IN SHORT: Vilonia content to keep ball in hands of backs.
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Beebe had little choice but to win the time-of-possession war.
That was thanks to a Vilonia offense that proved it needed little time to strike, as senior quarterback Drew Knowles led an Eagle ground assault that steamrolled to a 41-14 victory over the Badgers at Phillip D. Weaver Stadium on Friday night.
Vilonia ground out 396 total yards behind Knowles, who led all rushers with 17 carries for 167 yards and three touchdowns and was content to keep the ball on the ground with no pass attempts.
Beebe (0-3) carried out its game plan of sustained drives through the first three quarters. But when the Badgers found themselves down 26-14 late in the third, quarterback Scot Gowen went to the air with disastrous results, as the Eagles grabbed back-to-back interceptions.
“Our offensive line did a great job,” Vilonia coach Jim Stanley said.
“And Drew Knowles did a good job of leading the option for us tonight. We’re still making too many mistakes, but overall, I was happy.”
Beebe took its first drives of each half for scores and held the ball longer than Vilonia. The Badgers’ running game was fairly consistent, but Gowen’s 0 of 6 performance through the air, the two interceptions, and a near interception thrown by backup Jordan Brockway, put Beebe’s biggest offensive weakness on display.
“We were banged up from the Lonoke game coming in,” Beebe coach John Shannon said. “The kids fought hard, and we had opportunities, but we missed assignments here and there. That came back to bite us.”
Beebe lost momentum on a drive just before the end of the first half when Gowen was injured on a keeper that moved the ball to the Vilonia 25-yard line following a personal foul penalty against Vilonia.
Brockway led the offense most of the third quarter and put together the Badgers’ final scoring drive of the night to start the second half.
Beebe started at its 20 following a touchback by Vilonia junior kicker James Gardner, but halfback Jay Holdway bought some room with runs of three and four yards to the Badger 27.
The Badgers used short gains to fight their way to midfield before Holdway broke free on Beebe’s longest run of the night on a 50-yard scoring play that cut Vilonia’s lead to 20-14 with 7:21 left in the half.
Taylor led the Badgers with 23 carries for 94 yards and a touchdown while Gowen had 10 carries for 71 yards. Beebe had 244 yards of offense.
Vilonia showed its own clock-grinding ability with a 12-play, 72 yard scoring drive on its first possession. Running back James Sax established himself as a useful decoy while Knowles chalked up runs of 14 and 16 yards and his 15-yard touchdown run with 6:18 left in the first quarter.
Beebe one-upped its host with a 14-play, 73-yard scoring drive that ran the first-quarter clock to under 30 seconds. Jordan Doss added the extra point and the Badgers took their only lead, 7-6.
But the Eagles dominated the second quarter with two unanswered scoring drives. Knowles continued to strike with keeps set up by fakes to Sax and Lewis. The senior quarterback ended up with 12 carries for 118 yards in the first half along with two touchdowns.
His biggest play, a 38-yard run midway through the second quarter, was part of what turned out to be the Eagles’ only drive that ended without a score. Beebe’s defense held on fourth and one at the Badgers 11 to take over on downs.
Lewis gave the Eagles their second score on a 19-yard run that capped a brief four-play, 45-yard drive, and Knowles scored with 3:02 left in the first half on a two-yard run to give Vilonia a 20-7 lead.
The Eagles finished the first half with 228 yards, all on the ground.
After a pair of physical games, Shannon said some mending time is needed.
“We’ll have to get well in a hurry,” Shannon said looking ahead to the 5A-East Conference schedule. “And we’ve got to get some mistakes fixed. The real season starts next week.”
Monday, September 20, 2010
SPORTS >> Har-Ber a handful for Cabot
IN SHORT: Nationally ranked Wildcats survive scrappy effort by Panthers thanks to big first half.
By Todd Traub
Leader sports editor
Cabot was never out of it.
Unfortunately, the Panthers could never quite get into it, either.
Long-time playoff nemesis Springdale Har-Ber scored on its first three possessions and went on to a 28-10 victory over Cabot at Panther Stadium on Friday.
It was the Panthers’ first game against a 7A opponent this season and the fourth time in four years Har-Ber has beaten Cabot, with three victories coming in the 7A playoffs.
“I hope we play them one more time this year,” Cabot coach Mike Malham said, looking toward this year’s postseason after the Panthers (2-1) suffered their first loss.
Malham was encouraged by the way the Panthers stayed with the Wildcats (3-0), answering Har-Ber’s first two touchdowns with scores of their own. Har-Ber was ranked in the top 25 of more than one national high school poll and had scored more than 100 points in its first two games.
“We seem to be getting a little better each game,” Malham said. “Our worst half offensively was this second half tonight. But I think our defense is getting a little better and a little better. They’re very good on offense, they’ve got everything back from last year and won it last year.”
Cabot did all of its scoring in the first half while Har-Ber added a third-quarter touchdown in the second half, which bogged down on penalties and miscues by both teams. Har-Ber made it 28-10 when Ryan Luther passed 17 yards to Jeremy Vongvone as time expired in the third quarter.
“We hung in there good and had our chances,” Malham said. “And really the defense gave us some chances in the second half and all of a sudden our offense didn’t move it.”
The half began when Cabot’s Spencer Smith and Jesse Roberts collided to fumble the kickoff. Har-Ber took the gift and promptly went backwards on a series of penalties and a sack by Cabot’s Jason Sled, then the Wildcats extended a Panthers drive with an offsides penalty.
But Cabot wound up punting, and its remaining possessions ended on a failed fourth-down conversion, a fumble after reaching the Har-Ber 37, another fourth-down stop and an interception.
Bryson Morris picked off a Har-Ber pass in the end zone for Cabot.
“I thought it was two different halves,” Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said. “I thought offensively we played good in the first half. Defense was so-so. Second half I thought the offense made a lot of mistakes, just kind of hit cruise control there and Cabot had everything to do with that; they came after us and they caused some turnovers.
“But our defense played better in the second half.”
Spencer Smith led Cabot with 78 rushing yards and a touchdown. Luther passed for 133 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for another to lead Har-Ber.
Har-Ber took the opening kickoff and marched 75 yards to score on Luther’s 21-yard pass to Evan Johnson, who got behind Morris in the end zone on the fourth-and-5 attempt.
The Wildcats overcame false start and holding penalties on the drive, and the big gain was a 26-yard completion from Luther to Vongvone.
Cabot responded with a 65-yard scoring drive, but it stalled when Austin Alley took a two-yard loss on fourth and nine and the Panthers settled for Jesus Marquez’s 27-yard field goal that made it 7-0 with 59 seconds left in the first quarter.
Marquez stepped in as kicker because a pulled stomach muscle limited senior Logan Spry to defensive back duty only.
Har-Ber came back with a seven-play scoring possession that featured Gordon Welch’s 10-yard run for a first down followed by Luther’s 38-yard touchdown pass to Brett Stith that made it 14-3 with 10:10 left in the half.
But Cabot answered again, this time with a 14-play, 70-yard touchdown drive.
The Panthers picked up a fourth-down conversion on Andre Ausejo’s four-yard run to the Wildcats 44 and Jeremy Berry raced to the outside on a 20-yard carry for a first down to the Har-Ber 14.
Smith carried for first and goal at the 3 and Craig carried up the middle from there for the touchdown that cut it to 14-10 with 4:40 left.
But the Panthers couldn’t silence the Wildcats. Har-Ber drove for another touchdown and got a boost from an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Cabot that helped it survive a 7-yard loss on a low snap and gave the Wildcats second and two at the Panthers 23.
Tucker Lee carried twice and then Luther ran it in from the 12 to make it 21-10 with 1:25 left in the half.
“It was sloppy but coming in to Cabot and get a win, 28-10, I think is huge,” Wood said.
“Cabot’s going to be in the thick of it come Thanksgiving. They’re a really well coached team. I’ve got so much respect for this town and this community. It’s how football should be.”
By Todd Traub
Leader sports editor
Cabot was never out of it.
Unfortunately, the Panthers could never quite get into it, either.
Long-time playoff nemesis Springdale Har-Ber scored on its first three possessions and went on to a 28-10 victory over Cabot at Panther Stadium on Friday.
It was the Panthers’ first game against a 7A opponent this season and the fourth time in four years Har-Ber has beaten Cabot, with three victories coming in the 7A playoffs.
“I hope we play them one more time this year,” Cabot coach Mike Malham said, looking toward this year’s postseason after the Panthers (2-1) suffered their first loss.
Malham was encouraged by the way the Panthers stayed with the Wildcats (3-0), answering Har-Ber’s first two touchdowns with scores of their own. Har-Ber was ranked in the top 25 of more than one national high school poll and had scored more than 100 points in its first two games.
“We seem to be getting a little better each game,” Malham said. “Our worst half offensively was this second half tonight. But I think our defense is getting a little better and a little better. They’re very good on offense, they’ve got everything back from last year and won it last year.”
Cabot did all of its scoring in the first half while Har-Ber added a third-quarter touchdown in the second half, which bogged down on penalties and miscues by both teams. Har-Ber made it 28-10 when Ryan Luther passed 17 yards to Jeremy Vongvone as time expired in the third quarter.
“We hung in there good and had our chances,” Malham said. “And really the defense gave us some chances in the second half and all of a sudden our offense didn’t move it.”
The half began when Cabot’s Spencer Smith and Jesse Roberts collided to fumble the kickoff. Har-Ber took the gift and promptly went backwards on a series of penalties and a sack by Cabot’s Jason Sled, then the Wildcats extended a Panthers drive with an offsides penalty.
But Cabot wound up punting, and its remaining possessions ended on a failed fourth-down conversion, a fumble after reaching the Har-Ber 37, another fourth-down stop and an interception.
Bryson Morris picked off a Har-Ber pass in the end zone for Cabot.
“I thought it was two different halves,” Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said. “I thought offensively we played good in the first half. Defense was so-so. Second half I thought the offense made a lot of mistakes, just kind of hit cruise control there and Cabot had everything to do with that; they came after us and they caused some turnovers.
“But our defense played better in the second half.”
Spencer Smith led Cabot with 78 rushing yards and a touchdown. Luther passed for 133 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for another to lead Har-Ber.
Har-Ber took the opening kickoff and marched 75 yards to score on Luther’s 21-yard pass to Evan Johnson, who got behind Morris in the end zone on the fourth-and-5 attempt.
The Wildcats overcame false start and holding penalties on the drive, and the big gain was a 26-yard completion from Luther to Vongvone.
Cabot responded with a 65-yard scoring drive, but it stalled when Austin Alley took a two-yard loss on fourth and nine and the Panthers settled for Jesus Marquez’s 27-yard field goal that made it 7-0 with 59 seconds left in the first quarter.
Marquez stepped in as kicker because a pulled stomach muscle limited senior Logan Spry to defensive back duty only.
Har-Ber came back with a seven-play scoring possession that featured Gordon Welch’s 10-yard run for a first down followed by Luther’s 38-yard touchdown pass to Brett Stith that made it 14-3 with 10:10 left in the half.
But Cabot answered again, this time with a 14-play, 70-yard touchdown drive.
The Panthers picked up a fourth-down conversion on Andre Ausejo’s four-yard run to the Wildcats 44 and Jeremy Berry raced to the outside on a 20-yard carry for a first down to the Har-Ber 14.
Smith carried for first and goal at the 3 and Craig carried up the middle from there for the touchdown that cut it to 14-10 with 4:40 left.
But the Panthers couldn’t silence the Wildcats. Har-Ber drove for another touchdown and got a boost from an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Cabot that helped it survive a 7-yard loss on a low snap and gave the Wildcats second and two at the Panthers 23.
Tucker Lee carried twice and then Luther ran it in from the 12 to make it 21-10 with 1:25 left in the half.
“It was sloppy but coming in to Cabot and get a win, 28-10, I think is huge,” Wood said.
“Cabot’s going to be in the thick of it come Thanksgiving. They’re a really well coached team. I’ve got so much respect for this town and this community. It’s how football should be.”
SPORTS >> Warriors stop Falcons short of end zone
IN SHORT: Field goal all North Pulaski can get from LR Christian.
By Jason Gibson
Special to The Leader
Little Rock Christian Academy shook off last week’s loss to beat visiting North Pulaski 14-3 on Friday night.
“I thought we got better this week” said Little Rock Christian Academy Coach Justin Kramer, whose team lost to Sylvan Hills last week. “Our defense did awesome. Keeping the Falcons to three points was great.”
North Pulaski scored on Specner Johnston’s field goal in the first quarter following an interception.
Warriors linebacker Daniel Williams intercepted Falcon’s quarterback Marvin Davis taking the pass 47 yards to the Falcon 18. On the next play Logan Hays passed to Byron Milton in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.
Down 14-3 the Falcons (0-3) took the kick off to the 45-yard line but the drive stalled after Luke Hall sacked Falcon quarterback Davis on third and 15.
After the punt the Warriors (1-2) took over at their 19. With Logan Hays at quarterback, the Warriors moved to their 39. Facing third and 16 Hays dropped back and passed to Ethan Archer for a 40-yard gain that took the ball to the Falcons 19.
The Warriors would move the ball down the Falcon 4 after a personal foul on the Falcons. On first down the Warriors handed the ball off to Logan Kuhn, who went up the middle for a two-yard gain.
On second down the Warriors again gave the ball to Kuhn but the were called for holding.
With the ball moved back to the 13, the Warriors went the air. Hays passed to Kuhn but before he could score he fumbled and the Warriors recovered in the end zone, but another holding call that nullified the touchdown.
The penalty brought up third and 18. Hays dropped back and threw over the head of his receiver. On fourth down North Pulaski called for a blitz and Schyler Spencer sacked Hays to that the Warrior threat.
The Falcons took over at their 25-yard line. On first down the Falcons handed the ball off to sophomore Dwayne Davis, who took the ball up the middle to the Warriors 39 for a 40-yard run.
Davis would finish the night with 41 yards on three carries. Three plays later the Falcons were looking at a third and 17. And Davis threw a screen pass to Darius Cage for 38 yards to the Little Rock Christian 4.
On first and goal Derrick Hart was stopped for a four-yard loss. After a three-yard run by Cage the Falcons were looking at third and goal from the 5.
Davis dropped back to pass, finding no one open he ran with it but was taken down for a four-yard loss by Tyler Otis.
The Falcon came out of the huddle with Cage split to the right and two receivers to the left.
Davis faked a pass to Cage then threw a wide receiver screen to Hart, who broke a tackle and ran for six yards before being dragged down three yards short of the goal line as the Warriors took over on downs.
The Warriors committed two turnovers and only ran five plays in North Pulaski territory in the first half.
The Warriors defense was the difference, keeping North Pulaski out of the end zone on two possessions in which the Falcons were inside the 5.
North Pulaski Coach Greg Hatcher said his team “went backward” after scoring 12 points in last week’s loss to Pulaski Oak Grove.
The Falcons looked good at times, Hatcher said, but just could not find the end zone. He went on to say “they did not know how to win.”
North Pulaski plays Little Rock Central next week.
By Jason Gibson
Special to The Leader
Little Rock Christian Academy shook off last week’s loss to beat visiting North Pulaski 14-3 on Friday night.
“I thought we got better this week” said Little Rock Christian Academy Coach Justin Kramer, whose team lost to Sylvan Hills last week. “Our defense did awesome. Keeping the Falcons to three points was great.”
North Pulaski scored on Specner Johnston’s field goal in the first quarter following an interception.
Warriors linebacker Daniel Williams intercepted Falcon’s quarterback Marvin Davis taking the pass 47 yards to the Falcon 18. On the next play Logan Hays passed to Byron Milton in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.
Down 14-3 the Falcons (0-3) took the kick off to the 45-yard line but the drive stalled after Luke Hall sacked Falcon quarterback Davis on third and 15.
After the punt the Warriors (1-2) took over at their 19. With Logan Hays at quarterback, the Warriors moved to their 39. Facing third and 16 Hays dropped back and passed to Ethan Archer for a 40-yard gain that took the ball to the Falcons 19.
The Warriors would move the ball down the Falcon 4 after a personal foul on the Falcons. On first down the Warriors handed the ball off to Logan Kuhn, who went up the middle for a two-yard gain.
On second down the Warriors again gave the ball to Kuhn but the were called for holding.
With the ball moved back to the 13, the Warriors went the air. Hays passed to Kuhn but before he could score he fumbled and the Warriors recovered in the end zone, but another holding call that nullified the touchdown.
The penalty brought up third and 18. Hays dropped back and threw over the head of his receiver. On fourth down North Pulaski called for a blitz and Schyler Spencer sacked Hays to that the Warrior threat.
The Falcons took over at their 25-yard line. On first down the Falcons handed the ball off to sophomore Dwayne Davis, who took the ball up the middle to the Warriors 39 for a 40-yard run.
Davis would finish the night with 41 yards on three carries. Three plays later the Falcons were looking at a third and 17. And Davis threw a screen pass to Darius Cage for 38 yards to the Little Rock Christian 4.
On first and goal Derrick Hart was stopped for a four-yard loss. After a three-yard run by Cage the Falcons were looking at third and goal from the 5.
Davis dropped back to pass, finding no one open he ran with it but was taken down for a four-yard loss by Tyler Otis.
The Falcon came out of the huddle with Cage split to the right and two receivers to the left.
Davis faked a pass to Cage then threw a wide receiver screen to Hart, who broke a tackle and ran for six yards before being dragged down three yards short of the goal line as the Warriors took over on downs.
The Warriors committed two turnovers and only ran five plays in North Pulaski territory in the first half.
The Warriors defense was the difference, keeping North Pulaski out of the end zone on two possessions in which the Falcons were inside the 5.
North Pulaski Coach Greg Hatcher said his team “went backward” after scoring 12 points in last week’s loss to Pulaski Oak Grove.
The Falcons looked good at times, Hatcher said, but just could not find the end zone. He went on to say “they did not know how to win.”
North Pulaski plays Little Rock Central next week.
EDITORIAL >>AG&FC run amok
A cartoon by the late great George Fisher in the Arkansas Gazette put the state Game and Fish Commission atop Mount Olympus and observed that the commission answered only to God. The wildlife agency was installed in the state Constitution nearly 70 years ago on the theory that it needed protecting from the governor and the other conniving politicians, those in the state legislature. Administrators and the appointed commissioners who ran the agency enjoyed unparalleled power that was largely unchecked by either the executive or legislative branches.
If Fisher could only see them now!
