By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Despite televised reports of drought in Prairie County, the moisture content of the soil is just fine next door in Lonoke County, according to Lonoke County Extension Service Chief Jeff Welch.
“Right now we’re in good shape on wheat,” Welch said Monday. “We need to have it tillering (branching off to make more than one wheat head),” Welch said. “Too much water, it wouldn’t tiller.
“Too much water inhibits tiller formation,” Welch said. Each tiller equals one head. The more tillers on one plant, the better off.
One head per square foot equals a bushel per acre, Welch said. “We can get anywhere from two or three to eight or nine.”
Arkansas wheat yields over the last 20 years have nearly doubled for some producers in some fields to 80 bushels per acre or more.
Welch said the wheat plants will shut down when the cold weather washes over the state this week, but they will begin tillering again after a couple of warm days.
“We’re hopeful we’ll have a good crop this year,” he said. “We have a good price.”
While the rainfall is beneficial to the wheat crop, which is already in the ground, farmers will need some rain come planting time. “We’ll plant corn the last week of March, and rice. We’ll start planning soybeans around April 10 and start cotton around April 25 to 30,” he said.
We want to have some moisture in our soils, but not too much. If it gets too dry, we’ll have to wait on planting, and if it gets too late, yields will be reduced, he said.
Most Lonoke County farmers irrigate most of their fields, so irrigation for those crops, although expensive, is an option.
“If you look at the White River, it’s down low,” he said.
Welch said the eventual completion of the $614 million Bayou Meto irrigation, flood- control and wildlife-habitat management program, an idea coming to fruition 50 years after Congress first authorized it, would benefit nearly all county farmers east of Lonoke.
The Bayou Meto Basin Project includes portions of Lonoke, Jefferson, Prairie, Arkansas and Pulaski counties. The project area encompasses 765,745 acres, of which 369,874 acres are irrigated and 22,942 acres are commercial fishponds.
Welch said the extension service’s Lonoke County corn and cotton-production meeting is set for 9 a.m., Feb. 14, at Coy City Hall.
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
TOP STORY >> Aldermen might raise trash rates
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville’s City Council meeting set for 7 p.m. Thursday could be one of the longer ones in recent history.
Not only is the mayor going to deliver his state-of- the-city report, the council will also vote on raising garbage rates and moving toward automation. Aldermen will also set a public hearing to discuss acquiring land near Hwy. 161 and I-440 for the state fair and other developments. The city plans to acquire the land through its use of condemnation and eminent domain.
If the city takes the land through this process, then the court system will determine what is fair-market value and the city will have to make arrangements to pay that amount.
The city will unveil its complete plans for acquiring the land at the public hearing.
But at the council meeting, the aldermen will vote on an ordinance that will increase the basic monthly charge from $11 to $17 for residential service and increase the commercial rate to $26 a month.
The city will go from twice- a-week pickup to once-a-week and will move to automate its services with bigger trash cans.
The cost of automating will run the city about $1 million as new trucks will need to be purchased and thousands of 96-gallon garbage containers will have to be purchased and placed at each home or business. The first time a resident needs to replace one of the new containers, it will be at no charge, but after that there will be a $60 fee.
The city will continue to pickup recyclables—aluminum, cardboard, newspapers and plastics—provided they are all separated and placed in approved recyclable containers.
The city will also pickup yard waste—grass clippings, leaves, small limbs—as long as they are placed curbside unobstructed so the trucks can get in and pick up the material.
The rate increase and other changes are needed, according to the mayor and the ordinance, because the sanitation department has not had an increase in 11 years and is operating $400,000 in the red and Jacksonville can no longer afford to continue to subsidize the service to that point.
If the ordinance is approved Thursday, the new rates will start “as soon as practical.” It will take about six months to make the changeover to automated service.
TOP STORY >> Vasquez offers his plan on school construction
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
The Pulaski County Special School District should build one new high school, one new middle school, one new elementary school and one primary school—starting as early as this summer—for all Jacksonville and north Pulaski County students. That’s what board president Bill Vasquez told about 85 people at a facilities meeting Monday night at the high school auditorium.
The fourth and final public meeting on Jacksonville/north Pulaski County school facilities is slated for 6 p.m. Thursday at North Pulaski High School, with district officials due to make recommendations at the regular Feb. 8 board meeting.
A committee of residents, formed at a previous facilities meeting sponsored by the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, has proposed a more modest plan, which would build a new elementary school on Little Rock Air Force Base—but outside the fence—for students in the Tolleson and Arnold Drive attendance zones, and also a new Jacksonville elementary school and Jacksonville middle school at the site currently occupied by the Jacksonville Middle School. Those two might be wings flanking an administration, kitchen and mechanicals building, in one scenario.
“Right now if you live within two blocks of Jacksonville Elementary School, you may (be assigned) to one of four elementary schools for purposes of racial balance,” said Vasquez.
He called and organized the meeting, arranged for the school chorus and wind symphony to perform, invited the students to stay and comment, and ran the meeting, promoting his less-is-more idea to fix failing facilities and education. Fewer schools are better, that is.
STUDENTS FIND VOICE
Several students spoke up, some reminding the adults that good facilities alone do not a good school make. Others said they were picked on or not challenged in class.
“I don’t feel safe or comfortable all the time,” said one female student. “We get knocked down and shut down. People (at this meeting) care, but tomorrow will be the same.”
“I’m moved by the power of student voices,” Superintendent Charles Hopson said. “Do not let any adult in this building break your spirit or your will.”
“Jacksonville High means the world to me,” said wind symphony member Jessica Alvarado. “I have dreams. I don’t want to be held down. Please help us. We have aspirations.”
The students, most or all of whom were in the band or choir, said they were bullied at school and don’t always feel safe.
“We get called ‘fag’ or ‘lesbian,’” they said. “Or ‘beaner,’” said Alvarado.
Another student said that even in her advanced-placement classes she is often bored and needs teachers who will challenge her.
BROWN CONFIRMS BELIEFS
“The reason Jacksonville High School did not receive support is that the previous superintendents did not make Jacksonville a priority,” according to Karl Brown, director on special assignment to the high school. “They gave nothing but lip service, because ‘Jacksonville’s going to pull out (form its own district),’” Brown quoted them as saying in private.
“Now you have a superintendent who has made Jacksonville a priority,” Brown said.
That Jacksonville wasn’t getting its fair share didn’t surprise residents. Jacksonville High School seniors last school year found that area schools received only about 2 percent ($3.26 million) of $181.4 million allocated for new school construction and renovations from 2000 through 2011.
Former school board president Tim Clark pushed through an expensive new $60 million high school for his Maumelle constituents and Sherwood board member Charlie Wood got a $35 million middle school, while Jacksonville middle school still lacks doors on the boys restroom stalls, according to one parent.
Vasquez encouraged those at the meeting to contact their Jacksonville-area school board members—himself, Gwen Williams of McAlmont and Tom Stuthard, who represents the north Pulaski County area and much of Jacksonville west of 67/167.
Vasquez spoke from the stage as Hopson and operations chief Derek Scott, seated below in the front row, answered the occasional question directed to them by audience members.
Vasquez said that by combining the middle and high schools, students could have two or three times the number of elective choices they have currently and the district could be run much more efficiently.
WITHERING AWAY
The schools are withering away, he said. When his wife graduated from Jacksonville in 1975, there were about 600 seniors. Last year, the graduating class was about 150, he said.
Some of the change was beyond the control of the community—the local area and water were contaminated with dioxin from the Vertac plant, the Berlin Wall came down and the Air Force base downsized, and desegregation rulings and agreements took even more control out of local hands.
“Things are getting better,” he said. “We brought in Hopson and Scott.”
Vasquez said the district could pay for a $120 million building program by saving $10 million in annual costs.
He said PCSSD has $33 million intended to pay off construction bonds, but converts two-thirds of that money to cover salaries, maintenance and operations.
He called for a contest to come up with a new mascot and new school colors for a combined Jacksonville/North Pulaski high school.
“We can literally change the face of our city,” he said. Students could be graduating with one or two years of college credit already under their belts like some in Conway do. They can be prepared for college or careers in the building trades.
“We have a (former) professor of nanotechnology teaching regular biology here,” he said. “We have brainpower in the school.”
“In 1975, Jacksonville was the Maumelle of Pulaski County,” he said, the area with the rapid growth.
Board members Gloria Lawrence, Williams, Mildred Tatum and briefly Stuthard attended the meeting.
Mayor Gary Fletcher, several city council members, state Rep. Mark Perry and former board members Pat O’Brien and Danny Gililland attended, with Fletcher and O’Brien speaking.
Hopson said when he first came to the district, he visited Jacksonville schools and “I was appalled,” he said.
Hopson promised he was committed to fixing facilities and education in Jacksonville as well as the rest of the district.
“I’m not asking for your trust,” he said. “I have to earn your trust.”
O’Brien, the former Pulaski County clerk and school board member, said he was a Jacksonville High School graduate and resident. “I love the attitude and vigor,” said O’Brien of efforts currently under way, “but I’ve heard it for 23 years. Your plans are great but we’ve heard it all before.”
He said fewer and fewer people have come over the years to meetings to fix problems. If nothing is done, “sooner or later nobody will come to the meetings.”
“I won’t be part of a losing team,” said Scott. “I don’t get paid well enough to fail.”
“If we don’t take immediate action, then we will be dissolved,” said Hopson.
Fletcher told students not to be bullied, saying he had been a skinny, buck-toothed kid at Jacksonville many years previously. “It can get you down, or make you tough.”
“I’m committed to (Hopson),” Fletcher said. “We want our own district, but our kids can’t wait.”
Leader senior staff writer
The Pulaski County Special School District should build one new high school, one new middle school, one new elementary school and one primary school—starting as early as this summer—for all Jacksonville and north Pulaski County students. That’s what board president Bill Vasquez told about 85 people at a facilities meeting Monday night at the high school auditorium.
The fourth and final public meeting on Jacksonville/north Pulaski County school facilities is slated for 6 p.m. Thursday at North Pulaski High School, with district officials due to make recommendations at the regular Feb. 8 board meeting.
A committee of residents, formed at a previous facilities meeting sponsored by the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, has proposed a more modest plan, which would build a new elementary school on Little Rock Air Force Base—but outside the fence—for students in the Tolleson and Arnold Drive attendance zones, and also a new Jacksonville elementary school and Jacksonville middle school at the site currently occupied by the Jacksonville Middle School. Those two might be wings flanking an administration, kitchen and mechanicals building, in one scenario.
“Right now if you live within two blocks of Jacksonville Elementary School, you may (be assigned) to one of four elementary schools for purposes of racial balance,” said Vasquez.
He called and organized the meeting, arranged for the school chorus and wind symphony to perform, invited the students to stay and comment, and ran the meeting, promoting his less-is-more idea to fix failing facilities and education. Fewer schools are better, that is.
STUDENTS FIND VOICE
Several students spoke up, some reminding the adults that good facilities alone do not a good school make. Others said they were picked on or not challenged in class.
“I don’t feel safe or comfortable all the time,” said one female student. “We get knocked down and shut down. People (at this meeting) care, but tomorrow will be the same.”
“I’m moved by the power of student voices,” Superintendent Charles Hopson said. “Do not let any adult in this building break your spirit or your will.”
