society. It is easily swayed by demagoguery, and it just as easily sways the government that it chooses.
“The wheel that does the squeaking is the one that gets the grease” was Josh’s most enduring line. What better describes the plummeting prospects for passage of comprehensive health-care reform in the Congress? Bands of wailing and angry people crowd into town-hall meetings to shout down their congressman, Republican or Democrat, and any voices in the crowd that are sympathetic to reform. Although the booing and screaming delegates are organized and motivated, they are a distinct minority of the public, which wants health insurance reformed so that everyone has access to medical care and it is affordable.
But the noisiness and sheer unruliness of the people persuades lawmakers, and maybe even the president, that perhaps it is best not to do very much after all.
The crowds give the appearance of a spontaneous uprising of the American people, which was the intent of the groups that organized the protests. Everyone with internet access has by now received one or another of the authoritative analyses of the legislation that lists a litany of horrors that the Democrats are trying to foist upon their unsuspecting constituents.
The protests are the same whether the venue is Little Rock, Plymouth, Mass., Dubuque or Colorado Springs. They are replayed on C-Span. Their objections are universally bogus: President Obama wants to emulate Hitler and kill off the disabled and incurably old and sick. The bills would provide free health care for illegal aliens at taxpayer expense. It is part of an Obama/Democratic plan to turn the United States into a socialist tyranny. People would be forced off their private insurance plans into a government-run health plan. Medical care would be rationed. The federal government would run the entire health-care system.
None of it is true although the protesters often claim to have read the place in one of the bills where it says illegals will be guaranteed care or where the aged and disabled will be cut off and allowed to die or where people will not have a choice of insurance plans or their doctor.
Oh, the other bit of wisdom from Josh Billings? “As scarce as the truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.”
There is no demand for the truth. At a raucous forum in Massachusetts the other night, people shouted down their congressman, the terminally gabby Barney Frank, when he pointed out their errors. They insisted that the bill pending in the House of Representatives guaranteed medical care for illegal aliens. Frank thumbed through the bill and read a section that said that nothing in the bill could be construed to provide health coverage to illegal aliens. Someone cited the boilerplate antidiscrimination section of the bill and said it covered illegals. It meant you couldn’t discriminate against people who are in the country illegally, they said. Frank went to that section and read it aloud repeatedly, pointing out each time that it made reference to exceptions elsewhere in the bill — the section specifically omitting coverage for illegals. The crowd drowned him out.
The protests that would be most amusing if they were not so disturbing are from Medicare beneficiaries who universally love the program and object to the government interfering with it. Occasionally, someone will fret that his or her Veterans Administration health care will be sacrificed. Medicare and VA are the two most popular (with their members) and efficient health services in the country. They are government run.
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette published a letter yesterday from a 77-year-old Hot Springs resident, which is typical of many that it runs and typical of the complaints at the forums at Little Rock. He loved his Medicare and was angry that care was going to be rationed. He heard that they were going to cut Medicare costs.
The insurance industry, which has made huge profits from Medicare Advantage plans since Congress and President Bush handed them a big subsidy in the Medicare drug law six years ago, has bombarded seniors with warnings about cutting Medicare and causing rationing. One of the proposals, indeed, is to reduce the taxpayers’ subsidy for the terribly expensive private plans. The big subsidy is speeding the insolvency of Medicare by years.
Here is the largest irony: It is the Republican Party that has demanded the curtailment of Medicare spending. Reining in Medicare was Sen. John McCain’s major plank in his run for the presidency.
The truth in this bizarre campaign is in short supply and in even less demand.
In the richest nation on earth, far more is spent on medical care and insurance than in any developed nation, but it is rationed to a far greater extent than in any of them. It is reflected in every health comparison from longevity to infant death rates.
Let us hope that Congress and specifically the timid men and women we send from Arkansas heed the largely silent and well-mannered majority and try to address the country’s most daunting and dangerous problems, the exploding expense and inefficiency of health care. This year.
SPORTS >> Rhinos look to put Storm loss behind, focus on Panthers
By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor
The Arkansas Rhinos have no time and can’t afford to stew over a poorly played game in last Saturday’s 22-6 home loss to rival Nashville.
The playoffs are on the line the rest of the season, starting with tonight’s 7:05 kickoff with the Memphis Panthers at Bob Hill Memorial Stadium at Jacksonville Middle School.
The Rhinos fell to 4-3 after a woeful offensive performance against the Storm. Arkansas managed just 139 total yards, coughed up three turnovers, committed a slew of penalties and was guilty of several bad snaps on special teams.
“Every game we’ve lost we have not played Rhino football,” said owner and offensive coordinator Oscar Malone. “In fact, we have played up to our standards in all four quarters of any game this year. Actually, I’d really rather save that for the playoffs.”
To add injury to insult in the Nashville game, the Rhinos had three key players go down. Two are expected to play tonight, while top receiver Stewart Franks is a game-time decision. Franks was horse-collared last Saturday and suffered an ankle injury.
Quarterback Damien Dunning is still nursing a high ankle sprain that Malone said he will battle the rest of the year. But Dunning is slated to start and Malone said he retains decent lateral mobility. Safety Tyler Knight went out last weekend with dehydration but will play tonight.
Other good news for the Rhinos: Assistant coach Harry Coleman, who collapsed on the sidelines last week, will be back coaching tonight, though Malone said he would probably work from the press box.
The Rhinos opened the season with a tough 16-14 win over the Panthers, who have gone on to also post a 4-3 record. Both teams have little margin for error in the battle for a playoff berth.
Malone said the Panthers are a quality team with an aggressive defense that will not hesitate to blitz. But the Rhinos will have fullback Joe Wesson back after he missed the Nashville game, and Malone said Jerald Marshall has become more comfortable in the revamped offense, meaning Arkansas will have plenty of weapons available.
On offense, the Panthers run four wideouts and have a tough, mobile quarterback and one dynamic receiver.
Malone said his team might be able to afford one more loss and still reach the playoffs, but he doesn’t want to take any chances.
“I’m telling our guys we need to win out,” he said.
Tickets for tonight’s game have been reduced to $5.
Leader sports editor
The Arkansas Rhinos have no time and can’t afford to stew over a poorly played game in last Saturday’s 22-6 home loss to rival Nashville.
The playoffs are on the line the rest of the season, starting with tonight’s 7:05 kickoff with the Memphis Panthers at Bob Hill Memorial Stadium at Jacksonville Middle School.
The Rhinos fell to 4-3 after a woeful offensive performance against the Storm. Arkansas managed just 139 total yards, coughed up three turnovers, committed a slew of penalties and was guilty of several bad snaps on special teams.
“Every game we’ve lost we have not played Rhino football,” said owner and offensive coordinator Oscar Malone. “In fact, we have played up to our standards in all four quarters of any game this year. Actually, I’d really rather save that for the playoffs.”
To add injury to insult in the Nashville game, the Rhinos had three key players go down. Two are expected to play tonight, while top receiver Stewart Franks is a game-time decision. Franks was horse-collared last Saturday and suffered an ankle injury.
Quarterback Damien Dunning is still nursing a high ankle sprain that Malone said he will battle the rest of the year. But Dunning is slated to start and Malone said he retains decent lateral mobility. Safety Tyler Knight went out last weekend with dehydration but will play tonight.
Other good news for the Rhinos: Assistant coach Harry Coleman, who collapsed on the sidelines last week, will be back coaching tonight, though Malone said he would probably work from the press box.
The Rhinos opened the season with a tough 16-14 win over the Panthers, who have gone on to also post a 4-3 record. Both teams have little margin for error in the battle for a playoff berth.
Malone said the Panthers are a quality team with an aggressive defense that will not hesitate to blitz. But the Rhinos will have fullback Joe Wesson back after he missed the Nashville game, and Malone said Jerald Marshall has become more comfortable in the revamped offense, meaning Arkansas will have plenty of weapons available.
On offense, the Panthers run four wideouts and have a tough, mobile quarterback and one dynamic receiver.
Malone said his team might be able to afford one more loss and still reach the playoffs, but he doesn’t want to take any chances.
“I’m telling our guys we need to win out,” he said.
Tickets for tonight’s game have been reduced to $5.
SPORTS >> Panthers, Devils meet, greet press, begin rivalry week
By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor
A lot is riding on the Sept. 1 Backyard Brawl between Jacksonville and Cabot at Panther Stadium.