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published more of its detailed research on state government vehicles Thursday and the abuse thereof. It showed that the Game and Fish Commission had 613 employees but 658 vehicles, a little more than one vehicle per worker. The agency needs more vehicles than many agencies (all the agencies have more than they need) because there is hauling and construction work to be done at the fisheries and the wildlife wardens need vehicles. But more than one per employee?
The agency is a poster child for a government run amok — a government that has run amok for many years. State cars were a perk for underpaid state employees. The only trouble was that the cars were supplied to the highest-paid people in every department and at the colleges, not the drudges who did the work.
But Game and Fish is a special case. It is worse for two reasons. The first is that, like the state Highway Commission, it enjoys unusual independence from the ordinary strictures of government. Voters enshrined both agencies and their governing commissions in the state Constitution, Game and Fish in 1944 and the Highway Commission in 1952, on the theory that if the governor and legislature couldn’t touch them, their decisions would be made for the good of the people and not to satisfy politicians.
The second was the misguided constitutional amendment ratified by the voters in 1998 that levied a one-seventh of a percent sales tax and divided the revenues forever between Game and Fish and the state Parks Department. Whether their needs are lesser or greater than the rest of the government, those agencies get that money automatically every year — it’s about $60 million a year — and Game and Fish spends its money more or less as it pleases.
Governor Mike Huckabee, who liked to fish, campaigned for the tax. You may remember when he made his famous trip down the Arkansas River on his bass boat at the head of a flotilla, stopping at every city to hold a media event in which he urged people to go to the polls and vote for the tax. They did. He boasted that it was his tax — that is, until he ran for president and claimed to have been the tax-cuttingest governor in history. When he was asked about the conservation sales tax, he said, oh that was the voters, not me.
With another $25 million to $30 million flowing into the agency, it had to spend it somewhere. Its operating budget jumped from about $30 million in 1998 to $57 million in the next eight years. It raised the number of employees by a fifth. The agency already carried as many vehicles as employees, but the vehicles became bigger and newer. The top dogs in the agency, according to the Democrat-Gazette, have 2010 or 2009 model cars.
One commissioner interviewed by the paper said he cast the only vote several months ago against buying 50 new cars. He did not have any objection, he said, except “one or two” of the vehicles they were replacing were pretty new. Who wants to drive a two-year-old car?
But the vehicle policies at Game and Fish are not going to change. The governor can’t change them. The legislature can’t change them. A newspaper article, editorials and letters to the editor aren’t going to change them. They have that money to spend, and you wouldn’t expect them to leave it in the treasury, would you? The tax and its use are spelled out in the state Constitution. The commissioners cannot be removed or moved.
Only the voters can change the Constitution. Mike Huckabee made it sound so wonderful on his voyage down the Arkansas. Next time someone wants to put a tax of any kind in the Constitution, let’s pay more attention.
If Fisher could only see them now!
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published more of its detailed research on state government vehicles Thursday and the abuse thereof. It showed that the Game and Fish Commission had 613 employees but 658 vehicles, a little more than one vehicle per worker. The agency needs more vehicles than many agencies (all the agencies have more than they need) because there is hauling and construction work to be done at the fisheries and the wildlife wardens need vehicles. But more than one per employee?
The agency is a poster child for a government run amok — a government that has run amok for many years. State cars were a perk for underpaid state employees. The only trouble was that the cars were supplied to the highest-paid people in every department and at the colleges, not the drudges who did the work.
But Game and Fish is a special case. It is worse for two reasons. The first is that, like the state Highway Commission, it enjoys unusual independence from the ordinary strictures of government. Voters enshrined both agencies and their governing commissions in the state Constitution, Game and Fish in 1944 and the Highway Commission in 1952, on the theory that if the governor and legislature couldn’t touch them, their decisions would be made for the good of the people and not to satisfy politicians.
The second was the misguided constitutional amendment ratified by the voters in 1998 that levied a one-seventh of a percent sales tax and divided the revenues forever between Game and Fish and the state Parks Department. Whether their needs are lesser or greater than the rest of the government, those agencies get that money automatically every year — it’s about $60 million a year — and Game and Fish spends its money more or less as it pleases.
Governor Mike Huckabee, who liked to fish, campaigned for the tax. You may remember when he made his famous trip down the Arkansas River on his bass boat at the head of a flotilla, stopping at every city to hold a media event in which he urged people to go to the polls and vote for the tax. They did. He boasted that it was his tax — that is, until he ran for president and claimed to have been the tax-cuttingest governor in history. When he was asked about the conservation sales tax, he said, oh that was the voters, not me.
With another $25 million to $30 million flowing into the agency, it had to spend it somewhere. Its operating budget jumped from about $30 million in 1998 to $57 million in the next eight years. It raised the number of employees by a fifth. The agency already carried as many vehicles as employees, but the vehicles became bigger and newer. The top dogs in the agency, according to the Democrat-Gazette, have 2010 or 2009 model cars.
One commissioner interviewed by the paper said he cast the only vote several months ago against buying 50 new cars. He did not have any objection, he said, except “one or two” of the vehicles they were replacing were pretty new. Who wants to drive a two-year-old car?
But the vehicle policies at Game and Fish are not going to change. The governor can’t change them. The legislature can’t change them. A newspaper article, editorials and letters to the editor aren’t going to change them. They have that money to spend, and you wouldn’t expect them to leave it in the treasury, would you? The tax and its use are spelled out in the state Constitution. The commissioners cannot be removed or moved.
Only the voters can change the Constitution. Mike Huckabee made it sound so wonderful on his voyage down the Arkansas. Next time someone wants to put a tax of any kind in the Constitution, let’s pay more attention.
TOP STORY >> Volunteer firefighters’ alert system is broken
IN SHORT: Several departments are affected, but Lonoke County Quorum Court seeks remedy.
By Joan McCoy
Leader staff writer
The paging system that calls volunteer firefighters to fires and medical emergencies in northern Lonoke County is on the blink and no one knows who’s in charge of repairing it.
There are several volunteer fire departments in northern Lonoke County. Those affected by the problem include Ward, Austin, CS&Z and Mountain Springs.
Cabot is on a separate system from the volunteer departments and Fire Chief Phil Robinson said it is problem-free.
Justice of the Peace Barry Weathers brought the situation to the attention of the Lonoke County Quorum Court on Thursday night, saying he stood beside Ward Fire Chief Randy Staley when his pager went off. Only about one-third of the call was understandable, Weathers said, adding that Staley told him that was the best it had been in weeks.
Contacted Friday morning, Staley said the problem has been bad for “quite a while and really bad for six to eight months.”
Sometimes only the tone comes through and sometimes garbled speech. Often he calls the dispatcher on the phone to get the information repeated, sometimes saying, “Just give me the address and I’ll find out what the problem is when I get there.”
To their credit, the dispatchers always come through with the emergency information he needs, Staley said. But what he really needs to know is who’s in charge.
Jimmy Depriest, head of the county’s office of emergency services, and Sheriff Jim Roberson attended the quorum court meeting and both said they weren’t responsible.
The sheriff said he would check with Myra Bryant, over 911, to see if her office is responsible.
Lonoke County Judge Charlie Troutman said if the fire departments aren’t getting their pages then the county has a problem and asked Weathers and Justice of the Peace Tim Lemons to find out who is in charge of repairs.
Staley said he’s “not one to stir up a stink” but that’s all he really wants.
“When you’ve got so much static on a line, that’s a problem,” Staley said. “I just want to find out who’s over this so I can go talk to someone and solve the problem.”
Staley said he thinks the trouble might be with a repeater located somewhere on Highway 5. A representative for Motorola told him it could be the antenna or possibly a cable.
Staley said he believes the system was installed about 20 years ago by the Lonoke County Fire Chiefs Association with the understanding that someone, the county judge maybe, would maintain it.
“Just tell me who is over it so when we do have a problem we can go talk to them,” he said.
By Joan McCoy
Leader staff writer
The paging system that calls volunteer firefighters to fires and medical emergencies in northern Lonoke County is on the blink and no one knows who’s in charge of repairing it.
There are several volunteer fire departments in northern Lonoke County. Those affected by the problem include Ward, Austin, CS&Z and Mountain Springs.
Cabot is on a separate system from the volunteer departments and Fire Chief Phil Robinson said it is problem-free.
Justice of the Peace Barry Weathers brought the situation to the attention of the Lonoke County Quorum Court on Thursday night, saying he stood beside Ward Fire Chief Randy Staley when his pager went off. Only about one-third of the call was understandable, Weathers said, adding that Staley told him that was the best it had been in weeks.
Contacted Friday morning, Staley said the problem has been bad for “quite a while and really bad for six to eight months.”
Sometimes only the tone comes through and sometimes garbled speech. Often he calls the dispatcher on the phone to get the information repeated, sometimes saying, “Just give me the address and I’ll find out what the problem is when I get there.”
To their credit, the dispatchers always come through with the emergency information he needs, Staley said. But what he really needs to know is who’s in charge.
Jimmy Depriest, head of the county’s office of emergency services, and Sheriff Jim Roberson attended the quorum court meeting and both said they weren’t responsible.
The sheriff said he would check with Myra Bryant, over 911, to see if her office is responsible.
Lonoke County Judge Charlie Troutman said if the fire departments aren’t getting their pages then the county has a problem and asked Weathers and Justice of the Peace Tim Lemons to find out who is in charge of repairs.
Staley said he’s “not one to stir up a stink” but that’s all he really wants.
“When you’ve got so much static on a line, that’s a problem,” Staley said. “I just want to find out who’s over this so I can go talk to someone and solve the problem.”
Staley said he thinks the trouble might be with a repeater located somewhere on Highway 5. A representative for Motorola told him it could be the antenna or possibly a cable.
Staley said he believes the system was installed about 20 years ago by the Lonoke County Fire Chiefs Association with the understanding that someone, the county judge maybe, would maintain it.
“Just tell me who is over it so when we do have a problem we can go talk to them,” he said.
TOP STORY >> Mayor: Give us district
IN SHORT: Jacksonville questions validity of school board numbers on support.
By Rick Kron
Leader staff writer
The Jacksonville mayor is willing to bet his job that the Pulaski County Special School Dicstrict’s board members are wrong.
At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Bill Vasquez, who represents the Jacksonville area on the board, said only 20 percent of Jacksonville wants a separate school district.
Thursday night, after the city council was briefed about statements made by Vasquez and other board members at the school board meeting, Mayor Gary Fletcher said he would put up his mayorship over the issue.
“The majority of the people in Jacksonville want their own district,” he told the council. “If I’m wrong and don’t know the feelings of our residents, then I shouldn’t be mayor. But I know the residents want this,” he said.
“I’m willing to put my seat up and want the school board members to do the same, but they won’t.”
Fletcher said the city council, which is diverse and represents the city well, is united in the effort for a separate school district. “We plan to go to the next school board meeting as a body and voice our unity and concerns,” he said.
The school board meets at 6 p.m. Oct. 12 at the district’s central offices off Dixon Road.
Attorney Patrick Wilson, who briefed the council, said all of Jacksonville needs to attend that meeting and sign up to speak. “If you sign up, they have to give you up to two-and-a-half minutes to voice your opinion.”
Alderman Kevin McCleary asked Wilson why the school Board does not want to talk about a new district. Did you ask Vasquez why?”
Wilson said he asked Vasquez twice and twice got no answer.
Fletcher said Vasquez, at Tuesday’s meeting, called Jacksonville a third party for wanting to be a part of the negotiations. “This has nothing to do with you (the city),” Vasquez told Fletcher.
The mayor called Jacksonville’s relationship with the school district a bad marriage. “And we want a divorce.”
A kink in the city’s unity seems to be the local chapter of the NAACP.
Rizelle Aaron, a spokesman for the group, told the council, after asking for permission to speak as the council was trying to adjourn, that if the city wasn’t going to recognize the NAACP, then it would not support the call for a separate district.
Alderman Marshall Smith responded, “What does this mean? Are you going to pick up your toys and leave? That’s not the way to do it.”
Besides Vasquez, school board members Gwen Williams, Sandra Sawyer, Mildred Tatum and Tim Clark voted against reopening negotiations for the new district, which had been tabled for about a year.
Williams and Sawyer think blacks in Jacksonville have been left out of the debate and don’t want a separate school district
By Rick Kron
Leader staff writer
The Jacksonville mayor is willing to bet his job that the Pulaski County Special School Dicstrict’s board members are wrong.
At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Bill Vasquez, who represents the Jacksonville area on the board, said only 20 percent of Jacksonville wants a separate school district.
Thursday night, after the city council was briefed about statements made by Vasquez and other board members at the school board meeting, Mayor Gary Fletcher said he would put up his mayorship over the issue.
“The majority of the people in Jacksonville want their own district,” he told the council. “If I’m wrong and don’t know the feelings of our residents, then I shouldn’t be mayor. But I know the residents want this,” he said.
“I’m willing to put my seat up and want the school board members to do the same, but they won’t.”
Fletcher said the city council, which is diverse and represents the city well, is united in the effort for a separate school district. “We plan to go to the next school board meeting as a body and voice our unity and concerns,” he said.
The school board meets at 6 p.m. Oct. 12 at the district’s central offices off Dixon Road.
Attorney Patrick Wilson, who briefed the council, said all of Jacksonville needs to attend that meeting and sign up to speak. “If you sign up, they have to give you up to two-and-a-half minutes to voice your opinion.”
Alderman Kevin McCleary asked Wilson why the school Board does not want to talk about a new district. Did you ask Vasquez why?”
Wilson said he asked Vasquez twice and twice got no answer.
Fletcher said Vasquez, at Tuesday’s meeting, called Jacksonville a third party for wanting to be a part of the negotiations. “This has nothing to do with you (the city),” Vasquez told Fletcher.
The mayor called Jacksonville’s relationship with the school district a bad marriage. “And we want a divorce.”
A kink in the city’s unity seems to be the local chapter of the NAACP.
Rizelle Aaron, a spokesman for the group, told the council, after asking for permission to speak as the council was trying to adjourn, that if the city wasn’t going to recognize the NAACP, then it would not support the call for a separate district.
Alderman Marshall Smith responded, “What does this mean? Are you going to pick up your toys and leave? That’s not the way to do it.”
Besides Vasquez, school board members Gwen Williams, Sandra Sawyer, Mildred Tatum and Tim Clark voted against reopening negotiations for the new district, which had been tabled for about a year.
Williams and Sawyer think blacks in Jacksonville have been left out of the debate and don’t want a separate school district
TOP STORY >> Redraw PCSSD, group asks
IN SHORT: Jacksonville school district proponents ask state education director for help, citing district’s failures.
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
As the cost of Pulaski County’s 20-year-old desegregation agreement nears $1 billion, a group of frustrated Jacksonville residents Friday petitioned state Education Department Commissioner Tom Kimbrell of Cabot to reorganize the county’s schools, create an independent Jacksonville-north Pulaski County school district or do something.
In a two-page letter to Kimbrell and members of the state board of education says a state of emergency exists and “your assistance will be appreciated,” but it stops short of asking the board to take over the Pulaski County Special School District or to create a new, standalone district. It does not ask any specific remedy.
Attorney Ben Rice, who wrote the letter, said he’s suggesting the board reorganize the school district “to allow the north Pulaski-Jacksonville area to have a separate school district, independent of PCSSD. We have no preference as to whether there is a simple detachment or a dissolution of PCSSD, with our area being allowed to go its own way.”
Currently, PCSSD and the North Little Rock School District are awaiting a ruling from District Judge Brian Miller on whether or not they have achieved unitary status and are released from the desegregation agreement.
The letter, supported by several documents and a half-inch thick stack of petitions with about 2,000 signatures favoring a standalone district, asks Kimbrell and the board of education to do something, according to state Rep. Mark Perry, who says he hand delivered the bound petition to Kimbrell’s office Thursday afternoon and that copies also were mailed to the nine member state Board of Education.
“We’re not spelling it out,” Perry said. “We’re giving them facts they may not have been aware of. They’ll do what’s in the best interest of the kids of Arkansas.”
Perry said neither the creation nor the timing of the delivery of the packet is related to the Pulaski County Special School District’s rejection Tuesday night of the Jacksonville Education Foundation’s proposal to resume talk aimed at a standalone Jacksonville-North Pulaski school district. Nor is it intended as a reflection of the administration of the new PCSSD superintendent Charles Hopson. “Dr. Hopson, I think, will do a good job.”
“We’ve been working on this for a couple of months,” Perry said. “We have a legislative audit going on. (The legislators are) “bringing them back in to figure out how much misspending there’s been.”
“Sooner or later, something has to be done. Whether or not the court stays involved, I don’t care. What’s going on now is not a remedy.”
Those who signed the document were not from any one of the groups working toward a standalone Jacksonville-North Pulaski district.
The letter was signed by more than a dozen Jacksonville area residents including Perry, Ben Rice, Alderman Reedie Ray, Bishop James. E. Bolden III, Pat Bond, who is chairman of the Jacksonville Education Foundation, Mayor Gary Fletcher, J.P. Bob Johnson and Daniel Gray.
The letter calls the following to the attention of the director and the board members:
• The state has funded desegregation efforts at the districts with more than $896 million.
• In 2003, more than 4,000 registered voters signed a petition calling for detachment election for creation of a new district, but PCSSD successfully challenged hold of such an election in court.
• The state General Assembly appropriated $250,000 for a feasibility study, completed in 2006 which shows such a district would be financially feasible.
• The Jacksonville City council on Aug. 21, 2008 passed a resolution in support of a standalone school district.
• Second feasibility study in 2009 again showed a new Jacksonville-North Pulaski district to be financially feasible.
• The PCSSD board in 2008 approved a resolution in favor of a Jacksonville-North Pulaski district subject to federal court approval, and later it approved boundaries for such a district.
• Approximately one-third of the PCSSD tax revenue comes from the Jacksonville-North Pulaski area, but only 3 percent of the revenues spent for maintenance and construction in the past decade was spent on schools in that area.
• Attorney John Walker found that Jacksonville had been “disfavored in the expenditure of PCSSD funds for facilities.
• Public school enrollment in Jacksonville-North Pulaski had declined nearly a quarter in the last decade.
• A recent state Legislative Audit found extensive financial mismanagement and lack of oversight in the PCSSD, including activities by some board members.
• An impasse exists between the PCSSD board and the unions representing teachers and support staff.
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
As the cost of Pulaski County’s 20-year-old desegregation agreement nears $1 billion, a group of frustrated Jacksonville residents Friday petitioned state Education Department Commissioner Tom Kimbrell of Cabot to reorganize the county’s schools, create an independent Jacksonville-north Pulaski County school district or do something.