“Jacksonville High means the world to me,” said wind symphony member Jessica Alvarado. “I have dreams. I don’t want to be held down. Please help us. We have aspirations.”
The students, most or all of whom were in the band or choir, said they were bullied at school and don’t always feel safe.
“We get called ‘fag’ or ‘lesbian,’” they said. “Or ‘beaner,’” said Alvarado.
Another student said that even in her advanced-placement classes she is often bored and needs teachers who will challenge her.
BROWN CONFIRMS BELIEFS
“The reason Jacksonville High School did not receive support is that the previous superintendents did not make Jacksonville a priority,” according to Karl Brown, director on special assignment to the high school. “They gave nothing but lip service, because ‘Jacksonville’s going to pull out (form its own district),’” Brown quoted them as saying in private.
“Now you have a superintendent who has made Jacksonville a priority,” Brown said.
That Jacksonville wasn’t getting its fair share didn’t surprise residents. Jacksonville High School seniors last school year found that area schools received only about 2 percent ($3.26 million) of $181.4 million allocated for new school construction and renovations from 2000 through 2011.
Former school board president Tim Clark pushed through an expensive new $60 million high school for his Maumelle constituents and Sherwood board member Charlie Wood got a $35 million middle school, while Jacksonville middle school still lacks doors on the boys restroom stalls, according to one parent.
Vasquez encouraged those at the meeting to contact their Jacksonville-area school board members—himself, Gwen Williams of McAlmont and Tom Stuthard, who represents the north Pulaski County area and much of Jacksonville west of 67/167.
Vasquez spoke from the stage as Hopson and operations chief Derek Scott, seated below in the front row, answered the occasional question directed to them by audience members.
Vasquez said that by combining the middle and high schools, students could have two or three times the number of elective choices they have currently and the district could be run much more efficiently.
WITHERING AWAY
The schools are withering away, he said. When his wife graduated from Jacksonville in 1975, there were about 600 seniors. Last year, the graduating class was about 150, he said.
Some of the change was beyond the control of the community—the local area and water were contaminated with dioxin from the Vertac plant, the Berlin Wall came down and the Air Force base downsized, and desegregation rulings and agreements took even more control out of local hands.
“Things are getting better,” he said. “We brought in Hopson and Scott.”
Vasquez said the district could pay for a $120 million building program by saving $10 million in annual costs.
He said PCSSD has $33 million intended to pay off construction bonds, but converts two-thirds of that money to cover salaries, maintenance and operations.
He called for a contest to come up with a new mascot and new school colors for a combined Jacksonville/North Pulaski high school.
“We can literally change the face of our city,” he said. Students could be graduating with one or two years of college credit already under their belts like some in Conway do. They can be prepared for college or careers in the building trades.
“We have a (former) professor of nanotechnology teaching regular biology here,” he said. “We have brainpower in the school.”
“In 1975, Jacksonville was the Maumelle of Pulaski County,” he said, the area with the rapid growth.
Board members Gloria Lawrence, Williams, Mildred Tatum and briefly Stuthard attended the meeting.
Mayor Gary Fletcher, several city council members, state Rep. Mark Perry and former board members Pat O’Brien and Danny Gililland attended, with Fletcher and O’Brien speaking.
Hopson said when he first came to the district, he visited Jacksonville schools and “I was appalled,” he said.
Hopson promised he was committed to fixing facilities and education in Jacksonville as well as the rest of the district.
“I’m not asking for your trust,” he said. “I have to earn your trust.”
O’Brien, the former Pulaski County clerk and school board member, said he was a Jacksonville High School graduate and resident. “I love the attitude and vigor,” said O’Brien of efforts currently under way, “but I’ve heard it for 23 years. Your plans are great but we’ve heard it all before.”
He said fewer and fewer people have come over the years to meetings to fix problems. If nothing is done, “sooner or later nobody will come to the meetings.”
“I won’t be part of a losing team,” said Scott. “I don’t get paid well enough to fail.”
“If we don’t take immediate action, then we will be dissolved,” said Hopson.
Fletcher told students not to be bullied, saying he had been a skinny, buck-toothed kid at Jacksonville many years previously. “It can get you down, or make you tough.”
“I’m committed to (Hopson),” Fletcher said. “We want our own district, but our kids can’t wait.”
TOP STORY >> Joint-education center dedicated
By GARRICK FELDMAN
Leader executive editor
Gov. Mike Beebe presided over the dedication of the new joint-education center at Little Rock Air Force Base on Tuesday, calling it “pretty spectacular” and “a manifestation of the special relationship between the air base and the community.”
It is the first joint-education center built in cooperation with the military and a community and has been praised by military officials across the country.
The $14.8 million project was funded by the Air Force and a city sales tax that raised $5 million. Seven colleges and universities offer day and night classes to the military and civilians.
“I don’t know why anyone is surprised this is the first facility of its kind in the U.S.,” Beebe said. “The Air Force has marveled at the unique nature of the relationship between the community and the air base.”
“It makes you appreciate how special this place is,” said Beebe, who has emphasized education and job creation as his top priorities.
He said all of Arkansas should salute the local and military leadership, present and past, that made the center possible.
“This helps in our mission to spread higher education,” he told The Leader afterward, stressing his commitment to getting more Arkansans into college classrooms.
The 46,500-square-foot campus is at the corner of Vandenberg Boulevard and John Harden Drive near the front gate. It offers easy access to civilians, who have found it more difficult to take college courses on the air base since 9/11.
The new center has state-of-the-art classrooms and offices for several colleges and universities that offer classes in a wide variety of degree programs.
The governor praised the men and women at the base “who know their mission. They do it in such an exemplary fashion that when BRAC (Base Closure and Realignment Commission) starts, we feel confident because of the cooperation between Jacksonville and the base,” Beebe said.
He said the joint-education center will allow airmen to advance their education and added that higher education is key to economic development in Arkansas.
Col. Mike Minihan, commander of the 19th Airlift Wing, and Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher echoed the governor’s sentiments and praised their predecessors who did the groundwork for the decade-long project.
There was praise for retired Gen. Paul Fletcher, a former wing commander at the base, Mayor Tommy Swaim and former Jacksonville Rep. Mike Wilson. They worked with former Cong. Vic Snyder, who helped arrange Pentagon funding for the project.
Minihan said, “I brag about this community and state,” and added that the new campus shows that the community is committed to excellence in education.
He pointed to the U.S. Education Department’s Blue Ribbon designation for Arnold Drive Elementary School on the base for being one of the best elementary schools in the state. He also praised plans for a charter middle school on base.
“This community does more than talk,” Minihan said. “This is one chapter in the 50-year benchmark of support for the base.”
More than half a century ago, central Arkansas leaders raised $1 million for the land that was donated to the Air Force to build the base. Among the donors were Mike Wilson’s father, Kenneth Pat Wilson, and Bart Gray Sr., whose son, Thad, also attended the ceremony.
Minihan earlier presented Mike Wilson with the Cornerstone Award at the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council luncheon.
Mayor Fletcher also alluded to local support for the base and said, “It was fitting the center is on top of a hill for everyone to see the importance of education.”
The campus reflects “the “American spirit to succeed,” he added.
Beebe echoed similar sentiments after the ceremony.
“This is pretty spectacular,” Beebe said as he toured the education center.
He was impressed with the up-to-date equipment and the variety of courses offered. He said when he went to college, “they threw a catalogue of classes at you. They make it more relevant today.”
Asked if he’d like an education center in more communities, Beebe said he would, again pointing to the need for Arkansans to go to college and get better jobs.
The programs on campus range from associate’s degrees to master’s degrees.
Embry Riddle University has an aviation and aeronautical program. Southern Illinois University-Carbondale has an industrial technology program. Park University teaches criminal justice, computer science, psychology and management programs, ASU-Beebe has classes leading to an associate’s degree in liberal arts and an associate’s of science degree in health science. It also teaches upholstery classes.
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has an operations-management master’s program, and Webster University offers a master’s in business administration and other graduate programs.
Contractors for the project included W.G. Yates and Sons of Philadelphia, Miss., Cromwell Architects and Garver Engineers of Little Rock.
Leader executive editor
Gov. Mike Beebe presided over the dedication of the new joint-education center at Little Rock Air Force Base on Tuesday, calling it “pretty spectacular” and “a manifestation of the special relationship between the air base and the community.”
It is the first joint-education center built in cooperation with the military and a community and has been praised by military officials across the country.
The $14.8 million project was funded by the Air Force and a city sales tax that raised $5 million. Seven colleges and universities offer day and night classes to the military and civilians.
“I don’t know why anyone is surprised this is the first facility of its kind in the U.S.,” Beebe said. “The Air Force has marveled at the unique nature of the relationship between the community and the air base.”
“It makes you appreciate how special this place is,” said Beebe, who has emphasized education and job creation as his top priorities.
He said all of Arkansas should salute the local and military leadership, present and past, that made the center possible.
“This helps in our mission to spread higher education,” he told The Leader afterward, stressing his commitment to getting more Arkansans into college classrooms.
The 46,500-square-foot campus is at the corner of Vandenberg Boulevard and John Harden Drive near the front gate. It offers easy access to civilians, who have found it more difficult to take college courses on the air base since 9/11.
The new center has state-of-the-art classrooms and offices for several colleges and universities that offer classes in a wide variety of degree programs.
The governor praised the men and women at the base “who know their mission. They do it in such an exemplary fashion that when BRAC (Base Closure and Realignment Commission) starts, we feel confident because of the cooperation between Jacksonville and the base,” Beebe said.
He said the joint-education center will allow airmen to advance their education and added that higher education is key to economic development in Arkansas.
Col. Mike Minihan, commander of the 19th Airlift Wing, and Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher echoed the governor’s sentiments and praised their predecessors who did the groundwork for the decade-long project.
There was praise for retired Gen. Paul Fletcher, a former wing commander at the base, Mayor Tommy Swaim and former Jacksonville Rep. Mike Wilson. They worked with former Cong. Vic Snyder, who helped arrange Pentagon funding for the project.
Minihan said, “I brag about this community and state,” and added that the new campus shows that the community is committed to excellence in education.
He pointed to the U.S. Education Department’s Blue Ribbon designation for Arnold Drive Elementary School on the base for being one of the best elementary schools in the state. He also praised plans for a charter middle school on base.
“This community does more than talk,” Minihan said. “This is one chapter in the 50-year benchmark of support for the base.”
More than half a century ago, central Arkansas leaders raised $1 million for the land that was donated to the Air Force to build the base. Among the donors were Mike Wilson’s father, Kenneth Pat Wilson, and Bart Gray Sr., whose son, Thad, also attended the ceremony.
Minihan earlier presented Mike Wilson with the Cornerstone Award at the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council luncheon.
Mayor Fletcher also alluded to local support for the base and said, “It was fitting the center is on top of a hill for everyone to see the importance of education.”
The campus reflects “the “American spirit to succeed,” he added.
Beebe echoed similar sentiments after the ceremony.
“This is pretty spectacular,” Beebe said as he toured the education center.
He was impressed with the up-to-date equipment and the variety of courses offered. He said when he went to college, “they threw a catalogue of classes at you. They make it more relevant today.”
Asked if he’d like an education center in more communities, Beebe said he would, again pointing to the need for Arkansans to go to college and get better jobs.