It’s the season opener for both teams. The “traveling trophy” is up for grabs. And it’s the inaugural live Fearless Friday high school television broadcast.
Coaches, players, cheerleaders and the Jacksonville and Cabot mayors will be on hand on Monday at the Rockwood branch of First Arkansas Bank and Trust in Cabot for a press conference kicking off the annual rivalry game.
The event begins at 10 a.m. while the press conference starts at 11 a.m. There will also be outdoor grilling and live radio remotes.
This will be the second year in which the traveling trophy will be awarded to the winning team. Last year, Cabot visited Jan Crow Stadium in Jacksonville and waltzed off with a 41-15 victory.
For more information contact (501) 258-7041.
Leader sports editor
A lot is riding on the Sept. 1 Backyard Brawl between Jacksonville and Cabot at Panther Stadium.
It’s the season opener for both teams. The “traveling trophy” is up for grabs. And it’s the inaugural live Fearless Friday high school television broadcast.
Coaches, players, cheerleaders and the Jacksonville and Cabot mayors will be on hand on Monday at the Rockwood branch of First Arkansas Bank and Trust in Cabot for a press conference kicking off the annual rivalry game.
The event begins at 10 a.m. while the press conference starts at 11 a.m. There will also be outdoor grilling and live radio remotes.
This will be the second year in which the traveling trophy will be awarded to the winning team. Last year, Cabot visited Jan Crow Stadium in Jacksonville and waltzed off with a 41-15 victory.
For more information contact (501) 258-7041.
SPORTS >> Young team tries to copy ’08 success
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Repeating the success of last year will not come without some rebuilding for the North Pulaski Lady Falcons. Coach Amanda Hill has 13 girls out for fall volleyball camp, with only one returning senior starter.
The Lady Falcons were runners-up in the 5A-Southeast Conference last year and Hill said earning a second straight trip to the postseason will depend to some extent on the development of younger players.
There are three seniors on the squad, but two have been out of the program for at least a year. The juniors account for only four others, while six sophomores fill out the roster.
We had a good practice (Tuesday),” said Hill. “I think that was the first time that coach (Ann) Tharp and I walked out of practice and felt really good about it. As far as putting the offense and defense all together, yesterday was really the first day that we saw it all gel together. It was pretty good.”
Laura Dortch has returned for her senior year. Dortch has served as a solid all-purpose player in two seasons at North Pulaski and has been one of the Lady Falcons’ leading scorers and strongest defensive players. Dortch’s performance in the 5A state tournament last year earned her a selection to the all-state tournament team.
The other returning starters are junior Kaylee Belcher, who earned an all-state nod in 2008, and outside hitter Shayla Clemons, also a junior.
“I think we’ve got a good rotation,” said Hill. “We’re going to be okay. We would still like to have a lot more players on our team. That would give us some more depth. I would say overall that the entirety of the depth is what’s going to be a hindrance to us.”
In the Most Improved category, Cidney Adams has benefited from playing Junior Olympic volleyball during the summer, and Hill said that experience has paid off on the high school court. Adams will play the middle.
There is a lot of development taking place with the sophomores, but one 10th grader, Erica Schrunk, will see plenty of playing time on the back row. Hill hopes that junior varsity experience for the rest of the sophomores will have even more players ready by the time conference season gets in full swing.
“We look for development on the JV program,” said Hill. “Coach Tharp does a good job with them. She always continues with those fundamentals during the year to where they are ready for varsity toward the end of the season. There’s potential there to improve and be able to help us in the years to come.”
The Lady Falcons were one of few teams that gave a dominant Sylvan Hills team much of a fight in conference matches last year. The Lady Bears swept their conference season, but will be without some key seniors from last year. Despite younger teams throughout the league, the Lady Falcons are preparing for battles with all of the usual suspects.
“I still think Sylvan Hills is going to be strong,” said Hill. “Even though some are saying it’s a rebuilding year, I still think they’re going to be strong. Coach Moore does a good job at Beebe, and we always play pretty evenly with them, so that’s always a good match for us – a good rivalry. We play kind of similar, so between that and the uniforms, it can be confusing.”
The Lady Falcons open the season at Vilonia on Tuesday, and will have their first home match on Thursday against Mayflower.
Leader sportswriter
Repeating the success of last year will not come without some rebuilding for the North Pulaski Lady Falcons. Coach Amanda Hill has 13 girls out for fall volleyball camp, with only one returning senior starter.
The Lady Falcons were runners-up in the 5A-Southeast Conference last year and Hill said earning a second straight trip to the postseason will depend to some extent on the development of younger players.
There are three seniors on the squad, but two have been out of the program for at least a year. The juniors account for only four others, while six sophomores fill out the roster.
We had a good practice (Tuesday),” said Hill. “I think that was the first time that coach (Ann) Tharp and I walked out of practice and felt really good about it. As far as putting the offense and defense all together, yesterday was really the first day that we saw it all gel together. It was pretty good.”
Laura Dortch has returned for her senior year. Dortch has served as a solid all-purpose player in two seasons at North Pulaski and has been one of the Lady Falcons’ leading scorers and strongest defensive players. Dortch’s performance in the 5A state tournament last year earned her a selection to the all-state tournament team.
The other returning starters are junior Kaylee Belcher, who earned an all-state nod in 2008, and outside hitter Shayla Clemons, also a junior.
“I think we’ve got a good rotation,” said Hill. “We’re going to be okay. We would still like to have a lot more players on our team. That would give us some more depth. I would say overall that the entirety of the depth is what’s going to be a hindrance to us.”
In the Most Improved category, Cidney Adams has benefited from playing Junior Olympic volleyball during the summer, and Hill said that experience has paid off on the high school court. Adams will play the middle.
There is a lot of development taking place with the sophomores, but one 10th grader, Erica Schrunk, will see plenty of playing time on the back row. Hill hopes that junior varsity experience for the rest of the sophomores will have even more players ready by the time conference season gets in full swing.
“We look for development on the JV program,” said Hill. “Coach Tharp does a good job with them. She always continues with those fundamentals during the year to where they are ready for varsity toward the end of the season. There’s potential there to improve and be able to help us in the years to come.”
The Lady Falcons were one of few teams that gave a dominant Sylvan Hills team much of a fight in conference matches last year. The Lady Bears swept their conference season, but will be without some key seniors from last year. Despite younger teams throughout the league, the Lady Falcons are preparing for battles with all of the usual suspects.
“I still think Sylvan Hills is going to be strong,” said Hill. “Even though some are saying it’s a rebuilding year, I still think they’re going to be strong. Coach Moore does a good job at Beebe, and we always play pretty evenly with them, so that’s always a good match for us – a good rivalry. We play kind of similar, so between that and the uniforms, it can be confusing.”
The Lady Falcons open the season at Vilonia on Tuesday, and will have their first home match on Thursday against Mayflower.
SPORTS >> Taking away fond memories, leaving behind best wishes
By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor
News of every sort is breaking out across the sports world.
There is old news (Michael Vick has been reinstated in the NFL); shocking news (some Asian farmer named Y.E. Yang beat Tiger Woods on a Sunday at a major); boring news (some guy up at Fayetteville just moved up the charts at outside linebacker); and recurring news (Brett Favre has retir … er, I mean, unretired again).
But with all those headlines swirling around, the thing that matters most to folks in these parts is not what HAS happened, but what is about to happen. High school football season starts in less than two weeks – in just 10 days, in fact.
I, unfortunately, lost a bet and will be beginning my life as a New Jerseyan (I’ll be trying to remember that it’s no longer “y’all,” but rather “you’s guys”) just about the time Cabot and Jacksonville officially kick off the 2009 prep season on Sept. 1.
Though I’ll be 1,200 miles away, The Leader sports pages will remain in outstanding hands as 18-year Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sportswriting veteran Todd Traub will be sliding into my old seat right across from the very capable Jason King. King, by the way, will once again be making his predictions every Wednesday, either breaking your hearts by unduly raising expectations for your team’s prospects or risking his own life and limb by being brutally frank about those prospects.
Though I am leaving and won’t see a down played, that doesn’t mean I can’t offer my own thoughts and assessments about each of the nine teams in The Leader coverage area. I hope neither to offend any of you’s guys … um, y’all … nor to paint a brighter picture than is warranted for your team’s chances this season.
The unfortunate fact of the matter is, we seem to have limited prospects for a state champion coming out of northern Pulaski County, Lonoke County or White County.
