By NATE ALLEN
Special to The Leader
FAYETTEVILLE – For seven minutes during the Razorbacks’ biggest women’s home game of the nonconference season, Arkansas was the team that cried, “Wolff!”
Melissa Wolff, the freshman reserve guard from Cabot, hit the go-ahead three-pointer for the Razorbacks’ first lead, 17-16, against No. 17 Kansas on Dec. 6 at Bud Walton Arena.
She continued spurring Arkansas to a 33-24 halftime lead in its 64-56 victory. Immediately following her trey, she got a steal and assist to teammate Sarah Watkins. Wolff finished the half 2 for 2 from the field for five points with a rebound, steal, two assist and zero turnovers.
“It was really important,” Arkansas Coach Tom Collen said of Wolff’s first-half flurry.
Wolff finished the game shooting 2 for 5 for the same five points with one more assist vs. one second-half turnover. She played 14 more minutes in the second half.
She played more, Collen said, because her rebounding, four for the game, and defense helped put the brakes on the Jayhawks after they briefly re-took the lead.
“Really her play all the way around was subtle,” Collen said. “She doesn’t take a lot of shots but hit a big three. Probably the most unnoticed thing is she was really solid defensively and she gave us another rebounder in there.”
Collen said Wolff, 6-feet, provides a greater presence on the boards to complement starting point guard Calli Berna than does 5-8 freshman scoring guard Dominique Wilson and the more slightly built 5-10 shooting guard Kelsey Hatcher.
“We are not very physical at the 2-spot with Kelsey Hatcher and Dominique Wilson sometimes,” Collen said. “So we made the decision to go there for her rebounding. She’s a strong kid and she’s always where she is supposed to be defensively. There is an art to that. She is a big reason why I thought our defense was so good down the stretch.”
It was much the same when Arkansas battled now No. 12 Oklahoma to the wire in a 73-70 loss.
“When we played Oklahoma, I had a really bad off shooting night but I was able to stay in for rebounding and defense,” Wolff said. “That was another big team that I logged quite a few minutes and that was a good opportunity to get experience.”
Averaging 17.8 minutes per game and playing in all the games for an 8-1 Razorbacks team now among those getting Top 25 votes, Wolff enhances Arkansas’ opportunities to win says, senior center Sarah Watkins.
Watkins, the top returnee from last season’s 24-9 second-round NCAA Tournament team, asserts the kid from Cabot sets the curve on effort and defensive positioning.
“She’s a hard-nosed kid coming out of high school,” Watkins said. “She knows where to be on defense and she plays really hard. She plays probably harder than anybody on the floor and it shows. She gets all the hustle plays. She has been really big for us in this stretch of games.”
If she leads on effort, Wolff says it’s because she usually starts every matchup at some disadvantage. Perhaps Arkansas’ most versatile defender, Wolff not only guards guards but small forwards, power forwards and sometimes even the opposition’s biggest post.
“I know I am not the quickest or the strongest out there,” Wolff said. “So I have to work that much harder to be able to keep up with everybody.”
Frankly, it would seem more difficult for everybody to keep up with her.
While leading Cabot to a state championship last season, Wolff was a National Honor Society student. She completes her first fall semester at the UA this week majoring in kinesiology with plans once she achieves her bachelor’s degree to transfer to a program offering a doctorate in physical therapy.
Last March when the Razorbacks were in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Texas A&M, Wolff was spending her last high school spring break with her church youth group in South Africa.
“We visited schools and talked to the kids and visited hospitals,” Wolff said. “We saw a lot of poverty, it was very sad. It makes you grateful for what you have.”
For her locale to study and play ball, it seems Wolff has it all.
“Growing up in Arkansas I wanted to be a Razorback and this was a great opportunity,” Wolff said. “Arkansas is where I always wanted to be.”
Her coaches and teammates sound grateful to have her.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
SPORTS STORY >> Benton avenges loss from last year
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The matchup was a repeat of last year’s final, but the outcome was different as Benton defeated Cabot 61-51 in the championship round of the Cabot Pre-Holiday tournament at Panther Arena on Saturday.
Benton held a size advantage at every position, but especially inside with post player Graham Gardner, who towered over everyone else at 6-10. Gardener led the visiting Panthers with 13 points.
“They’re about bigger, faster and stronger at every position,” Panthers coach Jerry Bridges said. “But I’m going to be honest with you, I felt like we grew this week as a team. We’ve improved greatly this week.”
Benton held all Cabot players to less then 10 points, including eight points for senior point guard Bryan Shrum and seven points each for forward Clayton Vaught and fellow senior Kyle Thielemier.
“I thought at times, we did a good job,” Bridges said. “I give Benton credit, I think they wore down my point guard. When Shrum got tired, we weren’t as effective attacking. He did a great job until he wore down.”
Benton led 29-22 at halftime, and got a big boost to start the third quarter when guard Bryan Torres drew a foul while shooting a three pointer. He went to the line at the 6:43 mark and hit all three to put Benton up 32-23.
“We had it down to four or five to start the third quarter, and then we foul a three-point shooter,” Bridges said. “You just can’t do that. I was just proud of our effort. Going into this week, I was a little concerned about it. But I think we’re going to be a competitive team. We’re getting better.”
For Cabot (2-4), there were positive signs despite falling behind on the scoreboard, as football players Brett Frazier and Jake Ferguson showed signs of gaining their basketball legs with good second-half performances. Frazier scored all of his team high nine points in the fourth quarter, going 5 for 5 from the free-throw line.
“He hasn’t been in the gym with us long from football,” Bridges said. “I really believe he and Jake Ferguson both – my goal for them is for us to get through Christmas and then maybe they’ll be ready to get into the mix. They’re making strides quicker than I thought. I think Brett has an opportunity to be good for us in the future. We’ve got to get him a little more aggressive getting on the defensive boards for us, but he’s got a soft touch, he can shoot. If they foul him, he can go and make his free throws.
Gardner scored many of his points on putbacks, including back-to-back shots in the final three minutes that kept the margin over 10 for Benton down the stretch.
“We were swatting at his arm pits,” Bridges said. “I thought my guys battled up and tried to make him work for it. They are a good team, and they really wanted that win. We had that one spell in the second quarter where we struggled with just six points. We tried to keep them at a tempo we were comfortable with. You’ve got to give them credit, they did a good job with their defense.”
Rickey Gipson added 12 points for Benton while Torres and Blake Bowlin each finished with eight points.
Leader sportswriter
The matchup was a repeat of last year’s final, but the outcome was different as Benton defeated Cabot 61-51 in the championship round of the Cabot Pre-Holiday tournament at Panther Arena on Saturday.
Benton held a size advantage at every position, but especially inside with post player Graham Gardner, who towered over everyone else at 6-10. Gardener led the visiting Panthers with 13 points.
“They’re about bigger, faster and stronger at every position,” Panthers coach Jerry Bridges said. “But I’m going to be honest with you, I felt like we grew this week as a team. We’ve improved greatly this week.”
Benton held all Cabot players to less then 10 points, including eight points for senior point guard Bryan Shrum and seven points each for forward Clayton Vaught and fellow senior Kyle Thielemier.
“I thought at times, we did a good job,” Bridges said. “I give Benton credit, I think they wore down my point guard. When Shrum got tired, we weren’t as effective attacking. He did a great job until he wore down.”
Benton led 29-22 at halftime, and got a big boost to start the third quarter when guard Bryan Torres drew a foul while shooting a three pointer. He went to the line at the 6:43 mark and hit all three to put Benton up 32-23.
“We had it down to four or five to start the third quarter, and then we foul a three-point shooter,” Bridges said. “You just can’t do that. I was just proud of our effort. Going into this week, I was a little concerned about it. But I think we’re going to be a competitive team. We’re getting better.”
For Cabot (2-4), there were positive signs despite falling behind on the scoreboard, as football players Brett Frazier and Jake Ferguson showed signs of gaining their basketball legs with good second-half performances. Frazier scored all of his team high nine points in the fourth quarter, going 5 for 5 from the free-throw line.
“He hasn’t been in the gym with us long from football,” Bridges said. “I really believe he and Jake Ferguson both – my goal for them is for us to get through Christmas and then maybe they’ll be ready to get into the mix. They’re making strides quicker than I thought. I think Brett has an opportunity to be good for us in the future. We’ve got to get him a little more aggressive getting on the defensive boards for us, but he’s got a soft touch, he can shoot. If they foul him, he can go and make his free throws.
Gardner scored many of his points on putbacks, including back-to-back shots in the final three minutes that kept the margin over 10 for Benton down the stretch.
“We were swatting at his arm pits,” Bridges said. “I thought my guys battled up and tried to make him work for it. They are a good team, and they really wanted that win. We had that one spell in the second quarter where we struggled with just six points. We tried to keep them at a tempo we were comfortable with. You’ve got to give them credit, they did a good job with their defense.”
Rickey Gipson added 12 points for Benton while Torres and Blake Bowlin each finished with eight points.
SPORTS STORY >> Wildcats pummel Warriors
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Kevaughn Allen and Dayshawn Watkins shared MVP honors at the conclusion of North Little Rock’s 83-59 win over Little Rock Hall in Saturday’s championship game of the Joe Johnson Jammin’ for Jackets Tournament at Little Rock Hall’s Cirks Arena.
Allen and Watkins, both guards, scored a combined 48 points to lead the Charging Wildcats to the surprisingly easy win over the three-time state champion Warriors. NLR coach Johnny Rice had nothing but good things to say about the play of his guards after the game.
“They make us go,” Rice said. “I played for North Little Rock, and I’ve been here and coached here for 22 years, and the collection of guards that we have now is probably the best we’ve had since I’ve been here.”
Allen scored the first points of the game on a three pointer, and NLR (6-1) never relinquished its lead from there. Hall (6-3) was able to keep the score close early as it trailed 12-10 with 10:38 to play in the first half. But the Charging Wildcats steadily increased their lead, and led 38-27 at halftime.
North Little Rock was 5 for 11 shooting beyond the arc in the opening half, and capitalized off of eight Warrior turnovers. The Wildcats committed just two turnovers in the half. Watkins scored 15 points, had five assists and two steals in that time. Allen scored 12 points and snagged three rebounds.
The Warriors, led by University of Arkansas signee Bobby Portis, a 6-foot-9 senior, did what they could to make a comeback in the final 16:00. Hall made its first five shots from the floor in the second half, but never got within nine points of the Wildcats’ lead.
NLR outscored Hall 45-32 in the second half, and the final margin was set on a rebound and put-back by Wildcats senior forward Matthew Terry with one second to play. NLR couldn’t be matched on the offensive end throughout Saturday’s game, especially at the perimeter.
The Wildcats drained seven three pointers in the second half. Allen made four of them. For the game, NLR made 54.3 percent of its shots from the field on 57 attempts, and made 48 percent of its shots from the three-point line.
Rice said afterwards that he’d normally be surprised at how well his team shot against Hall, but he saw a lot of the same success in wins over perennial basketball powerhouses Little Rock Parkview (5-1) in the first round of the tournament, and Fayetteville (9-2) in the semifinals.
“I keep saying that, but they’ve done it for three or four games,” Rice said when asked if he was surprised by how well his team’s been shooting. “I’m not going to live and breathe on whether or not we’re hitting at a high percentage like this. We only took maybe one or two shots off the dribble.
“If you would have told me we were going to play Parkview, Fayetteville and Hall, and win like we did, I probably would’ve said ‘well, I don’t know about all that.’ So I’m extremely proud of our boys.”
North Little Rock out-rebounded Hall 23-16, and committed four fewer turnovers. However, a good chunk of NLR’s eight second-half turnovers came late with the game already out of reach.
Allen, who made six threes in the game, led all scorers with 28 points. Watkins scored 20 points, had three steals, and finished an assist shy of a double-double. Thomas Alexander added 16 points, and Gary Vines led the Wildcats with six rebounds.
Portis led the Warriors with 26 points, and added five boards and two blocks. Javon Perry and Anfernee Floyd each scored 10 points.
North Little Rock played Jacksonville in a nonconference game yesterday at the Devil’s Den. Look for details of that game in Saturday’s edition of The Leader. They will play Shiloh Christian in the Arkansas Hoops Challenge tournament at Maumelle High School on Saturday.
Leader sports editor
Kevaughn Allen and Dayshawn Watkins shared MVP honors at the conclusion of North Little Rock’s 83-59 win over Little Rock Hall in Saturday’s championship game of the Joe Johnson Jammin’ for Jackets Tournament at Little Rock Hall’s Cirks Arena.
Allen and Watkins, both guards, scored a combined 48 points to lead the Charging Wildcats to the surprisingly easy win over the three-time state champion Warriors. NLR coach Johnny Rice had nothing but good things to say about the play of his guards after the game.
“They make us go,” Rice said. “I played for North Little Rock, and I’ve been here and coached here for 22 years, and the collection of guards that we have now is probably the best we’ve had since I’ve been here.”
Allen scored the first points of the game on a three pointer, and NLR (6-1) never relinquished its lead from there. Hall (6-3) was able to keep the score close early as it trailed 12-10 with 10:38 to play in the first half. But the Charging Wildcats steadily increased their lead, and led 38-27 at halftime.
North Little Rock was 5 for 11 shooting beyond the arc in the opening half, and capitalized off of eight Warrior turnovers. The Wildcats committed just two turnovers in the half. Watkins scored 15 points, had five assists and two steals in that time. Allen scored 12 points and snagged three rebounds.
The Warriors, led by University of Arkansas signee Bobby Portis, a 6-foot-9 senior, did what they could to make a comeback in the final 16:00. Hall made its first five shots from the floor in the second half, but never got within nine points of the Wildcats’ lead.
NLR outscored Hall 45-32 in the second half, and the final margin was set on a rebound and put-back by Wildcats senior forward Matthew Terry with one second to play. NLR couldn’t be matched on the offensive end throughout Saturday’s game, especially at the perimeter.
The Wildcats drained seven three pointers in the second half. Allen made four of them. For the game, NLR made 54.3 percent of its shots from the field on 57 attempts, and made 48 percent of its shots from the three-point line.
Rice said afterwards that he’d normally be surprised at how well his team shot against Hall, but he saw a lot of the same success in wins over perennial basketball powerhouses Little Rock Parkview (5-1) in the first round of the tournament, and Fayetteville (9-2) in the semifinals.
“I keep saying that, but they’ve done it for three or four games,” Rice said when asked if he was surprised by how well his team’s been shooting. “I’m not going to live and breathe on whether or not we’re hitting at a high percentage like this. We only took maybe one or two shots off the dribble.
“If you would have told me we were going to play Parkview, Fayetteville and Hall, and win like we did, I probably would’ve said ‘well, I don’t know about all that.’ So I’m extremely proud of our boys.”
North Little Rock out-rebounded Hall 23-16, and committed four fewer turnovers. However, a good chunk of NLR’s eight second-half turnovers came late with the game already out of reach.
Allen, who made six threes in the game, led all scorers with 28 points. Watkins scored 20 points, had three steals, and finished an assist shy of a double-double. Thomas Alexander added 16 points, and Gary Vines led the Wildcats with six rebounds.
Portis led the Warriors with 26 points, and added five boards and two blocks. Javon Perry and Anfernee Floyd each scored 10 points.
North Little Rock played Jacksonville in a nonconference game yesterday at the Devil’s Den. Look for details of that game in Saturday’s edition of The Leader. They will play Shiloh Christian in the Arkansas Hoops Challenge tournament at Maumelle High School on Saturday.
Monday, December 10, 2012
TOP STORY >> Mills would want Medicaid expansion
By ERNIE DUMAS
Special to the Leader
Expanding health insurance so that it covers nearly everyone in Arkansas and not just the aged, the disabled and poor children who are insured by the system crafted 50 years ago by Rep. Wilbur D. Mills of Kensett (White County) is nearing reality.
Or so it was thought until two events intervened: the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision upholding all but one part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the election four months later that gave Republicans a bare majority in the Arkansas legislature.
Whether some 215,000 people, Arkansas’ poorest, will be insured will be up largely to those Republicans when the legislature convenes in January, and because nearly all of them ran for office vaguely opposing “Obamacare” it would seem to be foregone that the poor in Arkansas will still be without coverage when the law kicks in fully at the end of next year.