The programs on campus range from associate’s degrees to master’s degrees.
Embry Riddle University has an aviation and aeronautical program. Southern Illinois University-Carbondale has an industrial technology program. Park University teaches criminal justice, computer science, psychology and management programs, ASU-Beebe has classes leading to an associate’s degree in liberal arts and an associate’s of science degree in health science. It also teaches upholstery classes.
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has an operations-management master’s program, and Webster University offers a master’s in business administration and other graduate programs.
Contractors for the project included W.G. Yates and Sons of Philadelphia, Miss., Cromwell Architects and Garver Engineers of Little Rock.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
SPORTS >> Russellville tips Cabot, makes overtime shots
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
The Cabot girls had enough in the tank to force overtime but ran out of gas in the extra period as Russellville took a 58-55, 7A-Central Conference victory at Cabot on Friday night.
The Lady Panthers never led in the extra period, though they tied it once and got within 52-51 when Kaki Thomas converted a three-point play with 1:52 left. Cabot was within 55-53 after Thomas made a layup with 46 seconds left and was within 57-55 after Thomas got a rebound and putback with under a minute remaining.
But Thomas committed her fifth foul on Jaimie Long, who made one free throw with 16 seconds left and Cabot could only manage an off-balance shot by Jaylin Bridges that Susan Taylor partially blocked as time ran out.
“We ran a couple of set plays that we executed on pretty well,” Cabot assistant Charles Ruple said. “Other times when we didn’t have them set, we played very poorly.”
Russellville led 46-44 when Long made a free throw with 23.7 seconds left in regulation. Cabot’s Sydney Wacker rebounded the missed second shot and the Lady Panthers called time out to set up the inbounds play.
Laci Boyett got a long inbounds pass to Kaki Thomas and Thomas made a nine-footer from the left side to tie it.
“This is a tough place to play,” Russellville coach Steve Wiedower said. “Cabot has got an excellent team. We didn’t play a very pretty game tonight, especially on the offensive end, but we did just enough. That’s what I was telling our girls — sometimes that’s a sign of good things to come.”
Russellville led 41-33 after an inside shot by Natalie Shockey at the start of the fourth quarter, but Eliot Taylor made a reverse layup to start an 8-2 Cabot run that pulled the Lady Panthers within 43-41.
Bridges made a three-pointer from the right elbow to cut it to 45-44 with just over 30 seconds to go in regulation and Thomas fouled Long, leading to the missed second free throw that in turn led to Cabot’s tying play.
“They threw it long there and they got a screen and the girl made a good shot,” Wiedower said of Thomas’ basket that forced overtime. “We were trying to pressure them. We wanted them to throw it in front of us but they got it behind us.”
Russellville (17-2, 5-1) had a chance to win it in regulation but made just 5 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter. The Lady Cyclones made 8 of 13 free throws in overtime.
“Free throws were big in overtime,” Wiedower said. “During regulation we could have put it away with some free throws but we hung in there and they did what they needed to go to get a win.”
Ruple was unhappy with Cabot’s shot selection in the extra period.
“I thought two really terrible threes when we were two down, it made no sense at all,” Ruple said. “But that’s what happens against good teams. There’s a lot of sound and a lot of noise and you’ve got to trust those kids you have on the floor.”
It didn’t help Cabot that Wacker, Eliot Taylor, Thomas and Wolff all fouled out.
“Foul trouble,” Ruple said. “Our best player was sitting on the bench most of the game. They scored three field goals in the last quarter and overtime.”
Thomas led Cabot with 16 points, Wolff scored 14 and Taylor had 10.
Kaylie Wiedower led Russellville with 16 points, Jaimie Long scored 11 and Mary Carol Davis and Susan Taylor each scored 10.
Cabot was playing host to Mt. St. Mary on Tuesday night and will have another home game against Conway on Friday before beginning a road swing that includes stops at Mt. St. Mary and 7A-Central power North Little Rock.
Leader sports editor
The Cabot girls had enough in the tank to force overtime but ran out of gas in the extra period as Russellville took a 58-55, 7A-Central Conference victory at Cabot on Friday night.
The Lady Panthers never led in the extra period, though they tied it once and got within 52-51 when Kaki Thomas converted a three-point play with 1:52 left. Cabot was within 55-53 after Thomas made a layup with 46 seconds left and was within 57-55 after Thomas got a rebound and putback with under a minute remaining.
But Thomas committed her fifth foul on Jaimie Long, who made one free throw with 16 seconds left and Cabot could only manage an off-balance shot by Jaylin Bridges that Susan Taylor partially blocked as time ran out.
“We ran a couple of set plays that we executed on pretty well,” Cabot assistant Charles Ruple said. “Other times when we didn’t have them set, we played very poorly.”
Russellville led 46-44 when Long made a free throw with 23.7 seconds left in regulation. Cabot’s Sydney Wacker rebounded the missed second shot and the Lady Panthers called time out to set up the inbounds play.
Laci Boyett got a long inbounds pass to Kaki Thomas and Thomas made a nine-footer from the left side to tie it.
“This is a tough place to play,” Russellville coach Steve Wiedower said. “Cabot has got an excellent team. We didn’t play a very pretty game tonight, especially on the offensive end, but we did just enough. That’s what I was telling our girls — sometimes that’s a sign of good things to come.”
Russellville led 41-33 after an inside shot by Natalie Shockey at the start of the fourth quarter, but Eliot Taylor made a reverse layup to start an 8-2 Cabot run that pulled the Lady Panthers within 43-41.
Bridges made a three-pointer from the right elbow to cut it to 45-44 with just over 30 seconds to go in regulation and Thomas fouled Long, leading to the missed second free throw that in turn led to Cabot’s tying play.
“They threw it long there and they got a screen and the girl made a good shot,” Wiedower said of Thomas’ basket that forced overtime. “We were trying to pressure them. We wanted them to throw it in front of us but they got it behind us.”
Russellville (17-2, 5-1) had a chance to win it in regulation but made just 5 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter. The Lady Cyclones made 8 of 13 free throws in overtime.
“Free throws were big in overtime,” Wiedower said. “During regulation we could have put it away with some free throws but we hung in there and they did what they needed to go to get a win.”
Ruple was unhappy with Cabot’s shot selection in the extra period.
“I thought two really terrible threes when we were two down, it made no sense at all,” Ruple said. “But that’s what happens against good teams. There’s a lot of sound and a lot of noise and you’ve got to trust those kids you have on the floor.”
It didn’t help Cabot that Wacker, Eliot Taylor, Thomas and Wolff all fouled out.
“Foul trouble,” Ruple said. “Our best player was sitting on the bench most of the game. They scored three field goals in the last quarter and overtime.”
Thomas led Cabot with 16 points, Wolff scored 14 and Taylor had 10.
Kaylie Wiedower led Russellville with 16 points, Jaimie Long scored 11 and Mary Carol Davis and Susan Taylor each scored 10.
Cabot was playing host to Mt. St. Mary on Tuesday night and will have another home game against Conway on Friday before beginning a road swing that includes stops at Mt. St. Mary and 7A-Central power North Little Rock.
SPORTS >> Bears’defense buries Eagles
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
An off-balance start did not prevent Sylvan Hills from controlling every minute of its 70-38, 5A-Southeast Conference battle with Crossett at Sylvan Hills on Friday.
The Bears (15-3, 6-0) outscored the Eagles 20-10 in the first quarter despite spotty shooting, and held that margin through most of the next period before paralyzing their foes with tougher defense in the second half.
Man-to-man pressure began to take its toll on the Eagles in the third quarter as they scored just 12 points in the entire second half.
“When you’re under that man-to-man pressure for that long, you wear down,” Sylvan Hills coach Kevin Davis said. “A couple of shots that fell early didn’t fall late. So that’s what you see typically in a man-to-man game in the fourth quarter.
“These guys do what they do, and it took just a little to get on track.”
The game started an hour earlier than most home games as a travel courtesy to Crossett (4-9, 0-6).
Junior guard Jacob Gates provided the early spark for the Bears, who began to build a solid lead late in the first quarter. Gates made a three-point basket with 2:06 left in the first to give Sylvan Hills a 13-6 lead, and made two free throws with one minute left to make it 18-10.
“That’s what Jacob does; that’s his strong suit,” Davis said. “He can really come in and energize a ballgame.”
The Bears made close to 50 percent of their three-pointers in the opening quarter, with the shots spread among four players.
Trey Smith made a three-pointer to start the game, and point guard Dion Patton made the first of his 10 points on a three-pointer with 5:01 left in the quarter to give Sylvan Hills an 8-2 lead.
Senior guard Fred Washington extended the Bears’ lead to 16-8 when he hit a three-pointer with 1:25 left in the first quarter.
Prized major-college recruit Archie Goodwin went scoreless the first four minutes and sat out the remainder of the first quarter with Gates on the floor. Goodwin eventually went on to lead the Bears with 18 points, including a pair of show-stopping dunks in the last four minutes of the game.
“We came in, it was an early start — things were just a little bit off normal,” Davis said. “It might have had a little to do with the sluggish start. Then, once they started getting closer to the time they’re used to playing, they played a lot better.”
With Goodwin struggling early, the supporting cast did its job with 14 points from Smith, including three, three-pointers, 10 points for Patton, nine for post player Devin Pearson, eight for Gates and seven for forward Larry Ziegler.
It was the Bears’ most balanced scoring since the start of conference play.
“That’s what you want,” Davis said. “You like it when Archie does what he can do, but then when guys come off the bench and contribute the way they did tonight, and that’s what we know these guys can do.
“We’re trying to build that consistency, and that’s a credit to them to keep that consistent effort and consistent scoring going.”
The fourth quarter also started shakily for Goodwin, who missed a dunk attempt and ended up sliding across the baseline on his back.
He settled for a lay-in on his next breakaway, but finally gave the capacity crowd the dunk it had waited to see with 4:38 left to play.
Smith had just triggered the sportsmanship mercy rule, in which the clock runs continuously, with a basket that made it 64-34 before Goodwin cut loose on two straight dunks.
His second was unassisted with a steal in the backcourt. There was no chance of a Crossett defender catching him, and the home crowd was on its feet in anticipation of the reverse dunk that got the stands rocking.
Smith hit back-to-back three-pointers to start the fourth quarter, and Patton broke free on a steal he converted into a layup to give Sylvan Hills a 60-34 lead.
Two free throws by Goodwin inched the Bears closer to the continuous clock with 5:07 left, and Gates ended the game with a free throw after time had expired.
Leader sportswriter
An off-balance start did not prevent Sylvan Hills from controlling every minute of its 70-38, 5A-Southeast Conference battle with Crossett at Sylvan Hills on Friday.
The Bears (15-3, 6-0) outscored the Eagles 20-10 in the first quarter despite spotty shooting, and held that margin through most of the next period before paralyzing their foes with tougher defense in the second half.
Man-to-man pressure began to take its toll on the Eagles in the third quarter as they scored just 12 points in the entire second half.
“When you’re under that man-to-man pressure for that long, you wear down,” Sylvan Hills coach Kevin Davis said. “A couple of shots that fell early didn’t fall late. So that’s what you see typically in a man-to-man game in the fourth quarter.
“These guys do what they do, and it took just a little to get on track.”