If I were hastily assigning up arrows and down arrows for area teams, which I am, it would go something like this: Up arrows only for Cabot, Riverview and Harding Academy; down arrows for Searcy and North Pulaski (but not STRAIGHT down; new coaches give these teams new life, though both will take time to turn around); side arrows for everyone else.
Cabot would seem to have the only realistic hopes of a state title this year, and those seem hampered by the fact that, despite the return of an outstanding backfield led by Michael James, the Panthers lost almost their entire front seven.
Harding Academy probably lacks the depth of talent to go very far into postseason, but with all of its tradition and an outstanding junior quarterback in Seth Keese, who already has almost one-and-a-half-years of experience as a starter, another nine- or 10-win season looks promising. For that to happen, though, Roddy Mote must find replacements on thefront line to complement all-stater Montgomery Fisher.
Riverview is a great story after springing on to the varsity high school scene last fall to post five wins and reach the playoffs.
Back is offensive fireplug Grafton Harrell at quarterback, along with a stable of able running backs and receivers. The line should be solid, especially on the defensive side. Outside of a sophomore jinx, playoffs again look like a strong possibility.
Jacksonville, Sylvan Hills, Lonoke and Beebe all carry similar question marks into the new season, and an injury here or a player stepping up there could tilt the fortunes of any one of them.
The Red Devils over on Linda Lane are a curious case. Only two starters return on offense, but one of those is a strong-armed, seasoned junior quarterback in Logan Perry, who knows the offense inside and out. Head coach Mark Whatley needs to find players to plug in, but the defense may be good enough to give the offense time to become proficient. There seems to be a quiet confidence growing over at Jacksonville.
Almost the exact same situation exists up the road at Beebe. Fullback Sammy Williams — he of the 42 touchdowns and nearly 3,000 yards rushing the past two seasons — is gone, along with most of the rest of the offense. The defense will have to carry the Badgers until the offense catches up.
Lonoke must cope with the loss of two game-breaking receivers in Michael Howard and Clarence Harris, and will be calling on a quarterback with almost no experience. The tradition is there, but how far will it take them?
Jim Withrow over at Sylvan Hills has had to alter his offense and lower his expectations a little after the loss of a slew of players to academics and other sports. But Jordan Spears and Juliean Broner remain the lynch pins of an able offense and the defense returns veterans in the front seven.
For North Pulaski, it can’t get much worse than it did last year, or the past six years for that matter. A mere five wins over that period practically screamed out for a change, even if head coach Tony Bohannon wasn’t the culprit for the dismal run.
In long-time Jacksonville defensive coordinator Rick Russell, the Falcons may have landed just what they need. He knows his Xs and Os, he’s a big proponent of the weight room and he possesses the emotional fire needed to get things headed in the right direction.
Likewise, Searcy will surely get a boost from a new coach and a new era. Tim Harper was a proven winner at Des Arc. He won’t win many this year, but for the first time in several seasons, fans can reasonably look to a brighter future.
Here’s hoping all my accolades prove prescient and all my reservations prove unfounded.
And here’s saying so long to a great sports community that I will sorely miss.
Leader sports editor
News of every sort is breaking out across the sports world.
There is old news (Michael Vick has been reinstated in the NFL); shocking news (some Asian farmer named Y.E. Yang beat Tiger Woods on a Sunday at a major); boring news (some guy up at Fayetteville just moved up the charts at outside linebacker); and recurring news (Brett Favre has retir … er, I mean, unretired again).
But with all those headlines swirling around, the thing that matters most to folks in these parts is not what HAS happened, but what is about to happen. High school football season starts in less than two weeks – in just 10 days, in fact.
I, unfortunately, lost a bet and will be beginning my life as a New Jerseyan (I’ll be trying to remember that it’s no longer “y’all,” but rather “you’s guys”) just about the time Cabot and Jacksonville officially kick off the 2009 prep season on Sept. 1.
Though I’ll be 1,200 miles away, The Leader sports pages will remain in outstanding hands as 18-year Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sportswriting veteran Todd Traub will be sliding into my old seat right across from the very capable Jason King. King, by the way, will once again be making his predictions every Wednesday, either breaking your hearts by unduly raising expectations for your team’s prospects or risking his own life and limb by being brutally frank about those prospects.
Though I am leaving and won’t see a down played, that doesn’t mean I can’t offer my own thoughts and assessments about each of the nine teams in The Leader coverage area. I hope neither to offend any of you’s guys … um, y’all … nor to paint a brighter picture than is warranted for your team’s chances this season.
The unfortunate fact of the matter is, we seem to have limited prospects for a state champion coming out of northern Pulaski County, Lonoke County or White County.
If I were hastily assigning up arrows and down arrows for area teams, which I am, it would go something like this: Up arrows only for Cabot, Riverview and Harding Academy; down arrows for Searcy and North Pulaski (but not STRAIGHT down; new coaches give these teams new life, though both will take time to turn around); side arrows for everyone else.
Cabot would seem to have the only realistic hopes of a state title this year, and those seem hampered by the fact that, despite the return of an outstanding backfield led by Michael James, the Panthers lost almost their entire front seven.
Harding Academy probably lacks the depth of talent to go very far into postseason, but with all of its tradition and an outstanding junior quarterback in Seth Keese, who already has almost one-and-a-half-years of experience as a starter, another nine- or 10-win season looks promising. For that to happen, though, Roddy Mote must find replacements on thefront line to complement all-stater Montgomery Fisher.
Riverview is a great story after springing on to the varsity high school scene last fall to post five wins and reach the playoffs.
Back is offensive fireplug Grafton Harrell at quarterback, along with a stable of able running backs and receivers. The line should be solid, especially on the defensive side. Outside of a sophomore jinx, playoffs again look like a strong possibility.
Jacksonville, Sylvan Hills, Lonoke and Beebe all carry similar question marks into the new season, and an injury here or a player stepping up there could tilt the fortunes of any one of them.
The Red Devils over on Linda Lane are a curious case. Only two starters return on offense, but one of those is a strong-armed, seasoned junior quarterback in Logan Perry, who knows the offense inside and out. Head coach Mark Whatley needs to find players to plug in, but the defense may be good enough to give the offense time to become proficient. There seems to be a quiet confidence growing over at Jacksonville.
Almost the exact same situation exists up the road at Beebe. Fullback Sammy Williams — he of the 42 touchdowns and nearly 3,000 yards rushing the past two seasons — is gone, along with most of the rest of the offense. The defense will have to carry the Badgers until the offense catches up.
Lonoke must cope with the loss of two game-breaking receivers in Michael Howard and Clarence Harris, and will be calling on a quarterback with almost no experience. The tradition is there, but how far will it take them?
Jim Withrow over at Sylvan Hills has had to alter his offense and lower his expectations a little after the loss of a slew of players to academics and other sports. But Jordan Spears and Juliean Broner remain the lynch pins of an able offense and the defense returns veterans in the front seven.
For North Pulaski, it can’t get much worse than it did last year, or the past six years for that matter. A mere five wins over that period practically screamed out for a change, even if head coach Tony Bohannon wasn’t the culprit for the dismal run.
In long-time Jacksonville defensive coordinator Rick Russell, the Falcons may have landed just what they need. He knows his Xs and Os, he’s a big proponent of the weight room and he possesses the emotional fire needed to get things headed in the right direction.
Likewise, Searcy will surely get a boost from a new coach and a new era. Tim Harper was a proven winner at Des Arc. He won’t win many this year, but for the first time in several seasons, fans can reasonably look to a brighter future.
Here’s hoping all my accolades prove prescient and all my reservations prove unfounded.
And here’s saying so long to a great sports community that I will sorely miss.
SPORTS >> Battling the heat
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sportswriter
It hasn’t yet been determined what killed Courtney Stone, the Arkansas Baptist player who died Aug. 14, two days after collapsing during a team meeting following practice in Little Rock.
Stone could have had an undiagnosed condition that slipped past all the routine physicals, medical histories, doctor’s releases and consent forms, and university president Fitz Hill, the former Arkansas Razorback and head coach at San Jose State, has promised a full investigation.
But, with autopsy results pending, one of the suspects in the death of Stone, an apparently healthy and fit 18-year-old, is a football player’s oldest and most insidious enemy — heat.
The University of North Carolina-based National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury reports, since 1995, 33 football players from the sandlot level to the NFL have died from heat-related causes. Of those fatalities, 25 were high school players.
And the deaths could have been prevented, Jacksonville High School trainer Jason Cates said.