In a two-page letter to Kimbrell and members of the state board of education says a state of emergency exists and “your assistance will be appreciated,” but it stops short of asking the board to take over the Pulaski County Special School District or to create a new, standalone district. It does not ask any specific remedy.
Attorney Ben Rice, who wrote the letter, said he’s suggesting the board reorganize the school district “to allow the north Pulaski-Jacksonville area to have a separate school district, independent of PCSSD. We have no preference as to whether there is a simple detachment or a dissolution of PCSSD, with our area being allowed to go its own way.”
Currently, PCSSD and the North Little Rock School District are awaiting a ruling from District Judge Brian Miller on whether or not they have achieved unitary status and are released from the desegregation agreement.
The letter, supported by several documents and a half-inch thick stack of petitions with about 2,000 signatures favoring a standalone district, asks Kimbrell and the board of education to do something, according to state Rep. Mark Perry, who says he hand delivered the bound petition to Kimbrell’s office Thursday afternoon and that copies also were mailed to the nine member state Board of Education.
“We’re not spelling it out,” Perry said. “We’re giving them facts they may not have been aware of. They’ll do what’s in the best interest of the kids of Arkansas.”
Perry said neither the creation nor the timing of the delivery of the packet is related to the Pulaski County Special School District’s rejection Tuesday night of the Jacksonville Education Foundation’s proposal to resume talk aimed at a standalone Jacksonville-North Pulaski school district. Nor is it intended as a reflection of the administration of the new PCSSD superintendent Charles Hopson. “Dr. Hopson, I think, will do a good job.”
“We’ve been working on this for a couple of months,” Perry said. “We have a legislative audit going on. (The legislators are) “bringing them back in to figure out how much misspending there’s been.”
“Sooner or later, something has to be done. Whether or not the court stays involved, I don’t care. What’s going on now is not a remedy.”
Those who signed the document were not from any one of the groups working toward a standalone Jacksonville-North Pulaski district.
The letter was signed by more than a dozen Jacksonville area residents including Perry, Ben Rice, Alderman Reedie Ray, Bishop James. E. Bolden III, Pat Bond, who is chairman of the Jacksonville Education Foundation, Mayor Gary Fletcher, J.P. Bob Johnson and Daniel Gray.
The letter calls the following to the attention of the director and the board members:
• The state has funded desegregation efforts at the districts with more than $896 million.
• In 2003, more than 4,000 registered voters signed a petition calling for detachment election for creation of a new district, but PCSSD successfully challenged hold of such an election in court.
• The state General Assembly appropriated $250,000 for a feasibility study, completed in 2006 which shows such a district would be financially feasible.
• The Jacksonville City council on Aug. 21, 2008 passed a resolution in support of a standalone school district.
• Second feasibility study in 2009 again showed a new Jacksonville-North Pulaski district to be financially feasible.
• The PCSSD board in 2008 approved a resolution in favor of a Jacksonville-North Pulaski district subject to federal court approval, and later it approved boundaries for such a district.
• Approximately one-third of the PCSSD tax revenue comes from the Jacksonville-North Pulaski area, but only 3 percent of the revenues spent for maintenance and construction in the past decade was spent on schools in that area.
• Attorney John Walker found that Jacksonville had been “disfavored in the expenditure of PCSSD funds for facilities.
• Public school enrollment in Jacksonville-North Pulaski had declined nearly a quarter in the last decade.
• A recent state Legislative Audit found extensive financial mismanagement and lack of oversight in the PCSSD, including activities by some board members.
• An impasse exists between the PCSSD board and the unions representing teachers and support staff.
Friday, September 17, 2010
FELDMAN >> POWs recall their world war ordeal
World War II veterans make stop in Jacksonville and share their stories.The former POWs who were shot down over Romania during the Second World War arrived at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History in their tour bus a little after 11 a.m. Thursday.
Nearly 1,200 of them were held in captivity in Romania, where they had bombed the oil refineries over Ploesti and the huge rail station in Bucharest.
They talked about their experiences, including their dramatic rescue from the POW camps in August 1944, when U.S. planes airlifted the men to Italy. They were shipped home from there that fall.
Hundreds of them used to attend the reunions—Friday was National POW and MIA Recognition Day — but their numbers are dwindling. Just over 100 of them are still living, and only about a dozen are well enough to travel and attend their reunions anymore.
They were staying at the Double Tree Hotel in Little Rock, where one of the former POWs fell and was having hip surgery while the group visited Jacksonville.
They were here to honor the memory of the late Russell Huntley of Jacksonville, one of their fellow POWs who passed away several years ago.
Maurice Braswell, 87, the outgoing president of the Association of Former POWs in Romania, said although their number is dwindling, the veterans still enjoy getting together and reminiscing about their experiences.
“We share memories,” said Braswell, a retired judge and prosecutor from Fayetteville, N.C.
“We had 1,877 POWs who came back on the boat into New York Harbor,” he recalled. “Just 113 of them are still alive and only 13 can travel now.”
The oil refineries just north of Bucharest fueled the Nazi war machine, so the Germans were desperate to hold on to them and kept producing oil until the summer of 1944, when the relentless bombing effort and the advancing Soviet Army finally broke them.
Hundreds of B-24s flew over the Romanian oil fields and the Bucharest rail yards from the summer of 1943 to the summer of 1944 and were met by Messerschmitts and heavy artillery fire.
When hit, they had 15 seconds to get their parachutes and jump before their planes exploded and then hoped the enemy didn’t kill them.
They flew over Europe in their 20s and now are as old as the Civil War veterans who were still alive when these veterans were born.
The former POWs are in their late 80s and early 90s now and came from all over the country. Many of them get around pretty well and their memories are still sharp, but a couple of them were in wheelchairs.
Despite heavy losses — casualties were nearly 40 percent — the 10-men crews kept pounding the oil fields for a year. The bombing was so fierce, five airmen received the Medal of Honor for heroics in one day.
Dr. Jim Ware, a 90-year-old retired dentist from Berkeley, Calif., was a co-pilot who was shot down in May 1944.
“Three of our crew got killed,” he said, sitting in a wheelchair in front of an exhibit at the museum. “The Messerschmitts got us. We were on fire. The windshield was blown out. There were bullets coming through the floor. Two engines were out and our plane exploded.”
Ware said a thick seat was what saved his life. He reached for his parachute and ejected.
“There was a piece of aluminum in my leg,” Ware said. “As we were coming down, a German pilot circled around me. I thought he was going to kill me. Instead, he flew off.
“The kindness of the enemy was what saved me,” Ware said.
He landed near a group of German soldiers. “They ushered me to their cabin and had me lie there. I was in a state of shock and shivering. This German soldier saw I was shivering, and he threw his coat over me.
“I’m very lucky,” he said.
Ware, who graduated from the University of California after the war, has been married 67 years, but his wife didn’t go to the reunion. “She doesn’t like airplanes,” he said.
Lynn Chinn, 88, of Bella Vista, was at the reunion with his wife, Catherine. A tail gunner, Chinn was shot down in May 1944.
“We had just dropped our bombs and got hit by flak. We all bailed out and the plane blew up,” he said, standing with a walker. “I flew 13 missions in France and Germany. This was the first one over Romania.
“We have 23 candles for people who died this year,” Chinn said.
Glen Funk, 91, is still a cutup, even though he, too, was in a wheelchair. Funk, a B-24 pilot, was on his 11th mission when his plane was hit over Ploesti.
He couldn’t find his parachute at first because he’d changed planes for the mission.
He found a parachute that let him jump out of the plane before it blew up.
Most of his crew ejected safely, but he says, “I’m the last one still alive.”
The Kansas native said, “I was shot down on D-Day. I didn’t even know we’d landed in Normandy.”
Ken Barmore, 87, of Santa Cruz, Calif., was another pilot. He was shot down on his first mission in May 1944.
“We were shot as we were trying to go home after we dropped our bombs,” he said.
In the POW camp, he and Ware became friends. When they were airlifted from the camp in September 1944, the pair formed a jazz band on the boat back to the U.S.
Lew Sleeper, 87, a retired investment banker from Tucson, Ariz., was on a mission over the Bucharest rail depot when he was shot down.
“It was the third largest railroad yard in Europe,” Sleeper recalled during the reunion luncheon at the museum. “We had 15 seconds to get our parachutes and get out. Five of our crew were killed.”
The survivors were held in an abandoned Red Cross building near the rail yards, which the allies kept pounding almost weekly.
“There were 18 of us in the building. Five 1,200-pound bombs went off in the next room, but the walls were so thick, we survived,” Sleeper recalled.
The Romanians capitulated in August 1944, and the Germans were on the run. A Romanian officer flew to Italy with a U.S. colonel to tell the Americans about the POWs, who were quickly airlifted out of the country.
The POWs were spead out all over the area — some were staying with Romanians in their homes — but everyone was accounted for and took off in the huge airlift — 22 of them in one plane.
There was a memorial service Saturday for the airmen who’d passed away, including Russell Huntley, whose family had invited the group to visit the Jacksonville museum.
In a few years, the survivors will be in their 90s, and only a handful will make it to the reunions then. But if you’d been at the military museum on Thursday, you would have heard their stories first-hand and seen the legends they call the Greatest Generation.
May they live to be 100.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
TOP STORY > >Board slams door on city
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Two of three Jacksonville-area school board members led the fight Tuesday night, joining three others, to prevent the Jacksonville Education Foun-dation from resuming talks with Pulaski County Special School District officials aimed at paving the way for a new Jacksonville-north Pulaski County school district as soon as legally possible.
The board in 2008 approved the move in principle and later approved boundaries for the district, then shut off discussion until after a ruling on the district’s unitary status. That’s been before District Judge Brian Miller for months.
Representing the foundation, attorney Patrick Wilson told the board it was time to repeal its year-old resolution suspending negotiation toward detachment of just such a district from PCSSD.
The board, admittedly tired of what it perceived as in-your-face tactics by the Jacksonville district supporters, voted 5-2 to cut off further discussions “until Pulaski County Special School District is declared unitary.”
Jacksonville school board member Bill Vasquez called Wilson’s request political, then got political himself. Gwen Wiliams, the other Jacksonville-area board member, also voted against reopening discussions.
“What this district will look like is the business of this board,” Vasquez said. “A third party (Jacksonville Education Foun-dation) doesn’t have a dog in that hunt. It’s the superintendent’s job and the state education board’s to make those decisions,” he said.
He accused Wilson and former state Rep. Will Bond of being registered lobbyists for the foundation.
“I understand the (Jackson-ville) board of aldermen has put a large pool of money at your disposal. Mike Wilson has opened a charter school. Ben Rice wants to sue us. These people did not support me when I ran for office,” Vasquez said.
Wilson asked Vasquez if he favored a stand-alone Jackson-ville-area school district.
Vasquez, speaking loudly and forcefully, spit out the names of people he considers his enemies who support a Jacksonville district—including “Daniel Gray, who has already said he would run against me.”
He told Wilson, “You don’t have a place in this discussion.”
Vasquez said only 20 percent of the people of Jacksonville really want their own district and the rest just want “clean, safe, good schools.”
“When the judge rules, we’ll know what to do next,” Vasquez said.
“You got a resolution (favoring a stand-alone district) and boundaries. This is a third party trying to use this board,” he added.
After some heated exchanges, Vasquez and the other two school board members who vote reliably with the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers were joined by Mildred Tatum and board president Tim Clark in defeating the effort to rescind the old resolution and reopen talks on how to best form the new district.
Clark, who said he actually supports allowing new talks, nonetheless voted against the measure in order to have standing to bring the matter up again in the future.
The three voters the union can count on are Vasquez, Williams and Sandra Sawyer.
Also opposing the foundation’s effort to reopen talks was the Jacksonville NAACP. According to spokesman Rizelle Aaron, who dropped out of the race for mayor, the group originally supported detachment, but in the past year felt snubbed by the foundation and the city in their efforts to achieve a stand-alone Jacksonville-area district.
Voting in favor of continuing talks were Charlie Wood and Danny Gililland of Sherwood, who represents part of Jacksonville and north Pulaski. The two are being challenged in Tuesday’s school board election by candidates supported by the unions.
Williams said she was against negotiations for several reasons. First, Superintendent Charles Hopson was working to make things better in Jacksonville and should be given more time. Also, she didn’t want to offend Judge Miller, who has the case under advisement. She also thinks black Jacksonville residents are excluded from the process and she doesn’t think they want their own district.
Sawyer said the district, under a new superintendent, with new demands from the state Legislative Audit Committee, doesn’t have the resources to help work toward the eventual new district. She also said it seems Jacksonville-area blacks were not part of the conversation.
Leader senior staff writer
Two of three Jacksonville-area school board members led the fight Tuesday night, joining three others, to prevent the Jacksonville Education Foun-dation from resuming talks with Pulaski County Special School District officials aimed at paving the way for a new Jacksonville-north Pulaski County school district as soon as legally possible.
The board in 2008 approved the move in principle and later approved boundaries for the district, then shut off discussion until after a ruling on the district’s unitary status. That’s been before District Judge Brian Miller for months.
Representing the foundation, attorney Patrick Wilson told the board it was time to repeal its year-old resolution suspending negotiation toward detachment of just such a district from PCSSD.
The board, admittedly tired of what it perceived as in-your-face tactics by the Jacksonville district supporters, voted 5-2 to cut off further discussions “until Pulaski County Special School District is declared unitary.”
Jacksonville school board member Bill Vasquez called Wilson’s request political, then got political himself. Gwen Wiliams, the other Jacksonville-area board member, also voted against reopening discussions.
“What this district will look like is the business of this board,” Vasquez said. “A third party (Jacksonville Education Foun-dation) doesn’t have a dog in that hunt. It’s the superintendent’s job and the state education board’s to make those decisions,” he said.
He accused Wilson and former state Rep. Will Bond of being registered lobbyists for the foundation.
“I understand the (Jackson-ville) board of aldermen has put a large pool of money at your disposal. Mike Wilson has opened a charter school. Ben Rice wants to sue us. These people did not support me when I ran for office,” Vasquez said.
Wilson asked Vasquez if he favored a stand-alone Jackson-ville-area school district.
Vasquez, speaking loudly and forcefully, spit out the names of people he considers his enemies who support a Jacksonville district—including “Daniel Gray, who has already said he would run against me.”
He told Wilson, “You don’t have a place in this discussion.”
Vasquez said only 20 percent of the people of Jacksonville really want their own district and the rest just want “clean, safe, good schools.”
“When the judge rules, we’ll know what to do next,” Vasquez said.
“You got a resolution (favoring a stand-alone district) and boundaries. This is a third party trying to use this board,” he added.
After some heated exchanges, Vasquez and the other two school board members who vote reliably with the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers were joined by Mildred Tatum and board president Tim Clark in defeating the effort to rescind the old resolution and reopen talks on how to best form the new district.
Clark, who said he actually supports allowing new talks, nonetheless voted against the measure in order to have standing to bring the matter up again in the future.
The three voters the union can count on are Vasquez, Williams and Sandra Sawyer.
Also opposing the foundation’s effort to reopen talks was the Jacksonville NAACP. According to spokesman Rizelle Aaron, who dropped out of the race for mayor, the group originally supported detachment, but in the past year felt snubbed by the foundation and the city in their efforts to achieve a stand-alone Jacksonville-area district.
Voting in favor of continuing talks were Charlie Wood and Danny Gililland of Sherwood, who represents part of Jacksonville and north Pulaski. The two are being challenged in Tuesday’s school board election by candidates supported by the unions.
Williams said she was against negotiations for several reasons. First, Superintendent Charles Hopson was working to make things better in Jacksonville and should be given more time. Also, she didn’t want to offend Judge Miller, who has the case under advisement. She also thinks black Jacksonville residents are excluded from the process and she doesn’t think they want their own district.
Sawyer said the district, under a new superintendent, with new demands from the state Legislative Audit Committee, doesn’t have the resources to help work toward the eventual new district. She also said it seems Jacksonville-area blacks were not part of the conversation.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
EDITORIAL >>Wrong way for NLR
We have no interest but neighborly goodwill in the deal that Mayor Patrick Henry Hays has been trying for two years to put together with a developer who is supposed to one day produce a new hotel and parking deck for downtown North Little Rock. Our neighboring city’s good fortune is usually our good fortune, too.
But dangerous public policy has a way of traveling down the road. We wouldn’t want it to happen here.
John Gaudin, who has developed other projects in the Argenta neighborhood downtown, owns an old building, the Rye Furniture Co. building, and he wants to parlay that into a new hotel. The deal is complicated. He and the city would swap properties, his furniture building for four city-owned lots that are scattered around downtown. He might develop the four lots or he might not. Then when he reaches a deal with a hotel franchise, he could buy the furniture building back from the city and build the hotel. For its part, the city would build a parking deck nearby, which would make the hotel more economically feasible.
Every step has been a close call for the mayor. Nineteen months ago, only hours before the year-end deadline for changing the tax rolls, he got his city council to create a development district consisting of disconnected parcels of land downtown by using a tricky constitutional amendment and implementing legislation permitting what are called “tax-increment financing districts.”
The growth in property taxes in the development district is to be used to support the city’s payment on bonds to build the parking deck. But a court decision put most of the tax revenue from development districts off limits for cities. A lawsuit by the North Little Rock School Board is challenging the city’s right to take the remaining tax revenues left by the previous decision.
The tax revenues are those approved by the city’s voters for the city’s public schools and the schools need the money more than the city does.
You can see why people began to get a little nervous about their mayor’s resourcefulness. The sheer complexity of the deal raises flags.
Monday, Mayor Hays brought the land swap before the city council, where he is accustomed to getting what he wants. He lost a vote or two during the argumentative hearing and the council split 4 to 4. The mayor had to break the tie with his vote and the state newspaper reported that he was visibly angry with his council members.
Meantime, the mayor promises that the city will not put any more public funds into the development besides the school taxes that will be recouped from the city’s schools. If it doesn’t, it is hard to see how the deal can work. Also, the owner of the nearby Wyndham Hotel, who doesn’t like the city using public funds to support a competitor, says he may raise petitions and refer the whole deal to the voters. The odds are that the hotel will never materialize, but it is not safe to bet against Mayor Hays.
The most troublesome part is the city’s confiscation of school taxes to help a private business development. We have always thought tax-increment financing, although it is now in the state Constitution, violates an older constitutional prohibition against taking taxes that people vote for school purposes and using them for any other purpose. Even if the courts were to find it constitutional, it is terrible public policy. We don’t want to see it coming down the road to other cities.