But the politics of “Medicaid expansion” has turned out to be more dangerous than the politicians imagined when they were condemning Obamacare and promising to do what they could to thwart every part of it in Arkansas. It will not be only the 215,000 men and women who will be eligible for government help on their hospital and doctor bills who will disappointed if the Medicaid expansion is blocked. Not many of the very poor vote anyway. But tens of thousands of others, including the frail elderly and disabled in nursing homes and their families, will be hurt even more if the Republicans block Medicaid expansion. In fact, everyone, including people who are already insured and otherwise unaffected by the Affordable Care Act, will be impacted because their own hospital bills and insurance premiums may go up as a result of the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid.
Legislators will have to factor the politics of all that when they vote whether to appropriate federal and state funds to expand Medicaid to cover childless men and women whose incomes leave them below 133 percent of the federal poverty line. Under Arkansas’ Constitution, it takes three-fourths of both houses to pass nearly all appropriations, so only 26 members of the 100-member house or nine of the 35 senators can block any appropriation.
Congressman Mills, by then the most esteemed member of the U.S. House of Representatives, cobbled together the lengthy 1965 amendment to the Social Security Act that created Medicare and Medicaid, the former to cover hospital and physician care for the elderly and permanently disabled and the latter to help the elderly frail in nursing homes and the poor who qualified for public assistance and poor children.
Medicaid was to be a partnership between Washington and state governments, and the states could choose how much health coverage to give to the poor beyond certain programs that were mandated for every state that participated. Mills’ state was very poor and he established a cost-sharing formula that favored poor states.
The federal government would pay at least half the costs of Medicaid, but the precise federal share would vary according to each state’s ranking on per-capita incomes. Because Arkansas has always been near the bottom, its share has ranged between 20 and 30 percent and the federal government’s between 70 and 80 percent. States like New York and Massachusetts always bear half the costs in their states.
That formula, which shifts a little each year when the per-capita income rankings of the states are compiled, is a source of the Republican legislators’ dilemma. It is complicated business and requires a little attention.
A HELPFUL GUIDE
First, a primer on the Affordable Care Act, which was fiercely hated in Arkansas when Congress passed it in 2010, although Arkansas’ senior senator then, Blanche Lincoln, helped write it and the other senator, Mark Pryor, voted for it in spite of heavy mail against it. Opposition has relaxed as people learn more about it and many realize its benefits for them, but Republicans in many parts of the state still found it a good election issue.
The law is long and complicated, but it has four major provisions.
(1) Medicare is expanded to give people free health screenings and to pay more of their prescription costs, and Medicare’s long-term outlays are reduced by scaling back payment rates to hospitals and other providers and by reducing the government subsidies to insurance companies that sell managed-care plans to Medicare recipients.
(2) Insurance companies next year will no longer be able to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions like cancer, heart trouble or diabetes.
(3) Medicaid is expanded in 2014 to cover the able-bodied adult poor at 100 percent federal cost until 2018, when the states will begin to pick up a rising share, which will be capped in 2021 at 10 percent.
(4) Employers with more than 50 full-time employees and individuals who are uninsured will be required to purchase an insurance plan from an array of plans offered by insurance companies in an exchange or market organized by either the state or federal government. Arkansas Republicans want the federal government to run the exchange; Beebe wants the state to run it. Large employers and individuals who opt not to participate will pay a tax to the government, although the tax will be lower than the cost of insurance.
The federal government will help people pay for the insurance if their family incomes are between 133 and 400 percent of the federal poverty line, which for a family of four this year would be between $23,000 and $92,000. If family incomes are below 133 percent of the poverty line, they are eligible for Medicaid.
The Supreme Court upheld all the Affordable Care Act except the provision that required states to participate in the Medicaid expansion. Although states already are required to participate in a few Medicaid programs, the court said they could elect not to participate in this expansion. A big majority of states will participate, but several Republican governors promptly said they would keep their states out of the coverage of poor adults even though their states would bear none of the initial costs.
Gov. Beebe said it was a no-brainer for Arkansas and he expects Arkansas to embrace the coverage, but if the Legislature doesn’t pass the appropriation that authorizes the federal expenditures the 215,000 Arkansans who are eligible will not be covered. Since the election, several Republican legislators have softened and said that they might support the Medicaid expansion, maybe with a few conditions.
WORKING POOR
If Arkansas does not participate in the Medicaid expansion, it will create a perverse situation. Everyone in Arkansas will have access to health care, most of them with insurance subsidized by the government, except the poorest workers, typically those earning minimum wage up to $12 an hour or who do not have full-time jobs.
The Affordable Care Act was a bonanza for Arkansas from the outset, as the state’s surgeon general, Dr. Joe Thompson, said. Since Arkansas is so poor and so few people are insured, the two major elements of the law — the insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansion — will flush billions of dollars into the Arkansas economy while improving the health and security of its people.
Two hundred thousand Arkansans who do not have health insurance, mainly because they cannot afford it, will get federal help paying the premiums. For those whose incomes are barely above 133 percent of the poverty line, the government will pay most of the premiums. Another 215,000 will be eligible for Medicaid, and the state will bear none of those costs until 2018.
All those federal dollars will turn over several times in the Arkansas economy — six times according to the Walton College of Business’ model, and increase the state’s revenues from income and sales taxes.
But if Arkansas stops the Medicaid expansion the effect will be worse than simply denying the medical care to the 215,000 and keeping the federal money out of the Arkansas economy.
That is because it also will deprive Arkansas of an additional subsidy that will help pay for some Medicaid services that are currently borne by the state. The Affordable Care Act shifts those costs, estimated at $128 million over two years, to Washington but only if the state expands Medicaid.
Here is what no one calculated: Since the economic collapse in 2007, Arkansas has fared better than the nation as a whole. It did not experience the depth of unemployment and the decline in personal incomes that afflicted industrial states and those along the seaboard, like Florida.
So Arkansas rose a little each year in the per-capita income rankings, and its Medicaid matching rate went up accordingly a little each year. A slight percentage adjustment results in tens of millions of dollars of extra state spending and a reduction in federal costs.
As a result, between 2008 and 2012, Arkansas experienced a big shortfall in state Medicaid matching money, but the state was lucky in another way. President Obama’s big stimulus program in 2009 sent Arkansas $825 million over three years to stabilize its Medicaid coverage during the recession. The $825 million more than made up for the state matching shortfall and enabled the state to bank its Medicaid trust fund, made up of soft-drink taxes. Since the stimulus money ran out, Arkansas has been rapidly spending the trust fund to cover Arkansas’ higher Medicaid match.
The trust fund will run out and when the new fiscal year begins next July, Arkansas will face a shortage of perhaps $350 million in state Medicaid matching funds for its current programs. If the state has to slash services to save that $350 million it also will lose $1.2 billion in matching federal aid, so the total cuts would be close to $1.5 billion a year.
PAINFUL CUTS
No one talks about raising taxes to avoid cuts in medical services. Instead, Beebe’s Medicaid office has outlined a number of cost savings it intends to implement next year, but none of them comes near closing the $350 million gap. The big step that would close it would be to end assistance for nursing home patients who can get to the bathroom and dining hall without assistance.
Republican legislators said last month they thought that was a bluff, that the state wouldn’t put 15,000 of the elderly sick on the streets. But the administration said it would not end coverage for children or the disabled in the state’s children’s colonies, which would be the other options.
If the Medicaid expansion is adopted and the federal government picks up the $128 million of state’s costs for current programs, that would reduce the state’s shortfall by a third. That provides an additional incentive for legislators to approve the expansion.
There is an even greater incentive. Hospitals and the American Medical Association, which never before endorsed a universal health-care bill, supported the Affordable Care Act even though it calls for reducing Medicare payments for hospital stays and certain procedures. The reason was that the law required people to get insured and if they were below 135 percent of poverty to be covered by Medicaid. No longer will hospitals and clinics have to absorb billions of dollars a year in charity care and raise their room rates for paying patients on Medicare or private insurance to cover the losses.
Hospitals are required to treat patients even if they have no assets or insurance. Last year, Arkansas’ community hospitals absorbed $338 million in free care for patients who couldn’t pay.
HOSPITALS LOSE
But if Medicaid is not expanded, the hospitals, especially rural hospitals in parts of the state where more than half the people have no insurance and can’t pay for extended hospital and physician care, face a financial crisis. Their Medicare reimbursements will go down under the Affordable Care Act, but their unpaid charitable care would continue. The same is true for doctors, although many doctors now do not accept Medicaid patients or poor people who cannot pay at the desk.
For that reason, hospital administrators and boards will be lobbying the legislature in January to expand Medicaid. For some hospitals, it means life or death.
The health and peace of mind of a quarter-million low-income citizens is not a big pressure point for politicians who did not count on them for votes and support in the first place. Hospital boards, families of the nursing home patients and other Medicaid recipients, and businessmen expecting the billions of federal money flushing into their communities — those people can mount some pressure.
HELPING STATE
Dr. Thompson, the surgeon general, thinks the Medicaid expansion and the subsidized premiums for people with incomes four times the poverty level offer a more far-reaching advantage for the state. Over time, providing health insurance for all low-income residents will overcome a longtime problem for small towns and rural Arkansas—the lack of primary-care doctors and facilities.
Since most residents of rural counties, especially in eastern and southern Arkansas, do not have health insurance unless they qualify for Medicare or they work for a business that covers them, small towns do not attract medical graduates and the communities cannot sustain hospitals. Most patients cannot pay for extended care or else they pay over long periods. Doctors find community practices hard and so unremunerative that they leave after a few years.
When nearly everyone has private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare, that will change. New doctors will find small towns a rewarding practice. And access to health care will make small towns and regional centers appealing for business and industry.
If they get chambers of commerce on board, the Medicaid controversy will be settled promptly.
Ernie Dumas, formerly of the Arkansas Gazette, is the dean of Arkansas journalsts.
Special to the Leader
Expanding health insurance so that it covers nearly everyone in Arkansas and not just the aged, the disabled and poor children who are insured by the system crafted 50 years ago by Rep. Wilbur D. Mills of Kensett (White County) is nearing reality.
Or so it was thought until two events intervened: the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision upholding all but one part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the election four months later that gave Republicans a bare majority in the Arkansas legislature.
Whether some 215,000 people, Arkansas’ poorest, will be insured will be up largely to those Republicans when the legislature convenes in January, and because nearly all of them ran for office vaguely opposing “Obamacare” it would seem to be foregone that the poor in Arkansas will still be without coverage when the law kicks in fully at the end of next year.
But the politics of “Medicaid expansion” has turned out to be more dangerous than the politicians imagined when they were condemning Obamacare and promising to do what they could to thwart every part of it in Arkansas. It will not be only the 215,000 men and women who will be eligible for government help on their hospital and doctor bills who will disappointed if the Medicaid expansion is blocked. Not many of the very poor vote anyway. But tens of thousands of others, including the frail elderly and disabled in nursing homes and their families, will be hurt even more if the Republicans block Medicaid expansion. In fact, everyone, including people who are already insured and otherwise unaffected by the Affordable Care Act, will be impacted because their own hospital bills and insurance premiums may go up as a result of the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid.
Legislators will have to factor the politics of all that when they vote whether to appropriate federal and state funds to expand Medicaid to cover childless men and women whose incomes leave them below 133 percent of the federal poverty line. Under Arkansas’ Constitution, it takes three-fourths of both houses to pass nearly all appropriations, so only 26 members of the 100-member house or nine of the 35 senators can block any appropriation.
Congressman Mills, by then the most esteemed member of the U.S. House of Representatives, cobbled together the lengthy 1965 amendment to the Social Security Act that created Medicare and Medicaid, the former to cover hospital and physician care for the elderly and permanently disabled and the latter to help the elderly frail in nursing homes and the poor who qualified for public assistance and poor children.
Medicaid was to be a partnership between Washington and state governments, and the states could choose how much health coverage to give to the poor beyond certain programs that were mandated for every state that participated. Mills’ state was very poor and he established a cost-sharing formula that favored poor states.
The federal government would pay at least half the costs of Medicaid, but the precise federal share would vary according to each state’s ranking on per-capita incomes. Because Arkansas has always been near the bottom, its share has ranged between 20 and 30 percent and the federal government’s between 70 and 80 percent. States like New York and Massachusetts always bear half the costs in their states.
That formula, which shifts a little each year when the per-capita income rankings of the states are compiled, is a source of the Republican legislators’ dilemma. It is complicated business and requires a little attention.
A HELPFUL GUIDE
First, a primer on the Affordable Care Act, which was fiercely hated in Arkansas when Congress passed it in 2010, although Arkansas’ senior senator then, Blanche Lincoln, helped write it and the other senator, Mark Pryor, voted for it in spite of heavy mail against it. Opposition has relaxed as people learn more about it and many realize its benefits for them, but Republicans in many parts of the state still found it a good election issue.
The law is long and complicated, but it has four major provisions.
(1) Medicare is expanded to give people free health screenings and to pay more of their prescription costs, and Medicare’s long-term outlays are reduced by scaling back payment rates to hospitals and other providers and by reducing the government subsidies to insurance companies that sell managed-care plans to Medicare recipients.
(2) Insurance companies next year will no longer be able to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions like cancer, heart trouble or diabetes.
(3) Medicaid is expanded in 2014 to cover the able-bodied adult poor at 100 percent federal cost until 2018, when the states will begin to pick up a rising share, which will be capped in 2021 at 10 percent.
(4) Employers with more than 50 full-time employees and individuals who are uninsured will be required to purchase an insurance plan from an array of plans offered by insurance companies in an exchange or market organized by either the state or federal government. Arkansas Republicans want the federal government to run the exchange; Beebe wants the state to run it. Large employers and individuals who opt not to participate will pay a tax to the government, although the tax will be lower than the cost of insurance.
The federal government will help people pay for the insurance if their family incomes are between 133 and 400 percent of the federal poverty line, which for a family of four this year would be between $23,000 and $92,000. If family incomes are below 133 percent of the poverty line, they are eligible for Medicaid.
The Supreme Court upheld all the Affordable Care Act except the provision that required states to participate in the Medicaid expansion. Although states already are required to participate in a few Medicaid programs, the court said they could elect not to participate in this expansion. A big majority of states will participate, but several Republican governors promptly said they would keep their states out of the coverage of poor adults even though their states would bear none of the initial costs.
Gov. Beebe said it was a no-brainer for Arkansas and he expects Arkansas to embrace the coverage, but if the Legislature doesn’t pass the appropriation that authorizes the federal expenditures the 215,000 Arkansans who are eligible will not be covered. Since the election, several Republican legislators have softened and said that they might support the Medicaid expansion, maybe with a few conditions.
WORKING POOR
If Arkansas does not participate in the Medicaid expansion, it will create a perverse situation. Everyone in Arkansas will have access to health care, most of them with insurance subsidized by the government, except the poorest workers, typically those earning minimum wage up to $12 an hour or who do not have full-time jobs.
The Affordable Care Act was a bonanza for Arkansas from the outset, as the state’s surgeon general, Dr. Joe Thompson, said. Since Arkansas is so poor and so few people are insured, the two major elements of the law — the insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansion — will flush billions of dollars into the Arkansas economy while improving the health and security of its people.
Two hundred thousand Arkansans who do not have health insurance, mainly because they cannot afford it, will get federal help paying the premiums. For those whose incomes are barely above 133 percent of the poverty line, the government will pay most of the premiums. Another 215,000 will be eligible for Medicaid, and the state will bear none of those costs until 2018.
All those federal dollars will turn over several times in the Arkansas economy — six times according to the Walton College of Business’ model, and increase the state’s revenues from income and sales taxes.
But if Arkansas stops the Medicaid expansion the effect will be worse than simply denying the medical care to the 215,000 and keeping the federal money out of the Arkansas economy.
That is because it also will deprive Arkansas of an additional subsidy that will help pay for some Medicaid services that are currently borne by the state. The Affordable Care Act shifts those costs, estimated at $128 million over two years, to Washington but only if the state expands Medicaid.