“Football is a 12-month sport now,” Cates said. “We’re seeing kids that are out and doing stuff and being acclimated and things like that, so it’s helping. But unfortunately there are still deaths.”
Heat stroke occurs when a person is exposed to high temperatures so long the brain, trying to maintain all bodily functions, becomes overtaxed and simply shuts down, rendering the victim brain dead.
While football will always hold its share of risks, trainers like Cates are banding with coaches to prevent heat stroke and provide better care for high school athletes suffering from heat-related illness.
“It is something that we are trying to research and make sure that we keep these kids safe at a secondary school level,” Cates said.
AWARENESS, PREPAREDNESS ARE KEY
At most modern football practices, water flows almost nonstop, which is a far cry from the days when hard-bitten coaches used it as a reward and withheld it as punishment.
“We got a break — if we got one — that was it,” said Harding Academy coach Roddy Mote, recalling his high school days in West Virginia. “That was the only time we got water during that break. Of course the length of practices was a lot longer and of course the length of time before you got a break was longer.”
“Water breaks, you’d get a handful of ice and get back to work,” Jacksonville coach Mark Whatley said.
Cates said water is just one facet of heat-stroke prevention. Many high school programs today keep a close watch on a player’s weight, and old ideas about two-a-day workouts and full-pad practices are being replaced with more flexible thinking.
“We make sure the kids understand,” Cates said. “And the parents understand — that’s the biggest thing — that they’re being watched through these two-a-days.”
A potential heat-stroke victim will exhibit confusion — perhaps not comprehending a simple play — and become sluggish, Cates said. Dry heaving and stomach cramps could follow.
“If you get to that level, you’re in trouble,” Cates said.
Late-level symptoms include full body cramps and the absence of sweat.
“Then you go from heat exhaustion to heat stroke pretty quick,” Cates said.
As part of a prevention plan, many programs now weigh players before and after summer workouts. Cates said that if an athlete loses more than 3 percent of his body weight, he should re-hydrate and replace that weight before he can return to practice.
Cates recalled an extreme situation at Jacksonville last year when a handful of players locked up with body cramps and were taken to the emergency room where they were given intravenous saline and kept overnight.
The players were kept out of practice for three days, and when they returned they were kept out of pads for another three days while their conditions were monitored.
Cates keeps cold towels and a whirlpool bath full of cold water handy to lower a player’s core temperature should he become overheated. He also stresses proper diet, urges players to avoid dark fluids with caffeine that act as diuretics and to bring a change of clothes.
“When clothes get saturated then the clothes are working against you,” Cates said. “Not absorbing it. Can’t evaporate.”
Coaches are urged to have more flexible practice schedules, to extend the length of breaks or make breaks more frequent during the hot months and to start summer practices later in the day.
Cabot Coach Mike Malham, who has led the Panthers since 1981, mandates his players complete all of their summer conditioning so they report in shape. He insists the players hydrate before practice, conducts the first of his two-a-days in the early morning shade, lets his players have all the water they want and holds a Gatorade and cool-down break in the air-conditioned field house during the heat of the afternoons.
If a player shows symptoms of heat exhaustion, like cramps, Malham holds him out of practice, and he said there is no substitute for a simple hand on the back of the neck to see if a player’s skin is clammy.
“I’ve been in this long enough. I haven’t lost one yet,” Malham said. “I want to knock on wood. You never know what could happen, but again, it gets down to common sense.”
TRAGEDY FOCUSES ATTENTION
On Aug. 20, 2008, 15-year-old Pleasure Ridge Park (Ky.) High School offensive lineman Max Gilpin was running sprints in a heat index of 94 degrees when he collapsed. Gilpin was rushed to the emergency room, where he was found to have a core temperature of 107 degrees. He died three days later.
On Wednesday, first-year Pleasure Ridge coach David Stinson was re-indicted on a charge of wanton endangerment after he had already pleaded not guilty to a charge of reckless homicide. His trial is scheduled to start Aug. 31.
Stinson was allegedly conducting a grueling practice and withholding water from his players.
“I mean coaches are scared to death,” Cates said. “It sent ripples across the country as to how the coaches are handling two-a-day practices.”
Cates, a Jacksonville native and president-elect of the Arkansas Athletic Trainers Association, has worked to make sure similar tragedies are avoided in Arkansas, but there is only so much that can be done.
With 300 schools participating under the Arkansas Activities Association banner and only 192 certified or licensed trainers in the state, Cates said it would be impractical to mandate each school have a trainer.
“We are trying to stay away from any unfunded mandates because, No. 1, the schools, they just can’t afford it,” Cates said.
“And, No. 2, we don’t have enough certified athletic trainers in the state.”
Instead, Cates and his brethren have tried to work within the AAA and the state legislature to come up with acceptable guidelines for a number of sports safety and health issues.
Cates, the 2008 Arkansas Athletic Trainer of the Year, said there are few mandates in place for the prevention of heat stroke, but he is pleased with the progress that has been made when it comes to awareness.
“We’re forming position statements and trying to educate the coaches on each of these things,” Cates said. “And we’re also trying to educate them on athletic trainers and how athletic trainers can help the schools. And there are a lot of schools the last few years that have stepped up to the plate and started hiring athletic trainers.”
“I’m fortunate because of Jason,” Whatley said.
Cates is an employee of Ortho Arkansas, which donates Cates’ time to Jacksonville High. Harding Academy has a trainer on staff while Cabot, though without a full-time trainer, gets volunteer help from local physical therapist Joe Farrer.
“He comes by a couple times a week and he’s here for all the games,” Malham said.
Cates said there is an extensive medical history form on the AAA Web site that is recommended to all athletes and their parents.
“If anything comes up, whether it be a blood pressure issues, a pulse issue, maybe we hear a murmur or something like that, the kids have to go for further studies and get cleared,” Cates said. “We let their family doctor plan their course of action until we get an all-clear for athletic participation.”
Heart conditions, sickle-cell traits and other conditions that can be accelerated by exposure to heat can possibly be detected if the medical history form is properly filled out, Cates said.
Unfortunately, a player too often simply reports to practice with a family doctor’s clearance.
“But there is no blood pressure record, no allergy record,” Cates said. “By rule that paper says the kid is cleared to play, but at Jacksonville, if I get that, I have the kid go ahead and get that form off the AAA Web site and fill it out for me to know.”
Cates also advocates EKGs be included as part of routine physicals. A cardiology group in Jonesboro donates EKGs to the entire area, and it was just such a test that detected a previously undiagnosed heart condition in Arkansas State freshman receiver Alan Muse, who has since had corrective surgery and is back in practice.
“If there’s a group that’s doing it in Jonesboro we need to find a group that can do it in Little Rock,” Cates said, acknowledging the cost of the test is prohibitive. “There’s got to be somebody that has those resources here.”
Before Cates, physicians and concerned politicians can begin considering mandates for heat- stroke prevention — and how to fund them — Cates is waiting on the results of studies on the subject at the University of Georgia.
Cates is particularly interested in the study because of the similarities in climate to Arkansas.
“Then we’ll be able to form a position statement and look at what changes may be needed as far as addressing the coaches and two-a-days and things like that,” Cates said. “But we’re really not in a position to jump out there and make something because you don’t want to do it without scientific research.”
PLAYERS COME FIRST
Without the hard science to support the passing of tough laws, doctors and trainers like Cates have found the best way to prevent heat stroke is to work hand-in-hand with high school coaches as much as possible.
For the most part, the coaches have been receptive and willing, Cates said.
“Some coaches are still traditional football coaches; they’re out there from 1 to 4 o’ clock,” Cates said. “But with the lawsuit from last year I don’t think there’s a coach that is not in tune with it. There is not a coach who wants to lose an athlete.”
Close to 4,000 attended seminars on heat exposure during AAA All-Star week festivities at Fayetteville in June. Similar, well-attended seminars have been conducted in Jonesboro and Little Rock — with coaches traveling from as far away as Newport and Junction City to attend.
“I know that a lot of coaches, just from talking to coaches and athletic trainers around the state … they’re having early morning practice to avoid the heat of the day,” said Cates, who got his degree in sports medicine at Arkansas State, which had the first accredited sports-medicine program in Arkansas. “Some of them are coming in at 7 and 8 in the evening and practicing under the lights.”