But dangerous public policy has a way of traveling down the road. We wouldn’t want it to happen here.
John Gaudin, who has developed other projects in the Argenta neighborhood downtown, owns an old building, the Rye Furniture Co. building, and he wants to parlay that into a new hotel. The deal is complicated. He and the city would swap properties, his furniture building for four city-owned lots that are scattered around downtown. He might develop the four lots or he might not. Then when he reaches a deal with a hotel franchise, he could buy the furniture building back from the city and build the hotel. For its part, the city would build a parking deck nearby, which would make the hotel more economically feasible.
Every step has been a close call for the mayor. Nineteen months ago, only hours before the year-end deadline for changing the tax rolls, he got his city council to create a development district consisting of disconnected parcels of land downtown by using a tricky constitutional amendment and implementing legislation permitting what are called “tax-increment financing districts.”
The growth in property taxes in the development district is to be used to support the city’s payment on bonds to build the parking deck. But a court decision put most of the tax revenue from development districts off limits for cities. A lawsuit by the North Little Rock School Board is challenging the city’s right to take the remaining tax revenues left by the previous decision.
The tax revenues are those approved by the city’s voters for the city’s public schools and the schools need the money more than the city does.
You can see why people began to get a little nervous about their mayor’s resourcefulness. The sheer complexity of the deal raises flags.
Monday, Mayor Hays brought the land swap before the city council, where he is accustomed to getting what he wants. He lost a vote or two during the argumentative hearing and the council split 4 to 4. The mayor had to break the tie with his vote and the state newspaper reported that he was visibly angry with his council members.
Meantime, the mayor promises that the city will not put any more public funds into the development besides the school taxes that will be recouped from the city’s schools. If it doesn’t, it is hard to see how the deal can work. Also, the owner of the nearby Wyndham Hotel, who doesn’t like the city using public funds to support a competitor, says he may raise petitions and refer the whole deal to the voters. The odds are that the hotel will never materialize, but it is not safe to bet against Mayor Hays.
The most troublesome part is the city’s confiscation of school taxes to help a private business development. We have always thought tax-increment financing, although it is now in the state Constitution, violates an older constitutional prohibition against taking taxes that people vote for school purposes and using them for any other purpose. Even if the courts were to find it constitutional, it is terrible public policy. We don’t want to see it coming down the road to other cities.
TOP STORY > >Base school gets more recognition
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Arnold Drive Elementary School on Little Rock Air Force Base was one of just four Arkansas schools designated last week as a Blue Ribbon School by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
The announcement came hot on the heels of the announcement by the University of Arkansas that Arnold Drive was the third-highest achieving elementary school in the state.
“We’re in third place, including charter and magnet schools,” principal Julie Davenport said Tuesday of the recognition by the University of Arkansas. “We have some very strong teachers who have been here quite a long time and some new.”
Nationally, 304 schools received the designation as 2010 Blue Ribbon schools for academic achievement. The four in Arkansas all were elementary schools, and only Arnold Drive was in central Arkansas.
“We were notified last year that we had been nominated so we did the pretty extensive paperwork,” said Davenport. “We went ahead and were waiting. If we made our average yearly progress then we knew we would qualify.”
The Blue Ribbon schools program honors schools that are either academically superior or that demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement, according to Duncan.
“Blue Ribbon schools are models of improved student achievement from which others can take inspiration,” she said.
Blue Ribbons schools are recognized and honored for helping students achieve at high levels, Davenport said. “Ours have been achieving proficient and advanced on benchmark exams. It also takes into account progress on closing the achievement gap on subpopulations. Our scores are pretty much the same for all economic, race and gender subpopulations,” she said. “Across the board, our children show progress.”
Arnold Drive Elementary has about 250 students and about half are on free or reduced lunch. The average percentage of students on free or reduced lunch on the top 20 list is 32 percent.
Free or reduced lunches are markers for economic distress.
Davenport said it was a poor reflection on the way the military is paid if 97 percent of her students have parents in the Air Force and half of those qualify for the free and reduced lunches.
“We have absolutely outstanding teachers and staff and cooperative parents,” she said. A learning community supports staff and masters goals and skills at each level.
Two school representatives will be honored in Washington on Nov. 15-16, she said, although the designation doesn’t fund the trip to the nation’s capital.
“Last year, our fifth-graders were 100 percent proficient or advanced in math and 92 percent in literacy. That’s the top of the district and top of the state,” Davenport said.
“Fourth-graders scored 96 percent (proficient or advanced) in math and literacy,” she said, and “third-graders were 96 percent in math and 87 in literacy. It is consistent from year to year.
“Teachers really honing in on what the children need and making sure they master the skills they need,” Davenport said. “I’d pit these teachers against any and they come out on top every time.”
Davenport said this is her second year as principal at Arnold Drive but her 20th year as a principal in four states, at eight different elementary schools.
Arnold Drive also led the Pulaski County Special School District in volunteer hours worked last year, she said.
“This is a wonderful recognition which honors the high level of commitment the administrators and teachers at these four schools have made to help students achieve academic success,” Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell said recently.
The other three schools were Calico Rock Elementary School in Calico Rock, Kingston Elementary School and Salem Elementary School in Salem.
The website Schooldigger.com gives Arnold Drive a five-star rating, placing it 16th among the state’s 457 elementary schools, but the same website give PCSSD just one star and ranks it 172nd out of 236 state school districts.
Leader senior staff writer
Arnold Drive Elementary School on Little Rock Air Force Base was one of just four Arkansas schools designated last week as a Blue Ribbon School by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
The announcement came hot on the heels of the announcement by the University of Arkansas that Arnold Drive was the third-highest achieving elementary school in the state.
“We’re in third place, including charter and magnet schools,” principal Julie Davenport said Tuesday of the recognition by the University of Arkansas. “We have some very strong teachers who have been here quite a long time and some new.”
Nationally, 304 schools received the designation as 2010 Blue Ribbon schools for academic achievement. The four in Arkansas all were elementary schools, and only Arnold Drive was in central Arkansas.
“We were notified last year that we had been nominated so we did the pretty extensive paperwork,” said Davenport. “We went ahead and were waiting. If we made our average yearly progress then we knew we would qualify.”
The Blue Ribbon schools program honors schools that are either academically superior or that demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement, according to Duncan.
“Blue Ribbon schools are models of improved student achievement from which others can take inspiration,” she said.
Blue Ribbons schools are recognized and honored for helping students achieve at high levels, Davenport said. “Ours have been achieving proficient and advanced on benchmark exams. It also takes into account progress on closing the achievement gap on subpopulations. Our scores are pretty much the same for all economic, race and gender subpopulations,” she said. “Across the board, our children show progress.”
Arnold Drive Elementary has about 250 students and about half are on free or reduced lunch. The average percentage of students on free or reduced lunch on the top 20 list is 32 percent.
Free or reduced lunches are markers for economic distress.
Davenport said it was a poor reflection on the way the military is paid if 97 percent of her students have parents in the Air Force and half of those qualify for the free and reduced lunches.
“We have absolutely outstanding teachers and staff and cooperative parents,” she said. A learning community supports staff and masters goals and skills at each level.
Two school representatives will be honored in Washington on Nov. 15-16, she said, although the designation doesn’t fund the trip to the nation’s capital.
“Last year, our fifth-graders were 100 percent proficient or advanced in math and 92 percent in literacy. That’s the top of the district and top of the state,” Davenport said.
“Fourth-graders scored 96 percent (proficient or advanced) in math and literacy,” she said, and “third-graders were 96 percent in math and 87 in literacy. It is consistent from year to year.
“Teachers really honing in on what the children need and making sure they master the skills they need,” Davenport said. “I’d pit these teachers against any and they come out on top every time.”
Davenport said this is her second year as principal at Arnold Drive but her 20th year as a principal in four states, at eight different elementary schools.
Arnold Drive also led the Pulaski County Special School District in volunteer hours worked last year, she said.
“This is a wonderful recognition which honors the high level of commitment the administrators and teachers at these four schools have made to help students achieve academic success,” Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell said recently.
The other three schools were Calico Rock Elementary School in Calico Rock, Kingston Elementary School and Salem Elementary School in Salem.
The website Schooldigger.com gives Arnold Drive a five-star rating, placing it 16th among the state’s 457 elementary schools, but the same website give PCSSD just one star and ranks it 172nd out of 236 state school districts.
TOP STORY > >Annexation plan: Many in area say they’re against it
By GARRICK FELDMAN
Leader executive editor
People who live north of Jacksonville near Hwy. 67/167 met at a church Monday evening to fight the city’s plan to annex the area.
They met at North Jacksonville Baptist Missionary Church near the strip joints, liquor stores and a lingerie shop. Lyndon Whitledge, the longtime pastor, summed up the group’s feelings about the annexation plan, which goes before the voters Nov. 2:
“I’m against it,” said Whitledge, who lives in town but whose church is in the affected area.
About 40 residents listened and spoke out and agreed to put up yard signs and mail out cards that will have a simple message:
“Vote no to annexation and higher taxes.”
They fear losing their independence and their animals and barns if Jacksonville swallows up 2,200 acres where they live.
Not everyone at the meeting was hostile toward Jacksonville. Richard Robertson, who opened the meeting, said, “We’re friends of Jacksonville, but this is not in the best interest of Jacksonville.”
But emotions ran high for most of the hour-long meeting.
“Jacksonville has problems they can’t take care of,” said another resident. “Why take on more?”
It was like a town hall meeting, tent revival and Tea Party rally rolled into one. These are independent people who don’t trust government and don’t think they get good value for the taxes they pay.
The Tea Party is not much of a political force in Arkansas, but you feel its presence at city council and at quorum court meetings and at public forums like this one.
There was talk of filing a lawsuit because many residents think the annexation is illegal. They hate the idea of urban living, especially the costs that go with it.
“Why do they want us?” someone asked.
“Code enforcement will check how tall your grass is. They’ll make us stop burning leaves on our property. But they were burning them at the Reed’s Bridge Battlefield,” said another, hinting at a double standard.
Jacksonville officials say the area is where the city should expand. They’ll also annex a smaller area south of town, where there’s no opposition.
The city lost Gravel Ridge in an annexation fight with Sher-wood. Gravel Ridge residents voted to go with Sherwood, but this time the vote will include just city and rural residents, who are outnumbered 10-1.
To win them over, officials have said they might not ban farm animals and barns if the area is annexed, but residents are skeptical.
One resident said he was cited by the Pulaski County Humane Society for not feeding his animals. He denied the charge and said he was harassed because he has spoken out against annexation.
“I’ll fight them to the end,” he vowed.
“I don’t trust city hall,” Whit-ledge said, standing behind a lectern, as if he were sermonizing about the devil and his temptations.
“The grandfather clause is not a good thing,” Whitledge insisted. Those who own farms would lose them if they sold them or passed them on to their children, he said.
“Property rights are worth fighting for,” Whitledge said. “Freedom is something worth fighting for.”
“This is winnable. You need to get Jacksonville on your side,” said a Jacksonville man.
The city will hold a public forum at 6:30 p.m. Thursday before the council meeting.
“We’re not hurting anyone,” Robertson said, urging residents to attend. “We want to be left alone.”
Leader executive editor
People who live north of Jacksonville near Hwy. 67/167 met at a church Monday evening to fight the city’s plan to annex the area.
They met at North Jacksonville Baptist Missionary Church near the strip joints, liquor stores and a lingerie shop. Lyndon Whitledge, the longtime pastor, summed up the group’s feelings about the annexation plan, which goes before the voters Nov. 2:
“I’m against it,” said Whitledge, who lives in town but whose church is in the affected area.
About 40 residents listened and spoke out and agreed to put up yard signs and mail out cards that will have a simple message:
“Vote no to annexation and higher taxes.”
They fear losing their independence and their animals and barns if Jacksonville swallows up 2,200 acres where they live.
Not everyone at the meeting was hostile toward Jacksonville. Richard Robertson, who opened the meeting, said, “We’re friends of Jacksonville, but this is not in the best interest of Jacksonville.”
But emotions ran high for most of the hour-long meeting.
“Jacksonville has problems they can’t take care of,” said another resident. “Why take on more?”
It was like a town hall meeting, tent revival and Tea Party rally rolled into one. These are independent people who don’t trust government and don’t think they get good value for the taxes they pay.
The Tea Party is not much of a political force in Arkansas, but you feel its presence at city council and at quorum court meetings and at public forums like this one.
There was talk of filing a lawsuit because many residents think the annexation is illegal. They hate the idea of urban living, especially the costs that go with it.
“Why do they want us?” someone asked.
“Code enforcement will check how tall your grass is. They’ll make us stop burning leaves on our property. But they were burning them at the Reed’s Bridge Battlefield,” said another, hinting at a double standard.
Jacksonville officials say the area is where the city should expand. They’ll also annex a smaller area south of town, where there’s no opposition.
The city lost Gravel Ridge in an annexation fight with Sher-wood. Gravel Ridge residents voted to go with Sherwood, but this time the vote will include just city and rural residents, who are outnumbered 10-1.
To win them over, officials have said they might not ban farm animals and barns if the area is annexed, but residents are skeptical.
One resident said he was cited by the Pulaski County Humane Society for not feeding his animals. He denied the charge and said he was harassed because he has spoken out against annexation.
“I’ll fight them to the end,” he vowed.
“I don’t trust city hall,” Whit-ledge said, standing behind a lectern, as if he were sermonizing about the devil and his temptations.
“The grandfather clause is not a good thing,” Whitledge insisted. Those who own farms would lose them if they sold them or passed them on to their children, he said.
“Property rights are worth fighting for,” Whitledge said. “Freedom is something worth fighting for.”
“This is winnable. You need to get Jacksonville on your side,” said a Jacksonville man.
The city will hold a public forum at 6:30 p.m. Thursday before the council meeting.
“We’re not hurting anyone,” Robertson said, urging residents to attend. “We want to be left alone.”
TOP STORY > >Early voting under way in school races
The Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers hopes to replace two of its most reliable foes on the Pulaski County Special
School District Board on Tuesday with two candidates more to their liking.
Incumbents Danny Gililland and Charlie Wood are being challenged respectively by Tom Stuthard of Jacksonville and Gloria Lawrence of Sherwood, and the district’s teachers’ and support staff’s unions are outspoken in their support of the challengers.
Lawrence is a former teacher and PACT member, Stuthard is married to a Sylvan Hills math teacher who belongs to PACT.
POLLING PLACES
Early voting is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Friday at the Jacksonville Com-munity Center and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Jack Evans Senior Center in Sherwood, and through Monday at the Pulaski County Regional Building at Markham and Broadway in Little Rock.
There will be no weekend early voting at any site.
Regular polls in zones 4 and 5 will be open 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Currently, the unions are on the short end of a rigid 4-3 vote, but if they win either seat, they seem likely to either control the school board or at least have a board sympathetic to their needs.
WOOD
Wood, who represents Zone 4, has been an outspoken school board member throughout his term, helping to secure funding for a new Sylvan Hills Middle School and helping impeach Mildred Tatum as school board president.
Wood is particularly upset with the teachers-contract provision that allows teachers to carry over personal leave and vacation time from year to year.
LAWRENCE
Lawrence, who retired in June after almost 29 years as a teacher, says she is running because of concerns about the district’s financial condition and the board’s continued efforts to sever ties with the union.
She taught for 23 years at Sylvan Hills Middle School.
She is married to Jim Law-rence, a retired Army colonel.
She said when the board voted to decertify the union she decided to retire and run for the school board.
Lawrence questions spending decisions made by the current board: $81 million for a new high school in Maumelle and paying Rob McGill $87,000 when his term ended as acting superintendent, hiring school-attendance secretaries, an interim liaison at Jacksonville High School and a New York lawyer to help fight PACT in court.
GILILLAND
Danny Gililland of Sherwood holds the Zone 5 board seat. He was first elected in 2006.
Gililland, 52, owns a Popeye’s franchise. He and his wife, Lynda, have lived in north Pulaski County for more than 20 years.
Gililland said when he came on the board, he was against the idea of a separate school district for Jacksonville and north Pulaski County, but has since changed his mind about that.
He “voted consistently against new schools for Maumelle and Sherwood.”
He firmly believes the district would be better served without a teachers union, which he says fights over petty issues that cost the district too much money.
STUTHARD
Tom Stuthard of Jacksonville, who says it is time for a change, is challenging Gililland.
The Air Force veteran, spouse of a district teacher and union member, and parent of two children who have graduated from PCSSD schools, says he has been thinking for several months about challenging Gililland, one of four members who want to oust the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers as the collective bargaining agent for teachers.
Stuthard, 55, works full-time as a maintenance mechanic for the postal service. He retired from the Air Force in 2004 as the base’s equipment-control officer after serving 21 years.
Stuthard’s wife, Sharon, is a long-time PCSSD employee who teaches math at Sylvan Hills High School.
She has also taught at Jacksonville High School and years ago, at Jacksonville Junior High School South.
School District Board on Tuesday with two candidates more to their liking.
Incumbents Danny Gililland and Charlie Wood are being challenged respectively by Tom Stuthard of Jacksonville and Gloria Lawrence of Sherwood, and the district’s teachers’ and support staff’s unions are outspoken in their support of the challengers.
Lawrence is a former teacher and PACT member, Stuthard is married to a Sylvan Hills math teacher who belongs to PACT.
POLLING PLACES
Early voting is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Friday at the Jacksonville Com-munity Center and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Jack Evans Senior Center in Sherwood, and through Monday at the Pulaski County Regional Building at Markham and Broadway in Little Rock.
There will be no weekend early voting at any site.
Regular polls in zones 4 and 5 will be open 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Currently, the unions are on the short end of a rigid 4-3 vote, but if they win either seat, they seem likely to either control the school board or at least have a board sympathetic to their needs.
WOOD
Wood, who represents Zone 4, has been an outspoken school board member throughout his term, helping to secure funding for a new Sylvan Hills Middle School and helping impeach Mildred Tatum as school board president.
Wood is particularly upset with the teachers-contract provision that allows teachers to carry over personal leave and vacation time from year to year.
LAWRENCE
Lawrence, who retired in June after almost 29 years as a teacher, says she is running because of concerns about the district’s financial condition and the board’s continued efforts to sever ties with the union.
She taught for 23 years at Sylvan Hills Middle School.
She is married to Jim Law-rence, a retired Army colonel.
She said when the board voted to decertify the union she decided to retire and run for the school board.