The game started an hour earlier than most home games as a travel courtesy to Crossett (4-9, 0-6).
Junior guard Jacob Gates provided the early spark for the Bears, who began to build a solid lead late in the first quarter. Gates made a three-point basket with 2:06 left in the first to give Sylvan Hills a 13-6 lead, and made two free throws with one minute left to make it 18-10.
“That’s what Jacob does; that’s his strong suit,” Davis said. “He can really come in and energize a ballgame.”
The Bears made close to 50 percent of their three-pointers in the opening quarter, with the shots spread among four players.
Trey Smith made a three-pointer to start the game, and point guard Dion Patton made the first of his 10 points on a three-pointer with 5:01 left in the quarter to give Sylvan Hills an 8-2 lead.
Senior guard Fred Washington extended the Bears’ lead to 16-8 when he hit a three-pointer with 1:25 left in the first quarter.
Prized major-college recruit Archie Goodwin went scoreless the first four minutes and sat out the remainder of the first quarter with Gates on the floor. Goodwin eventually went on to lead the Bears with 18 points, including a pair of show-stopping dunks in the last four minutes of the game.
“We came in, it was an early start — things were just a little bit off normal,” Davis said. “It might have had a little to do with the sluggish start. Then, once they started getting closer to the time they’re used to playing, they played a lot better.”
With Goodwin struggling early, the supporting cast did its job with 14 points from Smith, including three, three-pointers, 10 points for Patton, nine for post player Devin Pearson, eight for Gates and seven for forward Larry Ziegler.
It was the Bears’ most balanced scoring since the start of conference play.
“That’s what you want,” Davis said. “You like it when Archie does what he can do, but then when guys come off the bench and contribute the way they did tonight, and that’s what we know these guys can do.
“We’re trying to build that consistency, and that’s a credit to them to keep that consistent effort and consistent scoring going.”
The fourth quarter also started shakily for Goodwin, who missed a dunk attempt and ended up sliding across the baseline on his back.
He settled for a lay-in on his next breakaway, but finally gave the capacity crowd the dunk it had waited to see with 4:38 left to play.
Smith had just triggered the sportsmanship mercy rule, in which the clock runs continuously, with a basket that made it 64-34 before Goodwin cut loose on two straight dunks.
His second was unassisted with a steal in the backcourt. There was no chance of a Crossett defender catching him, and the home crowd was on its feet in anticipation of the reverse dunk that got the stands rocking.
Smith hit back-to-back three-pointers to start the fourth quarter, and Patton broke free on a steal he converted into a layup to give Sylvan Hills a 60-34 lead.
Two free throws by Goodwin inched the Bears closer to the continuous clock with 5:07 left, and Gates ended the game with a free throw after time had expired.
SPORTS >> Cyclones fade as Panthers prevail
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
Every now and then a moment takes place to make Cabot coach Jerry Bridges realize he will miss the Panthers’ little old gym.
Friday was one of those times.
Before a heartily supportive student section, Cabot pulled away from Russellville for a 57-41, 7A-Central Conference victory.
It was the kind of night to make a coach nostalgic for his cramped, home floor, even as a sparkling new facility is going up next door on the Cabot High School campus.
“We’ve just got a great student body; it’s fun to play here,” Bridges said. “I’m going to miss this little thing. It’s a fun place.”
While Bridges may miss Cabot’s gym when the new one opens in October, it was misses in general that helped the Panthers pull away from the Cyclones after the game was tied 32-32 late in the third quarter.
Russellville’s three-pointers wouldn’t fall and Cabot made itself at home as the Panthers were in position to grab most of the long rebounds and limit the Cyclones to one-shot possessions while outscoring Russellville 21-9 in the final period.
“They didn’t miss many shots,” Russellville coach Joe Sitkowski said. “They were getting layups, everything else, and we’re not getting many defensive rebounds. When you miss shots on the other end there and they’re getting a lot of rebounds there, that’s part of it.”
“We knew they were going to shoot a lot of threes and what we told them was deep rebounds,” Bridges said. “Let’s check off the shooters too and everybody check off your man because we knew that was part of their game. I thought we did a good job of that.
“When you give them one and done that gives you a chance.”
Corey Harris converted a three-point play to tie it for Russellville with 2:21 left in the third quarter. Eric Turner then fouled Cabot’s Kai Davis, and Davis’ free throws with 1:29 left in the period started a 16-0 run that ended with a free throw by Darin Jones that made it 48-32 with 4:02 left in the game.
“We put a great plan together and our kids did a great job,” Bridges said of the defense, especially against Harris. “I know 2 scored maybe 14 for them but we ran him everywhere because he’s a good shooter and we tried to take that away and I thought we did a decent job.”
Jordan Barrett made a left-handed layup for Russellville to cut it to 48-34 with 3:35 left, but it was the rare successful possession for the Cyclones, who got two offensive rebounds during Cabot’s run, with one ending in an offensive foul and another ending in Wes Heilman’s missed free throw with 4:59 to go.
Russellville missed six three-pointers in the fourth quarter and made four for the game. Cabot made seven three-pointers and J.D. Brunett led the way with three for most of his 11 points but missed most of the fourth quarter with four fouls.
“If our shots go in hopefully we get in a better rhythm,” Sitkowski said. “But there was no rhythm to us on offense in the second half and that kind of hurt us.”
Jones led Cabot (10-9, 4-2) with 16 points, all but five coming on free throws, while Davis went 7 for 8 from the line and scored 13 points and Clayton Vaught added 10.
“We shot our free throws well,” Bridges said. “I thought we executed well but I just thought we played very good defense. I thought it was the biggest key of the game.”
Harris led Russellville with 12 points.
Leader sports editor
Every now and then a moment takes place to make Cabot coach Jerry Bridges realize he will miss the Panthers’ little old gym.
Friday was one of those times.
Before a heartily supportive student section, Cabot pulled away from Russellville for a 57-41, 7A-Central Conference victory.
It was the kind of night to make a coach nostalgic for his cramped, home floor, even as a sparkling new facility is going up next door on the Cabot High School campus.
“We’ve just got a great student body; it’s fun to play here,” Bridges said. “I’m going to miss this little thing. It’s a fun place.”
While Bridges may miss Cabot’s gym when the new one opens in October, it was misses in general that helped the Panthers pull away from the Cyclones after the game was tied 32-32 late in the third quarter.
Russellville’s three-pointers wouldn’t fall and Cabot made itself at home as the Panthers were in position to grab most of the long rebounds and limit the Cyclones to one-shot possessions while outscoring Russellville 21-9 in the final period.
“They didn’t miss many shots,” Russellville coach Joe Sitkowski said. “They were getting layups, everything else, and we’re not getting many defensive rebounds. When you miss shots on the other end there and they’re getting a lot of rebounds there, that’s part of it.”
“We knew they were going to shoot a lot of threes and what we told them was deep rebounds,” Bridges said. “Let’s check off the shooters too and everybody check off your man because we knew that was part of their game. I thought we did a good job of that.
“When you give them one and done that gives you a chance.”
Corey Harris converted a three-point play to tie it for Russellville with 2:21 left in the third quarter. Eric Turner then fouled Cabot’s Kai Davis, and Davis’ free throws with 1:29 left in the period started a 16-0 run that ended with a free throw by Darin Jones that made it 48-32 with 4:02 left in the game.
“We put a great plan together and our kids did a great job,” Bridges said of the defense, especially against Harris. “I know 2 scored maybe 14 for them but we ran him everywhere because he’s a good shooter and we tried to take that away and I thought we did a decent job.”
Jordan Barrett made a left-handed layup for Russellville to cut it to 48-34 with 3:35 left, but it was the rare successful possession for the Cyclones, who got two offensive rebounds during Cabot’s run, with one ending in an offensive foul and another ending in Wes Heilman’s missed free throw with 4:59 to go.
Russellville missed six three-pointers in the fourth quarter and made four for the game. Cabot made seven three-pointers and J.D. Brunett led the way with three for most of his 11 points but missed most of the fourth quarter with four fouls.
“If our shots go in hopefully we get in a better rhythm,” Sitkowski said. “But there was no rhythm to us on offense in the second half and that kind of hurt us.”
Jones led Cabot (10-9, 4-2) with 16 points, all but five coming on free throws, while Davis went 7 for 8 from the line and scored 13 points and Clayton Vaught added 10.
“We shot our free throws well,” Bridges said. “I thought we executed well but I just thought we played very good defense. I thought it was the biggest key of the game.”
Harris led Russellville with 12 points.
SPORTS >> Trojans give Foley victory No. 600
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
Think about what it takes to win one college basketball game — the film study, the game planning, the practice, the in-game and halftime adjustments, the effort and the sweat and the good fortune that makes the ball bounce just so and the scoreboard read just right.
Now multiply that one, hard-earned victory by 600 and you have what UALR women’s coach Joe Foley accomplished Saturday night.
Foley’s Trojans jumped to a big early lead and outlasted their rival Arkansas State Red Wolves 53-36 at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock. It was Foley’s 600th career victory, putting him among the top 25 in all-time victories among women’s college coaches.
“Six hundred is, especially with a bunch of seniors like we’ve got, it’s kind of special,” a relaxed Foley said Saturday with a nod toward seniors Chastity Reed, Asriel Rolfe and Shanika Butler. “We’ve had several groups of seniors who have contributed to winning 90 to 100-something games; different classes that have come through and this is one of those classes.”
In recent days Old Dominion coach Wendy Larry, Philadelphia University coach Tom Shirley and North Dakota coach Gene Roebuck all cracked the 600-victory barrier to join an exclusive club headed by Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, who ran her mark to 1,058 with Sunday’s victory over Arkansas.
And now Foley is part of that group.
“I look forward, hopefully, to having another class like this that gets me another 100 because the quicker they come the more fun it is,” said Foley, who signed Lonoke standout Asiah Scribner last fall.
“I think it’s really good for the players and coach Foley,” Butler said after scoring eight points and handing out eight assists to help the coach reach his milestone. “He’s a great coach.”
Foley graduated Central Arkansas and began his career as boys and girls high school coach at Oxford, in Izard Co., in 1979. He was boys high school assistant at Morrilton from 1981-84 then moved on to Arkansas Tech, where he assisted the women until, in 1987, he took over the program he would build into a nationally recognized power in the NAIA and NCAA Division II.
On the way to his first college head-coaching job, Foley adopted his philosophy based on defense, fundamentals and motion offense that would become the pillar for all of his teams.
“It’s been my whole career to teach them how to play defense and let them play hard on offense and use their talents,” Foley said.
Foley said there is nothing unusual about his approach and invoked the names of coaching legends Mike Krzyzewski, at Duke, and former Army, Indiana and Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight.
“It’s seemed to work pretty good,” Foley said. “It’s seemed to work for Krzyzewski pretty good, it’s seemed to work for Knight pretty good, so I’m not going to try to break the mold. I dang sure didn’t invent it but I sure steal it from them.”
Foley’s Arkansas Tech Golden Suns had six, 30-victory seasons and posted 16 consecutive 20-victory seasons. Foley guided Arkansas Tech to consecutive NAIA national championships in 1992 and 1993 and the Golden Suns were the NCAA Division II national runners-up in 1999.
Under Foley, Arkansas Tech also won 14 conference championships, made six appearances in the NCAA Division II tournament and advanced to the Division II Elite Eight twice.