Many of the guidelines people like Cates are preaching are based on rules adopted by the NCAA and recommended by the National Athletic Trainers Association: Going longer in helmets and shorts, no back-to-back two-a-days or back-to-back workouts in full pads, flexible practice and hydration break schedules.
Of course, the NCAA has the luxury of requiring one certified trainer per every 50 athletes. Cates is the only trainer for 64 football players at Jacksonville, while Cabot and many other schools have yet to hire a trainer at all.
For the time being, and maybe for always, the first line of defense against heat stroke appears to be the coaches, who can be a notoriously demanding lot when it comes to sticking to schedules and budgeting time.
But a practice timetable is trivial when compared to the health of a young man who has his whole life ahead of him. Most coaches agree, when a player bids his family goodbye and heads off to practice or a game, they should expect to see him again.
“I wouldn’t say that putting a kid’s life No. 1 would complicate anything,” Whatley said. “From that standpoint, I don’t think it handcuffs us anymore. We’re going to be more organized and make better use of our time.”
Leader sportswriter
It hasn’t yet been determined what killed Courtney Stone, the Arkansas Baptist player who died Aug. 14, two days after collapsing during a team meeting following practice in Little Rock.
Stone could have had an undiagnosed condition that slipped past all the routine physicals, medical histories, doctor’s releases and consent forms, and university president Fitz Hill, the former Arkansas Razorback and head coach at San Jose State, has promised a full investigation.
But, with autopsy results pending, one of the suspects in the death of Stone, an apparently healthy and fit 18-year-old, is a football player’s oldest and most insidious enemy — heat.
The University of North Carolina-based National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury reports, since 1995, 33 football players from the sandlot level to the NFL have died from heat-related causes. Of those fatalities, 25 were high school players.
And the deaths could have been prevented, Jacksonville High School trainer Jason Cates said.
“Football is a 12-month sport now,” Cates said. “We’re seeing kids that are out and doing stuff and being acclimated and things like that, so it’s helping. But unfortunately there are still deaths.”
Heat stroke occurs when a person is exposed to high temperatures so long the brain, trying to maintain all bodily functions, becomes overtaxed and simply shuts down, rendering the victim brain dead.
While football will always hold its share of risks, trainers like Cates are banding with coaches to prevent heat stroke and provide better care for high school athletes suffering from heat-related illness.
“It is something that we are trying to research and make sure that we keep these kids safe at a secondary school level,” Cates said.
AWARENESS, PREPAREDNESS ARE KEY
At most modern football practices, water flows almost nonstop, which is a far cry from the days when hard-bitten coaches used it as a reward and withheld it as punishment.
“We got a break — if we got one — that was it,” said Harding Academy coach Roddy Mote, recalling his high school days in West Virginia. “That was the only time we got water during that break. Of course the length of practices was a lot longer and of course the length of time before you got a break was longer.”
“Water breaks, you’d get a handful of ice and get back to work,” Jacksonville coach Mark Whatley said.
Cates said water is just one facet of heat-stroke prevention. Many high school programs today keep a close watch on a player’s weight, and old ideas about two-a-day workouts and full-pad practices are being replaced with more flexible thinking.
“We make sure the kids understand,” Cates said. “And the parents understand — that’s the biggest thing — that they’re being watched through these two-a-days.”
A potential heat-stroke victim will exhibit confusion — perhaps not comprehending a simple play — and become sluggish, Cates said. Dry heaving and stomach cramps could follow.
“If you get to that level, you’re in trouble,” Cates said.
Late-level symptoms include full body cramps and the absence of sweat.
“Then you go from heat exhaustion to heat stroke pretty quick,” Cates said.
As part of a prevention plan, many programs now weigh players before and after summer workouts. Cates said that if an athlete loses more than 3 percent of his body weight, he should re-hydrate and replace that weight before he can return to practice.
Cates recalled an extreme situation at Jacksonville last year when a handful of players locked up with body cramps and were taken to the emergency room where they were given intravenous saline and kept overnight.
The players were kept out of practice for three days, and when they returned they were kept out of pads for another three days while their conditions were monitored.
Cates keeps cold towels and a whirlpool bath full of cold water handy to lower a player’s core temperature should he become overheated. He also stresses proper diet, urges players to avoid dark fluids with caffeine that act as diuretics and to bring a change of clothes.
“When clothes get saturated then the clothes are working against you,” Cates said. “Not absorbing it. Can’t evaporate.”
Coaches are urged to have more flexible practice schedules, to extend the length of breaks or make breaks more frequent during the hot months and to start summer practices later in the day.
Cabot Coach Mike Malham, who has led the Panthers since 1981, mandates his players complete all of their summer conditioning so they report in shape. He insists the players hydrate before practice, conducts the first of his two-a-days in the early morning shade, lets his players have all the water they want and holds a Gatorade and cool-down break in the air-conditioned field house during the heat of the afternoons.
If a player shows symptoms of heat exhaustion, like cramps, Malham holds him out of practice, and he said there is no substitute for a simple hand on the back of the neck to see if a player’s skin is clammy.
“I’ve been in this long enough. I haven’t lost one yet,” Malham said. “I want to knock on wood. You never know what could happen, but again, it gets down to common sense.”
TRAGEDY FOCUSES ATTENTION
On Aug. 20, 2008, 15-year-old Pleasure Ridge Park (Ky.) High School offensive lineman Max Gilpin was running sprints in a heat index of 94 degrees when he collapsed. Gilpin was rushed to the emergency room, where he was found to have a core temperature of 107 degrees. He died three days later.
On Wednesday, first-year Pleasure Ridge coach David Stinson was re-indicted on a charge of wanton endangerment after he had already pleaded not guilty to a charge of reckless homicide. His trial is scheduled to start Aug. 31.
Stinson was allegedly conducting a grueling practice and withholding water from his players.
“I mean coaches are scared to death,” Cates said. “It sent ripples across the country as to how the coaches are handling two-a-day practices.”
Cates, a Jacksonville native and president-elect of the Arkansas Athletic Trainers Association, has worked to make sure similar tragedies are avoided in Arkansas, but there is only so much that can be done.
With 300 schools participating under the Arkansas Activities Association banner and only 192 certified or licensed trainers in the state, Cates said it would be impractical to mandate each school have a trainer.
“We are trying to stay away from any unfunded mandates because, No. 1, the schools, they just can’t afford it,” Cates said.
“And, No. 2, we don’t have enough certified athletic trainers in the state.”
Instead, Cates and his brethren have tried to work within the AAA and the state legislature to come up with acceptable guidelines for a number of sports safety and health issues.
Cates, the 2008 Arkansas Athletic Trainer of the Year, said there are few mandates in place for the prevention of heat stroke, but he is pleased with the progress that has been made when it comes to awareness.
“We’re forming position statements and trying to educate the coaches on each of these things,” Cates said. “And we’re also trying to educate them on athletic trainers and how athletic trainers can help the schools. And there are a lot of schools the last few years that have stepped up to the plate and started hiring athletic trainers.”
“I’m fortunate because of Jason,” Whatley said.
Cates is an employee of Ortho Arkansas, which donates Cates’ time to Jacksonville High. Harding Academy has a trainer on staff while Cabot, though without a full-time trainer, gets volunteer help from local physical therapist Joe Farrer.
“He comes by a couple times a week and he’s here for all the games,” Malham said.
Cates said there is an extensive medical history form on the AAA Web site that is recommended to all athletes and their parents.
“If anything comes up, whether it be a blood pressure issues, a pulse issue, maybe we hear a murmur or something like that, the kids have to go for further studies and get cleared,” Cates said. “We let their family doctor plan their course of action until we get an all-clear for athletic participation.”
Heart conditions, sickle-cell traits and other conditions that can be accelerated by exposure to heat can possibly be detected if the medical history form is properly filled out, Cates said.
Unfortunately, a player too often simply reports to practice with a family doctor’s clearance.
“But there is no blood pressure record, no allergy record,” Cates said. “By rule that paper says the kid is cleared to play, but at Jacksonville, if I get that, I have the kid go ahead and get that form off the AAA Web site and fill it out for me to know.”
Cates also advocates EKGs be included as part of routine physicals. A cardiology group in Jonesboro donates EKGs to the entire area, and it was just such a test that detected a previously undiagnosed heart condition in Arkansas State freshman receiver Alan Muse, who has since had corrective surgery and is back in practice.
“If there’s a group that’s doing it in Jonesboro we need to find a group that can do it in Little Rock,” Cates said, acknowledging the cost of the test is prohibitive. “There’s got to be somebody that has those resources here.”