Lawrence questions spending decisions made by the current board: $81 million for a new high school in Maumelle and paying Rob McGill $87,000 when his term ended as acting superintendent, hiring school-attendance secretaries, an interim liaison at Jacksonville High School and a New York lawyer to help fight PACT in court.
GILILLAND
Danny Gililland of Sherwood holds the Zone 5 board seat. He was first elected in 2006.
Gililland, 52, owns a Popeye’s franchise. He and his wife, Lynda, have lived in north Pulaski County for more than 20 years.
Gililland said when he came on the board, he was against the idea of a separate school district for Jacksonville and north Pulaski County, but has since changed his mind about that.
He “voted consistently against new schools for Maumelle and Sherwood.”
He firmly believes the district would be better served without a teachers union, which he says fights over petty issues that cost the district too much money.
STUTHARD
Tom Stuthard of Jacksonville, who says it is time for a change, is challenging Gililland.
The Air Force veteran, spouse of a district teacher and union member, and parent of two children who have graduated from PCSSD schools, says he has been thinking for several months about challenging Gililland, one of four members who want to oust the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers as the collective bargaining agent for teachers.
Stuthard, 55, works full-time as a maintenance mechanic for the postal service. He retired from the Air Force in 2004 as the base’s equipment-control officer after serving 21 years.
Stuthard’s wife, Sharon, is a long-time PCSSD employee who teaches math at Sylvan Hills High School.
She has also taught at Jacksonville High School and years ago, at Jacksonville Junior High School South.
TOP STORY > >Civil War 147 years later
Leader article by Rick Kron
As members of both the Union and Confederate fell wounded to the ground, Dyan Dohnert, a medicine woman, ran out onto the battlefield to render care.
Even though she was a true Southerner, she still tried to save the injured Union soldiers, all except one.
“He was goin’ die anyway, so I shot him and stole his horse,” she said, not in an interview in 1863, but Sunday after a re-enactment of the Battle of Reed’s Bridge in Jacksonville.
She had her leather medicine bag open and was checking on her supply of spirits and homemade needles while in the comfort of a rocker under the fly of a canvas Confederate tent.
She was retelling her actions in the re-enactment to two other southern ladies in the encampment, Dot Hardage, one of the best cooks there, and Kayla Kalkbrenner, an ice angel.
“I would have taken that Yankee’s gun too, ’cept I couldn’t find it,” Dohnert said.
She and the ladies were part of more than 150 re-enactors that set up camp at the battlefield most of the week and performed two re-enactments of the 1863 battle for crowds that parked in makeshift parking lots up and down Hwy. 161.
About 500 people watched the battle on Saturday and slightly more were on hand Sunday.
Besides the battles, there was a wedding and an old-fashioned barn dance Saturday evening.
Kalkbrenner, from Pine Bluff, who as an ice angel walks the battlefield providing soldiers with water and ice. She said, “We are just regular people with a love for history.”
She’s in college working on a degree in fashion design and a minor in history. She hopes to work with designing historical outfits. Kalkbrenner has been going to re-enactments since she was a wee one. “My dad saw a flyer about battlefield groups, got hooked and we’ve been at it ever since,” she said.
Hardage, from Dumas, spent most of Saturday making and icing a five-layer cake for the wedding. “This is our hobby. An expensive one, but our hobby. We get to spend time with friends, visit historical places and enjoy great camaraderie,” she said.
“It’s something we truly believe in and it’s very fulfilling.”
Hardage added, “We are here as historians.” She and her husband have been active participants for more than 10 years.
Dohnert, who has been involved in re-enactments and living histories for about eight years, has performed in seven states and once on television. She said she tries to be as realistic as possible.
She said there were a number of medicine women working during the Civil War. Dohnert said as the Union advanced into
Arkansas, there were two surgeons at Arkansas Post.
“The second volley of shells killed them both and women had to jump in to do the doctorin’,” she said.
Dohnert said medicine women often followed the troops “wiping snotty noses and taking care of feet.”
Feet were important, she said, since troops on both sides walked a million miles plus. “Did you know that 78 percent of our boys returned home without shoes and many of them walked barefoot for the last two years of the war?” she said.
Dohnert and Kalkbrenner belong to the First Arkansas Confederate Infantry, while Hardage is a member of the Ninth Arkansas Confederate Infantry.
She said all the cooking done in Dutch ovens and as close to realistic as possible. “We do pre-make a lot of things now and then, and just heat it up in the Dutch ovens.”
Kalkbrenner piped in, “That keeps the bugs out of the chicken and dumplins’.”
Kalkbrenner is a former president of Arkansas Children of the Confederacy and said she does a lot of living-history shows at school and other functions.
“When the Delta Queen used to stop in Pine Bluff, we would dress in period outfits and meet it,” she said. Her dad and boyfriend do about 20 to 25 shows a year.
The ladies said that most of the re-enactors own both Confederate and Union outfits, and each handmade outfit can run hundreds of dollars.
“Nobody wants to be the Union soldier, but we need someone to fight and we can’t get any Union troops to come down here usually,” said Hardage.
Kalkbrenner said what makes the Reed’s Bridge re-enactment so special is that it’s on a real battlefield. “It’s a privilege and something special,” she said.
Because of the respect the re-enactors have for the battlefield, they make sure they leave it in pristine condition.
After Sunday’s battle, more than a dozen of the participants went through the battlefield picking up cannon fodder, paper and anything else that was on the field that needed to be picked up.
As members of both the Union and Confederate fell wounded to the ground, Dyan Dohnert, a medicine woman, ran out onto the battlefield to render care.
Even though she was a true Southerner, she still tried to save the injured Union soldiers, all except one.
“He was goin’ die anyway, so I shot him and stole his horse,” she said, not in an interview in 1863, but Sunday after a re-enactment of the Battle of Reed’s Bridge in Jacksonville.
She had her leather medicine bag open and was checking on her supply of spirits and homemade needles while in the comfort of a rocker under the fly of a canvas Confederate tent.
She was retelling her actions in the re-enactment to two other southern ladies in the encampment, Dot Hardage, one of the best cooks there, and Kayla Kalkbrenner, an ice angel.
“I would have taken that Yankee’s gun too, ’cept I couldn’t find it,” Dohnert said.
She and the ladies were part of more than 150 re-enactors that set up camp at the battlefield most of the week and performed two re-enactments of the 1863 battle for crowds that parked in makeshift parking lots up and down Hwy. 161.
About 500 people watched the battle on Saturday and slightly more were on hand Sunday.
Besides the battles, there was a wedding and an old-fashioned barn dance Saturday evening.
Kalkbrenner, from Pine Bluff, who as an ice angel walks the battlefield providing soldiers with water and ice. She said, “We are just regular people with a love for history.”
She’s in college working on a degree in fashion design and a minor in history. She hopes to work with designing historical outfits. Kalkbrenner has been going to re-enactments since she was a wee one. “My dad saw a flyer about battlefield groups, got hooked and we’ve been at it ever since,” she said.
Hardage, from Dumas, spent most of Saturday making and icing a five-layer cake for the wedding. “This is our hobby. An expensive one, but our hobby. We get to spend time with friends, visit historical places and enjoy great camaraderie,” she said.
“It’s something we truly believe in and it’s very fulfilling.”
Hardage added, “We are here as historians.” She and her husband have been active participants for more than 10 years.
Dohnert, who has been involved in re-enactments and living histories for about eight years, has performed in seven states and once on television. She said she tries to be as realistic as possible.
She said there were a number of medicine women working during the Civil War. Dohnert said as the Union advanced into
Arkansas, there were two surgeons at Arkansas Post.
“The second volley of shells killed them both and women had to jump in to do the doctorin’,” she said.
Dohnert said medicine women often followed the troops “wiping snotty noses and taking care of feet.”
Feet were important, she said, since troops on both sides walked a million miles plus. “Did you know that 78 percent of our boys returned home without shoes and many of them walked barefoot for the last two years of the war?” she said.
Dohnert and Kalkbrenner belong to the First Arkansas Confederate Infantry, while Hardage is a member of the Ninth Arkansas Confederate Infantry.
She said all the cooking done in Dutch ovens and as close to realistic as possible. “We do pre-make a lot of things now and then, and just heat it up in the Dutch ovens.”
Kalkbrenner piped in, “That keeps the bugs out of the chicken and dumplins’.”
Kalkbrenner is a former president of Arkansas Children of the Confederacy and said she does a lot of living-history shows at school and other functions.
“When the Delta Queen used to stop in Pine Bluff, we would dress in period outfits and meet it,” she said. Her dad and boyfriend do about 20 to 25 shows a year.
The ladies said that most of the re-enactors own both Confederate and Union outfits, and each handmade outfit can run hundreds of dollars.
“Nobody wants to be the Union soldier, but we need someone to fight and we can’t get any Union troops to come down here usually,” said Hardage.
Kalkbrenner said what makes the Reed’s Bridge re-enactment so special is that it’s on a real battlefield. “It’s a privilege and something special,” she said.
Because of the respect the re-enactors have for the battlefield, they make sure they leave it in pristine condition.
After Sunday’s battle, more than a dozen of the participants went through the battlefield picking up cannon fodder, paper and anything else that was on the field that needed to be picked up.
SPORTS>>Jackrabbits banged up but ready
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Lonoke coach Doug Bost has spent as much time rearranging the Jackrabbits depth chart as he has planning strategy the first two weeks of the season.
Bost’s strategy will also shift with new personnel filling in at critical positions as the ’Rabbits prepare for their third straight road trip when they travel to McGehee on Friday.
Injuries have taken their toll on the ’Rabbits since the second week of practice when projectedstarting quarterback Tarrale Watson went down with a fractured ankle. That put receiver Logan DeWhitt behind center until he sustained a shoulder injury late against Star City in the season opener.
DeWhitt recovered to start at Beebe last week and played midway into the second quarter before the hard-hitting Badger defense got him down again. That put another starting receiver, senior Darius Scott, behind center as the third-string quarterback.
The Owls (1-0) are coming off a bye week after opening the season with an upset victory over Stuttgart two weeks ago. The Jackrabbits are 2-0 after dramatic victories against Star City and last week at Beebe, but have paid a hefty price with three starters out and questionable to return anytime soon.
Starting right tackle Justin Carpenter suffered a shoulder injury against Beebe in the first half. Sophomore Nelson Brown filled in for the rest of the game, and is expected to see plenty of reps in practice this week to prepare for McGehee.
Junior Benton Garringer will also make his way into a starting spot this week in place of senior right guard Brandon McKinney, who went out late in the Beebe game with a knee injury.
“They’re going to get full reps this week,” Bost said. “We’re going to have to count on them to be ready.”
Scott’s move to quarterback also leaves an open receiver slot, which sophomore sensation Eric Williams will fill. Williams has backed up starting tailback Keli Bryant with success in the first two weeks and scored the winning touchdown against Star City in the opener.
Williams had three straight rushes for 23 yards in the second half against Beebe to help the Jackrabbits move the ball deep into Badger territory on their tying drive.
“I’ve been pleased with how hard he hits the hole,” Bost said. “He’s probably just a half step slower than Darius, and for no bigger than he is, he’s strong as an ox. I think it may help us getting him on the field to play for us.”
McGehee has its share of speedy players, including senior running back T’Cambry Green. Green, a 5-10, 220-pound senior with 4.6 speed in the 40-yard dash, is high on the college prospect list after rushing for almost 1,300 yards his junior season.
“They’re an experienced team,” Bost said. “Of their 11 on offense, eight of them are seniors, and I think it’s the same for their defense. So it’s a strong senior group, and they’re similar to Beebe in that they want to run the football.”
Getting a look at McGehee’s Wing-T offense should benefit Lonoke once 2-4A Conference play begins next week.
“First of all, they have speed all over their roster,” Bost said. “You can see that on film. That will help us get ready for Newport and Marianna to see that kind of speed, and what they run is very similar to what we will see from Clinton when we play them.”
Leader sportswriter
Lonoke coach Doug Bost has spent as much time rearranging the Jackrabbits depth chart as he has planning strategy the first two weeks of the season.
Bost’s strategy will also shift with new personnel filling in at critical positions as the ’Rabbits prepare for their third straight road trip when they travel to McGehee on Friday.
Injuries have taken their toll on the ’Rabbits since the second week of practice when projectedstarting quarterback Tarrale Watson went down with a fractured ankle. That put receiver Logan DeWhitt behind center until he sustained a shoulder injury late against Star City in the season opener.
DeWhitt recovered to start at Beebe last week and played midway into the second quarter before the hard-hitting Badger defense got him down again. That put another starting receiver, senior Darius Scott, behind center as the third-string quarterback.
The Owls (1-0) are coming off a bye week after opening the season with an upset victory over Stuttgart two weeks ago. The Jackrabbits are 2-0 after dramatic victories against Star City and last week at Beebe, but have paid a hefty price with three starters out and questionable to return anytime soon.
Starting right tackle Justin Carpenter suffered a shoulder injury against Beebe in the first half. Sophomore Nelson Brown filled in for the rest of the game, and is expected to see plenty of reps in practice this week to prepare for McGehee.
Junior Benton Garringer will also make his way into a starting spot this week in place of senior right guard Brandon McKinney, who went out late in the Beebe game with a knee injury.
“They’re going to get full reps this week,” Bost said. “We’re going to have to count on them to be ready.”
Scott’s move to quarterback also leaves an open receiver slot, which sophomore sensation Eric Williams will fill. Williams has backed up starting tailback Keli Bryant with success in the first two weeks and scored the winning touchdown against Star City in the opener.
Williams had three straight rushes for 23 yards in the second half against Beebe to help the Jackrabbits move the ball deep into Badger territory on their tying drive.
“I’ve been pleased with how hard he hits the hole,” Bost said. “He’s probably just a half step slower than Darius, and for no bigger than he is, he’s strong as an ox. I think it may help us getting him on the field to play for us.”
McGehee has its share of speedy players, including senior running back T’Cambry Green. Green, a 5-10, 220-pound senior with 4.6 speed in the 40-yard dash, is high on the college prospect list after rushing for almost 1,300 yards his junior season.
“They’re an experienced team,” Bost said. “Of their 11 on offense, eight of them are seniors, and I think it’s the same for their defense. So it’s a strong senior group, and they’re similar to Beebe in that they want to run the football.”
Getting a look at McGehee’s Wing-T offense should benefit Lonoke once 2-4A Conference play begins next week.
“First of all, they have speed all over their roster,” Bost said. “You can see that on film. That will help us get ready for Newport and Marianna to see that kind of speed, and what they run is very similar to what we will see from Clinton when we play them.”
SPORTS>>Badgers still seeking victory
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
It’s another tough test for Beebe this week when the Badgers travel to Phillip Weaver Stadium in Vilonia Friday for a Class 5A non-conference game.
The Eagles are 2-0 with victories over Sylvan Hills and Wynne. Beebe has been competitive in its first two games, but the Badgers could not finish drives in a 39-13 loss to Greenbrier in Week 1.
The Badgers started strong last week against Lonoke and built a 14-0 lead, but the Jackrabbits defense limited Beebe’s Dead-T offense to less than 60 second-half yards and Lonoke claimed a 26-21 victory.
The Eagles return six offensive starters and six defensive starters from last year’s team that went 6-5.
“We knew going in this year, especially with Greenbrier and Vilonia, that it would be tough,” Beebe coach John Shannon said.
“They both had a lot of people coming back, and were good last year. We’re going to have our hands full.
“Hopefully we will get better and improve. We saw a lot of improvement from the Greenbrier game to the Lonoke game, but we still need a lot of improving this week to go out and compete this Friday.”
Beebe’s running game had its moments last week, but injuries not only sidelined two of its best backs in Colby Taylor and Jay Holdway, it also halted the Badgers’ momentum.
Trailing with less than five minutes to play, the Badgers had to go to the air. As a result, the blitzing Lonoke defense sacked quarterback Scot Gowen two straight times.
Beebe’s defense struggled to contain Lonoke’s speedy receiver/quarterback Darius Scott, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds and used his speed to sustain drives going on third and long.
The Badgers’ defense will contend with another explosive back this week in Vilonia junior wingback James Sax, 6-1, 210 pounds, who is one of the slot runners in coach Jim Stanley’s Double-Wing offense.
Sax is coming off a 1,000-yard rushing season as a sophomore and is no stranger to the Badgers after burning them on a long kickoff return for a touchdown last year.
The task for Beebe is to find a way to simulate Sax’s 4.5 speed on the practice field.
“It’s tough,” Shannon said. “We have to work hard all week and make sure we’re taking good angles while accounting for his speed. We have to find a way to limit him; we know we’re not going to completely stop him, all we can do is try to limit him from having a big game.”
Beebe prides itself on being bigger and more physical than most opponents, but Stanley carries a similar philosophy at Vilonia.
The Eagles have plenty of size up front in 270-pound senior center Derrick Dunn and 250-pound junior guard Chris Calhoun.
“They have a program like us where they live in the weight room and do the right things as far as fundamentals,” Shannon said.
“This is usually one of the most physical games we have all year. Their kids work hard, and it’s going to take a big ballgame on our part to hang with them.”
Leader sportswriter
It’s another tough test for Beebe this week when the Badgers travel to Phillip Weaver Stadium in Vilonia Friday for a Class 5A non-conference game.
The Eagles are 2-0 with victories over Sylvan Hills and Wynne. Beebe has been competitive in its first two games, but the Badgers could not finish drives in a 39-13 loss to Greenbrier in Week 1.
The Badgers started strong last week against Lonoke and built a 14-0 lead, but the Jackrabbits defense limited Beebe’s Dead-T offense to less than 60 second-half yards and Lonoke claimed a 26-21 victory.
The Eagles return six offensive starters and six defensive starters from last year’s team that went 6-5.
“We knew going in this year, especially with Greenbrier and Vilonia, that it would be tough,” Beebe coach John Shannon said.
“They both had a lot of people coming back, and were good last year. We’re going to have our hands full.
“Hopefully we will get better and improve. We saw a lot of improvement from the Greenbrier game to the Lonoke game, but we still need a lot of improving this week to go out and compete this Friday.”
Beebe’s running game had its moments last week, but injuries not only sidelined two of its best backs in Colby Taylor and Jay Holdway, it also halted the Badgers’ momentum.
Trailing with less than five minutes to play, the Badgers had to go to the air. As a result, the blitzing Lonoke defense sacked quarterback Scot Gowen two straight times.
Beebe’s defense struggled to contain Lonoke’s speedy receiver/quarterback Darius Scott, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds and used his speed to sustain drives going on third and long.