Here is what no one calculated: Since the economic collapse in 2007, Arkansas has fared better than the nation as a whole. It did not experience the depth of unemployment and the decline in personal incomes that afflicted industrial states and those along the seaboard, like Florida.
So Arkansas rose a little each year in the per-capita income rankings, and its Medicaid matching rate went up accordingly a little each year. A slight percentage adjustment results in tens of millions of dollars of extra state spending and a reduction in federal costs.
As a result, between 2008 and 2012, Arkansas experienced a big shortfall in state Medicaid matching money, but the state was lucky in another way. President Obama’s big stimulus program in 2009 sent Arkansas $825 million over three years to stabilize its Medicaid coverage during the recession. The $825 million more than made up for the state matching shortfall and enabled the state to bank its Medicaid trust fund, made up of soft-drink taxes. Since the stimulus money ran out, Arkansas has been rapidly spending the trust fund to cover Arkansas’ higher Medicaid match.
The trust fund will run out and when the new fiscal year begins next July, Arkansas will face a shortage of perhaps $350 million in state Medicaid matching funds for its current programs. If the state has to slash services to save that $350 million it also will lose $1.2 billion in matching federal aid, so the total cuts would be close to $1.5 billion a year.
PAINFUL CUTS
No one talks about raising taxes to avoid cuts in medical services. Instead, Beebe’s Medicaid office has outlined a number of cost savings it intends to implement next year, but none of them comes near closing the $350 million gap. The big step that would close it would be to end assistance for nursing home patients who can get to the bathroom and dining hall without assistance.
Republican legislators said last month they thought that was a bluff, that the state wouldn’t put 15,000 of the elderly sick on the streets. But the administration said it would not end coverage for children or the disabled in the state’s children’s colonies, which would be the other options.
If the Medicaid expansion is adopted and the federal government picks up the $128 million of state’s costs for current programs, that would reduce the state’s shortfall by a third. That provides an additional incentive for legislators to approve the expansion.
There is an even greater incentive. Hospitals and the American Medical Association, which never before endorsed a universal health-care bill, supported the Affordable Care Act even though it calls for reducing Medicare payments for hospital stays and certain procedures. The reason was that the law required people to get insured and if they were below 135 percent of poverty to be covered by Medicaid. No longer will hospitals and clinics have to absorb billions of dollars a year in charity care and raise their room rates for paying patients on Medicare or private insurance to cover the losses.
Hospitals are required to treat patients even if they have no assets or insurance. Last year, Arkansas’ community hospitals absorbed $338 million in free care for patients who couldn’t pay.
HOSPITALS LOSE
But if Medicaid is not expanded, the hospitals, especially rural hospitals in parts of the state where more than half the people have no insurance and can’t pay for extended hospital and physician care, face a financial crisis. Their Medicare reimbursements will go down under the Affordable Care Act, but their unpaid charitable care would continue. The same is true for doctors, although many doctors now do not accept Medicaid patients or poor people who cannot pay at the desk.
For that reason, hospital administrators and boards will be lobbying the legislature in January to expand Medicaid. For some hospitals, it means life or death.
The health and peace of mind of a quarter-million low-income citizens is not a big pressure point for politicians who did not count on them for votes and support in the first place. Hospital boards, families of the nursing home patients and other Medicaid recipients, and businessmen expecting the billions of federal money flushing into their communities — those people can mount some pressure.
HELPING STATE
Dr. Thompson, the surgeon general, thinks the Medicaid expansion and the subsidized premiums for people with incomes four times the poverty level offer a more far-reaching advantage for the state. Over time, providing health insurance for all low-income residents will overcome a longtime problem for small towns and rural Arkansas—the lack of primary-care doctors and facilities.
Since most residents of rural counties, especially in eastern and southern Arkansas, do not have health insurance unless they qualify for Medicare or they work for a business that covers them, small towns do not attract medical graduates and the communities cannot sustain hospitals. Most patients cannot pay for extended care or else they pay over long periods. Doctors find community practices hard and so unremunerative that they leave after a few years.
When nearly everyone has private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare, that will change. New doctors will find small towns a rewarding practice. And access to health care will make small towns and regional centers appealing for business and industry.
If they get chambers of commerce on board, the Medicaid controversy will be settled promptly.
Ernie Dumas, formerly of the Arkansas Gazette, is the dean of Arkansas journalsts.
TOP STORY >> Jacksonville budget set for $25.4M
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville set its 2013 general budget Thursday at $25.4 million, up less than 1 percent from the 2012 budget.
The budget maintains all the city’s current services and includes a $500 raise for all full-time city employees.
The council unanimously approved the balanced budget at its meeting.
In presenting it, Mayor Gary Fletcher said this budget was harder to balance because of a number of uncertainties. “We don’t know what the utility costs will be for the new public safety building. We don’t know what we will end up paying for the county jail and the shooting range expenses are up in the air.”
Fletcher also said the loss of 1,500 residents based on the 2010 census count also hurts. “Each person is worth about $1,000 a year in city revenue, so we are losing about $1.5 million a year,” he said.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “We are on track to get our own school district within a year.”
The mayor said a feasibility study is underway and after that a petition will have to be circulated to show that Jacksonville residents support a new district. The petition will be given to the governor and the judge and then a special election will be set asking residents, officially, whether they support a separate school district. “I think we can have that election sometime next spring,” Fletcher told the council.
Delving into the budget, the breakdown is $20.1 million for the 2013 general fund, up $30,000 for 2012; $2.3 million for the street fund, up $130,000; $1.9 million for the sanitation fund, up $100,000; $1.1 million for the emergency medical services fund, up $20,000.
For the general fund, the city is expecting revenues of $13.3 million through the county and city sales taxes, both projections are up slightly from the 2012 budget. Utility franchise fees will bring in just over $1 million and court fines and related costs should bring in $788,000.
General fund expenses has $2 million for general government that includes the mayor and clerk’s offices, down $100,000 for the current budget; $12.8 million for public safety, up $150,000; $553,000 for the judicial department, up about $20,000 and $6 million for public works, up $20,000.
Taxes are expected to produce $2 million in revenues for the street fund and close to half of that ($986,000) will go to personnel services such as salaries and insurance, up $14,000 from 2012; $751,000 will go for capital outlay, up $80,000, and $442,000 for contractual services such as beaver and mosquito control and street lights, down $10,000.
The sanitation department will get the bulk of its revenue ($1.7 million) from fees and charges.
Salaries, including benefits and insurance, will cost the department $781,000, down about $45,000 from 2012; contracted services will run $372,000, up $6,000; and landfill fees will run $199,000, down 20,000.
Charges for services will bring in $924,000 for the emergency medical-services fund and salaries and benefits will chew up $679,000 of that.
“I’ve always wondered why Washington couldn’t cut anything from its budget, but after this year I understand better,” the mayor said, but quickly added that Washington still needed to balance the budget.
In other council business:
• Aldermen voted unanimously to seat early Alderman-elect James Bolden III. He would have normally come onto the council Jan. 1, 2013, but because the set he was taking was already vacant, the council moved to bring Bolden onto the council a month early. He took the place of longtime Alderman Marshall Smith, who announced his retirement plans, but then had to give up his seat when he moved to Vilonia three months ago.
The council chamber was packed with Rev. Bolden’s friends, family and parishioners who cheered him as he was sworn-in. “I will work hard to do what is right and necessary for this great city,” he said after taking his place on the council.
• The council voted to reject all bids for the shooting range planned for 160 acres on the eastern side of the city off Loop Road.
The city was going to use a $1.5 million Arkansas Fish and Game Foundation grant and $600,000 of its own money to build the facility, which is expected to pump millions of dollars into the local economy.
However, the lowest bid was $2.9 million.
The city was trying to get the facility built by April 2013 for the youth shooting season and tournaments.
“It’s good that we are slowing down,” the mayor said. “It’s important to build it right.”
The problem is that the city will miss the spring shooting season, meaning projected income could drop convincingly until 2014.
• Aldermen also voted to reject the low bid of $68,559 from Arkansas Digital for audiovisual equipment for the new public-safety building because it did not meet specifications. The council approved the second lowest bidder, Martin Co., at $79,627.
Alderman Mike Traylor questioned the difference, but was told by the fire department representative that even if the low bidder had added in everything required it would have pushed it past the other bid.
• The council did go with the low bidder, Data Pages, and voted to spend $23,400 with the company for new network hardware.
• City Engineer Jay Whisker said his department issued 18 building permits and eight business licenses during November. The engineering department also performed 289 inspections during the month.
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville set its 2013 general budget Thursday at $25.4 million, up less than 1 percent from the 2012 budget.
The budget maintains all the city’s current services and includes a $500 raise for all full-time city employees.
The council unanimously approved the balanced budget at its meeting.
In presenting it, Mayor Gary Fletcher said this budget was harder to balance because of a number of uncertainties. “We don’t know what the utility costs will be for the new public safety building. We don’t know what we will end up paying for the county jail and the shooting range expenses are up in the air.”
Fletcher also said the loss of 1,500 residents based on the 2010 census count also hurts. “Each person is worth about $1,000 a year in city revenue, so we are losing about $1.5 million a year,” he said.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “We are on track to get our own school district within a year.”
The mayor said a feasibility study is underway and after that a petition will have to be circulated to show that Jacksonville residents support a new district. The petition will be given to the governor and the judge and then a special election will be set asking residents, officially, whether they support a separate school district. “I think we can have that election sometime next spring,” Fletcher told the council.
Delving into the budget, the breakdown is $20.1 million for the 2013 general fund, up $30,000 for 2012; $2.3 million for the street fund, up $130,000; $1.9 million for the sanitation fund, up $100,000; $1.1 million for the emergency medical services fund, up $20,000.
For the general fund, the city is expecting revenues of $13.3 million through the county and city sales taxes, both projections are up slightly from the 2012 budget. Utility franchise fees will bring in just over $1 million and court fines and related costs should bring in $788,000.
General fund expenses has $2 million for general government that includes the mayor and clerk’s offices, down $100,000 for the current budget; $12.8 million for public safety, up $150,000; $553,000 for the judicial department, up about $20,000 and $6 million for public works, up $20,000.
Taxes are expected to produce $2 million in revenues for the street fund and close to half of that ($986,000) will go to personnel services such as salaries and insurance, up $14,000 from 2012; $751,000 will go for capital outlay, up $80,000, and $442,000 for contractual services such as beaver and mosquito control and street lights, down $10,000.
The sanitation department will get the bulk of its revenue ($1.7 million) from fees and charges.
Salaries, including benefits and insurance, will cost the department $781,000, down about $45,000 from 2012; contracted services will run $372,000, up $6,000; and landfill fees will run $199,000, down 20,000.
Charges for services will bring in $924,000 for the emergency medical-services fund and salaries and benefits will chew up $679,000 of that.
“I’ve always wondered why Washington couldn’t cut anything from its budget, but after this year I understand better,” the mayor said, but quickly added that Washington still needed to balance the budget.
In other council business:
• Aldermen voted unanimously to seat early Alderman-elect James Bolden III. He would have normally come onto the council Jan. 1, 2013, but because the set he was taking was already vacant, the council moved to bring Bolden onto the council a month early. He took the place of longtime Alderman Marshall Smith, who announced his retirement plans, but then had to give up his seat when he moved to Vilonia three months ago.
The council chamber was packed with Rev. Bolden’s friends, family and parishioners who cheered him as he was sworn-in. “I will work hard to do what is right and necessary for this great city,” he said after taking his place on the council.
• The council voted to reject all bids for the shooting range planned for 160 acres on the eastern side of the city off Loop Road.
The city was going to use a $1.5 million Arkansas Fish and Game Foundation grant and $600,000 of its own money to build the facility, which is expected to pump millions of dollars into the local economy.
However, the lowest bid was $2.9 million.
The city was trying to get the facility built by April 2013 for the youth shooting season and tournaments.
“It’s good that we are slowing down,” the mayor said. “It’s important to build it right.”
The problem is that the city will miss the spring shooting season, meaning projected income could drop convincingly until 2014.
• Aldermen also voted to reject the low bid of $68,559 from Arkansas Digital for audiovisual equipment for the new public-safety building because it did not meet specifications. The council approved the second lowest bidder, Martin Co., at $79,627.
Alderman Mike Traylor questioned the difference, but was told by the fire department representative that even if the low bidder had added in everything required it would have pushed it past the other bid.
• The council did go with the low bidder, Data Pages, and voted to spend $23,400 with the company for new network hardware.
• City Engineer Jay Whisker said his department issued 18 building permits and eight business licenses during November. The engineering department also performed 289 inspections during the month.
TOP STORY >> Perfect Christmas tree
By SARAH CAMPBELL
Leader staff writer
The holidays are about bringing family together and nothing does that better than a tradition painstakingly and lovingly kept despite whatever obstacles lie in the way.
My parents and I usually drive out to Geisler’s Holiday Forest at 8917 Dorsey Road in north Pulaski County the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Walking up the hill at the back of the three-acre lot probably helps burn some, but certainly not all, of the calories from that glorious feast we had a few days before.
We typically spend two hours or more searching for our perfect Christmas tree. My boyfriend has tagged along for several years now.
Most of us grab a Styro-foam cup of the farm’s free hot spiced tea and candy canes for the trek.
Although it wasn’t there when we went this year, we usually hitch a hayride on a trailer that is attached to the Geisler’s small diesel tractor. When I was younger, that was a treat to celebrate finding our tree.
This year, my dad is working every weekend at a part-time job with 18-hour shifts He’s trying to get his foot in the door that will lead to a new and better career.
The farm is open only from 9 a.m. to dark on Saturdays and from 1 p.m. to dark on Sundays through Dec. 16.
My mom, boyfriend and I went last Saturday to pick out our tree, but we didn’t cut it down.
Jim Geisler, the owner of the farm, agreed to meet us on Monday, my dad’s day off. We didn’t want to leave him out of the tradition.
Although everything didn’t go according to plan, it sure felt the same being together to take turns sawing at the trunk of our one-of-a-kind tree. We even say “timber” as it comes down.
And we aren’t the only ones who enjoy this experience every year.
Geisler said, “We hear a lot about family traditions. We’ve had families come out since we started in ’84.”
He and his wife, Ella, bought the farm from John and Becky Rissinger that year.
The Rissingers planted the first trees at the farm in 1976, establishing the first Christmas tree farm in the county.
Jim Geisler said, “It was wall-to-wall trees. We had way more trees than we had customers.”
For the first six years, the Geislers sold trees wholesale to commercial lots while they built up a customer base for choose and cut, Jim Geisler said.
He said they haven’t done anything but choose and cut for the past 15 years.
Geisler said people should buy real trees from farms like his because they are unique.
“The main thing is the aroma that you get from fresh tree for three, four or five weeks.
Wonderful aroma. Each tree species has its own aroma. Each tree is different. None are alike. They didn’t come out of a cookie cutter,” he said.
Geisler retired in 1995. He was a forestry expert at the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, which offers research-based education programs and publications in a variety of areas.
Geisler said, “I had worked with a lot of Christmas tree growers and I like to stay busy. And that’s one way to stay busy, farming a Christmas tree farm. It’s lots of work. That’s a universal agreement among the owners of Christmas tree farms.”
The 72-year-old makes 17 trips on foot or by vehicle to each tree every year to fertilize, control weeds, control insects, control fungus, shear, stake and prune them. The sheering is done in April and August.
Geisler said that when he first took over the farm a small machete-like knife was used to sheer the trees.
Soon a sheering machine was invented and he bought one.
The machine still has a drawback, Geisler said. That drawback is hauling a 139-pound machine to the trees in 100-plus degree weather.
Geisler does most of the work on the farm. “It gives me something to do, keeps up my health,” he said.
But his family helps out. His wife does some of the mowing. His grandson, daughters and son-in-law also lend a hand with various tasks.
Geisler hires neighborhood teenagers to shake and net the trees during the brief sales season.
But planting is something the farmer must do on his own.
His farm has seven varieties of trees — two types of Leyland Cypress, Carolina Sapphire Cypress, Blue Ice Cypress, Arizona Cypress, Virginia Pine, Eastern White Pine and native Eastern Redcedar.