Foley surprised many when in 2003 he jumped to UALR, which revived its women’s program in 1999 and went 24-87 in four years under coach Tracy Stewart-Lange.
“This was a big challenge,” Foley said. “I needed that in my career at that time. I didn’t know how big a challenge it would be but it was a big challenge.”
Foley’s first UALR team, with then-freshman and current assistant Jocelyn Love as its star, went 10-17.
Fast forward to last year and the Trojans, led by Cabot native Kim Sitzmann at point guard, were 27-7 as they won the Sun Belt Tournament to reach the NCAA Tournament field and beat Georgia Tech in a first-round upset before losing to Oklahoma.
“You’ve got Jocelyn Love sitting by you over there on the bench that started the whole thing with you and went through all the tough times,” said Foley, 144-89 at UALR and going for victory 601 at home against Denver tonight.
“And to be able to sit here and look at what we’ve got now and people coming to games, all the enthusiasm, it makes it that much more special.”
In praising his current seniors and past players like Love, Foley paid tribute to all of his athletes, at every level, who played to win.
“It’s kind of special to do it with a group like this,” he said. “But it just reminds me of all the kids I’ve got to coach that have contributed to those other 100s.”
Leader sports editor
Think about what it takes to win one college basketball game — the film study, the game planning, the practice, the in-game and halftime adjustments, the effort and the sweat and the good fortune that makes the ball bounce just so and the scoreboard read just right.
Now multiply that one, hard-earned victory by 600 and you have what UALR women’s coach Joe Foley accomplished Saturday night.
Foley’s Trojans jumped to a big early lead and outlasted their rival Arkansas State Red Wolves 53-36 at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock. It was Foley’s 600th career victory, putting him among the top 25 in all-time victories among women’s college coaches.
“Six hundred is, especially with a bunch of seniors like we’ve got, it’s kind of special,” a relaxed Foley said Saturday with a nod toward seniors Chastity Reed, Asriel Rolfe and Shanika Butler. “We’ve had several groups of seniors who have contributed to winning 90 to 100-something games; different classes that have come through and this is one of those classes.”
In recent days Old Dominion coach Wendy Larry, Philadelphia University coach Tom Shirley and North Dakota coach Gene Roebuck all cracked the 600-victory barrier to join an exclusive club headed by Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, who ran her mark to 1,058 with Sunday’s victory over Arkansas.
And now Foley is part of that group.
“I look forward, hopefully, to having another class like this that gets me another 100 because the quicker they come the more fun it is,” said Foley, who signed Lonoke standout Asiah Scribner last fall.
“I think it’s really good for the players and coach Foley,” Butler said after scoring eight points and handing out eight assists to help the coach reach his milestone. “He’s a great coach.”
Foley graduated Central Arkansas and began his career as boys and girls high school coach at Oxford, in Izard Co., in 1979. He was boys high school assistant at Morrilton from 1981-84 then moved on to Arkansas Tech, where he assisted the women until, in 1987, he took over the program he would build into a nationally recognized power in the NAIA and NCAA Division II.
On the way to his first college head-coaching job, Foley adopted his philosophy based on defense, fundamentals and motion offense that would become the pillar for all of his teams.
“It’s been my whole career to teach them how to play defense and let them play hard on offense and use their talents,” Foley said.
Foley said there is nothing unusual about his approach and invoked the names of coaching legends Mike Krzyzewski, at Duke, and former Army, Indiana and Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight.
“It’s seemed to work pretty good,” Foley said. “It’s seemed to work for Krzyzewski pretty good, it’s seemed to work for Knight pretty good, so I’m not going to try to break the mold. I dang sure didn’t invent it but I sure steal it from them.”
Foley’s Arkansas Tech Golden Suns had six, 30-victory seasons and posted 16 consecutive 20-victory seasons. Foley guided Arkansas Tech to consecutive NAIA national championships in 1992 and 1993 and the Golden Suns were the NCAA Division II national runners-up in 1999.
Under Foley, Arkansas Tech also won 14 conference championships, made six appearances in the NCAA Division II tournament and advanced to the Division II Elite Eight twice.
Foley surprised many when in 2003 he jumped to UALR, which revived its women’s program in 1999 and went 24-87 in four years under coach Tracy Stewart-Lange.
“This was a big challenge,” Foley said. “I needed that in my career at that time. I didn’t know how big a challenge it would be but it was a big challenge.”
Foley’s first UALR team, with then-freshman and current assistant Jocelyn Love as its star, went 10-17.
Fast forward to last year and the Trojans, led by Cabot native Kim Sitzmann at point guard, were 27-7 as they won the Sun Belt Tournament to reach the NCAA Tournament field and beat Georgia Tech in a first-round upset before losing to Oklahoma.
“You’ve got Jocelyn Love sitting by you over there on the bench that started the whole thing with you and went through all the tough times,” said Foley, 144-89 at UALR and going for victory 601 at home against Denver tonight.
“And to be able to sit here and look at what we’ve got now and people coming to games, all the enthusiasm, it makes it that much more special.”
In praising his current seniors and past players like Love, Foley paid tribute to all of his athletes, at every level, who played to win.
“It’s kind of special to do it with a group like this,” he said. “But it just reminds me of all the kids I’ve got to coach that have contributed to those other 100s.”
SPORTS >> Sterrenberg biding time, taking shots with Wolves
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
Leader sports editor
Adam Sterrenberg certainly has the three-point shooter’s patience.
The Arkansas State sophomore and Cabot product is in no rush to light up the scoreboard and is not at all impatient with his limited playing time at this point in his career.
Like all good shooters, Sterrenberg prefers to let the game, and court time, come to him.
“Everyone wants to play more but I’m fine with it,” Sterrenberg said after Arkansas State beat rival UALR 75-64 at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock on Saturday.
“I’m a sophomore, I’ve got two more years,” Sterrenberg said. “I’m just going to give it my all in practice and get more playing time but I’m satisfied right now.
“We got a win; we’re in the middle of a race for a conference championship so I couldn’t be happier.”
Sterrenberg played 11 minutes Saturday, making one three-pointer with two rebounds and an assist as the Red Wolves beat their rivals the Trojans.
Sterrenberg’s three-pointer with 3:48 left in the first half gave Arkansas State its biggest lead at 27-9 after the Red Wolves opened the game on an 11-0 run. UALR would get no closer than seven the rest of the way.
“I’ve been struggling lately from three-point range; my percentage is really low,” Sterrenberg said of the 17.4 three-point percentage he brought into the game. “It gave me a lot of confidence coming back home. They expect a lot out of me so I feel like I need to produce more; I’ve got to make a three and this sort of helps everything out.”
His playing time was just under the 12.7 minutes he was averaging entering the game, but Sterrenberg was satisfied with the performance he turned in before a crowd of well wishers that included his parents Dan and Gale and Cabot coach Jerry Bridges.
“I always love coming back home,” Sterrenberg said. “I’ve got a lot of fans, friends, family that come out and support me. It was great coming back home with a victory.
“I felt like we played good and gave them a good showing.”
Sterrenberg got his most playing time this year, 26 minutes, and a career-high 14 points in the 69-57 victory over Central Baptist on Dec. 28 while sitting out the season opener against Ole Miss and the Dec. 1 game against Memphis.
“I want to get bigger, get stronger because that’s by far my weakness right now,” Sterrenberg said. “Get a step faster. Get my shot back to where it used to be in high school and last year. I’ve got a busy offseason in front of me.”
Sterrenberg was a three-year, all-state selection at Cabot and averaged 22.9 points a game his senior season while hitting 43 percent of his three-point attempts. He helped the Panthers to a 23-6 finish, a share of the 7A-Central Conference championship and the semifinals of the 7A state tournament.
But the state’s largest high school classification has nothing on NCAA Division I basketball, Sterrenberg said, even in a mid-major conference like the Sun Belt.
“Division I, people don’t understand, from high school it’s always a couple steps higher,” Sterrenberg said. “Competition is so much better. I mean, mid-major or not, it’s tough to go out there and play.”
UALR, among others, also recruited Sterrenberg, but he chose to become a member of coach John Brady’s first recruiting class.
“I really liked coach Brady; he came from LSU, he took them to a Final Four,” Sterrenberg said. “He’s a proven winner so I wanted to come here to win and hopefully get a ring.”
As a freshman, Sterrenberg played in 21 games and averaged 3.2 points.
Admittedly, he would likely be getting more playing time and scoring more points at a Division II school, but that was never Sterrenberg’s goal.
“I’ve always wanted to be a Division I player,” Sterrenberg said. “Back in high school coach Bridges always asked me what my goals are. I always wanted to play D-I. That was part of it. That was a good tradeoff.”
Friday, January 28, 2011
EDITORIAL >‘Hail Mary’ school plan
The Pulaski County Special School District says it has heard the complaints about rundown schools in Jacksonville and could build new schools as early as this summer. PCSSD officials told patrons this week the district will probably replace Arnold Drive, Tolleson and Jacksonville elementary schools and Jacksonville Middle School. The new schools could open in the fall of 2012.
Plans call for replacing Arnold Drive and Tolleson with a school on the air base periphery at Harris Road, where LRAFB officials have offered to make 20 acres available for a combined elementary school.
The district will also build a new Jacksonville Middle School with an administration and kitchen core at the site of the current school. Middle school students would move next door to the old girls middle school during construction.
Derek Scott, executive director of operations for the district and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, told parents this week, “We are trying to throw a Hail Mary pass to get (planning and design) done this summer and move in by August of 2012.”
“As long as Jacksonville is in PCSSD, we should be doing everything we can to provide quality facilities,” Scott added.
“There’s been no vote (on the proposals),” cautioned school board president Bill Vasquez, “but the sense of the board is to repair and replace buildings as fast as we can,” he said.
The district is finally listening to patrons and community leaders for a number of reasons: District officials are hoping to head off a move to separate Jacksonville and north Pulaski County from PCSSD. The existence of new schools could delay or complicate that separation and would require Jacksonville to assume the debt obligations for the new schools.
The district is also getting more competition from Lighthouse Academy charter schools, which are expanding to the air base with a middle school and will add a high school at the North First Street campus in Jacksonville.
Superintendent Charles Hopson will present a building plan to the board at the Feb. 8 meeting, in time to move a building program forward this summer. PCSSD officials hope to get the first round of construction bonds by cutting expenses, including the number of principals and central-office staff. Every $1 million saved can secure about $15 million in bonded construction debt.
Hopson said any reduction in support or teaching staff would be handled through seniority, as laid out in the union contracts.
The Arnold Drive-Tolleson replacement means the district will not add on to Jacksonville High School, where North Pulaski High students would have been reassigned. It appears they will stay at NPHS.
The base has also offered 77 acres for development for a school or schools near Paradise Park, but that land still hasn’t been cleared of the old houses that will come down as new housing is completed. If the district doesn’t jump at the chance of accepting the gift, Lighthouse Academy might go for it and build more schools there.
Two more community meetings will be held, one hosted by school board president Bill Vasquez at 6 p.m. Monday at Jacksonville High School auditorium, the other hosted by Tom Stuthard at 6 p.m. Thursday at North Pulaski High School.
All interested parties should attend.