The Badgers’ defense will contend with another explosive back this week in Vilonia junior wingback James Sax, 6-1, 210 pounds, who is one of the slot runners in coach Jim Stanley’s Double-Wing offense.
Sax is coming off a 1,000-yard rushing season as a sophomore and is no stranger to the Badgers after burning them on a long kickoff return for a touchdown last year.
The task for Beebe is to find a way to simulate Sax’s 4.5 speed on the practice field.
“It’s tough,” Shannon said. “We have to work hard all week and make sure we’re taking good angles while accounting for his speed. We have to find a way to limit him; we know we’re not going to completely stop him, all we can do is try to limit him from having a big game.”
Beebe prides itself on being bigger and more physical than most opponents, but Stanley carries a similar philosophy at Vilonia.
The Eagles have plenty of size up front in 270-pound senior center Derrick Dunn and 250-pound junior guard Chris Calhoun.
“They have a program like us where they live in the weight room and do the right things as far as fundamentals,” Shannon said.
“This is usually one of the most physical games we have all year. Their kids work hard, and it’s going to take a big ballgame on our part to hang with them.”
SPORTS>>Bears try to go for two straight
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
There was a sense of urgency at Sylvan Hills through much of the 2009 season.
The Bears went without a victory until Week 6, when they squeaked out an ugly, 3-0 decision over Crossett, but Sylvan Hills went on to earn a playoff spot by winning four of its last five games.
Last week’s 24-15 victory over Little Rock Christian put the Bears in a better position than a year ago. Sylvan Hills coach Jim Withrow said the victory was a relief, but that there are also plenty of areas to improve as the Bears prepare to face Little Rock Parkview on the road Friday.
“They’ve gotten better,” Withrow said of his inexperienced team. “We’re not ready to put on a clinic — we still had our moments of not getting lined up, and we’ve got to get our place kicking going a little bit better.”
The Bears went 0 of 4 on extra-point conversionattempts Friday. Senior kicker Kevin Wang hit the crossbar on one kick, another attempt ended in a fumble, and a pair of two-point conversion attempts also fell short.
“One of the worst things in the world is not being sure if you can make an extra point after a touchdown,” Withrow said. “I think Kevin can do it, he just needs to relax and he’ll be okay. We’re working on it, we’re just not getting it done.”
The ground attack accounted for all of the Bears’ 341 offensive yards last week, as they did not complete a pass in four attempts.
Senior Nate Clark led the way with 18 rushes for 159 yards and two scores. Junior tailback Trey Bone gained 91 yards on 13 carries, while senior Greg Atchinson carried 15 times for 63 yards.
Quarterback/defensive back Michael Maddox is also coming off a solid performance against Little Rock Christian. Maddox intercepted two passes and rushed for one of the Bears’ four scores.
“It’s good to get off on the right foot and get going a little bit,” Withrow said. “They got a taste of what it’s like to win, and they liked it.”
The Patriots, picked to finish third in the 6A-East Conference in the preseason, started out with a loss to Little Rock rival Mills. Parkview recovered last week with a 21-14 victory over Pine Bluff Dollarway.
Junior quarterback Chris Winston leads the Patriots’ offense, but it’s senior tailback Chris McClendon, 6-2, 215 pounds, who poses the biggest threat. The all-conference back runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds and bench presses 255 pounds. He was listed as a wide receiver in his two previous years, but he has rushed for 851 yards with 450 yards receiving.
“I think this is going to be a really good test for us,” Withrow said. “They’re really athletic. You give them a gap, and they’ve got the speed to go all the way with it. It will be a good test to see how far we’ve come.”
Leader sportswriter
There was a sense of urgency at Sylvan Hills through much of the 2009 season.
The Bears went without a victory until Week 6, when they squeaked out an ugly, 3-0 decision over Crossett, but Sylvan Hills went on to earn a playoff spot by winning four of its last five games.
Last week’s 24-15 victory over Little Rock Christian put the Bears in a better position than a year ago. Sylvan Hills coach Jim Withrow said the victory was a relief, but that there are also plenty of areas to improve as the Bears prepare to face Little Rock Parkview on the road Friday.
“They’ve gotten better,” Withrow said of his inexperienced team. “We’re not ready to put on a clinic — we still had our moments of not getting lined up, and we’ve got to get our place kicking going a little bit better.”
The Bears went 0 of 4 on extra-point conversionattempts Friday. Senior kicker Kevin Wang hit the crossbar on one kick, another attempt ended in a fumble, and a pair of two-point conversion attempts also fell short.
“One of the worst things in the world is not being sure if you can make an extra point after a touchdown,” Withrow said. “I think Kevin can do it, he just needs to relax and he’ll be okay. We’re working on it, we’re just not getting it done.”
The ground attack accounted for all of the Bears’ 341 offensive yards last week, as they did not complete a pass in four attempts.
Senior Nate Clark led the way with 18 rushes for 159 yards and two scores. Junior tailback Trey Bone gained 91 yards on 13 carries, while senior Greg Atchinson carried 15 times for 63 yards.
Quarterback/defensive back Michael Maddox is also coming off a solid performance against Little Rock Christian. Maddox intercepted two passes and rushed for one of the Bears’ four scores.
“It’s good to get off on the right foot and get going a little bit,” Withrow said. “They got a taste of what it’s like to win, and they liked it.”
The Patriots, picked to finish third in the 6A-East Conference in the preseason, started out with a loss to Little Rock rival Mills. Parkview recovered last week with a 21-14 victory over Pine Bluff Dollarway.
Junior quarterback Chris Winston leads the Patriots’ offense, but it’s senior tailback Chris McClendon, 6-2, 215 pounds, who poses the biggest threat. The all-conference back runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds and bench presses 255 pounds. He was listed as a wide receiver in his two previous years, but he has rushed for 851 yards with 450 yards receiving.
“I think this is going to be a really good test for us,” Withrow said. “They’re really athletic. You give them a gap, and they’ve got the speed to go all the way with it. It will be a good test to see how far we’ve come.”
SPORTS>>Falcons finding foundation, face Warriors
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
By all accounts, Little Rock Christian is already experiencing a down year after losing Arkansas’ all-time leading high school rusher Michael Dyer to graduation, and then to Auburn.
But the Warriors (0-2) will get no pity from North Pulaski coach Terrod Hatcher.
“No, no, no,” Hatcher said. “Our history isn’t great here. We’re just playing to win. I don’t listen to what they say about any team.
“I just try to prepare my players and see if we pull out a win.”
Hatcher, the former offensive coordinator, is in his first year as head coach and will be trying Friday to help the Falcons (0-2) to their first victory of the season, which would be only their fifth in six-plus years.
North Pulaski is coming off a promising showing against Pulaski Oak Grove last week, and Hatcher and the Falcons will be trying to build on the positives they saw in the 36-12 loss.
“I think we played really well. I don’t think we made any big mistakes as far as offense or defense,” Hatcher said.
After getting blanked 56-0 at 7A/6A-East conference member Searcy in its opener, North Pulaski, of the 5A-Southeast, played consistently and statistically better against Oak Grove.
The offense moved the ball and scored its first points, with Marvin Davis rushing for a 21-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, and a 15-play touchdown drive in the first half that cut the Hornets’ lead to 8-6.
Among the big defensive plays for North Pulaski was a fourth-and-goal stop with linebacker Darius Cage making the tackle at the 5. Cage also scored North Pulaski’s first touchdown at running back.
“I’m impressed with how theyplayed, and they performed really well,” Hatcher said. “I’m trying to get them ready for conference and I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
It wasn’t the play-in, play-out performance that cost the Falcons on Friday, Hatcher said, it was a few isolated plays.
Oak Grove scored on a trick play with running back Eric Parks taking the snap and completing a touchdown pass to the quarterback. The Hornets also had a fumble return and an interception return for touchdowns.
“We had a jump ball that went the other way,” Hatcher said. “We had a fumble and we had an interception for six points. If we eliminate those plays the game is even.”
Sylvan Hills, which North Pulaski will meet later in conference play, won 25-15 at Little Rock Christian on Friday.
Hatcher said his team’s trip to Little Rock gives the Falcons a chance to not only tune up for conference one last time, but to maybe get an idea how they will do against a common opponent.
“You always do that when a team plays somebody and you measure yourself up against them,” Hatcher said. “And I think we’ll probably do that same deal with Sylvan Hills and hopefully we’ll measure up.”
Falcons linebacker/running back Willie Frazier is questionable with a leg injury, which could be a problem for the Falcons’ defense. Hatcher noted that with Dyer and his 8,000 yards, plus tight end Dakota Mosley, all gone to Auburn, the Warriors are more of a passing team.
“We’re going to have to play pass defense,” Hatcher said. “They pass the ball. I think that’s probably their strong point right now.”
When the Falcons have the ball, Hatcher said, he doesn’t want to force things but rather string positive plays together. “We just want to make sure we get first downs,” he said. “We’re not looking for the big play. We’re not looking for the 80-yard touchdown. Once you move the sticks you’ll get in the end zone so we’ll see what happens.”
Leader sports editor
By all accounts, Little Rock Christian is already experiencing a down year after losing Arkansas’ all-time leading high school rusher Michael Dyer to graduation, and then to Auburn.
But the Warriors (0-2) will get no pity from North Pulaski coach Terrod Hatcher.
“No, no, no,” Hatcher said. “Our history isn’t great here. We’re just playing to win. I don’t listen to what they say about any team.
“I just try to prepare my players and see if we pull out a win.”
Hatcher, the former offensive coordinator, is in his first year as head coach and will be trying Friday to help the Falcons (0-2) to their first victory of the season, which would be only their fifth in six-plus years.
North Pulaski is coming off a promising showing against Pulaski Oak Grove last week, and Hatcher and the Falcons will be trying to build on the positives they saw in the 36-12 loss.
“I think we played really well. I don’t think we made any big mistakes as far as offense or defense,” Hatcher said.
After getting blanked 56-0 at 7A/6A-East conference member Searcy in its opener, North Pulaski, of the 5A-Southeast, played consistently and statistically better against Oak Grove.
The offense moved the ball and scored its first points, with Marvin Davis rushing for a 21-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, and a 15-play touchdown drive in the first half that cut the Hornets’ lead to 8-6.
Among the big defensive plays for North Pulaski was a fourth-and-goal stop with linebacker Darius Cage making the tackle at the 5. Cage also scored North Pulaski’s first touchdown at running back.
“I’m impressed with how theyplayed, and they performed really well,” Hatcher said. “I’m trying to get them ready for conference and I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
It wasn’t the play-in, play-out performance that cost the Falcons on Friday, Hatcher said, it was a few isolated plays.
Oak Grove scored on a trick play with running back Eric Parks taking the snap and completing a touchdown pass to the quarterback. The Hornets also had a fumble return and an interception return for touchdowns.
“We had a jump ball that went the other way,” Hatcher said. “We had a fumble and we had an interception for six points. If we eliminate those plays the game is even.”
Sylvan Hills, which North Pulaski will meet later in conference play, won 25-15 at Little Rock Christian on Friday.
Hatcher said his team’s trip to Little Rock gives the Falcons a chance to not only tune up for conference one last time, but to maybe get an idea how they will do against a common opponent.
“You always do that when a team plays somebody and you measure yourself up against them,” Hatcher said. “And I think we’ll probably do that same deal with Sylvan Hills and hopefully we’ll measure up.”
Falcons linebacker/running back Willie Frazier is questionable with a leg injury, which could be a problem for the Falcons’ defense. Hatcher noted that with Dyer and his 8,000 yards, plus tight end Dakota Mosley, all gone to Auburn, the Warriors are more of a passing team.
“We’re going to have to play pass defense,” Hatcher said. “They pass the ball. I think that’s probably their strong point right now.”
When the Falcons have the ball, Hatcher said, he doesn’t want to force things but rather string positive plays together. “We just want to make sure we get first downs,” he said. “We’re not looking for the big play. We’re not looking for the 80-yard touchdown. Once you move the sticks you’ll get in the end zone so we’ll see what happens.”
SPORTS>>Trojans pose test as Devils hit road
ByTODD TRAUB
Leader sports writer
Getting that first victory didn’t take long for Jacksonville last year.
Getting that second? That was another story.
This season’s Red Devils go for two in a row at Hot Springs on Friday after getting their first victory under first-year coach Rick Russell, 34-10 at Benton last week.
No winning streak materialized for Jacksonville last year. After Mark Whatley’s team beat Vilonia in Week 2, it didn’t win again until wiping out Little Rock Hall 46-0 in Week 6.
And that was it as the Red Devils finished 2-8.
Whatley left to join the Springdale staff and Russell, the former Jacksonville defensive coordinator, arrived from North Pulaski to lead the Red Devils.
“Wining is a habit and so, unfortunately, is losing,” Russell said.
With that in mind he’d like to string two victories together with a good performance at Hot Springs in Jacksonville’s last tune-up before opening 7A/6A-East Conference play.
“We’ve still got some kids anticipating to break into some rotations with our offensive and defensive scheme,” Russell said.
“We’ve got to get in there and make sure everyone we think is going to help us down the road gets some experience.”
Russell said he was glad to have his first victory as head coach already out of the way, especially in the second of three straight games away from home the Red Devils will play to open the season.
Jacksonville lost to Cabot in the season opener at War Memorial Stadium.
“I thought it was a great win,” Russell said of the Benton victory. “ It was kind of a relief because Benton was a lot better football team than people give them credit for.”
A bad snap on a Jacksonville punt and a fumble led to Benton’s 10 points. When Jacksonville wasn’t helping out its opponent, it was playing a pretty solid game, Russell said.
“We started off a little bit sluggish but I think the kids played well for the most part,” Russell said. “They played football for the entire game and played well.
“We had kids execute and make some athletic plays.
“It was important to me but it was more important to me for us to compete against our best and play for the complete 48 minutes.”
Quarterback Logan Perry passed for three touchdowns, two to D’Vone McClure, while the Red Devils defense came up with an interception.
Jacksonville had a 12-play, 80-yard scoring possession that ended with Perry’s 31-yard pass to Jamison Williams in the first half. The Red Devils struck for two touchdowns in the closing minutes of the second quarter and then shut out the Panthers in the second half.
Jacksonville will finally have its home opener a week from Thursday when it plays Mountain Home in a 7A/6A-Central game.
The game will be aired on statewide television.
Leader sports writer
Getting that first victory didn’t take long for Jacksonville last year.
Getting that second? That was another story.
This season’s Red Devils go for two in a row at Hot Springs on Friday after getting their first victory under first-year coach Rick Russell, 34-10 at Benton last week.
No winning streak materialized for Jacksonville last year. After Mark Whatley’s team beat Vilonia in Week 2, it didn’t win again until wiping out Little Rock Hall 46-0 in Week 6.
And that was it as the Red Devils finished 2-8.
Whatley left to join the Springdale staff and Russell, the former Jacksonville defensive coordinator, arrived from North Pulaski to lead the Red Devils.
“Wining is a habit and so, unfortunately, is losing,” Russell said.
With that in mind he’d like to string two victories together with a good performance at Hot Springs in Jacksonville’s last tune-up before opening 7A/6A-East Conference play.
“We’ve still got some kids anticipating to break into some rotations with our offensive and defensive scheme,” Russell said.
“We’ve got to get in there and make sure everyone we think is going to help us down the road gets some experience.”
Russell said he was glad to have his first victory as head coach already out of the way, especially in the second of three straight games away from home the Red Devils will play to open the season.
Jacksonville lost to Cabot in the season opener at War Memorial Stadium.
“I thought it was a great win,” Russell said of the Benton victory. “ It was kind of a relief because Benton was a lot better football team than people give them credit for.”
A bad snap on a Jacksonville punt and a fumble led to Benton’s 10 points. When Jacksonville wasn’t helping out its opponent, it was playing a pretty solid game, Russell said.
“We started off a little bit sluggish but I think the kids played well for the most part,” Russell said. “They played football for the entire game and played well.
“We had kids execute and make some athletic plays.
“It was important to me but it was more important to me for us to compete against our best and play for the complete 48 minutes.”
Quarterback Logan Perry passed for three touchdowns, two to D’Vone McClure, while the Red Devils defense came up with an interception.
Jacksonville had a 12-play, 80-yard scoring possession that ended with Perry’s 31-yard pass to Jamison Williams in the first half. The Red Devils struck for two touchdowns in the closing minutes of the second quarter and then shut out the Panthers in the second half.
Jacksonville will finally have its home opener a week from Thursday when it plays Mountain Home in a 7A/6A-Central game.
The game will be aired on statewide television.
SPORTS>>Har-Ber back at Cabot
BY TODD TRAUB
Leader sports writer
Cabot coach Mike Malham said both teams’ systems worked Friday night.
But it helped Cabot that it borrowed a little bit from the system favored by Pulaski Academy.
Cabot matched its Dead T running game against the empty backfields and multiple-receiver sets of Pulaski Academy and came way with a 35-34 victory in Little Rock that wasn’t clinched until the Panthers recovered a late fumble and ran out the clock.
At times each team pulled off what it does best.
Cabot turned in a pair of clock-consuming touchdown drives, one in the first half and one in the second, and held the ball for 9:48 of the third quarter, while Pulaski Academy took a 14-0 lead on quick-strike touchdown passes of 87 and 43 yards.
“What they did worked; they put up 34 points, and what we did worked,” Malham said.
The difference may have been the onside kicks. Pulaski Academy, nationally known last year for never punting, continued to go for it on fourth down against Cabot and attempted onside kicks after each score.
The Panthers started near midfield on the two scoring drives that pulled them within 20-14 at halftime. They started at their 50 to open the secondhalf and drove for their first lead, then scored on two straight possessions to go ahead 35-26.
The Panthers’ final score came after they surprised Pulaski Academy with an onside kick of their own and Chase Boyles recovered at the 50.
“We said ‘Let’s see if we can get us a break’ and it worked out,” Malham said.
But the drama didn’t end with Cabot’s 11-point lead. Lawson Vassar completed a touchdown and conversion pass to pull Pulaski Academy within 35-34, and after Boyles recovered yet another onside kick, Cabot quarterback Zach Craig fumbled and the Bruins recovered at the Panthers 40.
But with two quarterbacks in the game, Fredi Knighton tried to lateral back across the field after taking a pass from Jack Snider, and Snider couldn’t hang on to the lateral.
Linebacker Riley Hawkins recovered for Cabot and the Panthers finally hung on for the victory.
“We tried to give it back with another turnover there at the end,” Malham said. “But the defense did step up when it had to.”
Cabot fumbled four times and lost three in the first half as it fell behind 14-0. Fullback Spencer Smith fumbled on his first carry but went on to rush for 186 yards and all of Cabot’s touchdowns.