Geisler said, “I absolutely insist on planting, putting soil around the seed.” He said that is when something is most likely to go wrong.
He couldn’t estimate the average number he plants annually, but said he has to replace everything that is cut and then some to account for mortality. The farmer said sometimes trees die for unknown reasons and there isn’t a way to prevent that from happening.
There are about 907 trees for every acre of land, Geisler said. And that means the farm has a total of 2,721 trees.
Geisler said he sells about 200 on the weekends.
The trees are on rotations. The trees that are being sold now were planted six or seven years ago.
Geisler finished all of the planting in February.
He planted 400 White Pines and all of them died. Geisler explained, “Mother’s nature’s drought destroyed them.”
This year’s trees would have been eight or nine inches taller if there hadn’t been a drought, Geisler said.
The real hurt will come in seven years because he is behind a whole year on planting.
“There’s going to be a bunch of ‘em missing then,” Geisler said.
Leader staff writer
The holidays are about bringing family together and nothing does that better than a tradition painstakingly and lovingly kept despite whatever obstacles lie in the way.
My parents and I usually drive out to Geisler’s Holiday Forest at 8917 Dorsey Road in north Pulaski County the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Walking up the hill at the back of the three-acre lot probably helps burn some, but certainly not all, of the calories from that glorious feast we had a few days before.
We typically spend two hours or more searching for our perfect Christmas tree. My boyfriend has tagged along for several years now.
Most of us grab a Styro-foam cup of the farm’s free hot spiced tea and candy canes for the trek.
Although it wasn’t there when we went this year, we usually hitch a hayride on a trailer that is attached to the Geisler’s small diesel tractor. When I was younger, that was a treat to celebrate finding our tree.
This year, my dad is working every weekend at a part-time job with 18-hour shifts He’s trying to get his foot in the door that will lead to a new and better career.
The farm is open only from 9 a.m. to dark on Saturdays and from 1 p.m. to dark on Sundays through Dec. 16.
My mom, boyfriend and I went last Saturday to pick out our tree, but we didn’t cut it down.
Jim Geisler, the owner of the farm, agreed to meet us on Monday, my dad’s day off. We didn’t want to leave him out of the tradition.
Although everything didn’t go according to plan, it sure felt the same being together to take turns sawing at the trunk of our one-of-a-kind tree. We even say “timber” as it comes down.
And we aren’t the only ones who enjoy this experience every year.
Geisler said, “We hear a lot about family traditions. We’ve had families come out since we started in ’84.”
He and his wife, Ella, bought the farm from John and Becky Rissinger that year.
The Rissingers planted the first trees at the farm in 1976, establishing the first Christmas tree farm in the county.
Jim Geisler said, “It was wall-to-wall trees. We had way more trees than we had customers.”
For the first six years, the Geislers sold trees wholesale to commercial lots while they built up a customer base for choose and cut, Jim Geisler said.
He said they haven’t done anything but choose and cut for the past 15 years.
Geisler said people should buy real trees from farms like his because they are unique.
“The main thing is the aroma that you get from fresh tree for three, four or five weeks.
Wonderful aroma. Each tree species has its own aroma. Each tree is different. None are alike. They didn’t come out of a cookie cutter,” he said.
Geisler retired in 1995. He was a forestry expert at the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, which offers research-based education programs and publications in a variety of areas.
Geisler said, “I had worked with a lot of Christmas tree growers and I like to stay busy. And that’s one way to stay busy, farming a Christmas tree farm. It’s lots of work. That’s a universal agreement among the owners of Christmas tree farms.”
The 72-year-old makes 17 trips on foot or by vehicle to each tree every year to fertilize, control weeds, control insects, control fungus, shear, stake and prune them. The sheering is done in April and August.
Geisler said that when he first took over the farm a small machete-like knife was used to sheer the trees.
Soon a sheering machine was invented and he bought one.
The machine still has a drawback, Geisler said. That drawback is hauling a 139-pound machine to the trees in 100-plus degree weather.
Geisler does most of the work on the farm. “It gives me something to do, keeps up my health,” he said.
But his family helps out. His wife does some of the mowing. His grandson, daughters and son-in-law also lend a hand with various tasks.
Geisler hires neighborhood teenagers to shake and net the trees during the brief sales season.
But planting is something the farmer must do on his own.
His farm has seven varieties of trees — two types of Leyland Cypress, Carolina Sapphire Cypress, Blue Ice Cypress, Arizona Cypress, Virginia Pine, Eastern White Pine and native Eastern Redcedar.
Geisler said, “I absolutely insist on planting, putting soil around the seed.” He said that is when something is most likely to go wrong.
He couldn’t estimate the average number he plants annually, but said he has to replace everything that is cut and then some to account for mortality. The farmer said sometimes trees die for unknown reasons and there isn’t a way to prevent that from happening.
There are about 907 trees for every acre of land, Geisler said. And that means the farm has a total of 2,721 trees.
Geisler said he sells about 200 on the weekends.
The trees are on rotations. The trees that are being sold now were planted six or seven years ago.
Geisler finished all of the planting in February.
He planted 400 White Pines and all of them died. Geisler explained, “Mother’s nature’s drought destroyed them.”
This year’s trees would have been eight or nine inches taller if there hadn’t been a drought, Geisler said.
The real hurt will come in seven years because he is behind a whole year on planting.
“There’s going to be a bunch of ‘em missing then,” Geisler said.
SPORTS STORY >> Lady Jackrabbits clobber Cardinals
By GRAHAM POWELL
Leader sportswriter
The Lonoke Lady Jackrabbits basketball team has been hampered by injuries as of late, but it didn’t slow them down in Tuesday’s 4-2A Conference opener as they clobbered Pine Bluff Dollarway 66-12 at the Lonoke High School gym.
It’s been an uncharacteristically bad season for the Lady Cardinals (0-7, 0-1), and things didn’t get any easier against a depleted Lonoke team. Despite missing two key players, the Lady Jackrabbits (6-3, 1-0) dominated every aspect of the game.
Lonoke out-rebounded Dollarway 30-12, forced 18 turnovers while committing just eight, and made 80 percent of its free throws. The Lady Cardinals were 0 for 7 from the line.
“We’re real hurt,” said Lonoke coach Nathan Morris. “We’re real banged up. So I’m proud of the ones that had to play with pretty much no rest. I’m real happy. They played hard. You have to take what you can get, and you have to work hard in games like that. We were able to work on some of the things we needed to work on, the little things, and hopefully it gets us ready for the next conference game.”
The Lady Rabbits didn’t have much trouble in the opening quarter as they led 13-2 by the start of the second. Junior two guard Savannah Holman led Lonoke with seven points in the first quarter, and managed to do so with a banged-up wrist on her shooting hand.
Dollarway’s luck didn’t get any better in the second quarter. The Lady Cardinals committed nine turnovers in the quarter and couldn’t manage a single point. Lonoke scored 17 in the quarter to take a commanding 30-2 lead at halftime. Sophomore point guard Kerasha Johnson scored seven of her eight total points in the second quarter.
In the third quarter, Dollarway was able to more than double its point total thanks to four points by junior post player Akkeva Howard. But Lonoke pushed its lead even further with 16 points in the quarter, eight of which came from sophomore post player Eboni Willis.
Lonoke invoked the sportsmanship rule at the start of the fourth, leading 46-6. Even with a continuous clock, the Lady Rabbits racked up 20 points in the quarter. Dollarway did score the final basket on a driving layup by Candra Hayes with 1 second remaining, which made the final score 66-12.
Blocking out and rebounding, especially on the offensive end, has been an area Morris has wanted his young team to improve on as the season progresses. Lonoke was able to do that with relative ease against Dollarway, but Morris still sees room for improvement even though he was pleased overall with his team’s play.
“We blocked out and we got a few defensive boards, but we still didn’t get a lot of offensive boards,” Morris said. “Of course we made a lot of baskets, and I don’t think there were too many misses. But that still has to be an area of improvement, and staying in front of the ball on defense.
“I think that even when we played zone in the fourth quarter, they still got by us. Our girls have got to do a better job of keeping the ball out in front of us and in space. We definitely have to get better at that.”
Willis led all scorers with 23 points. She also had six rebounds and three blocks. Callie Whitfield scored 19 points, and had four assists and two steals. Holman scored 10 and had five assists. Howard scored eight of Dollarway’s 12 points.
The Lady Rabbits will look to stay unbeaten in conference play against Southside Batesville on Tuesday at Lonoke.
Leader sportswriter
The Lonoke Lady Jackrabbits basketball team has been hampered by injuries as of late, but it didn’t slow them down in Tuesday’s 4-2A Conference opener as they clobbered Pine Bluff Dollarway 66-12 at the Lonoke High School gym.
It’s been an uncharacteristically bad season for the Lady Cardinals (0-7, 0-1), and things didn’t get any easier against a depleted Lonoke team. Despite missing two key players, the Lady Jackrabbits (6-3, 1-0) dominated every aspect of the game.
Lonoke out-rebounded Dollarway 30-12, forced 18 turnovers while committing just eight, and made 80 percent of its free throws. The Lady Cardinals were 0 for 7 from the line.
“We’re real hurt,” said Lonoke coach Nathan Morris. “We’re real banged up. So I’m proud of the ones that had to play with pretty much no rest. I’m real happy. They played hard. You have to take what you can get, and you have to work hard in games like that. We were able to work on some of the things we needed to work on, the little things, and hopefully it gets us ready for the next conference game.”
The Lady Rabbits didn’t have much trouble in the opening quarter as they led 13-2 by the start of the second. Junior two guard Savannah Holman led Lonoke with seven points in the first quarter, and managed to do so with a banged-up wrist on her shooting hand.
Dollarway’s luck didn’t get any better in the second quarter. The Lady Cardinals committed nine turnovers in the quarter and couldn’t manage a single point. Lonoke scored 17 in the quarter to take a commanding 30-2 lead at halftime. Sophomore point guard Kerasha Johnson scored seven of her eight total points in the second quarter.
In the third quarter, Dollarway was able to more than double its point total thanks to four points by junior post player Akkeva Howard. But Lonoke pushed its lead even further with 16 points in the quarter, eight of which came from sophomore post player Eboni Willis.
Lonoke invoked the sportsmanship rule at the start of the fourth, leading 46-6. Even with a continuous clock, the Lady Rabbits racked up 20 points in the quarter. Dollarway did score the final basket on a driving layup by Candra Hayes with 1 second remaining, which made the final score 66-12.
Blocking out and rebounding, especially on the offensive end, has been an area Morris has wanted his young team to improve on as the season progresses. Lonoke was able to do that with relative ease against Dollarway, but Morris still sees room for improvement even though he was pleased overall with his team’s play.
“We blocked out and we got a few defensive boards, but we still didn’t get a lot of offensive boards,” Morris said. “Of course we made a lot of baskets, and I don’t think there were too many misses. But that still has to be an area of improvement, and staying in front of the ball on defense.
“I think that even when we played zone in the fourth quarter, they still got by us. Our girls have got to do a better job of keeping the ball out in front of us and in space. We definitely have to get better at that.”
Willis led all scorers with 23 points. She also had six rebounds and three blocks. Callie Whitfield scored 19 points, and had four assists and two steals. Holman scored 10 and had five assists. Howard scored eight of Dollarway’s 12 points.
The Lady Rabbits will look to stay unbeaten in conference play against Southside Batesville on Tuesday at Lonoke.
SPORTS STORY >> Wildcats run past Patriots at Hall Arena
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Parkview was without its best player Imara Ready, but the deep and talented Patriots gave North Little Rock all it wanted anyway. In the end, the shorthanded Parkview squad couldn’t keep up with the blistering pace set by the Charging Wildcats as North Little Rock prevailed 82-68 in the first round of the Jammin for Jackets tournament at Little Rock Hall.
North Little Rock (5-1) pressured Parkview relentlessly in the early-going of the 16-minute half. The Wildcats rattled off a trio of three pointers in the first four minutes. And when Gary Vines got a steal and dished to Thomas Alexander for a fastbreak dunk, North Little Rock 15-5 and forced a Parkview timeout.
From that point and for the rest of the game, the margin stayed between five and 14 until two free throws set the final margin.
“You always expect Parkview to make a run, but we kept our composure, just never really let it happen,” North Little Rock Johnny Rice said. “On the other side of that, every time we got a little breathing room, they’d make a little run and get right back in it.”
Parkview (3-1) got within five on five-straight points by Anton Beard at 19-14. But two steals and dunks by Alexander and Kevaughn Allen quickly made it 23-14.
The lead grew to 68-54 on two Allen free throws with 7:11 left, but Parkview went on a 10-2 run to make it 70-64 with 3:55 remaining in the game.
Rice called timeout, and senior DayShawn Watkins came up with a huge play after the break. A ball fake got his defender in the air.
Watkins then penetrated into the lane, and hit a one-handed circus shot while being pulled backwards by his other arm. He added the free throw to complete the three-point play and Parkview never got within eight the rest of the way.
Three Charging Wildcats finished with more than 20 points while four finished in double figures. Allen and Alexander each scored 22. Watkins added 21 and Vines scored 10 points.
Alexander made it a double-double by pulling down 13 rebounds, and also blocked four shots.
Beard led Parkview with 20 points while Jaylen Franklin added 19 and Daryl Macon 15 for the Patriots.
Leader sports editor
Parkview was without its best player Imara Ready, but the deep and talented Patriots gave North Little Rock all it wanted anyway. In the end, the shorthanded Parkview squad couldn’t keep up with the blistering pace set by the Charging Wildcats as North Little Rock prevailed 82-68 in the first round of the Jammin for Jackets tournament at Little Rock Hall.
North Little Rock (5-1) pressured Parkview relentlessly in the early-going of the 16-minute half. The Wildcats rattled off a trio of three pointers in the first four minutes. And when Gary Vines got a steal and dished to Thomas Alexander for a fastbreak dunk, North Little Rock 15-5 and forced a Parkview timeout.
From that point and for the rest of the game, the margin stayed between five and 14 until two free throws set the final margin.
“You always expect Parkview to make a run, but we kept our composure, just never really let it happen,” North Little Rock Johnny Rice said. “On the other side of that, every time we got a little breathing room, they’d make a little run and get right back in it.”
Parkview (3-1) got within five on five-straight points by Anton Beard at 19-14. But two steals and dunks by Alexander and Kevaughn Allen quickly made it 23-14.
The lead grew to 68-54 on two Allen free throws with 7:11 left, but Parkview went on a 10-2 run to make it 70-64 with 3:55 remaining in the game.
Rice called timeout, and senior DayShawn Watkins came up with a huge play after the break. A ball fake got his defender in the air.
Watkins then penetrated into the lane, and hit a one-handed circus shot while being pulled backwards by his other arm. He added the free throw to complete the three-point play and Parkview never got within eight the rest of the way.
Three Charging Wildcats finished with more than 20 points while four finished in double figures. Allen and Alexander each scored 22. Watkins added 21 and Vines scored 10 points.
Alexander made it a double-double by pulling down 13 rebounds, and also blocked four shots.
Beard led Parkview with 20 points while Jaylen Franklin added 19 and Daryl Macon 15 for the Patriots.
SPORTS STORY >> Cabot beats Chapel for first win
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Panthers led for just a few seconds the entire game, but they led when the final buzzer sounded. And that was good enough for head coach Jerry Bridges, who saw his team pick up its first win of the season Tuesday by beating Watson Chapel 41-39 in the first round of the Cabot Pre-Holiday Invitational at Panther Arena.
“We needed that ok, but I’m going to say this, we’ve been practicing much better,” Bridges said. “Our effort in practice has been much better and we carried that over into this game.”
Free throws kept Cabot (1-3) in the game in the fourth quarter. The Panthers were 4 of 13 from the line through three quarters, but hit 11 of 13 in the fourth quarter to stay in the game and ultimately win it.
“We finally hit some free throws in the fourth quarter,” Bridges said. “Thank goodness too because we were terrible before then.”
The Panthers led twice for a total of 48 seconds in the third quarter. They didn’t lead again until 2.7 seconds were left in the game. With the score tied, Michael Smith rebounded a missed three-point attempt by Hunter York, and was fouled going back up for the putback. Smith drained both attempts and Chapel called timeout to set up a last-second shot attempt.