Plans call for replacing Arnold Drive and Tolleson with a school on the air base periphery at Harris Road, where LRAFB officials have offered to make 20 acres available for a combined elementary school.
The district will also build a new Jacksonville Middle School with an administration and kitchen core at the site of the current school. Middle school students would move next door to the old girls middle school during construction.
Derek Scott, executive director of operations for the district and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, told parents this week, “We are trying to throw a Hail Mary pass to get (planning and design) done this summer and move in by August of 2012.”
“As long as Jacksonville is in PCSSD, we should be doing everything we can to provide quality facilities,” Scott added.
“There’s been no vote (on the proposals),” cautioned school board president Bill Vasquez, “but the sense of the board is to repair and replace buildings as fast as we can,” he said.
The district is finally listening to patrons and community leaders for a number of reasons: District officials are hoping to head off a move to separate Jacksonville and north Pulaski County from PCSSD. The existence of new schools could delay or complicate that separation and would require Jacksonville to assume the debt obligations for the new schools.
The district is also getting more competition from Lighthouse Academy charter schools, which are expanding to the air base with a middle school and will add a high school at the North First Street campus in Jacksonville.
Superintendent Charles Hopson will present a building plan to the board at the Feb. 8 meeting, in time to move a building program forward this summer. PCSSD officials hope to get the first round of construction bonds by cutting expenses, including the number of principals and central-office staff. Every $1 million saved can secure about $15 million in bonded construction debt.
Hopson said any reduction in support or teaching staff would be handled through seniority, as laid out in the union contracts.
The Arnold Drive-Tolleson replacement means the district will not add on to Jacksonville High School, where North Pulaski High students would have been reassigned. It appears they will stay at NPHS.
The base has also offered 77 acres for development for a school or schools near Paradise Park, but that land still hasn’t been cleared of the old houses that will come down as new housing is completed. If the district doesn’t jump at the chance of accepting the gift, Lighthouse Academy might go for it and build more schools there.
Two more community meetings will be held, one hosted by school board president Bill Vasquez at 6 p.m. Monday at Jacksonville High School auditorium, the other hosted by Tom Stuthard at 6 p.m. Thursday at North Pulaski High School.
All interested parties should attend.
TOP STORY > >Congressman forms a C-130 House caucus
By GARRICK FELDMAN
Leader executive editor
Rep. Tim Griffin, a deficit hawk who was the featured speaker at Thursday’s Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce dinner, says that despite all the talk to cut the federal budget, he wants to protect the C-130 program and see it grow.
He told chamber members that he has revived a long-dormant C-130 caucus in Congress, which he expects to chair. The caucus will include other members of Congress who have C-130s in their districts and will press for more planes and upgrades.
“We should be in a good position to keep an eye out for C-130s,” said Griffin, an Army reservist. “They’re not only a great economic benefit, but they play a critical role in our national security.”
He said, “They move people in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan,” reducing the number of trucks on the roads, where bombs have killed hundreds of Americans.
He said he flew on C-130s when he was in Iraq and felt safe in them even when one of the engines failed.
Griffin, who served in Iraq as a military lawyer, is a member of the House Armed Services, Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees.
He also serves on the Sea Power and Projection Forces Subcommittee, which includes oversight of the C-130s.
Griffin said he sleeps in his office and commutes home every week.
A former White House aide to Karl Rove, who helped him become interim U.S. attorney in Arkansas, Griffin also held senior positions at the Republican National Committee.
Griffin is on the Majority Whip team, marshaling votes for Republican legislation.
Leader executive editor
Rep. Tim Griffin, a deficit hawk who was the featured speaker at Thursday’s Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce dinner, says that despite all the talk to cut the federal budget, he wants to protect the C-130 program and see it grow.
He told chamber members that he has revived a long-dormant C-130 caucus in Congress, which he expects to chair. The caucus will include other members of Congress who have C-130s in their districts and will press for more planes and upgrades.
“We should be in a good position to keep an eye out for C-130s,” said Griffin, an Army reservist. “They’re not only a great economic benefit, but they play a critical role in our national security.”
He said, “They move people in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan,” reducing the number of trucks on the roads, where bombs have killed hundreds of Americans.
He said he flew on C-130s when he was in Iraq and felt safe in them even when one of the engines failed.
Griffin, who served in Iraq as a military lawyer, is a member of the House Armed Services, Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees.
He also serves on the Sea Power and Projection Forces Subcommittee, which includes oversight of the C-130s.
Griffin said he sleeps in his office and commutes home every week.
A former White House aide to Karl Rove, who helped him become interim U.S. attorney in Arkansas, Griffin also held senior positions at the Republican National Committee.
Griffin is on the Majority Whip team, marshaling votes for Republican legislation.
TOP STORY > >Dallas-area developers study Jacksonville sites
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
A team of Dallas-area developers visited Jacksonville on Monday and came away impressed, but the trip didn’t lock in any new business, Mayor Gary Fletcher said.
A potential golf-course buyer was supposed to be part of the group, but didn’t make the trip.
“These people paid their own way here, asked questions, toured the city and left knowing that what we were telling them and everyone at the last economic conference we attended about Jacksonville was right on the money,” the mayor said.
“I’m really excited about our potential,” he added.
The group that visited the city builds shopping centers and brings in major and minor anchors and they also represent some national retail and restaurant chains. “They are the site locators,” said the mayor. “They are the ones that put the deals together.”
The mayor said the group was interested in the acreage north of the city that Jacksonville tried to annex by vote and lost. The city is working to bring in a large portion of that area through voluntary petition. “The group also asked about a number of pre-existing buildings,” Fletcher said.
Along with the group was the city’s economic development consultant, Rickey Hayes, but the mayor spent most of his time with the developers. “It was a good opportunity to hear from them how to better market our city,” the mayor said.
He said three areas that he is working on that will help with economic development are annexation of the northern area, the $20-to-$25-million Coffelt overpass and existing water and sewer lines to the north.
In his first meeting Friday morning with the newly established umbrella group of the council, chamber and advertising and promotion commission, Hayes told them that all groups need to push for the overpass.
He told the chamber representatives they need to get Cabot onboard too as it would also help them.
He also told the umbrella group that everyone needs to be on the same page, working together in the city’s efforts to get control of the land needed for the state fair. There will be a public hearing in mid-February to listen to residents and to allow the mayor and other city officials to explain how they plan to obtain the land.
The mayor said the developers spent their first few hours in city hall before piling into a parks and recreation van and touring the city. The group then talked to the Rotary Club about the current state of economic development.
Leader staff writer
A team of Dallas-area developers visited Jacksonville on Monday and came away impressed, but the trip didn’t lock in any new business, Mayor Gary Fletcher said.
A potential golf-course buyer was supposed to be part of the group, but didn’t make the trip.
“These people paid their own way here, asked questions, toured the city and left knowing that what we were telling them and everyone at the last economic conference we attended about Jacksonville was right on the money,” the mayor said.
“I’m really excited about our potential,” he added.
The group that visited the city builds shopping centers and brings in major and minor anchors and they also represent some national retail and restaurant chains. “They are the site locators,” said the mayor. “They are the ones that put the deals together.”
The mayor said the group was interested in the acreage north of the city that Jacksonville tried to annex by vote and lost. The city is working to bring in a large portion of that area through voluntary petition. “The group also asked about a number of pre-existing buildings,” Fletcher said.
Along with the group was the city’s economic development consultant, Rickey Hayes, but the mayor spent most of his time with the developers. “It was a good opportunity to hear from them how to better market our city,” the mayor said.
He said three areas that he is working on that will help with economic development are annexation of the northern area, the $20-to-$25-million Coffelt overpass and existing water and sewer lines to the north.
In his first meeting Friday morning with the newly established umbrella group of the council, chamber and advertising and promotion commission, Hayes told them that all groups need to push for the overpass.
He told the chamber representatives they need to get Cabot onboard too as it would also help them.
He also told the umbrella group that everyone needs to be on the same page, working together in the city’s efforts to get control of the land needed for the state fair. There will be a public hearing in mid-February to listen to residents and to allow the mayor and other city officials to explain how they plan to obtain the land.
The mayor said the developers spent their first few hours in city hall before piling into a parks and recreation van and touring the city. The group then talked to the Rotary Club about the current state of economic development.
TOP STORY > >Deficits worry Griffin
By GARRICK FELDMAN
Leader executive editor
Rep. Tim Griffin says Congress must bring spending under control and balance the federal budget with across-the-board cuts, including defense spending.
He sounded a warning in Jacksonville about the nation’s financial problems, and quoting former Sen. Pete Domenici, said the U.S. will face “our next Pearl Harbor” if those problems are not solved in the next five years.
After addressing the annual Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce banquet Thursday evening, the Second District congressman was asked where he would cut spending to reduce a $1.5 trillion deficit.
Ruling out tax increases to close the deficit and reduce the national debt, the freshman Republican told The Leader he would look for waste in the Pentagon budget and elsewhere.
“We’re doing our research and homework and identifying problems,” said Griffin, who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “We’ll look at the military budget and other programs. We have a tough road ahead.”
“We’ll have to make sure our national security is taken care of,” he said in the interview. “We need to continue to fund our national-security priorities, including C-130s.” He said cutting waste would mean more new C-130s and upgrading the aging fleet with modern avionics. (See story below.)
Griffin is a member of the freshman Republican class that helped take over the House of Representatives last November and wants steep cuts in federal spending.
The Armed Services Committee this week grilled Pentagon officials about this year’s proposed budget, which has still not been approved.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has proposed cutting up to $70 billion from the 2011 budget — $23 billion almost immediately if a budget is not passed soon.
Griffin said his committee is still waiting for a detailed audit from the Pentagon as required by law since 1990. He said his committee must know how every dollar is spent and then will identify any waste and recommend cuts.
He said the Pentagon “needs to provide better financial statements to make sure we’re not wasting money. We will have to do a better job accounting for the taxpayers’ dollars.”
The congressman told those attending the banquet at the Jacksonville Community Center that Republicans want to roll back spending to 2008 levels.
Solutions must be bipartisan, he said, “because we have a split government.”
He said politicians from both parties are to blame for huge deficits. “It’s important that we not only understand we’re in debt but also realize how bad it is. It’s a really serious problem.”
“We’re $14 trillion in debt—that’s $46,000 per person,” Griffin continued. “We’ve added $4 billion in debt every day last year. That’s a lot of money. We’re in a financial crisis we’ve never seen before.”
“This year we’ll spend $3.5 trillion, but with only $2 trillion coming in and a deficit of $1.5 trillion. To find $1.5 trillion, you’d have to eliminate all discretionary spending and the military and education, and you wouldn’t be halfway there.”
“The current budget doubles the debt in five years and triples it in 10,” Griffin said.
In 15 years, today’s budget would pay only for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and interest payments on the national debt.
“We’re paying $202 billion in interest,” he said. “We could build a lot of good roads in Arkansas with that money.”
“Spending is up, up and up, and revenues are steady,” he continued.
Huge tax increases wouldn’t even close the gap significantly, Griffin said. In fact, he favors lowering corporate taxes.
“No matter how much you raises taxes, it’s never going to be enough,” he insisted.
Since he’s against tax in-creases or slashing almost every program, he said long-term solutions must be found immediately through spending cuts.