“He had a good battle at fullback,” Malham said. “I didn’t like the time he put it on the ground. The offensive line, I think, did a good job.”
Unless someone was counting heads on the sidelines, it was hard to tell Cabot and Pulaski Academy come from different classifications. Cabot is a large-school, 7A member of the 7A/6A-Central Conference while Pulaski Academy plays in the 7-4A.
“They might not have as many but they’ve got some good players,” Malham said.
Malham said the Panthers’ matchup with the Bruins was valuable because of the experience the Spread offense gave his defensive secondary.
“That was good for our defense because they hadn’t seen a passing game like they’ve got,” Malham said. “They do a lot of stuff and they do it well, they’ve got some kids that can run and catch. I thought our D-backs, we’ve got three new ones back there, and I thought they did a pretty god job.”
While not much of a passing team themselves, the Panthers play in the summer 7-on-7 leagues to hone their pass defense, and the experience, plus games with teams like the Bruins, should help Cabot in conference play.
The Panthers play their last non-conference game and first against a 7A opponent, when Springdale Har-Ber returns to Panther Stadium Friday. It was Har-Ber that edged Cabot from the state semifinals last year with a touchdown pass with less than two minutes left.
This year, Har-Ber has beaten El Dorado, the top team in 6A, 42-13, and it also took down Stillwater, Okla., 63-20. Har-Ber is ranked No. 1 in 7A and is No. 10 in the USA Today national high school poll.
“It only gets tougher,” Malham said. “Now after PA we get to look forward to Har-Ber coming in.”
Leader sports writer
Cabot coach Mike Malham said both teams’ systems worked Friday night.
But it helped Cabot that it borrowed a little bit from the system favored by Pulaski Academy.
Cabot matched its Dead T running game against the empty backfields and multiple-receiver sets of Pulaski Academy and came way with a 35-34 victory in Little Rock that wasn’t clinched until the Panthers recovered a late fumble and ran out the clock.
At times each team pulled off what it does best.
Cabot turned in a pair of clock-consuming touchdown drives, one in the first half and one in the second, and held the ball for 9:48 of the third quarter, while Pulaski Academy took a 14-0 lead on quick-strike touchdown passes of 87 and 43 yards.
“What they did worked; they put up 34 points, and what we did worked,” Malham said.
The difference may have been the onside kicks. Pulaski Academy, nationally known last year for never punting, continued to go for it on fourth down against Cabot and attempted onside kicks after each score.
The Panthers started near midfield on the two scoring drives that pulled them within 20-14 at halftime. They started at their 50 to open the secondhalf and drove for their first lead, then scored on two straight possessions to go ahead 35-26.
The Panthers’ final score came after they surprised Pulaski Academy with an onside kick of their own and Chase Boyles recovered at the 50.
“We said ‘Let’s see if we can get us a break’ and it worked out,” Malham said.
But the drama didn’t end with Cabot’s 11-point lead. Lawson Vassar completed a touchdown and conversion pass to pull Pulaski Academy within 35-34, and after Boyles recovered yet another onside kick, Cabot quarterback Zach Craig fumbled and the Bruins recovered at the Panthers 40.
But with two quarterbacks in the game, Fredi Knighton tried to lateral back across the field after taking a pass from Jack Snider, and Snider couldn’t hang on to the lateral.
Linebacker Riley Hawkins recovered for Cabot and the Panthers finally hung on for the victory.
“We tried to give it back with another turnover there at the end,” Malham said. “But the defense did step up when it had to.”
Cabot fumbled four times and lost three in the first half as it fell behind 14-0. Fullback Spencer Smith fumbled on his first carry but went on to rush for 186 yards and all of Cabot’s touchdowns.
“He had a good battle at fullback,” Malham said. “I didn’t like the time he put it on the ground. The offensive line, I think, did a good job.”
Unless someone was counting heads on the sidelines, it was hard to tell Cabot and Pulaski Academy come from different classifications. Cabot is a large-school, 7A member of the 7A/6A-Central Conference while Pulaski Academy plays in the 7-4A.
“They might not have as many but they’ve got some good players,” Malham said.
Malham said the Panthers’ matchup with the Bruins was valuable because of the experience the Spread offense gave his defensive secondary.
“That was good for our defense because they hadn’t seen a passing game like they’ve got,” Malham said. “They do a lot of stuff and they do it well, they’ve got some kids that can run and catch. I thought our D-backs, we’ve got three new ones back there, and I thought they did a pretty god job.”
While not much of a passing team themselves, the Panthers play in the summer 7-on-7 leagues to hone their pass defense, and the experience, plus games with teams like the Bruins, should help Cabot in conference play.
The Panthers play their last non-conference game and first against a 7A opponent, when Springdale Har-Ber returns to Panther Stadium Friday. It was Har-Ber that edged Cabot from the state semifinals last year with a touchdown pass with less than two minutes left.
This year, Har-Ber has beaten El Dorado, the top team in 6A, 42-13, and it also took down Stillwater, Okla., 63-20. Har-Ber is ranked No. 1 in 7A and is No. 10 in the USA Today national high school poll.
“It only gets tougher,” Malham said. “Now after PA we get to look forward to Har-Ber coming in.”
Saturday, September 11, 2010
SPORTS>>Red Devils, Perry pass to victory
By JOHNNY MCMAHAN
Special to The Leader
The Benton Panthers showed signs of improvement, but so did the Jacksonville Red Devils 1-1, as they took their first victory, 34-10, at C.W. Lewis Stadium on Friday.
“Our kids didn’t quit,” Jacksonville coach Rick Russell said. “They kept playing, we got behind at the beginning but we just kept plugging.”
Jacksonville out-ran and out-threw the Panthers and seemed to get the breaks when it counted.
“I thought Jacksonville played a good game and when they needed a big play, they got it,” Benton coach Scott Neathery said.
“And boy that really helped them and that seems to be our back-breaker right now.”
The Red Devils got three touchdown passes from quarterback Logan Perry with D’Vone McClure coming down with two of the touchdown receptions.
Benton’s first possession ended in an interception and Jacksonville had to punt after six plays. Benton then drove from its 20 to the Red Devils 48 before Grant Jones had an excellent punt that rolled to their opponents’ 7.
The Panthers’ defense held and on the next two plays Zach Stuckey and Carson Holloway combined to sack Perry for a 12-yard loss.
After an incomplete pass, Jacksonville attempted to punt but Taylor Schmidt recovered a bad snap on the Red Devils 15 that led to the Panthers’ only score.
Four plays later quarterback Grant Jones passed two yards to Brooks Balisterri with 2:19 left in the first period. The kick for the extra point by Sean Carrigan was good to make it 7-0.
“We got beat in all phases of the game,” Neathery said. “We need to get back and evaluate everybody and every position and just see where we are.”
Benton had numerous Jacksonville passes go through its hands for near interceptions all evening.
Despite miscues, Jacksonville came back on its next possession and drove 80 yards in twelve plays and capped the drive with a 31-yard pass from Logan Perry to Jamison Williams with 11:22 left in the half. The kick for the extra point by Aaron Shore tied it 7-7.
Ryne Keene intercepted a pass at his shoe tops on the Red Devils 42 that led to a Panthers field goal. The Panthers drove to the Jacksonville 7, but the Red Devils held for no gain.
On fourth down, Carrigan kicked a 25-yard field goal with 4:30 left in the half for a 10-7 Panther lead. The drive was kept alive by a pass from Jones to Balisterri that covered 14 yards and Tamario Beaugard had a 15-yard rushing gain.
Jacksonville went ahead for good when it scored twice in the last two minutes of the half to take a 20-10 lead going into the locker room.
The Red Devils marched from their 20 to the Panther 32 in less than three minutes before Shaquille Davis raced to the end zone with 2:03 left in the half. The drive was aided by a roughing the kicker penalty. Shore missed the extra point kick to leave it 13-0 Jacksonville.
Dylan Harris and Connor Tate had a sack for four yards but an 11-yard completion to McClure was short of the first down, but the roughing penalty gave new life to the Red Devils.
After holding the Panthers to three and out, another Jones punt put the ball on the Jacksonville 27. Four plays later, Perry passed to McClure for a touchdown with: 34 left in the first half. Shore’s extra point was good for the 20-10 lead at halftime.
Special to The Leader
The Benton Panthers showed signs of improvement, but so did the Jacksonville Red Devils 1-1, as they took their first victory, 34-10, at C.W. Lewis Stadium on Friday.
“Our kids didn’t quit,” Jacksonville coach Rick Russell said. “They kept playing, we got behind at the beginning but we just kept plugging.”
Jacksonville out-ran and out-threw the Panthers and seemed to get the breaks when it counted.
“I thought Jacksonville played a good game and when they needed a big play, they got it,” Benton coach Scott Neathery said.
“And boy that really helped them and that seems to be our back-breaker right now.”
The Red Devils got three touchdown passes from quarterback Logan Perry with D’Vone McClure coming down with two of the touchdown receptions.
Benton’s first possession ended in an interception and Jacksonville had to punt after six plays. Benton then drove from its 20 to the Red Devils 48 before Grant Jones had an excellent punt that rolled to their opponents’ 7.
The Panthers’ defense held and on the next two plays Zach Stuckey and Carson Holloway combined to sack Perry for a 12-yard loss.
After an incomplete pass, Jacksonville attempted to punt but Taylor Schmidt recovered a bad snap on the Red Devils 15 that led to the Panthers’ only score.
Four plays later quarterback Grant Jones passed two yards to Brooks Balisterri with 2:19 left in the first period. The kick for the extra point by Sean Carrigan was good to make it 7-0.
“We got beat in all phases of the game,” Neathery said. “We need to get back and evaluate everybody and every position and just see where we are.”
Benton had numerous Jacksonville passes go through its hands for near interceptions all evening.
Despite miscues, Jacksonville came back on its next possession and drove 80 yards in twelve plays and capped the drive with a 31-yard pass from Logan Perry to Jamison Williams with 11:22 left in the half. The kick for the extra point by Aaron Shore tied it 7-7.
Ryne Keene intercepted a pass at his shoe tops on the Red Devils 42 that led to a Panthers field goal. The Panthers drove to the Jacksonville 7, but the Red Devils held for no gain.
On fourth down, Carrigan kicked a 25-yard field goal with 4:30 left in the half for a 10-7 Panther lead. The drive was kept alive by a pass from Jones to Balisterri that covered 14 yards and Tamario Beaugard had a 15-yard rushing gain.
Jacksonville went ahead for good when it scored twice in the last two minutes of the half to take a 20-10 lead going into the locker room.
The Red Devils marched from their 20 to the Panther 32 in less than three minutes before Shaquille Davis raced to the end zone with 2:03 left in the half. The drive was aided by a roughing the kicker penalty. Shore missed the extra point kick to leave it 13-0 Jacksonville.
Dylan Harris and Connor Tate had a sack for four yards but an 11-yard completion to McClure was short of the first down, but the roughing penalty gave new life to the Red Devils.
After holding the Panthers to three and out, another Jones punt put the ball on the Jacksonville 27. Four plays later, Perry passed to McClure for a touchdown with: 34 left in the first half. Shore’s extra point was good for the 20-10 lead at halftime.
SPORTS>>Rebels’ pain not actually Razorbacks’ gain
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
Well, the Arkansas Razorbacks did everything they were supposed to do against Tennessee Tech last week.
That’s right, the Hogs didn’t stink.
And that’s really all we know so far about the 2010 Razorbacks. Right now, they don’t stink.
They certainly didn’t suffer the ignominious fate of former coach Houston Nutt, whose Ole Miss Rebels fell 49-48 in overtime to lowly Jacksonville State, led by another former Hogs coach Jack Crowe.
But more on that in a minute.
Razorbacks fans might have been concerned their heroes opened the season against the lowly Golden Eagles by getting outscored 3-0 in the first quarter. Even against the worst programs, a team can be expected to make a goof or two in its first game of the year.
And Tennessee Tech isn’t one of the worst teams, just an average member of the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision once known as Division I-AA.
After spotting the Golden Eagles’ Matthew Barker a 27-yard field goal and being stopped on fourth down in the first quarter, the Razorbacks rose up like the top 25 team they are.
Not only did Heisman Trophy candidate Ryan Mallett go 21 of 24 for 301 yards and three touchdowns, he had the longest scoring completion of his career on an 85-yard connection with Joe Adams.
So all is well in Hog land for at least another week. No embarrassing losses or close calls, no program-breaking injuries.
For all we know the defense is as improved as coach Bobby Petrino wants it to be. For all we know, Mallett is on his way to Times Square to pick up his Heisman.
Let’s face it, we won’t really know if this is the national championship-caliber team fans are praying for until No. 14 Arkansas plays No. 22 Georgia in one week and top-ranked, defending national champ Alabama in two.
Unless, of course, Sun Belt Conference member Louisiana-Monroe trips up Arkansas in Little Rock today. If that happens you can just about write off Georgia and Alabama and start planning your Liberty Bowl trip.
But for now, Arkansas is sitting pretty, and it certainly isn’t Ole Miss. Which brings me back to Nutt.
After falling out of favor at Arkansas for a slew of reasons both personal and professional, Nutt jumped to fellow SEC member Ole Miss and went 18-8 his first two seasons, beating Arkansas twice and winning two Cotton Bowls.
So the Razorbacks fans were thrilled to see Nutt drop his opener to Championship Subdivision member Jacksonville State, a defeat reminiscent of the embarrassing way Crowe’s Razorbacks lost to the Citadel and hastened Crowe’s departure in 1992.
I get why Hogs fans would have it in for Nutt — now — because, after all, he is coaching for a rival conference school.
However, I would remind fans that Nutt was nothing if not an enthusiastic Hogs coach, an Arkansas native who posted a 75-48 record at the university and was usually good for a winning season and a decent bowl game, a guy who beat Texas and had those thrilling victories over LSU.
And no one has to remind me how Nutt screwed up through his flirtations with Nebraska and a certain female television reporter while he was unable to work up any sort of romance with offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and quarterback Mitch Mustain.
We’ve been over that.
What gets me about the Hogs fans cheering Ole Miss’ season-opening flop is that these are the same fans, come bowl season, who will root for the SEC because it somehow makes the Hogs look better.
Certainly, if you want to say you come from the toughest conference — and the SEC, if not THE toughest is right up there — wouldn’t you root for Ole Miss in a non-conference game? Especially if it’s a team from a lower classification?
How does such a loss help your national image?
Say Arkansas, which faces Ole Miss on Oct. 23 in Fayetteville, is on the bubble for a really good bowl and someone on a selection committee considers strength of schedule. What happens when they take into account Ole Miss’ loss to Jacksonville State, especially if the Hogs have already played patsies like Tennessee Tech and Louisiana-Monroe?
North Carolina’s near upset of SEC member LSU last week doesn’t help either.
Look, the Hogs will have their chance to get back at Nutt in October.
Until then, if it’s SEC supremacy the fans want, they may need to find some charity in their hearts and hope Nutt gets the Rebels up to speed tonight against Tulane.
Leader sports editor
Well, the Arkansas Razorbacks did everything they were supposed to do against Tennessee Tech last week.
That’s right, the Hogs didn’t stink.
And that’s really all we know so far about the 2010 Razorbacks. Right now, they don’t stink.
They certainly didn’t suffer the ignominious fate of former coach Houston Nutt, whose Ole Miss Rebels fell 49-48 in overtime to lowly Jacksonville State, led by another former Hogs coach Jack Crowe.
But more on that in a minute.
Razorbacks fans might have been concerned their heroes opened the season against the lowly Golden Eagles by getting outscored 3-0 in the first quarter. Even against the worst programs, a team can be expected to make a goof or two in its first game of the year.
And Tennessee Tech isn’t one of the worst teams, just an average member of the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision once known as Division I-AA.
After spotting the Golden Eagles’ Matthew Barker a 27-yard field goal and being stopped on fourth down in the first quarter, the Razorbacks rose up like the top 25 team they are.
Not only did Heisman Trophy candidate Ryan Mallett go 21 of 24 for 301 yards and three touchdowns, he had the longest scoring completion of his career on an 85-yard connection with Joe Adams.
So all is well in Hog land for at least another week. No embarrassing losses or close calls, no program-breaking injuries.
For all we know the defense is as improved as coach Bobby Petrino wants it to be. For all we know, Mallett is on his way to Times Square to pick up his Heisman.
Let’s face it, we won’t really know if this is the national championship-caliber team fans are praying for until No. 14 Arkansas plays No. 22 Georgia in one week and top-ranked, defending national champ Alabama in two.
Unless, of course, Sun Belt Conference member Louisiana-Monroe trips up Arkansas in Little Rock today. If that happens you can just about write off Georgia and Alabama and start planning your Liberty Bowl trip.
But for now, Arkansas is sitting pretty, and it certainly isn’t Ole Miss. Which brings me back to Nutt.
After falling out of favor at Arkansas for a slew of reasons both personal and professional, Nutt jumped to fellow SEC member Ole Miss and went 18-8 his first two seasons, beating Arkansas twice and winning two Cotton Bowls.
So the Razorbacks fans were thrilled to see Nutt drop his opener to Championship Subdivision member Jacksonville State, a defeat reminiscent of the embarrassing way Crowe’s Razorbacks lost to the Citadel and hastened Crowe’s departure in 1992.
I get why Hogs fans would have it in for Nutt — now — because, after all, he is coaching for a rival conference school.
However, I would remind fans that Nutt was nothing if not an enthusiastic Hogs coach, an Arkansas native who posted a 75-48 record at the university and was usually good for a winning season and a decent bowl game, a guy who beat Texas and had those thrilling victories over LSU.
And no one has to remind me how Nutt screwed up through his flirtations with Nebraska and a certain female television reporter while he was unable to work up any sort of romance with offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and quarterback Mitch Mustain.
We’ve been over that.
What gets me about the Hogs fans cheering Ole Miss’ season-opening flop is that these are the same fans, come bowl season, who will root for the SEC because it somehow makes the Hogs look better.
Certainly, if you want to say you come from the toughest conference — and the SEC, if not THE toughest is right up there — wouldn’t you root for Ole Miss in a non-conference game? Especially if it’s a team from a lower classification?
How does such a loss help your national image?
Say Arkansas, which faces Ole Miss on Oct. 23 in Fayetteville, is on the bubble for a really good bowl and someone on a selection committee considers strength of schedule. What happens when they take into account Ole Miss’ loss to Jacksonville State, especially if the Hogs have already played patsies like Tennessee Tech and Louisiana-Monroe?