The Wildcats (4-2) never got the shot. The inbounds pass to midcourt was high and skimmed over the top of Santonio Cole’s fingers. A scramble for the loose ball lasted until the buzzer sounded, giving the Panthers their first win in three tries.
The Panthers opened the game in matchup zone that had Chapel puzzled for a while. The Wildcats remained patient and worked the ball around to get open shots. Three of Watson Chapel’s possessions in the first quarter lasted more than a minute, but two resulted in baskets.
Cabot also managed just two buckets, a shot in the lane by Smith and a three-pointer by York as the first quarter ended tied at five.
Watson Chapel threatened to pull away in the second quarter after getting hot from outside. Three pointers by three different players busted Cabot’s zone and Chapel moved out to an 18-10 lead. Cabot guard Bryan Shrum scored an acrobatic bucket late in the quarter as Chapel took an 18-12 lead into halftime.
Cole came off the bench and provided a spark for Chapel in the third, but York got hot from outside to keep Cabot close. Cole got a steal, four points and four rebounds – two offensive – while York scored nine of the Panthers’ 14 points in the third quarter. York’s streak came early in the period as Cabot took two brief leads. Cole came on in the latter part of the third and Chapel again led 28-26 going into the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats were called for several more fouls in the third quarter, and that led to several more trips to the line for the Panthers in the fourth. Cabot got just two field goals in the fourth quarter, which would have spelled doom for the Panthers in their previous three-and-three-quarters games. But that changed in the fourth quarter on Tuesday. Smith, who had been below 50 percent from the line this season, hit 6 of 7 attempts in the fourth quarter. Kyle Thielemier hit all four of his and Brett Frazier hit 1 of 2.
“We work on that,” Bridges said. “That’s what I want you to understand. We work on it. We hadn’t been a very good shooting team so far, but we’re working on it.”
Bench players led the way for both teams. York led all scorers with 14 points while Cole dropped in 13 for the Wildcats. Chapel’s Jalen Courtney scored 11 while Smith added 10 for the Panthers.
Watson Chapel played Catholic at 4 p.m. Friday while Cabot faced Vilonia at 7 p.m. Vilonia beat Catholic 43-40 in the first round. Other first-round games saw Benton beat Paragould and Hot Springs Lakeside knock off Searcy. Benton beat Lakeside 52-42 on Wednesday and faces the Cabot-Vilonia winner in the championship game at 4:30 p.m. today.
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Panthers led for just a few seconds the entire game, but they led when the final buzzer sounded. And that was good enough for head coach Jerry Bridges, who saw his team pick up its first win of the season Tuesday by beating Watson Chapel 41-39 in the first round of the Cabot Pre-Holiday Invitational at Panther Arena.
“We needed that ok, but I’m going to say this, we’ve been practicing much better,” Bridges said. “Our effort in practice has been much better and we carried that over into this game.”
Free throws kept Cabot (1-3) in the game in the fourth quarter. The Panthers were 4 of 13 from the line through three quarters, but hit 11 of 13 in the fourth quarter to stay in the game and ultimately win it.
“We finally hit some free throws in the fourth quarter,” Bridges said. “Thank goodness too because we were terrible before then.”
The Panthers led twice for a total of 48 seconds in the third quarter. They didn’t lead again until 2.7 seconds were left in the game. With the score tied, Michael Smith rebounded a missed three-point attempt by Hunter York, and was fouled going back up for the putback. Smith drained both attempts and Chapel called timeout to set up a last-second shot attempt.
The Wildcats (4-2) never got the shot. The inbounds pass to midcourt was high and skimmed over the top of Santonio Cole’s fingers. A scramble for the loose ball lasted until the buzzer sounded, giving the Panthers their first win in three tries.
The Panthers opened the game in matchup zone that had Chapel puzzled for a while. The Wildcats remained patient and worked the ball around to get open shots. Three of Watson Chapel’s possessions in the first quarter lasted more than a minute, but two resulted in baskets.
Cabot also managed just two buckets, a shot in the lane by Smith and a three-pointer by York as the first quarter ended tied at five.
Watson Chapel threatened to pull away in the second quarter after getting hot from outside. Three pointers by three different players busted Cabot’s zone and Chapel moved out to an 18-10 lead. Cabot guard Bryan Shrum scored an acrobatic bucket late in the quarter as Chapel took an 18-12 lead into halftime.
Cole came off the bench and provided a spark for Chapel in the third, but York got hot from outside to keep Cabot close. Cole got a steal, four points and four rebounds – two offensive – while York scored nine of the Panthers’ 14 points in the third quarter. York’s streak came early in the period as Cabot took two brief leads. Cole came on in the latter part of the third and Chapel again led 28-26 going into the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats were called for several more fouls in the third quarter, and that led to several more trips to the line for the Panthers in the fourth. Cabot got just two field goals in the fourth quarter, which would have spelled doom for the Panthers in their previous three-and-three-quarters games. But that changed in the fourth quarter on Tuesday. Smith, who had been below 50 percent from the line this season, hit 6 of 7 attempts in the fourth quarter. Kyle Thielemier hit all four of his and Brett Frazier hit 1 of 2.
“We work on that,” Bridges said. “That’s what I want you to understand. We work on it. We hadn’t been a very good shooting team so far, but we’re working on it.”
Bench players led the way for both teams. York led all scorers with 14 points while Cole dropped in 13 for the Wildcats. Chapel’s Jalen Courtney scored 11 while Smith added 10 for the Panthers.
Watson Chapel played Catholic at 4 p.m. Friday while Cabot faced Vilonia at 7 p.m. Vilonia beat Catholic 43-40 in the first round. Other first-round games saw Benton beat Paragould and Hot Springs Lakeside knock off Searcy. Benton beat Lakeside 52-42 on Wednesday and faces the Cabot-Vilonia winner in the championship game at 4:30 p.m. today.
SPORTS STORY >> Hillside defeats Malvern at home
By JASON KING
Leader Sportswriter
Sometimes it’s good to have a shooter who possesses that killer instinct. That’s what Sylvan Hills coach Kevin Davis appears to have in junior guard Ronnie Hinton, who hit a number of big-time shots in the Bears’ 77-55 victory over Malvern at the Sylvan Hills gymnasium on Tuesday.
Hinton and senior post player DeMonte Davidson shared leading-scorer honors with 18 points each.
Davidson did his work inside, while Hinton knocked down most of his shots from the outside, including three, three-point baskets. Junior point guard Delsin Parker was close behind with 17 points, with three threes of his own.
Sylvan Hills (2-1) outpaced the Leopards in a furious opening quarter, rushing out to a 26-15 lead through the first eight minutes, and maintained that margin through the second quarter to lead 40-28 at the break. Malvern was not able to bring the score within single digits again as the Bears controlled the tempo in the second half as well.
“This team has the potential to put the ball in the basket from the perimeter,” Sylvan Hills coach Kevin Davis said. “I think we can do a little bit better job of taking quality shots at times. I thought at times, we got a little happy out there. We hit some shots, but we got to where we were thinking we can’t miss. You don’t make a team play defense when you do that. That’s a learning curve for a young team to get better at.”
The Leopards went zone against the Bears in the first half, which led to some key transition-scoring opportunities for the hosts. Hinton and Davidson both cashed in during the opening period before the outside game started opening up in the second quarter.
“I thought we got some transition buckets,” Davis said. “And that’s the thing when any team is playing zone, you have to be careful about giving up transition buckets. I thought that was really the key that kind of broke it open. I really didn’t see us get into our zone offense, because we were doing so good in primary and secondary break situations.”
Hinton broke a 12-12 tie with a three-point basket at the 3:25 mark of the first quarter, and struck again from the outside with 1:32 left to play in the first to give the Bears a 22-15 lead. He also had a number of shots just inside the arc, as well as another trey midway through the fourth quarter.
“Ronnie’s a captain on this team,” Davis said. “He’s a leader. He was on this team last year, so he’s got a ring, been to the playoffs, and consider him a playoff player. I want Ronnie playing free. I don’t want him to have to over analyze his shooting. He can take it to the basket, and he’s got a quick release, but shoots it well from the perimeter too. I thought he did a nice job leading us.”
Davidson went to the locker room at halftime with six points before he got hot in the third quarter, including a three-point basket at the 5:47 mark of the third to put Sylvan Hills up 47-32. He also went 6 of 8 at the free-throw line during the second half.
LEOPARDS BEST LADY BEARS
As Naomi Gregory went, so did Sylvan Hills as the Lady Bears fell to visiting Malvern 59-44 at the SHHS gymnasium on Tuesday.
Gregory got a hot hand to start the third quarter, which allowed the Lady Bears to cut a 10-point halftime deficit down to five. But when the magic ran out for Gregory late in the frame, the Lady Leopards were able to stretch it back out and control things the rest of the way.
“I’m in a situation where I’ve got five kids on that bench, where if they could handle the ball better, they would probably play more,” Lady Bears coach Shelley Davis said. “I’ve got to have somebody else who can step up and do something. You take away Naomi and Byrd and Val Jarrett, and we’re basically 80 percent sophomores.”
Byrd got going in the first quarter with a basket assisted by Calyn Fulton at the 6:52 mark and a pair of scores in the lane midway through, the second of which tied the game at 9-9 with 2:52 left to play in the first.
“The first half, they were playing us man, and I thought we were executing well off that,” Davis said. “When you go to a zone, I feel like a lot of times, you’re going to have to get in there and grind with it. We stayed in zone all night just because of their leaping ability. We just couldn’t stop them off the boards.”
For Malvern, Alvia Hall led the way with 13 points while Akasha Westbrook and post player Shakara Penix each had 12 points.
Leader Sportswriter
Sometimes it’s good to have a shooter who possesses that killer instinct. That’s what Sylvan Hills coach Kevin Davis appears to have in junior guard Ronnie Hinton, who hit a number of big-time shots in the Bears’ 77-55 victory over Malvern at the Sylvan Hills gymnasium on Tuesday.
Hinton and senior post player DeMonte Davidson shared leading-scorer honors with 18 points each.
Davidson did his work inside, while Hinton knocked down most of his shots from the outside, including three, three-point baskets. Junior point guard Delsin Parker was close behind with 17 points, with three threes of his own.
Sylvan Hills (2-1) outpaced the Leopards in a furious opening quarter, rushing out to a 26-15 lead through the first eight minutes, and maintained that margin through the second quarter to lead 40-28 at the break. Malvern was not able to bring the score within single digits again as the Bears controlled the tempo in the second half as well.
“This team has the potential to put the ball in the basket from the perimeter,” Sylvan Hills coach Kevin Davis said. “I think we can do a little bit better job of taking quality shots at times. I thought at times, we got a little happy out there. We hit some shots, but we got to where we were thinking we can’t miss. You don’t make a team play defense when you do that. That’s a learning curve for a young team to get better at.”
The Leopards went zone against the Bears in the first half, which led to some key transition-scoring opportunities for the hosts. Hinton and Davidson both cashed in during the opening period before the outside game started opening up in the second quarter.
“I thought we got some transition buckets,” Davis said. “And that’s the thing when any team is playing zone, you have to be careful about giving up transition buckets. I thought that was really the key that kind of broke it open. I really didn’t see us get into our zone offense, because we were doing so good in primary and secondary break situations.”
Hinton broke a 12-12 tie with a three-point basket at the 3:25 mark of the first quarter, and struck again from the outside with 1:32 left to play in the first to give the Bears a 22-15 lead. He also had a number of shots just inside the arc, as well as another trey midway through the fourth quarter.
“Ronnie’s a captain on this team,” Davis said. “He’s a leader. He was on this team last year, so he’s got a ring, been to the playoffs, and consider him a playoff player. I want Ronnie playing free. I don’t want him to have to over analyze his shooting. He can take it to the basket, and he’s got a quick release, but shoots it well from the perimeter too. I thought he did a nice job leading us.”
Davidson went to the locker room at halftime with six points before he got hot in the third quarter, including a three-point basket at the 5:47 mark of the third to put Sylvan Hills up 47-32. He also went 6 of 8 at the free-throw line during the second half.
LEOPARDS BEST LADY BEARS
As Naomi Gregory went, so did Sylvan Hills as the Lady Bears fell to visiting Malvern 59-44 at the SHHS gymnasium on Tuesday.
Gregory got a hot hand to start the third quarter, which allowed the Lady Bears to cut a 10-point halftime deficit down to five. But when the magic ran out for Gregory late in the frame, the Lady Leopards were able to stretch it back out and control things the rest of the way.
“I’m in a situation where I’ve got five kids on that bench, where if they could handle the ball better, they would probably play more,” Lady Bears coach Shelley Davis said. “I’ve got to have somebody else who can step up and do something. You take away Naomi and Byrd and Val Jarrett, and we’re basically 80 percent sophomores.”
Byrd got going in the first quarter with a basket assisted by Calyn Fulton at the 6:52 mark and a pair of scores in the lane midway through, the second of which tied the game at 9-9 with 2:52 left to play in the first.
“The first half, they were playing us man, and I thought we were executing well off that,” Davis said. “When you go to a zone, I feel like a lot of times, you’re going to have to get in there and grind with it. We stayed in zone all night just because of their leaping ability. We just couldn’t stop them off the boards.”
For Malvern, Alvia Hall led the way with 13 points while Akasha Westbrook and post player Shakara Penix each had 12 points.
SPORTS STORY >> Jacksonville figures out Goblin zone
By JASON KING
Leader Sportswriter
Harrison stuck around long enough to keep Jacksonville honest as the Red Devils worked through some second-half jitters on their way to a 50-37 victory over the Goblins in the first round of the John Stanton/Wampus Cat Invitational basketball tournament at Buzz Bolding Arena on Thursday.
The bracket for the annual tournament was set up for the usual eight teams, but two schools backed out prior to the start of the tournament. That set up a situation where the host Wampus Cats and Red Devils each received first-round byes in the winners’ bracket, but played in the consolation bracket against the two losing teams from Monday and Tuesday. Harrison lost its first-round game to Pine Bluff on Tuesday to set up the game with Jacksonville, while Conway took on North Pulaski, a first-round loser to Bryant, in the Thursday late game.
Senior point guard Justin McCleary led the Red Devils (2-1) with 13 points, along with five rebounds, two assists and a steal. Senior guard Aaron Smith added 12 points while post player Keith Charleston led the way on the boards with 10 rebounds, eight of which were defensive. Charleston also had seven points, as did junior Sergio Berkley.
The Goblins fell behind 26-11 late in the first half before mounting a 7-2 run in the final 1:19 leading up to halftime, and slowed Jacksonville down just enough in the second half with their zone defense to keep the scoring low.
“I thought the 1-2-2 kind of spread it out,” Red Devils coach Victor Joyner said. “We weren’t hitting anything in the middle. We weren’t attacking off the dribble, and that’s what we started doing a little bit more in the third quarter. I promise the next time someone plays us in a zone like that, we will be getting in gaps.”
McCleary got active on the boards early in the second half once the Goblins started isolating Charleston in the paint. He pulled down a defensive rebound and took it all the way for a basket with 6:21 remaining in the third quarter to give Jacksonville its largest lead of the second half at 35-20.
“He just kind of runs us,” Joyner said of McCleary. “He wasn’t in a lot of scoring opportunities, but he facilitated us tonight, and that’s what a good point guard does, he tries to give you what you need at that time. He needed to distribute the ball tonight, and that’s what he did.”
McCleary gave the Red Devils an early 2-0 lead when he scored on a layup off a steal while Charleston got busy on the defensive end with a block and rebound that set up Khaleel Hart for a basket at the 6:40 mark of the first quarter to put Jacksonville up 4-0.
Sergio Berkley extended the lead to 7-0 with a three-point basket with 6:12 remaining in the opening period, an inside shot by Hart off a dish from Charleston gave Jacksonville a 9-0 lead with 5:28 left to play in the first.
Harrison finally got points on the board when post player Jackson Doshier hit two free throws, but Charleston came right back with an inside basket, followed by a three pointer by McCleary that made it 14-2 with 1:45 remaining in the first quarter.