Before Cates, physicians and concerned politicians can begin considering mandates for heat- stroke prevention — and how to fund them — Cates is waiting on the results of studies on the subject at the University of Georgia.
Cates is particularly interested in the study because of the similarities in climate to Arkansas.
“Then we’ll be able to form a position statement and look at what changes may be needed as far as addressing the coaches and two-a-days and things like that,” Cates said. “But we’re really not in a position to jump out there and make something because you don’t want to do it without scientific research.”
PLAYERS COME FIRST
Without the hard science to support the passing of tough laws, doctors and trainers like Cates have found the best way to prevent heat stroke is to work hand-in-hand with high school coaches as much as possible.
For the most part, the coaches have been receptive and willing, Cates said.
“Some coaches are still traditional football coaches; they’re out there from 1 to 4 o’ clock,” Cates said. “But with the lawsuit from last year I don’t think there’s a coach that is not in tune with it. There is not a coach who wants to lose an athlete.”
Close to 4,000 attended seminars on heat exposure during AAA All-Star week festivities at Fayetteville in June. Similar, well-attended seminars have been conducted in Jonesboro and Little Rock — with coaches traveling from as far away as Newport and Junction City to attend.
“I know that a lot of coaches, just from talking to coaches and athletic trainers around the state … they’re having early morning practice to avoid the heat of the day,” said Cates, who got his degree in sports medicine at Arkansas State, which had the first accredited sports-medicine program in Arkansas. “Some of them are coming in at 7 and 8 in the evening and practicing under the lights.”
Many of the guidelines people like Cates are preaching are based on rules adopted by the NCAA and recommended by the National Athletic Trainers Association: Going longer in helmets and shorts, no back-to-back two-a-days or back-to-back workouts in full pads, flexible practice and hydration break schedules.
Of course, the NCAA has the luxury of requiring one certified trainer per every 50 athletes. Cates is the only trainer for 64 football players at Jacksonville, while Cabot and many other schools have yet to hire a trainer at all.
For the time being, and maybe for always, the first line of defense against heat stroke appears to be the coaches, who can be a notoriously demanding lot when it comes to sticking to schedules and budgeting time.
But a practice timetable is trivial when compared to the health of a young man who has his whole life ahead of him. Most coaches agree, when a player bids his family goodbye and heads off to practice or a game, they should expect to see him again.
“I wouldn’t say that putting a kid’s life No. 1 would complicate anything,” Whatley said. “From that standpoint, I don’t think it handcuffs us anymore. We’re going to be more organized and make better use of our time.”
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
EDITORIAL >> Huck is not helpful
Mike Huckabee, our gifted former governor, does some things very well. In nearly 10 years as governor, he could say one thing, do quite the opposite and win praise for both, a talent every politician covets. We found ourselves objecting to most of what he said, applauding most of what he did and then objecting again when he miscast his own record while pursuing the Republican nomination for president.
But international diplomacy? We never thought he would be good at that. Peace and understanding are never ends that Mike Huckabee thinks worth pursuing. Foes are always implacable. Friends are never even slightly wrong. Friends turned critics are to be cast into everlasting exile.
But it was not exactly with surprise that we read that Huckabee was in Israel for three days to hurl a wrench or two into the delicate peace process. Since he’s being talked about as a presidential candidate in 2012, his visit and his inflammatory words attracted some attention. He denounced the president of the United States and the nation’s Middle East policies.
While President Obama was conferring with the president of Egypt and pressing him to move other Arab nations toward accommodations with Israel, Huckabee was touring Israel and East Jerusalem denouncing the fundamental premise of United States policy for the past four presidents, that there should be a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel. George W. Bush probably would have tried to have his citizenship revoked before he returned.
The president and the State Department have pushed the Israeli government to stop building settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, with some but not enough success. That seems essential to getting the parties back at the negotiating table. President Obama praised Israel yesterday for moving in the right direction.
But Huckabee said Israel shouldn’t make any concessions. He goes far beyond even the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Huckabee said the United States has no business advising Israelis where they should live. They ought to be able to live anywhere they want to, he said. What if Israel tried to tell the people of New York City which borough they could and could not live in? he asked.
That’s not quite the same. The settlements are not in Israel. If Huckabee actually believed the doctrine he espoused, he would say that we have no business telling Arabs, Mexicans, Haitians and Dominicans they can’t live in the United States if they want to. Well, he did more or less say that in 2005 and 2006 and took some heat for it, but he took the contrary position when he ran for president.
Ateret Kohanim, an extreme religious group that wants more settlement in occupied lands, no nation for the Palestinians and no accommodation, sponsored Huckabee’s visit. His highly political visit flouts a historical principle, that Americans of either party do not go abroad to undermine U. S. foreign policy, whatever it is. It is no longer much observed but it served us well.
Come home, Mike.
—Ernie Dumas
But international diplomacy? We never thought he would be good at that. Peace and understanding are never ends that Mike Huckabee thinks worth pursuing. Foes are always implacable. Friends are never even slightly wrong. Friends turned critics are to be cast into everlasting exile.
But it was not exactly with surprise that we read that Huckabee was in Israel for three days to hurl a wrench or two into the delicate peace process. Since he’s being talked about as a presidential candidate in 2012, his visit and his inflammatory words attracted some attention. He denounced the president of the United States and the nation’s Middle East policies.
While President Obama was conferring with the president of Egypt and pressing him to move other Arab nations toward accommodations with Israel, Huckabee was touring Israel and East Jerusalem denouncing the fundamental premise of United States policy for the past four presidents, that there should be a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel. George W. Bush probably would have tried to have his citizenship revoked before he returned.
The president and the State Department have pushed the Israeli government to stop building settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, with some but not enough success. That seems essential to getting the parties back at the negotiating table. President Obama praised Israel yesterday for moving in the right direction.
But Huckabee said Israel shouldn’t make any concessions. He goes far beyond even the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Huckabee said the United States has no business advising Israelis where they should live. They ought to be able to live anywhere they want to, he said. What if Israel tried to tell the people of New York City which borough they could and could not live in? he asked.
That’s not quite the same. The settlements are not in Israel. If Huckabee actually believed the doctrine he espoused, he would say that we have no business telling Arabs, Mexicans, Haitians and Dominicans they can’t live in the United States if they want to. Well, he did more or less say that in 2005 and 2006 and took some heat for it, but he took the contrary position when he ran for president.
Ateret Kohanim, an extreme religious group that wants more settlement in occupied lands, no nation for the Palestinians and no accommodation, sponsored Huckabee’s visit. His highly political visit flouts a historical principle, that Americans of either party do not go abroad to undermine U. S. foreign policy, whatever it is. It is no longer much observed but it served us well.
Come home, Mike.
—Ernie Dumas
EDITORIAL >> Snyder draws a big crowd
For all those people who are sick with fear that the government will change the health-care system — there were droves of them at Congressman Vic Snyder’s massive town-hall meeting yesterday at the Convention Center at Little Rock — the news furnishes antidotes almost daily. With or without government action, the system is changing every day, and not for the better.
Families USA, a consumer health organization, reported this week that insurance premiums for Arkansas workers had increased 87.7 percent over the past nine years. A family paying $6,355 for medical coverage in 2000 was paying $11,927 at the beginning of this year.
But inflation is a fact of life and everyone just has to make allowance for it, right?
Not this kind of inflation. It is nearly six times the increase in median earnings for Arkansas families over the same period.
Every year, the increase in premiums reaches the breaking point for many workers and employers. Employers decide they can’t any longer sponsor medical plans for their workers, or else not all of their workers, or else not the same level of coverage. For thousands of employers, maybe most of them, the rising premium costs have driven them to negotiate policies with narrower coverage or much higher copays, or both. Even with all those economies, still the premiums go up every year at an undiminished pace.
It has reached this point: Here in poor Arkansas we spend more per person on direct medical care and insurance than any of the industrialized nations on earth and we have much less to show for it: far fewer people with access to medical care, a higher infant-death rate, shorter life expectancies.
Leaving this health-care system alone is not a luxury any of us can afford, not for long anyway.
How to stabilize and bring down medical and insurance inflation and how to keep people with health coverage through good times and bad are subjects worth serious debate and a good quarrel. Would a low-cost optional insurance plan sponsored by the government drive the big private carriers like Blue Cross, Wellpoint, Cigna, United and Aetna to hold down their underwriting costs and profits and thus stabilize premiums? Or would the low government cost eventually be too much competition for the big companies and drive them out of the market? We think the companies can fend for themselves; their profits even in this moribund economy are setting records. But it is not an issue that thoughtful people should dismiss out of hand.