North Carolina’s near upset of SEC member LSU last week doesn’t help either.
Look, the Hogs will have their chance to get back at Nutt in October.
Until then, if it’s SEC supremacy the fans want, they may need to find some charity in their hearts and hope Nutt gets the Rebels up to speed tonight against Tulane.
SPORTS>>Gritty effort not enough; Hornets outduel Falcons
By JASON GIBSON
Special to The Leader
Oak Grove’s Head Coach Mike Buchan said “We got lucky” after his hornets beat the North Pulaski Falcons 36-12 at North Pulaski on Friday.
The Hornets led 16-6 late in the third quarter and used a trick play, sending the quarterback out as a receiver and have running back Eric Parks take the snap.
Parks dropped back and completed a 63-yard touchdown pass, pushing the lead to 22-6.
Three plays later the Hornets defense forced a fumble and Joseph Harris picked it up and ran 38 yards for the touchdown. The Falcons answered in the fourth with Marvin Davis’ 21-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 36-12 with just over a minute to play.
In the second quarter the Hornets drove the length of the field setting up a fourth and goal from the 20-yard line.
“We thought we could just run it down them, we have been running over people for the last two weeks,” Buchan said.
The Hornets ran a quarterback keeper and the Falcons were waiting for him. Darius Cage made the tackle at the 5- yard line.
“Cage is the emotional leader of our defense,” North Pulaski coach Greg Hatcher said. “He played like a leader he was always around the ball.”
Buchan said the Falcons gave the Hornets more then they wanted or expected.
“We watched the tape on them and we thought it would be an easy game,” Buchan said.
“But this team has fight. They gave us more fight than any Falcons team has before and that’s a credit to that coach. They played us out of our socks.”
Hatcher said he felt good about this team and he knows it can win.
“We’re a work in progress, but we definitely played better tonight,” Hatcher said. “The defense played well.”
The difference between the first and second half was Parks. He ran for 136 yards and threw a 63-yard touchdown pass.
In the second half it seemed the Falcons could not stop him. He ran between the tackles all night didn’t avoid contact.
Parks rushed for 41 yards in the fourth quarter.
The Hornets defense accounted for two touchdowns, one on the opening drive of the game.
The Falcons were moving the ball and gaining confidence until senior Donald Bone intercepted a pass from Shyheim Barron.
Bone went 45 yards for the score.
The Falcons rallied in the second quarter on 15-play drive capped with a three-yard run up the middle by Cage.
The Touchdown cut the Hornets’ lead to 8-6 but the extra point was then blocked.
The Hornets (2-0) never trailed but North Pulaski (0-2) had a shot at the upset until Parks took over.
“Our offense looked better tonight,” said Hatcher, the former offensive coordinator. “Still not where we need to be, but we looked better.”
Special to The Leader
Oak Grove’s Head Coach Mike Buchan said “We got lucky” after his hornets beat the North Pulaski Falcons 36-12 at North Pulaski on Friday.
The Hornets led 16-6 late in the third quarter and used a trick play, sending the quarterback out as a receiver and have running back Eric Parks take the snap.
Parks dropped back and completed a 63-yard touchdown pass, pushing the lead to 22-6.
Three plays later the Hornets defense forced a fumble and Joseph Harris picked it up and ran 38 yards for the touchdown. The Falcons answered in the fourth with Marvin Davis’ 21-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 36-12 with just over a minute to play.
In the second quarter the Hornets drove the length of the field setting up a fourth and goal from the 20-yard line.
“We thought we could just run it down them, we have been running over people for the last two weeks,” Buchan said.
The Hornets ran a quarterback keeper and the Falcons were waiting for him. Darius Cage made the tackle at the 5- yard line.
“Cage is the emotional leader of our defense,” North Pulaski coach Greg Hatcher said. “He played like a leader he was always around the ball.”
Buchan said the Falcons gave the Hornets more then they wanted or expected.
“We watched the tape on them and we thought it would be an easy game,” Buchan said.
“But this team has fight. They gave us more fight than any Falcons team has before and that’s a credit to that coach. They played us out of our socks.”
Hatcher said he felt good about this team and he knows it can win.
“We’re a work in progress, but we definitely played better tonight,” Hatcher said. “The defense played well.”
The difference between the first and second half was Parks. He ran for 136 yards and threw a 63-yard touchdown pass.
In the second half it seemed the Falcons could not stop him. He ran between the tackles all night didn’t avoid contact.
Parks rushed for 41 yards in the fourth quarter.
The Hornets defense accounted for two touchdowns, one on the opening drive of the game.
The Falcons were moving the ball and gaining confidence until senior Donald Bone intercepted a pass from Shyheim Barron.
Bone went 45 yards for the score.
The Falcons rallied in the second quarter on 15-play drive capped with a three-yard run up the middle by Cage.
The Touchdown cut the Hornets’ lead to 8-6 but the extra point was then blocked.
The Hornets (2-0) never trailed but North Pulaski (0-2) had a shot at the upset until Parks took over.
“Our offense looked better tonight,” said Hatcher, the former offensive coordinator. “Still not where we need to be, but we looked better.”
SPORTS>>Lonoke gets by injuries, Beebe
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The battle between local rivals Lonoke and Beebe turned into a battle of adjustments.
Key players from both sides went out early with injuries, but the Jackrabbits overcame their difficulties and came from behind to defeat the Badgers 26-21 on Friday at Bro Erwin Stadium.
Beebe controlled the line of scrimmage early and took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, and appeared to be in the driver’s seat when Lonoke quarterback Logan DeWhitt came out of the game with a shoulder injury midway through the second.
But backup Darius Scott came through for the ’Rabbits with a stellar performance late, engineering a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives.
The Lonoke defense then did its job when Beebe went to the air, getting a pair of sacks on Badger quarterback Scot Gowen that ended one drive. Senior defensive back Justin Smith intercepted a pass in the final minute to cut off the fireworks for good.
“We just challenged the kids,” Lonoke coach Doug Bost said. “It’s just a team that comes straight at you, we knew that. They broke off big runs, but we never gave up. We just kept fighting, and were able to get some stops.
“Against a team like that, if you can get them to try and pass the ball, which they really don’t want to do, we were able to do that on them.”
Lonoke set the stage for a dramatic ending with a 92-yard scoring drive in 15 plays, highlighted by a 33-yard run by Darius Scott that took the ball to the Jackrabbit 47, and a 19-yard pass from Scott to senior Blake Dill that for a first down at the Beebe 11.
T.J. Scott then took it to the 1-yard line before he finished the drive by bulling his way into the end zone with 4:46 left in the third. T.J. Scott also added the extra point to tie it at 14.
Beebe began the fourth quarter with a short drive that ended with a five-yard run by junior running back Jay Holdway, but Lonoke came back with a quick drive that appeared to catch the Badgers off guard when Scott completed a pair of passes to Scott Smith and Dill.
Smith’s catch set Lonoke up with a first down at the Beebe 25, and Scott’s 22-yard pass to Dill in the end zone two plays later cut the Badgers’ lead to 21-20 after Matthew Pursell blocked T.J. Scott’s point-after attempt.
“They saw the film from last week when we had to play Darius in the fourth quarter,” Bost said. “They pretty much figured we weren’t going to pass, but I’ve seen him in practice, I know he can throw, he just had to settle down and step into his throw. He made some big throws for us.”
Beebe’s next drive stalled at its 42, but a Gowen punted to pin Lonoke at its 19. Darius Scott moved the ball close to midfield with runs of 18 and 11 yards, but it was Keli Bryant’s 44-yard run down the left side that set the ’Rabbits up with first and goal at the eight.
Again, it was T.J. Scott closing the drive with a power run up the middle that set the final margin with 5:51 left to play.
“We got some kids banged up, and we were scrambling for running backs,” Beebe coach John Shannon said. “We just got out of sync and allowed them to get back in the ballgame. They’ve got a real good ball team, and that’s the things you can’t do when you’ve got someone down, you can’t let them get back in the ballgame.”
Beebe was forced to go to the air with time running out, but Wes Plummer and T.J. Scott sniffed out Gowen for sacks of minus-four yards each time and forced the Badgers to punt it away.
“We were doing something we typically don’t like to do,” Shannon said. “That’s something we’re going to have to get better at, because we’re going to be in some close ballgames. We didn’t do a very good job of it tonight.”
Beebe took the first lead with a 33-yard run by Michael Kirby with 4:50 left in the first quarter and added to the lead with 35 seconds left in the first with a 10-yard run by Colby Taylor. Taylor sat out much of the second and third quarter, and Holdway was absent for the entire second half except for the final drive.
Beebe finished with 197 yards of total offense, 140 of which came in the first half.
Lonoke had 334 yards, with 206 in the second half and 140 in the third quarter. Darius Scott led the charge with 14 carries for 117 yards, 3-of-6 passes for 60 yards and a score, and had an early reception from DeWhitt of 13 yards for 190 yards of all-purpose offense.
Leader sportswriter
The battle between local rivals Lonoke and Beebe turned into a battle of adjustments.
Key players from both sides went out early with injuries, but the Jackrabbits overcame their difficulties and came from behind to defeat the Badgers 26-21 on Friday at Bro Erwin Stadium.
Beebe controlled the line of scrimmage early and took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, and appeared to be in the driver’s seat when Lonoke quarterback Logan DeWhitt came out of the game with a shoulder injury midway through the second.
But backup Darius Scott came through for the ’Rabbits with a stellar performance late, engineering a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives.
The Lonoke defense then did its job when Beebe went to the air, getting a pair of sacks on Badger quarterback Scot Gowen that ended one drive. Senior defensive back Justin Smith intercepted a pass in the final minute to cut off the fireworks for good.
“We just challenged the kids,” Lonoke coach Doug Bost said. “It’s just a team that comes straight at you, we knew that. They broke off big runs, but we never gave up. We just kept fighting, and were able to get some stops.
“Against a team like that, if you can get them to try and pass the ball, which they really don’t want to do, we were able to do that on them.”
Lonoke set the stage for a dramatic ending with a 92-yard scoring drive in 15 plays, highlighted by a 33-yard run by Darius Scott that took the ball to the Jackrabbit 47, and a 19-yard pass from Scott to senior Blake Dill that for a first down at the Beebe 11.
T.J. Scott then took it to the 1-yard line before he finished the drive by bulling his way into the end zone with 4:46 left in the third. T.J. Scott also added the extra point to tie it at 14.
Beebe began the fourth quarter with a short drive that ended with a five-yard run by junior running back Jay Holdway, but Lonoke came back with a quick drive that appeared to catch the Badgers off guard when Scott completed a pair of passes to Scott Smith and Dill.
Smith’s catch set Lonoke up with a first down at the Beebe 25, and Scott’s 22-yard pass to Dill in the end zone two plays later cut the Badgers’ lead to 21-20 after Matthew Pursell blocked T.J. Scott’s point-after attempt.
“They saw the film from last week when we had to play Darius in the fourth quarter,” Bost said. “They pretty much figured we weren’t going to pass, but I’ve seen him in practice, I know he can throw, he just had to settle down and step into his throw. He made some big throws for us.”
Beebe’s next drive stalled at its 42, but a Gowen punted to pin Lonoke at its 19. Darius Scott moved the ball close to midfield with runs of 18 and 11 yards, but it was Keli Bryant’s 44-yard run down the left side that set the ’Rabbits up with first and goal at the eight.
Again, it was T.J. Scott closing the drive with a power run up the middle that set the final margin with 5:51 left to play.
“We got some kids banged up, and we were scrambling for running backs,” Beebe coach John Shannon said. “We just got out of sync and allowed them to get back in the ballgame. They’ve got a real good ball team, and that’s the things you can’t do when you’ve got someone down, you can’t let them get back in the ballgame.”
Beebe was forced to go to the air with time running out, but Wes Plummer and T.J. Scott sniffed out Gowen for sacks of minus-four yards each time and forced the Badgers to punt it away.
“We were doing something we typically don’t like to do,” Shannon said. “That’s something we’re going to have to get better at, because we’re going to be in some close ballgames. We didn’t do a very good job of it tonight.”
Beebe took the first lead with a 33-yard run by Michael Kirby with 4:50 left in the first quarter and added to the lead with 35 seconds left in the first with a 10-yard run by Colby Taylor. Taylor sat out much of the second and third quarter, and Holdway was absent for the entire second half except for the final drive.
Beebe finished with 197 yards of total offense, 140 of which came in the first half.
Lonoke had 334 yards, with 206 in the second half and 140 in the third quarter. Darius Scott led the charge with 14 carries for 117 yards, 3-of-6 passes for 60 yards and a score, and had an early reception from DeWhitt of 13 yards for 190 yards of all-purpose offense.
SPORTS>>Panthers hold on, beat Bruins
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
It wasn’t until Zach Craig took a knee that fans could leave their seats.
The Cabot Panthers took a nail-biting, 35-34 victory at Pulaski Academy on Friday, surviving a late Bruins rally that hinged on a fumble and for all purposes ended with one.
“Any victory is a good victory, I want to tell you that,” Cabot coach Mike Malham said. “We worked so hard and they don’t come easy when you play good people like this.”
The game was a matchup of Cabot’s ground-control, Dead T offense against Pulaski Academy’s high-flying Spread with its empty backfield and multiple receivers.
Cabot appeared to have the upper hand with a 35-26 lead after leading rusher Spencer Smith, who scored every Cabot touchdown, ran in from six yards out for his last score with 11:09 left in the game.
Pulaski Academy turned it over on downs after it fumbled and recovered on fourth and 10 and Cabot appeared set to work the clock with 9:02 to go.
But the Panthers couldn’t convert on fourth and four and the Bruins drove for Lawson Vassar’s 1-yard touchdown pass to Zac Reyna and his conversion throw to Garrett Lamb to pull within 35-34 with 4:06 remaining.
Chase Boyles recovered the onside kick for Cabot with 4:06 left and the Panthers now needed a few first downs to run out the clock, but Craig fumbled on the first play, Aum’Arie Wallace recovered for the Bruins, and they appeared ready to steal the victory.
But Pulaski Academy, which used three quarterbacks, called for Jack Snider to pass to quarterback Fredi Knighton, who threw back across the field to Snider.
Snider couldn’t handle the lateral and Cabot linebacker Riley Hawkins recovered the fumble with 3:45 to go, allowing the Panthers to drive inside the 5 and let Craig take a knee twice to finally end it.
“Both systems worked,” Malham said of the two wildly different offenses.
“We thought we could come out and move the ball and stop them early because they were a little nervous and young,” Bruins coach Kevin Kelly said. “Obviously the further we got in the game the more difficult we knew it was going to be for our defense because they’re a solid offense.”
Smith rushed for 186 yards and his six touchdowns and his longest gain was 14 yards.
Pulaski Academy, which made national news by refusing to punt last year, continued its unconventional ways with the three-quarterback rotation, as well as going for on fourth down and attempting onside kicks after each score.
Hawkins recovered one such kick and it led to the possession that ended with Smith’s two-yard run and Logan Spry’s extra-point kick that made it 28-26 Cabot with 4:42 left in the third quarter.
Kelly said the onside kicks came out of respect for Cabot’s ability to sustain drives its Dead T.
“Our thinking was if they’re going to move the ball and drive it down we’re going to give them the short field so they’re not going to take all the clock,” Kelly said.
Then Cabot surprised Pulaski Academy with an onside kick of its own, and Boyles recovered the ball to set up the Panthers’ 50-yard scoring drive that made it 35-26.
“We said ‘Let’s see if we can get us a break,’ and it worked out,” Malham said. “And then of course we tried to give it back with another turnover there at the end.”
Leader sports editor
It wasn’t until Zach Craig took a knee that fans could leave their seats.
The Cabot Panthers took a nail-biting, 35-34 victory at Pulaski Academy on Friday, surviving a late Bruins rally that hinged on a fumble and for all purposes ended with one.
“Any victory is a good victory, I want to tell you that,” Cabot coach Mike Malham said. “We worked so hard and they don’t come easy when you play good people like this.”
The game was a matchup of Cabot’s ground-control, Dead T offense against Pulaski Academy’s high-flying Spread with its empty backfield and multiple receivers.
Cabot appeared to have the upper hand with a 35-26 lead after leading rusher Spencer Smith, who scored every Cabot touchdown, ran in from six yards out for his last score with 11:09 left in the game.
Pulaski Academy turned it over on downs after it fumbled and recovered on fourth and 10 and Cabot appeared set to work the clock with 9:02 to go.
But the Panthers couldn’t convert on fourth and four and the Bruins drove for Lawson Vassar’s 1-yard touchdown pass to Zac Reyna and his conversion throw to Garrett Lamb to pull within 35-34 with 4:06 remaining.
Chase Boyles recovered the onside kick for Cabot with 4:06 left and the Panthers now needed a few first downs to run out the clock, but Craig fumbled on the first play, Aum’Arie Wallace recovered for the Bruins, and they appeared ready to steal the victory.
But Pulaski Academy, which used three quarterbacks, called for Jack Snider to pass to quarterback Fredi Knighton, who threw back across the field to Snider.
Snider couldn’t handle the lateral and Cabot linebacker Riley Hawkins recovered the fumble with 3:45 to go, allowing the Panthers to drive inside the 5 and let Craig take a knee twice to finally end it.
“Both systems worked,” Malham said of the two wildly different offenses.
“We thought we could come out and move the ball and stop them early because they were a little nervous and young,” Bruins coach Kevin Kelly said. “Obviously the further we got in the game the more difficult we knew it was going to be for our defense because they’re a solid offense.”
Smith rushed for 186 yards and his six touchdowns and his longest gain was 14 yards.
Pulaski Academy, which made national news by refusing to punt last year, continued its unconventional ways with the three-quarterback rotation, as well as going for on fourth down and attempting onside kicks after each score.
Hawkins recovered one such kick and it led to the possession that ended with Smith’s two-yard run and Logan Spry’s extra-point kick that made it 28-26 Cabot with 4:42 left in the third quarter.
Kelly said the onside kicks came out of respect for Cabot’s ability to sustain drives its Dead T.
“Our thinking was if they’re going to move the ball and drive it down we’re going to give them the short field so they’re not going to take all the clock,” Kelly said.
Then Cabot surprised Pulaski Academy with an onside kick of its own, and Boyles recovered the ball to set up the Panthers’ 50-yard scoring drive that made it 35-26.
“We said ‘Let’s see if we can get us a break,’ and it worked out,” Malham said. “And then of course we tried to give it back with another turnover there at the end.”
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