For Harrison, Alex Rose led with 14 points while Doshier added 12 points.
Jacksonville played Bryant in the winners’ bracket semifinals last night after Leader deadlines.
Leader Sportswriter
Harrison stuck around long enough to keep Jacksonville honest as the Red Devils worked through some second-half jitters on their way to a 50-37 victory over the Goblins in the first round of the John Stanton/Wampus Cat Invitational basketball tournament at Buzz Bolding Arena on Thursday.
The bracket for the annual tournament was set up for the usual eight teams, but two schools backed out prior to the start of the tournament. That set up a situation where the host Wampus Cats and Red Devils each received first-round byes in the winners’ bracket, but played in the consolation bracket against the two losing teams from Monday and Tuesday. Harrison lost its first-round game to Pine Bluff on Tuesday to set up the game with Jacksonville, while Conway took on North Pulaski, a first-round loser to Bryant, in the Thursday late game.
Senior point guard Justin McCleary led the Red Devils (2-1) with 13 points, along with five rebounds, two assists and a steal. Senior guard Aaron Smith added 12 points while post player Keith Charleston led the way on the boards with 10 rebounds, eight of which were defensive. Charleston also had seven points, as did junior Sergio Berkley.
The Goblins fell behind 26-11 late in the first half before mounting a 7-2 run in the final 1:19 leading up to halftime, and slowed Jacksonville down just enough in the second half with their zone defense to keep the scoring low.
“I thought the 1-2-2 kind of spread it out,” Red Devils coach Victor Joyner said. “We weren’t hitting anything in the middle. We weren’t attacking off the dribble, and that’s what we started doing a little bit more in the third quarter. I promise the next time someone plays us in a zone like that, we will be getting in gaps.”
McCleary got active on the boards early in the second half once the Goblins started isolating Charleston in the paint. He pulled down a defensive rebound and took it all the way for a basket with 6:21 remaining in the third quarter to give Jacksonville its largest lead of the second half at 35-20.
“He just kind of runs us,” Joyner said of McCleary. “He wasn’t in a lot of scoring opportunities, but he facilitated us tonight, and that’s what a good point guard does, he tries to give you what you need at that time. He needed to distribute the ball tonight, and that’s what he did.”
McCleary gave the Red Devils an early 2-0 lead when he scored on a layup off a steal while Charleston got busy on the defensive end with a block and rebound that set up Khaleel Hart for a basket at the 6:40 mark of the first quarter to put Jacksonville up 4-0.
Sergio Berkley extended the lead to 7-0 with a three-point basket with 6:12 remaining in the opening period, an inside shot by Hart off a dish from Charleston gave Jacksonville a 9-0 lead with 5:28 left to play in the first.
Harrison finally got points on the board when post player Jackson Doshier hit two free throws, but Charleston came right back with an inside basket, followed by a three pointer by McCleary that made it 14-2 with 1:45 remaining in the first quarter.
For Harrison, Alex Rose led with 14 points while Doshier added 12 points.
Jacksonville played Bryant in the winners’ bracket semifinals last night after Leader deadlines.
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
EDITORIAL >> Thanksgiving MVP players
Dane and Heather Moore, who organize the annual Cabot Community Thanksgiving Feast, visited The Leader last week to thank us for our support of the event that served free meals to more than 300 people this year.
They presented this newspaper and dozens of donors and other supporters with plaques in recognition of our coverage of their event. We look forward to their efforts in the years to come.
The Moores’ community-mindedness is admirable. They have provided thousands of Thanksgiving meals in only three years since they started the annual holiday meal.
Cabot Community Thanksgiving Feast is held at a new church each year, which allows different denominations to come together and collectively serve those in need. This year, the dinner was held at Cabot United Methodist Church.
“We want everybody to be fed and not alone during the holiday,” Dane Moore recently told us. To make it happen, the couple rely on the generosity of donors to provide money, food and utensils, as well as numerous volunteers who cook, clean and serve meals.
It’s never too late — or too early for next year — to donate. Visit www.cabotfeast.com or call 501-259-3799 and help support a valuable community service. Beebe First United Methodist Church and First Baptist Church of Jacksonville also serve annual Thanksgiving dinners that are open to everyone. They too are appreciated for their enduring support of the community and for remembering the needy when it matters most.
They presented this newspaper and dozens of donors and other supporters with plaques in recognition of our coverage of their event. We look forward to their efforts in the years to come.
The Moores’ community-mindedness is admirable. They have provided thousands of Thanksgiving meals in only three years since they started the annual holiday meal.
Cabot Community Thanksgiving Feast is held at a new church each year, which allows different denominations to come together and collectively serve those in need. This year, the dinner was held at Cabot United Methodist Church.
“We want everybody to be fed and not alone during the holiday,” Dane Moore recently told us. To make it happen, the couple rely on the generosity of donors to provide money, food and utensils, as well as numerous volunteers who cook, clean and serve meals.
It’s never too late — or too early for next year — to donate. Visit www.cabotfeast.com or call 501-259-3799 and help support a valuable community service. Beebe First United Methodist Church and First Baptist Church of Jacksonville also serve annual Thanksgiving dinners that are open to everyone. They too are appreciated for their enduring support of the community and for remembering the needy when it matters most.
EDITORIAL >> Christmas memories
When I was young, my mother spent all day on Dec. 23 baking cakes and pies. The aroma of mincemeat, coconut and chocolate filled the house and when she was finished the table in the dining room was filled with her creations.
It was my favorite day of the year partly because of those aromas but mostly because it was the official start of Christmas.
She baked the ham and turkey the next day, and on Christmas she rested, at least from cooking.
Christmas presents came out of a box from Aldens, a Chicago-based mail order house. Just taking care of a family with at least eight kids in the house at any given time was a full-time job. Town was at least 25 miles away and even if she could have found what she was looking for in the stores, finding time to go was difficult.
My mother never worked outside of her home. And I would have loved to have followed in her footsteps, but since I don’t live on a farm like she did and my kids are grown, staying home would have been a little more than self-indulgent.
So, I work and my holiday prep time is limited. Except for cheesecakes, which are in my opinion a hybrid of cake and pie, I don’t bake much. I usually buy frozen pies and I save the cake baking for birthdays.
I’ve replaced the traditional Christmas ham and turkey with Christmas lasagna and homemade French bread. But just like my mother’s turkey and ham, there’s enough left over to keep me from cooking for a day or two afterwards.
Also like my mother, I don’t have time to shop. So just like when I was young, I eagerly wait for those packages in the mail.
Aldens closed in 1982, but the Internet has made it possible for countless businesses to take its place. I’ve known since I first went online more than 15 years ago that you can literally find anything you need from some company somewhere in the world.
So while my mother searched the Aldens catalog for dolls, flannel-lined dungarees and knit shirts, I log on to eBay, Amazon, Sportsman’s Guide, Barnes and Noble, a variety of western supply stores and this year a log home supply house that sells electric chainsaws for carving.
But the big picture really hasn’t changed all that much.
My mother cooked enough to have leftovers and therefore time off just like I do. She got one big box in the mail; I get several, big and small. She hoped she was buying the right gifts and I hope I am.
To paraphrase a long-dead French journalist, the more things change, the more they stay the same. And if it sounds like I’m looking too hard for a connection, I probably am. Christmas traditions are important even if they are only kept in your mind.
— Joan McCoy
It was my favorite day of the year partly because of those aromas but mostly because it was the official start of Christmas.
She baked the ham and turkey the next day, and on Christmas she rested, at least from cooking.
Christmas presents came out of a box from Aldens, a Chicago-based mail order house. Just taking care of a family with at least eight kids in the house at any given time was a full-time job. Town was at least 25 miles away and even if she could have found what she was looking for in the stores, finding time to go was difficult.
My mother never worked outside of her home. And I would have loved to have followed in her footsteps, but since I don’t live on a farm like she did and my kids are grown, staying home would have been a little more than self-indulgent.
So, I work and my holiday prep time is limited. Except for cheesecakes, which are in my opinion a hybrid of cake and pie, I don’t bake much. I usually buy frozen pies and I save the cake baking for birthdays.
I’ve replaced the traditional Christmas ham and turkey with Christmas lasagna and homemade French bread. But just like my mother’s turkey and ham, there’s enough left over to keep me from cooking for a day or two afterwards.
Also like my mother, I don’t have time to shop. So just like when I was young, I eagerly wait for those packages in the mail.
Aldens closed in 1982, but the Internet has made it possible for countless businesses to take its place. I’ve known since I first went online more than 15 years ago that you can literally find anything you need from some company somewhere in the world.
So while my mother searched the Aldens catalog for dolls, flannel-lined dungarees and knit shirts, I log on to eBay, Amazon, Sportsman’s Guide, Barnes and Noble, a variety of western supply stores and this year a log home supply house that sells electric chainsaws for carving.
But the big picture really hasn’t changed all that much.
My mother cooked enough to have leftovers and therefore time off just like I do. She got one big box in the mail; I get several, big and small. She hoped she was buying the right gifts and I hope I am.
To paraphrase a long-dead French journalist, the more things change, the more they stay the same. And if it sounds like I’m looking too hard for a connection, I probably am. Christmas traditions are important even if they are only kept in your mind.
— Joan McCoy
TOP STORY >> Cabot Christmas Alliance needs volunteers
Cabot Christmas Alliance, a charity group that has been providing local children and their families with food for Christmas since the 1960s, is seeking volunteers and donations to help fulfill the group’s mission again this year. Members include several churches, schools, businesses and individuals.
It is not too late to get involved. Cabot Christmas Alliance accepts donations year-round. Individuals or groups can also sponsor families until Dec. 19.
Volunteers can help pack food boxes on Dec. 15 beginning at 8 a.m. at the old Larry’s Pizza location. The food will be distributed starting at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 22. The group will also work at the old Larry’s Pizza in Cabot, First Baptist Church of Ward and the Austin City Complex.
To donate, send checks to Cabot Christmas Alliance, P.O. Box 821, Cabot, Ark. 72023.
Some people also choose to “adopt” a family and purchase gifts for the children. Those individuals may call Terena Woodruff at 501-843-3363 (ext. 1007) or contact any Cabot school counselor.
All children in the Cabot School District who are in need are eligible for help from the Cabot Christmas Alliance and an affiliated charity, Christmas for Kids, which provides toys to area children.
The Christmas Alliance expects to receive 800 applications for assistance this holiday season.
Last year, more than 730 families received food from the Cabot Christmas Alliance.
Community support has increased tremendously each year. Five years ago, a few churches, a bank and a few individuals provided gifts for about 70 to 80 families.
In the last five years, several churches, school clubs, civic groups and many individuals have sponsored more than 300 families. Superintendent Tony Thurman encourages school groups to sponsor food and toy drives as well.
Families without children in school are eligible, but they must live in the Cabot School District.
It is not too late to get involved. Cabot Christmas Alliance accepts donations year-round. Individuals or groups can also sponsor families until Dec. 19.
Volunteers can help pack food boxes on Dec. 15 beginning at 8 a.m. at the old Larry’s Pizza location. The food will be distributed starting at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 22. The group will also work at the old Larry’s Pizza in Cabot, First Baptist Church of Ward and the Austin City Complex.
To donate, send checks to Cabot Christmas Alliance, P.O. Box 821, Cabot, Ark. 72023.
Some people also choose to “adopt” a family and purchase gifts for the children. Those individuals may call Terena Woodruff at 501-843-3363 (ext. 1007) or contact any Cabot school counselor.
All children in the Cabot School District who are in need are eligible for help from the Cabot Christmas Alliance and an affiliated charity, Christmas for Kids, which provides toys to area children.
The Christmas Alliance expects to receive 800 applications for assistance this holiday season.
Last year, more than 730 families received food from the Cabot Christmas Alliance.
Community support has increased tremendously each year. Five years ago, a few churches, a bank and a few individuals provided gifts for about 70 to 80 families.
In the last five years, several churches, school clubs, civic groups and many individuals have sponsored more than 300 families. Superintendent Tony Thurman encourages school groups to sponsor food and toy drives as well.
Families without children in school are eligible, but they must live in the Cabot School District.
TOP STORY >> Cabot shelter director named
By JEFFREY SMITH
Leader staff writer
The Cabot Animal Shelter has a new director, but a familiar face. Animal control interim director Mike Wheeler was named director by the city last month. He has worked at the shelter for three years.
He replaces former director Jason Ellerbee, who was fired last month after a city investigation discovered that donation money was missing from a safe at the shelter. Ellerbee admitted to the theft, according to a Cabot police report. The funds, $192, were returned but not before an audit showed it was missing.
A new animal shelter donation account is managed by the city treasurer and city clerk’s office. All donations are set aside and used solely for the animal shelter. The funds roll over year after year.
“We’re focused on tightening the ship here and providing better customer service and support to the community. We have a great rescue coordinator who’s helping to reach out to animal rescue groups throughout the county,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler wants to revitalize the shelter’s volunteer program and provide more training for staff and animal handling. He said the animal shelter will be more involved in city events and working with more of the schools to get students involved.
“The more we educate people, the easier it will be to do our job here,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler was raised in Ward and is a 1990 Cabot High School graduate. He served four years in the Army as a military intelligence analyst in Colorado. He later became an insurance salesman in Denver for 15 years. Wheeler and his wife wanted to raise their four children in a better school district and moved to Cabot, where he began his career as an animal control officer.
“We always had animals at the farm (in Ward). It was the public service aspect of animal control that made me take the job over the others,” Wheeler said.
According to Wheeler, the shelter’s euthanasia rate in the past four years has dropped from 55-percent in 2008 to 19-percent this year.
“Our goal is to keep that moving down, while offering more services for the community,” he said.
The animal shelter has a mobile adoption unit, a public spay and neuter clinic and a food bank with pet foods for financially struggling pet owners.
Wheeler said there is a misconception about the animal shelter. He said it has two different functions.
The shelter finds animals new homes by arranging adoptions. Animal possum control provides trapping services for opossum, raccoons, skunks and feral cats.
“We clean up road kill, pick up stray and injured animals and enforce city ordinances pertaining to animals,” Wheeler said.
Residents can talk with animal control officers about problems with wild or domestic animals, instances of abuse or neglect and other concerns about animals.
The shelter phased out a shelter technician position and will have three animal control officers, a kennel technician and a director. The shelter tech was responsible for adoptions, the front desk, reception and filing paperwork. The shelter will instead have a three-person rotation to prevent officers who are on call 24 hours a day from becoming burned-out.
Wheeler said a dog park next to the shelter is still in the three-year plan as time and money allows.
“We are one of the nicest managed shelters in the state and have one of the lowest euthanasia rates in the state. Through public education and employee training we’re working to provide the best services for citizens and the city of Cabot,” Wheeler said.
Leader staff writer
The Cabot Animal Shelter has a new director, but a familiar face. Animal control interim director Mike Wheeler was named director by the city last month. He has worked at the shelter for three years.
He replaces former director Jason Ellerbee, who was fired last month after a city investigation discovered that donation money was missing from a safe at the shelter. Ellerbee admitted to the theft, according to a Cabot police report. The funds, $192, were returned but not before an audit showed it was missing.
A new animal shelter donation account is managed by the city treasurer and city clerk’s office. All donations are set aside and used solely for the animal shelter. The funds roll over year after year.
“We’re focused on tightening the ship here and providing better customer service and support to the community. We have a great rescue coordinator who’s helping to reach out to animal rescue groups throughout the county,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler wants to revitalize the shelter’s volunteer program and provide more training for staff and animal handling. He said the animal shelter will be more involved in city events and working with more of the schools to get students involved.
“The more we educate people, the easier it will be to do our job here,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler was raised in Ward and is a 1990 Cabot High School graduate. He served four years in the Army as a military intelligence analyst in Colorado. He later became an insurance salesman in Denver for 15 years. Wheeler and his wife wanted to raise their four children in a better school district and moved to Cabot, where he began his career as an animal control officer.
“We always had animals at the farm (in Ward). It was the public service aspect of animal control that made me take the job over the others,” Wheeler said.