Democrats say that’s a dramatic change from just a decade ago, when President Clinton left office with a budget surplus. But two wars, huge tax cuts and an economic meltdown have strained America’s financial standing.
As the two parties fight over spending, Griffin said there is still time to put the nation’s finances in order.
He said he voted to repeal health reform because it was too expensive and would not improve the nation’s health-care system.
Although he would not be specific, Republican lawmakers have proposed ending $167.5 million in annual subsidies to the National Endowment for the Arts and $430 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“We have a short window to address the problem,” he warned.
“We have five years,” Griffin said. “I believe we can do it. I’m optimistic by nature. The good news is that this is America. We’ve done some incredible things against the odds. We can’t kick the problem down the road. We must keep our critical programs like the C-130s.”
Leader executive editor
Rep. Tim Griffin says Congress must bring spending under control and balance the federal budget with across-the-board cuts, including defense spending.
He sounded a warning in Jacksonville about the nation’s financial problems, and quoting former Sen. Pete Domenici, said the U.S. will face “our next Pearl Harbor” if those problems are not solved in the next five years.
After addressing the annual Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce banquet Thursday evening, the Second District congressman was asked where he would cut spending to reduce a $1.5 trillion deficit.
Ruling out tax increases to close the deficit and reduce the national debt, the freshman Republican told The Leader he would look for waste in the Pentagon budget and elsewhere.
“We’re doing our research and homework and identifying problems,” said Griffin, who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “We’ll look at the military budget and other programs. We have a tough road ahead.”
“We’ll have to make sure our national security is taken care of,” he said in the interview. “We need to continue to fund our national-security priorities, including C-130s.” He said cutting waste would mean more new C-130s and upgrading the aging fleet with modern avionics. (See story below.)
Griffin is a member of the freshman Republican class that helped take over the House of Representatives last November and wants steep cuts in federal spending.
The Armed Services Committee this week grilled Pentagon officials about this year’s proposed budget, which has still not been approved.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has proposed cutting up to $70 billion from the 2011 budget — $23 billion almost immediately if a budget is not passed soon.
Griffin said his committee is still waiting for a detailed audit from the Pentagon as required by law since 1990. He said his committee must know how every dollar is spent and then will identify any waste and recommend cuts.
He said the Pentagon “needs to provide better financial statements to make sure we’re not wasting money. We will have to do a better job accounting for the taxpayers’ dollars.”
The congressman told those attending the banquet at the Jacksonville Community Center that Republicans want to roll back spending to 2008 levels.
Solutions must be bipartisan, he said, “because we have a split government.”
He said politicians from both parties are to blame for huge deficits. “It’s important that we not only understand we’re in debt but also realize how bad it is. It’s a really serious problem.”
“We’re $14 trillion in debt—that’s $46,000 per person,” Griffin continued. “We’ve added $4 billion in debt every day last year. That’s a lot of money. We’re in a financial crisis we’ve never seen before.”
“This year we’ll spend $3.5 trillion, but with only $2 trillion coming in and a deficit of $1.5 trillion. To find $1.5 trillion, you’d have to eliminate all discretionary spending and the military and education, and you wouldn’t be halfway there.”
“The current budget doubles the debt in five years and triples it in 10,” Griffin said.
In 15 years, today’s budget would pay only for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and interest payments on the national debt.
“We’re paying $202 billion in interest,” he said. “We could build a lot of good roads in Arkansas with that money.”
“Spending is up, up and up, and revenues are steady,” he continued.
Huge tax increases wouldn’t even close the gap significantly, Griffin said. In fact, he favors lowering corporate taxes.
“No matter how much you raises taxes, it’s never going to be enough,” he insisted.
Since he’s against tax in-creases or slashing almost every program, he said long-term solutions must be found immediately through spending cuts.
Democrats say that’s a dramatic change from just a decade ago, when President Clinton left office with a budget surplus. But two wars, huge tax cuts and an economic meltdown have strained America’s financial standing.
As the two parties fight over spending, Griffin said there is still time to put the nation’s finances in order.
He said he voted to repeal health reform because it was too expensive and would not improve the nation’s health-care system.
Although he would not be specific, Republican lawmakers have proposed ending $167.5 million in annual subsidies to the National Endowment for the Arts and $430 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“We have a short window to address the problem,” he warned.
“We have five years,” Griffin said. “I believe we can do it. I’m optimistic by nature. The good news is that this is America. We’ve done some incredible things against the odds. We can’t kick the problem down the road. We must keep our critical programs like the C-130s.”
TOP STORY > >Odom proposes funding plan for jail
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Justice of the Peace Larry Odom, who helped spearhead the successful effort to get Lonoke County a new—and nearly completed now—136-bed jail, revealed his plan at the January quorum court meeting Thursday to pay for the additional eight jailers and a part-time nurse for the jail in 2011. The jail is expected to open in May or June.
Odom says including salary and benefits, the additional staff would cost about $292,000 a year.
The largest share of that—about $150,000 would come from a 2010 budget cleanup—money carried over after the final reckoning of the books. Another $50,000—available at the discretion of new Lonoke County Circuit Clerk Denise Brown—would come from fees collected by her office.
Another $48,250 will come from the county general-fund share of $60,500 in fees collected by the circuit clerk’s office from the Bayer Crop Sciences lawsuit, in which county farmers sued Bayer for contaminating their rice with genetically modified rice.
Odom said Cabot Mayor Bill Cypert wants to reserve 1.8 beds, which would generate another $32,500 a year. Another $13,600 can come from the county judge’s office, by shifting part of the cost of his salary to the county road department.
That totals $292,350 a year, Odom said.
And since the jail will only be open roughly half of the first year, those salaries will be less, he said.
This is not a permanent solution. At least the money derived from the Bayer Crop Sciences lawsuit is one-time money, Odom said, but at least it gets the new $6.2 million jail up and running.
J.P. Adam Sims had suggested cutting the county’s property tax in half while adding half-a-penny to the county’s sales tax, dedicated to jail operation. Both of those would require a vote of county residents.
Earlier this month, Sheriff Jim Roberson told members of the jail committee that a fully staffed jail would include a sergeant to oversee day-to-day operations and to train a jail administrator to oversee medication disbursement and other duties; 12 actual jailers, two transport officers and two kitchen/maintenance/relief officers.
It takes 12 jailers to have three on duty around the clock without paying overtime or comp time.
That’s a booking officer, a control officer and a verification/transport officer.
Members of the state Jail Standards Committee endorsed the sheriff’s contention that the new jail requires a total of 18 jailers, and recommended a nurse, as did Jason Owens, a risk management specialist from Duncan, Rainwater and Sexton, attorneys at law.
County Judge Doug Erwin, conducting his first regular meeting of the quorum court since taking office Jan. 1, said he had ordered most county trucks to be left at the county shop at night, with some trucks still out in the far reaches of the county in case of emergencies.
Erwin said he had implemented a new computerized gas card for county employees.
“We can account for every drop of gas the county spends,” he said.
“I pledged we would be transparent, and we will,” he said.
He introduced Pat Davidson as his administrator and Cecil Dunn as the county shop foreman. The new county shop, located next to the new jail, is fully operational now, Erwin reported.
Former Lonoke County Judge Charlie Troutman had swapped half a block of land across from Lonoke City Hall in exchange for the land in the city industrial park to build the jail and shop.
The county was to tear down all the metal buildings and clean up the land it traded to the city, but Erwin said Lonoke Mayor Wayne McGee has asked to leave the one building in place, which will save the county some time and money, Erwin reported.
Erwin, the first Republican Lonoke County judge in the memory of some long-time politicians like former state Sen. Bobby Glover, pledged upon election that he would be judge for all county residents, and in a move apparently symbolic of that, had the quorum court seated in district order, one through 13.
That made a slight dent in the usual clustering of Republicans on one side of the horseshoe- table configuration, Democrats on the other side—but not much, because all the Republicans are from the north part of the county, while most of the Democrats are from the south end.
Cabot High School student Grant Bodiford, representing a service club at his high school, asked the court for money, guidance and equipment to help restore Anthony Schmidtt Park, which had become rundown, he said.
That’s the only county park in Lonoke County, he said. Bodiford said the group had been cleaning up the park, but needed money for paint, and wanted to meet with county officials to plan some new pavilions. The old ones are about to fall down, he said.
Erwin said the county would help.
J.P. Bill Ryker proposed policies and regulations for conducting the quorum court meetings.
Leader senior staff writer
Justice of the Peace Larry Odom, who helped spearhead the successful effort to get Lonoke County a new—and nearly completed now—136-bed jail, revealed his plan at the January quorum court meeting Thursday to pay for the additional eight jailers and a part-time nurse for the jail in 2011. The jail is expected to open in May or June.
Odom says including salary and benefits, the additional staff would cost about $292,000 a year.
The largest share of that—about $150,000 would come from a 2010 budget cleanup—money carried over after the final reckoning of the books. Another $50,000—available at the discretion of new Lonoke County Circuit Clerk Denise Brown—would come from fees collected by her office.
Another $48,250 will come from the county general-fund share of $60,500 in fees collected by the circuit clerk’s office from the Bayer Crop Sciences lawsuit, in which county farmers sued Bayer for contaminating their rice with genetically modified rice.
Odom said Cabot Mayor Bill Cypert wants to reserve 1.8 beds, which would generate another $32,500 a year. Another $13,600 can come from the county judge’s office, by shifting part of the cost of his salary to the county road department.
That totals $292,350 a year, Odom said.
And since the jail will only be open roughly half of the first year, those salaries will be less, he said.
This is not a permanent solution. At least the money derived from the Bayer Crop Sciences lawsuit is one-time money, Odom said, but at least it gets the new $6.2 million jail up and running.
J.P. Adam Sims had suggested cutting the county’s property tax in half while adding half-a-penny to the county’s sales tax, dedicated to jail operation. Both of those would require a vote of county residents.
Earlier this month, Sheriff Jim Roberson told members of the jail committee that a fully staffed jail would include a sergeant to oversee day-to-day operations and to train a jail administrator to oversee medication disbursement and other duties; 12 actual jailers, two transport officers and two kitchen/maintenance/relief officers.
It takes 12 jailers to have three on duty around the clock without paying overtime or comp time.
That’s a booking officer, a control officer and a verification/transport officer.
Members of the state Jail Standards Committee endorsed the sheriff’s contention that the new jail requires a total of 18 jailers, and recommended a nurse, as did Jason Owens, a risk management specialist from Duncan, Rainwater and Sexton, attorneys at law.
County Judge Doug Erwin, conducting his first regular meeting of the quorum court since taking office Jan. 1, said he had ordered most county trucks to be left at the county shop at night, with some trucks still out in the far reaches of the county in case of emergencies.
Erwin said he had implemented a new computerized gas card for county employees.
“We can account for every drop of gas the county spends,” he said.
“I pledged we would be transparent, and we will,” he said.
He introduced Pat Davidson as his administrator and Cecil Dunn as the county shop foreman. The new county shop, located next to the new jail, is fully operational now, Erwin reported.
Former Lonoke County Judge Charlie Troutman had swapped half a block of land across from Lonoke City Hall in exchange for the land in the city industrial park to build the jail and shop.
The county was to tear down all the metal buildings and clean up the land it traded to the city, but Erwin said Lonoke Mayor Wayne McGee has asked to leave the one building in place, which will save the county some time and money, Erwin reported.