The only idea that ought to be dismissed out of hand is that the government should do nothing, as many at the public forums advocate because, they say, the United States government cannot be trusted. We do not have a democracy so that we can elect a government that leaves the most desperate problems of the people unaddressed.
Families USA, a consumer health organization, reported this week that insurance premiums for Arkansas workers had increased 87.7 percent over the past nine years. A family paying $6,355 for medical coverage in 2000 was paying $11,927 at the beginning of this year.
But inflation is a fact of life and everyone just has to make allowance for it, right?
Not this kind of inflation. It is nearly six times the increase in median earnings for Arkansas families over the same period.
Every year, the increase in premiums reaches the breaking point for many workers and employers. Employers decide they can’t any longer sponsor medical plans for their workers, or else not all of their workers, or else not the same level of coverage. For thousands of employers, maybe most of them, the rising premium costs have driven them to negotiate policies with narrower coverage or much higher copays, or both. Even with all those economies, still the premiums go up every year at an undiminished pace.
It has reached this point: Here in poor Arkansas we spend more per person on direct medical care and insurance than any of the industrialized nations on earth and we have much less to show for it: far fewer people with access to medical care, a higher infant-death rate, shorter life expectancies.
Leaving this health-care system alone is not a luxury any of us can afford, not for long anyway.
How to stabilize and bring down medical and insurance inflation and how to keep people with health coverage through good times and bad are subjects worth serious debate and a good quarrel. Would a low-cost optional insurance plan sponsored by the government drive the big private carriers like Blue Cross, Wellpoint, Cigna, United and Aetna to hold down their underwriting costs and profits and thus stabilize premiums? Or would the low government cost eventually be too much competition for the big companies and drive them out of the market? We think the companies can fend for themselves; their profits even in this moribund economy are setting records. But it is not an issue that thoughtful people should dismiss out of hand.
The only idea that ought to be dismissed out of hand is that the government should do nothing, as many at the public forums advocate because, they say, the United States government cannot be trusted. We do not have a democracy so that we can elect a government that leaves the most desperate problems of the people unaddressed.
TOP STORY >> Cabot school rises after fire
By JEFFREY SMITH
Leader staff writer
Students went to orientation and teachers put the finishing touches on their brand new classrooms at Cabot Junior High North on Tuesday as they prepared for the first day of school today.
“I am really excited for the parents and the kids, but what makes me happiest is not having the students in portable classrooms in the storm season during the spring,” assistant superintendent Jim Dalton said.
“For all practical purposes, it is complete,” he added. “We had the elevator inspection this morning and it passed.”
Today, students will be learning in the state-of-the-art $13.5 million, two-story building that replaces the original junior high that burned down in 2006. It brings to a close three years that teachers have been holding classes in portable classrooms and at the high school campus.
Many teachers said they were pleased with the new technology and ample space of the building.
Ben Lippert, a seventh-grade ancient-world history teacher in his second year at Cabot Junior High North, said being in the new building is a welcome change. He taught in Wisconsin for six years before teaching in Cabot and is looking forward to teaching with additional technology in the classroom.
“Everyone here is excited for the new building. I’m very impressed with the new technology and the features of the classroom,” he said.
“We have a new audio system. Everything we say is amplified by speaker. The kids won’t have to strain to hear us,” Lippert said.
Lippert continued, “I like everything about this school after being in the trailers last year. This is just nice to come home and have everyone in the same building. It will help improve the education for our children.”
Susan Buntin is a seventh-grade science teacher who is in her first year of teaching at the junior high. She taught at Cabot Middle School South last year and is also excited to be in the hi-tech school.
“I think the technology we have here is really awesome. The classroom has lab facilities and everything we need as far as I can tell. The lab is easy to work with,” Buntin said.
Katherine Karkkainen teaches art history and studio art. She has taught at Junior High North for eight years.
“The art room is fabulous. I love my room. It is nice, big and light feeling. The openness and brightness makes you feel happy,” Karkkainen said.
She said the room has an inviting atmosphere. The room is more open than the one she taught in at the original junior high. Karkkainen said while the junior high was under construction, ninth-grade classes were held in different buildings on the high school campus.
“It will be nice to be under one roof. We’ll feel more cohesion instead of being spread out. It’s kind of like, ‘The Jeffersons’ We’re movin’ on up,” she said.
Eighth-grade English teacher Jordan Collier is in his fifth year teaching in Cabot. It is his second year at Cabot Junior High North. Before that, he taught for three years at the Alternative Learning Environment building.
“It’s awesome. I’m excited for the kids to have an actual school building. You have a better sense of community,” Collier said.
Chuck Martin of Cabot brought his daughter, Ashley, a seventh-grader at the school, to orientation.
“It is very pretty and beautiful,” Ashley, 12, said about the new school. “I am overwhelmed at how big it is. It could be a high school.”
Chuck Martin said three years ago his oldest daughter was picking up her schedule for school when the fire broke out. He said the new school is bigger and has the opportunity to accommodate more students if needed.
The new Cabot Junior High North is 127,282 square feet. It has 47 classrooms, five computer labs, nine science labs, three team rooms for teachers to meet, a counseling center, a health and a nurse area, three art studios, a band suite and a choir suite.
The junior high will have 105 employees. Approximately 65 of those will be licensed teachers. Around 1,172 students are expected to attend the junior high. The school holds seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade classes.
The cafeteria is the largest in the district. The Junior High North cafeteria will be able to serve 600 students at a time.
Other new features include motion detectors in the classrooms that will control lights to save energy.
The school will have increased parking. A new driveway was constructed to provide access all the way around the junior-high building. The school has a metal roof, metal trusses and a fire-suppression system.
Leader staff writer
Students went to orientation and teachers put the finishing touches on their brand new classrooms at Cabot Junior High North on Tuesday as they prepared for the first day of school today.
“I am really excited for the parents and the kids, but what makes me happiest is not having the students in portable classrooms in the storm season during the spring,” assistant superintendent Jim Dalton said.
“For all practical purposes, it is complete,” he added. “We had the elevator inspection this morning and it passed.”
Today, students will be learning in the state-of-the-art $13.5 million, two-story building that replaces the original junior high that burned down in 2006. It brings to a close three years that teachers have been holding classes in portable classrooms and at the high school campus.
Many teachers said they were pleased with the new technology and ample space of the building.
Ben Lippert, a seventh-grade ancient-world history teacher in his second year at Cabot Junior High North, said being in the new building is a welcome change. He taught in Wisconsin for six years before teaching in Cabot and is looking forward to teaching with additional technology in the classroom.
“Everyone here is excited for the new building. I’m very impressed with the new technology and the features of the classroom,” he said.
“We have a new audio system. Everything we say is amplified by speaker. The kids won’t have to strain to hear us,” Lippert said.
Lippert continued, “I like everything about this school after being in the trailers last year. This is just nice to come home and have everyone in the same building. It will help improve the education for our children.”
Susan Buntin is a seventh-grade science teacher who is in her first year of teaching at the junior high. She taught at Cabot Middle School South last year and is also excited to be in the hi-tech school.
“I think the technology we have here is really awesome. The classroom has lab facilities and everything we need as far as I can tell. The lab is easy to work with,” Buntin said.
Katherine Karkkainen teaches art history and studio art. She has taught at Junior High North for eight years.
“The art room is fabulous. I love my room. It is nice, big and light feeling. The openness and brightness makes you feel happy,” Karkkainen said.
She said the room has an inviting atmosphere. The room is more open than the one she taught in at the original junior high. Karkkainen said while the junior high was under construction, ninth-grade classes were held in different buildings on the high school campus.
“It will be nice to be under one roof. We’ll feel more cohesion instead of being spread out. It’s kind of like, ‘The Jeffersons’ We’re movin’ on up,” she said.
Eighth-grade English teacher Jordan Collier is in his fifth year teaching in Cabot. It is his second year at Cabot Junior High North. Before that, he taught for three years at the Alternative Learning Environment building.
“It’s awesome. I’m excited for the kids to have an actual school building. You have a better sense of community,” Collier said.
Chuck Martin of Cabot brought his daughter, Ashley, a seventh-grader at the school, to orientation.