According to Wheeler, the shelter’s euthanasia rate in the past four years has dropped from 55-percent in 2008 to 19-percent this year.
“Our goal is to keep that moving down, while offering more services for the community,” he said.
The animal shelter has a mobile adoption unit, a public spay and neuter clinic and a food bank with pet foods for financially struggling pet owners.
Wheeler said there is a misconception about the animal shelter. He said it has two different functions.
The shelter finds animals new homes by arranging adoptions. Animal possum control provides trapping services for opossum, raccoons, skunks and feral cats.
“We clean up road kill, pick up stray and injured animals and enforce city ordinances pertaining to animals,” Wheeler said.
Residents can talk with animal control officers about problems with wild or domestic animals, instances of abuse or neglect and other concerns about animals.
The shelter phased out a shelter technician position and will have three animal control officers, a kennel technician and a director. The shelter tech was responsible for adoptions, the front desk, reception and filing paperwork. The shelter will instead have a three-person rotation to prevent officers who are on call 24 hours a day from becoming burned-out.
Wheeler said a dog park next to the shelter is still in the three-year plan as time and money allows.
“We are one of the nicest managed shelters in the state and have one of the lowest euthanasia rates in the state. Through public education and employee training we’re working to provide the best services for citizens and the city of Cabot,” Wheeler said.
TOP STORY >> Road rage ends with trip to jail
By JEFFREY SMITH
Leader staff writer
A Ward man was arrested on Nov. 27 after beating a man into unconsciousness, sending him to the hospital after a vicious road rage fight in Cabot.
Police were called at 1:57 p.m. to the Sinclair gas station on 3001 South Hwy. 89.
They found a 60-year-old Cabot man in the parking lot on his hands and knees. His face and head were covered in blood. He appeared to be suffering from several facial injuries and an injury to the back of his head. The victim did not know what happened and did not know where he was.
Witnesses reported seeing Gary Stotts, 41, driving a black 1994 Ford pickup westbound on Mount Carmel Road. It appeared Stotts was trying to avoid the red light at Hwy. 89 and Hwy. 321 and cut through the gas station parking lot. Stotts drove through the lot and almost struck two men near the gas pumps. It is believed the victim said something to Stotts as the truck passed them.
Security footage from the gas station showed Stotts stopped his truck. He and the victim approached each other. Stotts punched the victim in the face, knocked him to the ground and began hitting him. Then Stotts’ girlfriend approached Stotts.
The victim got up and picked up a piece of his cell phone or car keys. He walked toward Stotts to pick up another item off the ground. Stotts hit the victim again, wrestled him to ground and hit him in the head several more times until the victim appeared to be unconscious. Stotts fled in the truck with his girlfriend.
Witnesses reported the woman told Stotts to quit hitting the victim.
One witness told police he believed Stotts was “trying to kill the man” and hit the victim “while he was unconscious with three of the hardest blows he had ever seen.”
The victim was transported by MEMS to University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences for treatment. According to the victim’s wife, the man had several facial fractures, a broken nose and was waiting to see a doctor about his vision. She thought he would have to have surgery due to the attack.
A witness followed Stotts’ truck to an address on Harris Road in Lonoke County and called Cabot police. The Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office located the truck at 33 Harris Road.
Authorities tried to make contact with the residents, but no one would open the door. Police towed the truck from the scene.
After 50 minutes, Stotts’ girlfriend came outside and said she lived at the home. She allowed authorities to search inside the house. She said Stotts was in a back bedroom and told her not to leave. She said she did not know why Stotts attacked the victim.
Police entered the back bedroom and found Stotts hiding between the mattress and the box spring. He was arrested without incident and transported to the Cabot Police Department.
While being transported to the police department, Stotts said he was defending himself and said “the old man hit him first.” He said he did not know the victim. Stotts declined to make a written statement but requested information on filing charges against the victim.
Stotts was charged with felony second-degree battery.
Sgt. Keith Graham said in his nine years of working in Cabot he has never seen road rage elevate to the severity of the attack.
His advice for people who might encounter a road rage incident. “...call 911. Try to get a description and the license plate number. Do not confront them if they are following you. We’ll go talk to the people. Go to a well-lit safe place or drive to the local police department,” Graham said.
Leader staff writer
A Ward man was arrested on Nov. 27 after beating a man into unconsciousness, sending him to the hospital after a vicious road rage fight in Cabot.
Police were called at 1:57 p.m. to the Sinclair gas station on 3001 South Hwy. 89.
They found a 60-year-old Cabot man in the parking lot on his hands and knees. His face and head were covered in blood. He appeared to be suffering from several facial injuries and an injury to the back of his head. The victim did not know what happened and did not know where he was.
Witnesses reported seeing Gary Stotts, 41, driving a black 1994 Ford pickup westbound on Mount Carmel Road. It appeared Stotts was trying to avoid the red light at Hwy. 89 and Hwy. 321 and cut through the gas station parking lot. Stotts drove through the lot and almost struck two men near the gas pumps. It is believed the victim said something to Stotts as the truck passed them.
Security footage from the gas station showed Stotts stopped his truck. He and the victim approached each other. Stotts punched the victim in the face, knocked him to the ground and began hitting him. Then Stotts’ girlfriend approached Stotts.
The victim got up and picked up a piece of his cell phone or car keys. He walked toward Stotts to pick up another item off the ground. Stotts hit the victim again, wrestled him to ground and hit him in the head several more times until the victim appeared to be unconscious. Stotts fled in the truck with his girlfriend.
Witnesses reported the woman told Stotts to quit hitting the victim.
One witness told police he believed Stotts was “trying to kill the man” and hit the victim “while he was unconscious with three of the hardest blows he had ever seen.”
The victim was transported by MEMS to University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences for treatment. According to the victim’s wife, the man had several facial fractures, a broken nose and was waiting to see a doctor about his vision. She thought he would have to have surgery due to the attack.
A witness followed Stotts’ truck to an address on Harris Road in Lonoke County and called Cabot police. The Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office located the truck at 33 Harris Road.
Authorities tried to make contact with the residents, but no one would open the door. Police towed the truck from the scene.
After 50 minutes, Stotts’ girlfriend came outside and said she lived at the home. She allowed authorities to search inside the house. She said Stotts was in a back bedroom and told her not to leave. She said she did not know why Stotts attacked the victim.
Police entered the back bedroom and found Stotts hiding between the mattress and the box spring. He was arrested without incident and transported to the Cabot Police Department.
While being transported to the police department, Stotts said he was defending himself and said “the old man hit him first.” He said he did not know the victim. Stotts declined to make a written statement but requested information on filing charges against the victim.
Stotts was charged with felony second-degree battery.
Sgt. Keith Graham said in his nine years of working in Cabot he has never seen road rage elevate to the severity of the attack.
His advice for people who might encounter a road rage incident. “...call 911. Try to get a description and the license plate number. Do not confront them if they are following you. We’ll go talk to the people. Go to a well-lit safe place or drive to the local police department,” Graham said.
TOP STORY >> Dangerous overpass
By JOHN HOFHEIMER AND SARAH CAMPBELL
Leader staff writers
Yet another accident occur-red on the aging and troublesome Main Street overpass on Hwy. 67/167 in Jacksonville early Tuesday morning when northbound truck driver Kenneth O’Conner lost control of his 18-wheeler.
From 2001 through 2010, the State Police worked 249 crashes on the bridge or its approach, according to statistics provided by the State Police.
According to State Police Trooper Adrian Ray, O’Conner’s right front tire blew out while he was crossing the bridge. The truck took out about eight concrete guard rail posts before plunging down the grassy embankment. Ray said the driver attempted to pull off the freeway safely.
O’Conner said, “I tried to save the truck,” but could not.
He was not injured.
“That’s my saving grace,” O’Conner said.
The overpass has a long history of accidents and death. In tandem with the Redmond Road overpass just to the south, it is slated for replacement with bids to be let next summer, according to Highway Department spokesman Randy Ort.
It should take at least 18 months for construction after bids are accepted, according to Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher. He and his predecessor, Mayor Tommy Swaim, have long lobbied for a bridge fix.
Ort said the state highway engineers visited the accident site Tuesday and repairs would begin soon. State highway workers will do the repairs, Ort said.
Most accidents on the Hwy. 67/167 Main Street overpass occur in the southbound lane, where centrifugal force helps errant vehicles to—and sometimes through—the guardrails 20 feet above Main.
In late October, a local man was killed in an accident on or near the bridge, the mayor said.
Of Tuesday’s accident, Fletcher said, “My concern is the safety and design of the bridge.” He said someone below could have been killed by the dislodged pillars and guardrails.
Fletcher said there had been a public hearing on the bridge replacement and that he hoped the Highway Department would include incentives to get the eventual construction contractor to finish early.
Ort said that was both possible and likely.
Fletcher estimated the bridges would be replaced by the end of 2014 at the earliest.
Both those projects have been in the pipelines for years, although only recently were the Redmond Road and Main Street bridges combined into a single project, by way of addressing the Main Street project sooner than planned. Local residents and commuters have become used to accidents, orange barrels and bridge guardrail repairs on the outside southbound lane of the overpass.
From January 2003 through December 2006, the State Police worked 118 accidents resulting in 71 injuries on the Main Street overpass or within a quarter mile, according to data supplied by the state.
At times only the barrels, good fortune and careful driving have kept other vehicles from plunging unimpeded to Main Street below until repairs were completed.
In February 2006, Jerry Justice, 34, of Ward was crushed and pronounced dead at the scene after the gravel truck driven by Donald Ray Watkins, 35, slammed two pickup trucks through the overpass guardrail and plunged after them onto Main Street, about 20 feet below, dumping the gravel on the other vehicles, according to the State Police account.
The new structures will have three lanes in each direction and generous shoulders, according to Ort and the 2013-2016 Transportation Improvement Plan estimates the replacement cost at $17.3 million.
Fletcher, who has advocated for quick and effective replacement of those bridges since taking office, admits that traffic will be a nightmare for commuters during the construction, which he said could take 12 to 18 months.
The new Main Street bridge will have a gentler curve than the current bridge, will have barriers that meet modern standards and will be banked, according to Jacksonville City Engineer Jay Whisker.
The old barriers were concrete posts supporting guard rails, and the outside barrier on the southbound structure seemed at times to be perpetually broken and under repair.
“The city wanted the curve taken out for obvious reasons, but the highway department said we can’t take it completely out,” Whisker said.
The new overpasses are the next step in the widening of Hwy. 67/167 from I-40 to Cabot.
Leader staff writers
Yet another accident occur-red on the aging and troublesome Main Street overpass on Hwy. 67/167 in Jacksonville early Tuesday morning when northbound truck driver Kenneth O’Conner lost control of his 18-wheeler.
From 2001 through 2010, the State Police worked 249 crashes on the bridge or its approach, according to statistics provided by the State Police.
According to State Police Trooper Adrian Ray, O’Conner’s right front tire blew out while he was crossing the bridge. The truck took out about eight concrete guard rail posts before plunging down the grassy embankment. Ray said the driver attempted to pull off the freeway safely.
O’Conner said, “I tried to save the truck,” but could not.
He was not injured.
“That’s my saving grace,” O’Conner said.
The overpass has a long history of accidents and death. In tandem with the Redmond Road overpass just to the south, it is slated for replacement with bids to be let next summer, according to Highway Department spokesman Randy Ort.
It should take at least 18 months for construction after bids are accepted, according to Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher. He and his predecessor, Mayor Tommy Swaim, have long lobbied for a bridge fix.
Ort said the state highway engineers visited the accident site Tuesday and repairs would begin soon. State highway workers will do the repairs, Ort said.
Most accidents on the Hwy. 67/167 Main Street overpass occur in the southbound lane, where centrifugal force helps errant vehicles to—and sometimes through—the guardrails 20 feet above Main.
In late October, a local man was killed in an accident on or near the bridge, the mayor said.
Of Tuesday’s accident, Fletcher said, “My concern is the safety and design of the bridge.” He said someone below could have been killed by the dislodged pillars and guardrails.
Fletcher said there had been a public hearing on the bridge replacement and that he hoped the Highway Department would include incentives to get the eventual construction contractor to finish early.
Ort said that was both possible and likely.
Fletcher estimated the bridges would be replaced by the end of 2014 at the earliest.
Both those projects have been in the pipelines for years, although only recently were the Redmond Road and Main Street bridges combined into a single project, by way of addressing the Main Street project sooner than planned. Local residents and commuters have become used to accidents, orange barrels and bridge guardrail repairs on the outside southbound lane of the overpass.
From January 2003 through December 2006, the State Police worked 118 accidents resulting in 71 injuries on the Main Street overpass or within a quarter mile, according to data supplied by the state.
At times only the barrels, good fortune and careful driving have kept other vehicles from plunging unimpeded to Main Street below until repairs were completed.
In February 2006, Jerry Justice, 34, of Ward was crushed and pronounced dead at the scene after the gravel truck driven by Donald Ray Watkins, 35, slammed two pickup trucks through the overpass guardrail and plunged after them onto Main Street, about 20 feet below, dumping the gravel on the other vehicles, according to the State Police account.
The new structures will have three lanes in each direction and generous shoulders, according to Ort and the 2013-2016 Transportation Improvement Plan estimates the replacement cost at $17.3 million.
Fletcher, who has advocated for quick and effective replacement of those bridges since taking office, admits that traffic will be a nightmare for commuters during the construction, which he said could take 12 to 18 months.
The new Main Street bridge will have a gentler curve than the current bridge, will have barriers that meet modern standards and will be banked, according to Jacksonville City Engineer Jay Whisker.
The old barriers were concrete posts supporting guard rails, and the outside barrier on the southbound structure seemed at times to be perpetually broken and under repair.
“The city wanted the curve taken out for obvious reasons, but the highway department said we can’t take it completely out,” Whisker said.
The new overpasses are the next step in the widening of Hwy. 67/167 from I-40 to Cabot.
SPORTS STORY >> Free throws help Bryant beat Falcons
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Missed layups, a big rebounding deficit and an even bigger free-throw deficit was more than North Pulaski could overcome Monday in a 74-51 loss to Bryant at the Conway Invitational Tournament.
The Hornets outrebounded the Falcons 31-23, and North Pulaski made just 21 of 58 shot attempts. But the telling statistic was the free-throw disparity. Bryant hit 26 of 46 attempts from the line while the Falcons made just 7 of 14.
“I’m just going to leave that alone,” North Pulaski coach Roy Jackson said. The head Falcon took a diplomatic approach to being on the wrong side of the strange statistic. “We didn’t play well, that is true. We were being aggressive but weren’t being smart. They were being pretty aggressive too, but we were fouling. I don’t know; that’s about all I can think of to say about that.”
Bryant shot nearly as many free throws in the first quarter as North Pulaski shot in the game. The Hornets went 8 of 12 from the line in the opening frame, but the Falcons made 7 of 11 shots from the floor and held a 14-12 lead after the first quarter. Then came the turning point in the game.
Bryant (5-0) scored the first 20 points of the second quarter in just more than four minutes. The Hornets were in the double bonus with 6:47 left in the half and shot 14 more free throws in the second quarter. North Pulaski played its role in the collapse by turning the ball over seven times in the quarter, and going cold from the floor. North Pulaski made just four of 15 shot attempts in the second quarter. The Falcons missed their first seven shots of the frame, including two layups.
“That’s something we’ve struggled with a lot this season,” Jackson said. “We have to start doing a better job of finishing around the basket.”
Bryant’s lead grew to as much as 22 points in the second quarter, but North Pulaski (3-2) battled back to cut the margin to 39-26 by halftime. The Falcons continued to chip away early in the third quarter, getting the score to 41-31 and had three possessions to get it to less than 10 points, but never converted.
Bryant then went on another tear, led by senior guard C.J. Rainey. Rainey scored just three points in the first half, but dropped in 11 in the third quarter, including eight in a row after North Pulaski cut it to 10.
Rainey scored six points in a 20-second span that made it 47-31 and erased most of what North Pulaski spent a whole quarter trying to make up.
Rainey’s sudden burst sparked a 17-2 run that gave the Hornets a 58-33 lead and left little doubt about the outcome. North Pulaski fell behind by as much as 28 in the fourth quarter as Jackson cleared his bench, but the Falcons battled back with a small run at the end as Bryant also began to go deep into the lineup.
In the strange tournament format, Bryant and North Pulaski will face bye teams in the next round. North Pulaski faces tournament host Conway at 8:30 p.m. Thursday while Bryant will play Jacksonville at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
In the other tournament game, Pine Bluff beat Harrison on Tuesday, sending Pine Bluff to the winner’s bracket to play Conway on Friday, while Harrison falls to the losers’ bracket to play Jacksonville at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Saturday’s championship game will pit the Conway-Pine Bluff winner against the Jacksonville-Bryant winner at 8:30 p.m.
The losers of those two games will play for third place at 5:30. North Pulaski will play Harrison for fifth place at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
Leader sports editor
Missed layups, a big rebounding deficit and an even bigger free-throw deficit was more than North Pulaski could overcome Monday in a 74-51 loss to Bryant at the Conway Invitational Tournament.
The Hornets outrebounded the Falcons 31-23, and North Pulaski made just 21 of 58 shot attempts. But the telling statistic was the free-throw disparity. Bryant hit 26 of 46 attempts from the line while the Falcons made just 7 of 14.
“I’m just going to leave that alone,” North Pulaski coach Roy Jackson said. The head Falcon took a diplomatic approach to being on the wrong side of the strange statistic. “We didn’t play well, that is true. We were being aggressive but weren’t being smart. They were being pretty aggressive too, but we were fouling. I don’t know; that’s about all I can think of to say about that.”
Bryant shot nearly as many free throws in the first quarter as North Pulaski shot in the game. The Hornets went 8 of 12 from the line in the opening frame, but the Falcons made 7 of 11 shots from the floor and held a 14-12 lead after the first quarter. Then came the turning point in the game.
Bryant (5-0) scored the first 20 points of the second quarter in just more than four minutes. The Hornets were in the double bonus with 6:47 left in the half and shot 14 more free throws in the second quarter. North Pulaski played its role in the collapse by turning the ball over seven times in the quarter, and going cold from the floor. North Pulaski made just four of 15 shot attempts in the second quarter. The Falcons missed their first seven shots of the frame, including two layups.
“That’s something we’ve struggled with a lot this season,” Jackson said. “We have to start doing a better job of finishing around the basket.”
Bryant’s lead grew to as much as 22 points in the second quarter, but North Pulaski (3-2) battled back to cut the margin to 39-26 by halftime. The Falcons continued to chip away early in the third quarter, getting the score to 41-31 and had three possessions to get it to less than 10 points, but never converted.
Bryant then went on another tear, led by senior guard C.J. Rainey. Rainey scored just three points in the first half, but dropped in 11 in the third quarter, including eight in a row after North Pulaski cut it to 10.
Rainey scored six points in a 20-second span that made it 47-31 and erased most of what North Pulaski spent a whole quarter trying to make up.
Rainey’s sudden burst sparked a 17-2 run that gave the Hornets a 58-33 lead and left little doubt about the outcome. North Pulaski fell behind by as much as 28 in the fourth quarter as Jackson cleared his bench, but the Falcons battled back with a small run at the end as Bryant also began to go deep into the lineup.
In the strange tournament format, Bryant and North Pulaski will face bye teams in the next round. North Pulaski faces tournament host Conway at 8:30 p.m. Thursday while Bryant will play Jacksonville at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
In the other tournament game, Pine Bluff beat Harrison on Tuesday, sending Pine Bluff to the winner’s bracket to play Conway on Friday, while Harrison falls to the losers’ bracket to play Jacksonville at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Saturday’s championship game will pit the Conway-Pine Bluff winner against the Jacksonville-Bryant winner at 8:30 p.m.
The losers of those two games will play for third place at 5:30. North Pulaski will play Harrison for fifth place at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
SPORTS STORY >> Fast start is enough for Lonoke
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
A second-half slowdown did not stop Lonoke in the big scheme of things as the Jackrabbits went on to defeat Hot Springs 72-56 in the third-place game of the Hot Springs invitational basketball tournament on Saturday.
The Jackrabbits (3-1) had a chance to reach the championship finals, leading Mills University Studies by seven points late in the second half of the semifinal game before losing by five. They almost had a repeat letdown against the host Trojans in Saturday’s game. Lonoke held a commanding 35-10 lead at halftime, but gave up 21 points to Hot Springs in the third quarter while only scoring 10. The Trojans cut the deficit as close as seven early in the fourth quarter before the ’Rabbits regained their composure for a final run.
“It was a tale of two halves for us,” Jackrabbits coach Dean Campbell said. “We played really well early, had intensity, and did everything we talk about every day. Third quarter, we’re up 25, and they got a little relaxed. We stopped guarding, started taking quick shots.
“Hot Springs didn’t quit. They could’ve easily given up, but they were able to cut it to seven on us.”
Blake Mack and Darian Young led the way offensively for Lonoke with 14 points each. Reid McKenzie added 12 points, Jamel Rankin added 11 and Zack Risner had eight points.
McKenzie, Lonoke’s senior post player, scored 10 of his points in the fourth quarter and went a perfect 6 for 6 from the free-throw line in that time.
“Reid played really well,” Campbell said. “We really didn’t go to him, but they tried to extend it so much, it left him one on one inside. People don’t expect post players to hit free throws like that, so we’re real proud of him.”
The late letdown against Mills prevented the Jack-rabbits from finishing the first full week of play unbeaten, but with important 4A-2 Conference home games against Dollarway and Southside Batesville over the course of the next week, Campbell said his group is in better shape heading into league play compared to a year ago.
“We’re defending extremely hard, and that makes me happy,” Campbell said. “We’re doing some things we were not able to do last year like guard continually, and we’ve got more people on the bench to contribute. We’re keeping up our defensive intensity, and the guys are understanding their roles and what’s expected of them. Once you get those roles defined, it helps everything else go smoother.”
Campbell also said the Hot Springs tourney served as a great tune up for conference.
“We played some teams real similar to what we’ll see in conference,” Campbell said. “We needed to see teams like Mills and Hot Springs that can get up and down the floor. It was a good tournament for us, and there were a lot of lessons to learn that I think will help us out down the road.”
Leader sportswriter
A second-half slowdown did not stop Lonoke in the big scheme of things as the Jackrabbits went on to defeat Hot Springs 72-56 in the third-place game of the Hot Springs invitational basketball tournament on Saturday.
The Jackrabbits (3-1) had a chance to reach the championship finals, leading Mills University Studies by seven points late in the second half of the semifinal game before losing by five. They almost had a repeat letdown against the host Trojans in Saturday’s game. Lonoke held a commanding 35-10 lead at halftime, but gave up 21 points to Hot Springs in the third quarter while only scoring 10. The Trojans cut the deficit as close as seven early in the fourth quarter before the ’Rabbits regained their composure for a final run.
“It was a tale of two halves for us,” Jackrabbits coach Dean Campbell said. “We played really well early, had intensity, and did everything we talk about every day. Third quarter, we’re up 25, and they got a little relaxed. We stopped guarding, started taking quick shots.
“Hot Springs didn’t quit. They could’ve easily given up, but they were able to cut it to seven on us.”
Blake Mack and Darian Young led the way offensively for Lonoke with 14 points each. Reid McKenzie added 12 points, Jamel Rankin added 11 and Zack Risner had eight points.
McKenzie, Lonoke’s senior post player, scored 10 of his points in the fourth quarter and went a perfect 6 for 6 from the free-throw line in that time.
“Reid played really well,” Campbell said. “We really didn’t go to him, but they tried to extend it so much, it left him one on one inside. People don’t expect post players to hit free throws like that, so we’re real proud of him.”
The late letdown against Mills prevented the Jack-rabbits from finishing the first full week of play unbeaten, but with important 4A-2 Conference home games against Dollarway and Southside Batesville over the course of the next week, Campbell said his group is in better shape heading into league play compared to a year ago.
“We’re defending extremely hard, and that makes me happy,” Campbell said. “We’re doing some things we were not able to do last year like guard continually, and we’ve got more people on the bench to contribute. We’re keeping up our defensive intensity, and the guys are understanding their roles and what’s expected of them. Once you get those roles defined, it helps everything else go smoother.”
Campbell also said the Hot Springs tourney served as a great tune up for conference.
“We played some teams real similar to what we’ll see in conference,” Campbell said. “We needed to see teams like Mills and Hot Springs that can get up and down the floor. It was a good tournament for us, and there were a lot of lessons to learn that I think will help us out down the road.”
SPORTS STORY >> Bielema: He’s huge success
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Leader sports editor
Jeff Long knew he needed a big hire to appease Arkansas fans, and he got it in shocking fashion. Of all the wild rumors that have circulated in the past two weeks, none were about Bret Bielema, the coach of the Wisconsin Badgers for the last seven seasons, whose appointment was confirmed Tuesday evening.
It came out of nowhere. For the past week, most believed Boise State coach Greg Petersen had finally accepted one of the many offers he’s gotten from major schools at the end of every season, and would be Arkansas’ new coach. At about noon Tuesday, news spread like wildfire that Arkansas had actually hired Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy.
Other coaches reportedly on the short list for the job ranged from Arkansas State coach Gus Malzahn to ESPN analyst John Gruden to TCU’s Gary Patterson to Washington’s Steve Sarkisian. No one ever mentioned Bielema.
Long has been under pressure since April from the crazies who felt he should’ve kept Bobby Petrino. But even those who supported his decision to fire Petrino after he hired his mistress to his football staff were beginning to grow more and more unhappy that Long had been unable to snag a big hire by now.
Many other schools fired their coaches in the last couple of weeks of the season. That meant more competition on the market, and Hog fans everywhere began to blame Long as the prospects of landing that big-name hire seemed to grow smaller by the hour.
But that was just uninformed fans’ perception. Long played this one very close to the vest and landed that big fish Hog fans were hoping for.
Of course, many fans aren’t happy with Bielema as the new head Hog. Most of those fans just aren’t yet aware of how successful he’s been at Wisconsin.
It’s true Barry Alvarez first took Wisconsin to the top of the Big Ten when he won back-to-back conference championships in the mid-90s. But Alvarez never reached that pinnacle again in his last 10 years and handpicked a then- 35-year-old Bielema to be his successor.
Bielema just got the Badgers into their third-straight Rose Bowl. Four of his seven seasons have been 10 wins or more, but this year is not one of them. It helped that undefeated Ohio State is not eligible for a bowl this season, but getting to the Rose Bowl during what was supposed to be a rebuilding year is a sign of a great coach.
Bielema emphasizes defense, which is a must after four years of bad defenses under Petrino.
Bielema’s offenses at Wisconsin have consistently been among the best in the nation, though he does it differently than the pass-happy teams like Oklahoma State and Arkansas, or the spread teams like Oregon and Boise State that have consistently been at the top of yardage and scoring statistics.
Bielema’s Wisconsin teams had crushing ground games. There are three former Bielema running backs in the NFL, and none are as good as Montee Ball, who is still at Wisconsin. There are also 12 former Wisconsin offensive linemen in the NFL.
There are some things to dislike about Bielema, but most of them are personal. He’s not all that likable, according to those near the Wisconsin program.
He’s arrogant and says things that later make him seem disingenuous. For example, when asked about former Florida and current Ohio State coach Urban Meyer’s recruiting tactics, he said, “At the Big Ten, we don’t want to be like the SEC in any way, shape or form.”
But he does, apparently, want to be part of the SEC.
Bielema also has a reputation for running up the score. That doesn’t mean continuing to score with backups on the field running the base offense.
Most famously, in 2010 while leading Indiana 76-20, Bielema, with his starters still on the field, called for a play-action pass that resulted in a 35-yard touchdown reception and an 83-20 final score. But that kind of thing doesn’t seem to upset fans anymore.
It would also be important for Arkansas fans who aren’t happy with the hire to remember how successful coaches with Big Ten backgrounds have been in the SEC. Nick Saban, Les Miles, the two most recent SEC coaches to win national championship, both have deep roots in the Big Ten.
Miles played at Michigan and was an assistant coach there before becoming head coach at Oklahoma State. He left that job to replace Saban at LSU.
Saban was head coach at Michigan State for five seasons, going an underwhelming 34-24. He finished fifth twice and sixth twice before parlaying his second-place finish into the LSU job in 2000. By comparison, Bielema is 68-24 in seven Big Ten seasons with three conference championships and one second-place finish.
The offense will continue to excite, and the defense won’t be disgraceful. Winning will soon return to The Hill.
It came out of nowhere. For the past week, most believed Boise State coach Greg Petersen had finally accepted one of the many offers he’s gotten from major schools at the end of every season, and would be Arkansas’ new coach. At about noon Tuesday, news spread like wildfire that Arkansas had actually hired Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy.
Other coaches reportedly on the short list for the job ranged from Arkansas State coach Gus Malzahn to ESPN analyst John Gruden to TCU’s Gary Patterson to Washington’s Steve Sarkisian. No one ever mentioned Bielema.
Long has been under pressure since April from the crazies who felt he should’ve kept Bobby Petrino. But even those who supported his decision to fire Petrino after he hired his mistress to his football staff were beginning to grow more and more unhappy that Long had been unable to snag a big hire by now.
Many other schools fired their coaches in the last couple of weeks of the season. That meant more competition on the market, and Hog fans everywhere began to blame Long as the prospects of landing that big-name hire seemed to grow smaller by the hour.
But that was just uninformed fans’ perception. Long played this one very close to the vest and landed that big fish Hog fans were hoping for.
Of course, many fans aren’t happy with Bielema as the new head Hog. Most of those fans just aren’t yet aware of how successful he’s been at Wisconsin.
It’s true Barry Alvarez first took Wisconsin to the top of the Big Ten when he won back-to-back conference championships in the mid-90s. But Alvarez never reached that pinnacle again in his last 10 years and handpicked a then- 35-year-old Bielema to be his successor.
Bielema just got the Badgers into their third-straight Rose Bowl. Four of his seven seasons have been 10 wins or more, but this year is not one of them. It helped that undefeated Ohio State is not eligible for a bowl this season, but getting to the Rose Bowl during what was supposed to be a rebuilding year is a sign of a great coach.
Bielema emphasizes defense, which is a must after four years of bad defenses under Petrino.
Bielema’s offenses at Wisconsin have consistently been among the best in the nation, though he does it differently than the pass-happy teams like Oklahoma State and Arkansas, or the spread teams like Oregon and Boise State that have consistently been at the top of yardage and scoring statistics.
Bielema’s Wisconsin teams had crushing ground games. There are three former Bielema running backs in the NFL, and none are as good as Montee Ball, who is still at Wisconsin. There are also 12 former Wisconsin offensive linemen in the NFL.
There are some things to dislike about Bielema, but most of them are personal. He’s not all that likable, according to those near the Wisconsin program.
He’s arrogant and says things that later make him seem disingenuous. For example, when asked about former Florida and current Ohio State coach Urban Meyer’s recruiting tactics, he said, “At the Big Ten, we don’t want to be like the SEC in any way, shape or form.”
But he does, apparently, want to be part of the SEC.
Bielema also has a reputation for running up the score. That doesn’t mean continuing to score with backups on the field running the base offense.
Most famously, in 2010 while leading Indiana 76-20, Bielema, with his starters still on the field, called for a play-action pass that resulted in a 35-yard touchdown reception and an 83-20 final score. But that kind of thing doesn’t seem to upset fans anymore.
It would also be important for Arkansas fans who aren’t happy with the hire to remember how successful coaches with Big Ten backgrounds have been in the SEC. Nick Saban, Les Miles, the two most recent SEC coaches to win national championship, both have deep roots in the Big Ten.
Miles played at Michigan and was an assistant coach there before becoming head coach at Oklahoma State. He left that job to replace Saban at LSU.
Saban was head coach at Michigan State for five seasons, going an underwhelming 34-24. He finished fifth twice and sixth twice before parlaying his second-place finish into the LSU job in 2000. By comparison, Bielema is 68-24 in seven Big Ten seasons with three conference championships and one second-place finish.
The offense will continue to excite, and the defense won’t be disgraceful. Winning will soon return to The Hill.
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