“It is very pretty and beautiful,” Ashley, 12, said about the new school. “I am overwhelmed at how big it is. It could be a high school.”
Chuck Martin said three years ago his oldest daughter was picking up her schedule for school when the fire broke out. He said the new school is bigger and has the opportunity to accommodate more students if needed.
The new Cabot Junior High North is 127,282 square feet. It has 47 classrooms, five computer labs, nine science labs, three team rooms for teachers to meet, a counseling center, a health and a nurse area, three art studios, a band suite and a choir suite.
The junior high will have 105 employees. Approximately 65 of those will be licensed teachers. Around 1,172 students are expected to attend the junior high. The school holds seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade classes.
The cafeteria is the largest in the district. The Junior High North cafeteria will be able to serve 600 students at a time.
Other new features include motion detectors in the classrooms that will control lights to save energy.
The school will have increased parking. A new driveway was constructed to provide access all the way around the junior-high building. The school has a metal roof, metal trusses and a fire-suppression system.
TOP STORY >> Wing Ding brings in major-league event
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
A major-league sporting event is coming to Jacksonville’s Wing Ding Festival.
No, it’s not football, baseball or even lacrosse. But it is called the fastest-growing sport in America.
It’s competitive eating.
Denise Goforth, a spokesman for the city’s annual festival, told the advertising and promotion commission on Monday night that the festival is contracting with Major League Eating to have a competitive wing-eating contest in 2010.
Goforth said this year the festival will run a two-division eating contest as a prelude to the professional event.
“We have a category for amateurs and one for celebrities and the military. We have two wings out here at the air base that we’d love to have eat wings,” she quipped.
The A&P gave the festival $10,000 earlier this year for entertainment and this is the route organizers chose. The festival is increasing prize money for the cooking competition, adding to the eating competition with prize money and bringing back Radio Disney.
“That still leaves us about $4,000 for other acts,” Goforth said. “We hope the eating competition will put us on the state, regional and national map.”
The MLE is the sports franchise that oversees all professional competitive-eating events and competitive-eating television specials on ESPN and other networks. It lists its mission as providing a safe environment for all events while also seeking to create a dynamic and enjoyable fan experience.
Among the MLE professional eaters are Takeru Kobayashi, Joey Chestnut, Sonya Thomas and Patrick Bertoletti, whose records include 58 bratwurst in 10 minutes, 66 Nathan’s Famous hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes, 103 Krystal hamburgers in eight minutes, 65 hardboiled eggs in less than seven minutes and 21 pounds of grits in 10 minutes.
MLE events, according to a company press release, are watched by millions of fans.
Alderman Reedie Ray, who is a commission member, is excited about the idea of a competitive eating contest, but, then of course among his many awards and honors is first place in a central Arkansas pie-eating contest.
This year’s Wing Ding festival is set for Saturday, Oct. 3.
In other A&P business, the commission:
Tabled a request by Ron Newport of Keep Jacksonville Beautiful to approve the first installment, about $4,000, on a 25-foot soaring sculpture by John Deering that the organization wants to place on city hall grounds. The total cost of the sculpture will come to more than $50,000.
The commission had legal concerns about purchasing the sculpture without going out for bids, and was also concerned that there was not enough in the budget to support the request.
Newport said that there are provisions that allow organizations to bypass the bidding requirement when it comes to art projects.
He and the commission will discuss it again at the September meeting when the city attorney will have the answers about the bidding.
In the financial report by Cheryl Erkel of the city’s finance department, the commissioners heard that the prepared- food tax is down about 2 percent for the year and the hotel-room tax collections are down about 17 percent.
June’s taxable hotel/motel receipts of $374,258 were the worst in June in five years of collecting the tax. In 2008, which was an outstanding year for the local hotel/motel industry, taxable receipts came in at $508,390.
The city’s portion for June came to $7,400 for the month and about $39,000 for the first half of the year.
The city’s restaurants posted taxable receipts of $3.27 million for June, down about $80,000 from June 2008. The city’s portion came to about $66,000 for June and $384,000 for the year.
Half the amount collected is earmarked for the parks and recreation department. The remaining amount is used by the commission to promote and market Jacksonville and various events in the city.
The commission approved spending $9,000 with the Sells Agency, the marketing firm the city hired to help promote Jacksonville, to develop an advertising and promotion Web site.
Mike Sells told the commissioners that most major cities have three Web sites—the city Web site for its residents, a chamber Web site for business and an A&P site for visitors and tourists, which all interlink with each other.
The commission also ap-proved the chamber’s plans for a multidivisional Christmas lighting contest. Awards will be given to the best display in the residential, church, commercial and government categories. Those interested in participating must complete an application by Nov. 20 and be ready for judging by Dec. 7.
For more information or applications, call the chamber at 982-1511.
Leader staff writer
A major-league sporting event is coming to Jacksonville’s Wing Ding Festival.
No, it’s not football, baseball or even lacrosse. But it is called the fastest-growing sport in America.
It’s competitive eating.
Denise Goforth, a spokesman for the city’s annual festival, told the advertising and promotion commission on Monday night that the festival is contracting with Major League Eating to have a competitive wing-eating contest in 2010.
Goforth said this year the festival will run a two-division eating contest as a prelude to the professional event.
“We have a category for amateurs and one for celebrities and the military. We have two wings out here at the air base that we’d love to have eat wings,” she quipped.
The A&P gave the festival $10,000 earlier this year for entertainment and this is the route organizers chose. The festival is increasing prize money for the cooking competition, adding to the eating competition with prize money and bringing back Radio Disney.
“That still leaves us about $4,000 for other acts,” Goforth said. “We hope the eating competition will put us on the state, regional and national map.”
The MLE is the sports franchise that oversees all professional competitive-eating events and competitive-eating television specials on ESPN and other networks. It lists its mission as providing a safe environment for all events while also seeking to create a dynamic and enjoyable fan experience.
Among the MLE professional eaters are Takeru Kobayashi, Joey Chestnut, Sonya Thomas and Patrick Bertoletti, whose records include 58 bratwurst in 10 minutes, 66 Nathan’s Famous hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes, 103 Krystal hamburgers in eight minutes, 65 hardboiled eggs in less than seven minutes and 21 pounds of grits in 10 minutes.
MLE events, according to a company press release, are watched by millions of fans.
Alderman Reedie Ray, who is a commission member, is excited about the idea of a competitive eating contest, but, then of course among his many awards and honors is first place in a central Arkansas pie-eating contest.
This year’s Wing Ding festival is set for Saturday, Oct. 3.
In other A&P business, the commission:
Tabled a request by Ron Newport of Keep Jacksonville Beautiful to approve the first installment, about $4,000, on a 25-foot soaring sculpture by John Deering that the organization wants to place on city hall grounds. The total cost of the sculpture will come to more than $50,000.
The commission had legal concerns about purchasing the sculpture without going out for bids, and was also concerned that there was not enough in the budget to support the request.
Newport said that there are provisions that allow organizations to bypass the bidding requirement when it comes to art projects.
He and the commission will discuss it again at the September meeting when the city attorney will have the answers about the bidding.
In the financial report by Cheryl Erkel of the city’s finance department, the commissioners heard that the prepared- food tax is down about 2 percent for the year and the hotel-room tax collections are down about 17 percent.
June’s taxable hotel/motel receipts of $374,258 were the worst in June in five years of collecting the tax. In 2008, which was an outstanding year for the local hotel/motel industry, taxable receipts came in at $508,390.
The city’s portion for June came to $7,400 for the month and about $39,000 for the first half of the year.
The city’s restaurants posted taxable receipts of $3.27 million for June, down about $80,000 from June 2008. The city’s portion came to about $66,000 for June and $384,000 for the year.
Half the amount collected is earmarked for the parks and recreation department. The remaining amount is used by the commission to promote and market Jacksonville and various events in the city.
The commission approved spending $9,000 with the Sells Agency, the marketing firm the city hired to help promote Jacksonville, to develop an advertising and promotion Web site.
Mike Sells told the commissioners that most major cities have three Web sites—the city Web site for its residents, a chamber Web site for business and an A&P site for visitors and tourists, which all interlink with each other.
The commission also ap-proved the chamber’s plans for a multidivisional Christmas lighting contest. Awards will be given to the best display in the residential, church, commercial and government categories. Those interested in participating must complete an application by Nov. 20 and be ready for judging by Dec. 7.
For more information or applications, call the chamber at 982-1511.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)