Erwin, the first Republican Lonoke County judge in the memory of some long-time politicians like former state Sen. Bobby Glover, pledged upon election that he would be judge for all county residents, and in a move apparently symbolic of that, had the quorum court seated in district order, one through 13.
That made a slight dent in the usual clustering of Republicans on one side of the horseshoe- table configuration, Democrats on the other side—but not much, because all the Republicans are from the north part of the county, while most of the Democrats are from the south end.
Cabot High School student Grant Bodiford, representing a service club at his high school, asked the court for money, guidance and equipment to help restore Anthony Schmidtt Park, which had become rundown, he said.
That’s the only county park in Lonoke County, he said. Bodiford said the group had been cleaning up the park, but needed money for paint, and wanted to meet with county officials to plan some new pavilions. The old ones are about to fall down, he said.
Erwin said the county would help.
J.P. Bill Ryker proposed policies and regulations for conducting the quorum court meetings.
SPORTS>>Late letdown dooms Jacksonville on home court
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
Two minutes can be an eternity in a basketball game.
Just ask Jacksonville girls coach Katrina Mimms.
A scoring outage at the end of the game cost the Lady Red Devils, as West Memphis took a 50-44, 7A/6A-East Conference victory at the Devils Den on Tuesday.
“How many points did we score in the last two minutes?” Mimms said, knowing the answer. “We didn’t score in the last two minutes.”
Actually, it was more like three. Jacksonville’s last points came on a free throw by sophomore Jessica Jackson that gave the Lady Devils a 44-43 lead with 3:08 left.
With two minutes left, Jacksonville’s Jaquia Alexander fouled leading scorer Kiera Adams, who made both free throws to put the Lady Blue Devils in front to stay.
Jasmine Greer made two free throws after a Chyna Davis foul with 44.8 seconds left, after Jackson missed two for Jacksonville.
Cara Winn made it 48-44 with a free throw and missed her second shot, but West Memphis rebounded and Jackson fouled Greer with 15.3 seconds left and Greer made both her shots to close out the scoring.
“I thought it was the best game we came out of the dressing room ready to play,” Mimms said.
But despite the fast start, it hurt Jacksonville that Jackson sat out the third quarter with three fouls.
“Of course she’s their go-to girl and without her they struggle a little bit offensively,” West Memphis coach Sheila Burns said. “I thought we dida great job of taking advantage with her time out.”
West Memphis confused and frustrated Jackson with a 3-2 defense in the first half, and Mimms moved Jackson inside when she came back in. That led Burns to play a box-and-one.
“So every time she went low we had one in front and one behind the last minute and a half,” Burns said.
Nonetheless, Jackson scored eight of her 11 points in the final period. Tiffany Smith scored 10 points for Jacksonville.
Adams led all scorers with 23 points, getting 13 in the second half for West Memphis.
“I think we maintained,” Mimms said of the stretch without Jackson.
“And then I think it helped her with the rest and then she kind of sparked us coming back in and then down the stretch we just froze.”
Mimms felt, with Adams carrying four fouls, Jackson could exploit that and get to the basket, so she was moved from the perimeter.
“When we need a bucket we can put her down there and normally we can get something,” Mimms said.
Jacksonville outscored West Memphis 12-3 in the first quarter but West Memphis came back to outscore Jacksonville 23-13 in the second.
“We got a little tired and the other thing was they changed their defense,” Mimms said. “They went from a man, which we were hurting it, to a zone and they put [Adams] at the top of it and the small guards had to throw over it and we made a couple mistakes there.”
“We struggle so badly inside, putting the ball in the hole, we have to rely on our defense,” Burns said.
West Memphis made 12 of 13 free throws in the second quarter and took a 26-25 halftime lead.
“We had to take some seniors out; they had to do a little soul searching,” Burns said. “I put some sophomores in who played their little butts off. The seniors came in to finish the game and I think they realized if they don’t come out strong they’re going to have to sit and do a little watching.”
West Memphis built a 40-31 lead by the end of the third quarter, but Jacksonville put together a 10-1 run to tie it at 41 on Jackson’s jumper with 4:42 left.
Jackson gave Jacksonville the 43-41 lead with a baseline shot with 3:45 to go and added the team’s last points on her free throw with 3:08 to go.
The Lady Devils resumed conference play when they traveled to 6A/7A-East member Mountain Home on Friday night.
Leader sports editor
Two minutes can be an eternity in a basketball game.
Just ask Jacksonville girls coach Katrina Mimms.
A scoring outage at the end of the game cost the Lady Red Devils, as West Memphis took a 50-44, 7A/6A-East Conference victory at the Devils Den on Tuesday.
“How many points did we score in the last two minutes?” Mimms said, knowing the answer. “We didn’t score in the last two minutes.”
Actually, it was more like three. Jacksonville’s last points came on a free throw by sophomore Jessica Jackson that gave the Lady Devils a 44-43 lead with 3:08 left.
With two minutes left, Jacksonville’s Jaquia Alexander fouled leading scorer Kiera Adams, who made both free throws to put the Lady Blue Devils in front to stay.
Jasmine Greer made two free throws after a Chyna Davis foul with 44.8 seconds left, after Jackson missed two for Jacksonville.
Cara Winn made it 48-44 with a free throw and missed her second shot, but West Memphis rebounded and Jackson fouled Greer with 15.3 seconds left and Greer made both her shots to close out the scoring.
“I thought it was the best game we came out of the dressing room ready to play,” Mimms said.
But despite the fast start, it hurt Jacksonville that Jackson sat out the third quarter with three fouls.
“Of course she’s their go-to girl and without her they struggle a little bit offensively,” West Memphis coach Sheila Burns said. “I thought we dida great job of taking advantage with her time out.”
West Memphis confused and frustrated Jackson with a 3-2 defense in the first half, and Mimms moved Jackson inside when she came back in. That led Burns to play a box-and-one.
“So every time she went low we had one in front and one behind the last minute and a half,” Burns said.
Nonetheless, Jackson scored eight of her 11 points in the final period. Tiffany Smith scored 10 points for Jacksonville.
Adams led all scorers with 23 points, getting 13 in the second half for West Memphis.
“I think we maintained,” Mimms said of the stretch without Jackson.
“And then I think it helped her with the rest and then she kind of sparked us coming back in and then down the stretch we just froze.”
Mimms felt, with Adams carrying four fouls, Jackson could exploit that and get to the basket, so she was moved from the perimeter.
“When we need a bucket we can put her down there and normally we can get something,” Mimms said.
Jacksonville outscored West Memphis 12-3 in the first quarter but West Memphis came back to outscore Jacksonville 23-13 in the second.
“We got a little tired and the other thing was they changed their defense,” Mimms said. “They went from a man, which we were hurting it, to a zone and they put [Adams] at the top of it and the small guards had to throw over it and we made a couple mistakes there.”
“We struggle so badly inside, putting the ball in the hole, we have to rely on our defense,” Burns said.
West Memphis made 12 of 13 free throws in the second quarter and took a 26-25 halftime lead.
“We had to take some seniors out; they had to do a little soul searching,” Burns said. “I put some sophomores in who played their little butts off. The seniors came in to finish the game and I think they realized if they don’t come out strong they’re going to have to sit and do a little watching.”
West Memphis built a 40-31 lead by the end of the third quarter, but Jacksonville put together a 10-1 run to tie it at 41 on Jackson’s jumper with 4:42 left.
Jackson gave Jacksonville the 43-41 lead with a baseline shot with 3:45 to go and added the team’s last points on her free throw with 3:08 to go.
The Lady Devils resumed conference play when they traveled to 6A/7A-East member Mountain Home on Friday night.
SPORTS>>Guests win defensive fight
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Watson Chapel stayed perfect in 5A-Southeast Conference play with a 47-24 road victory over Sylvan Hills Tuesday.
Lady Wildcats senior guard Brittney Gill dominated both ends of the court with 21 points, eight rebounds and five steals for game highs in each category. Watson Chapel (14-4, 5-0) held Sylvan Hills (7-9, 2-3) to single digits in every quarter except the third, when the Lady Bears tried to rally from a 26-10 halftime deficit.
Defensive pressure was key for Watson Chapel, which forced 26 turnovers.
“Believe me, I had to search for something good, but I was very pleased with our defensetwo games in a row,” Watson Chapel coach Leslie Byrd said. “That’s what helped us win the game. Otherwise, we do not win the game.”
Gill, who has drawn strong interest from the University of Texas-San Antonio and Arkansas State University, scored 13 points in the first half and helped the Lady ’Cats keep pressure on Lady Bears senior standout Ashley Johnson.
With Watson Chapel’s defensive sights set on Johnson, sophomore teammate Jalmedal Byrd stepped up with 10 points to lead Sylvan Hills. Byrd earned most of her points the hard way with drives into the lane against the bigger Lady Wildcats, and she went 4 for 6 at the free-throw line.
“That kid works hard,” Lady Bears coach Bee Rodden said of Byrd. “She has a great instinct to go to the basket, but she keeps her head down. After the first couple of times, they picked up on that and started blocking the lanes. She kept us in the ballgame.”
Byrd cut the lead to 35-24 with 5:49 left to play when she scored on an inbounds play, but just as the Lady Bears appeared to be gathering steam for a final run, Gill doused those hopes with a three-point basket that extended the margin to 14.
Leader sportswriter
Watson Chapel stayed perfect in 5A-Southeast Conference play with a 47-24 road victory over Sylvan Hills Tuesday.
Lady Wildcats senior guard Brittney Gill dominated both ends of the court with 21 points, eight rebounds and five steals for game highs in each category. Watson Chapel (14-4, 5-0) held Sylvan Hills (7-9, 2-3) to single digits in every quarter except the third, when the Lady Bears tried to rally from a 26-10 halftime deficit.
Defensive pressure was key for Watson Chapel, which forced 26 turnovers.
“Believe me, I had to search for something good, but I was very pleased with our defensetwo games in a row,” Watson Chapel coach Leslie Byrd said. “That’s what helped us win the game. Otherwise, we do not win the game.”
Gill, who has drawn strong interest from the University of Texas-San Antonio and Arkansas State University, scored 13 points in the first half and helped the Lady ’Cats keep pressure on Lady Bears senior standout Ashley Johnson.
With Watson Chapel’s defensive sights set on Johnson, sophomore teammate Jalmedal Byrd stepped up with 10 points to lead Sylvan Hills. Byrd earned most of her points the hard way with drives into the lane against the bigger Lady Wildcats, and she went 4 for 6 at the free-throw line.
“That kid works hard,” Lady Bears coach Bee Rodden said of Byrd. “She has a great instinct to go to the basket, but she keeps her head down. After the first couple of times, they picked up on that and started blocking the lanes. She kept us in the ballgame.”
Byrd cut the lead to 35-24 with 5:49 left to play when she scored on an inbounds play, but just as the Lady Bears appeared to be gathering steam for a final run, Gill doused those hopes with a three-point basket that extended the margin to 14.
SPORTS>>Red Devils take victory at Den
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
There isn’t much difference between home and the road in the 7A/6A-East Conference.
The Jacksonville Red Devils beat West Memphis 58-52 at the Devils Den on Tuesday night. But, coach Vic Joyner said, there is no real homecourt advantage in what is considered one of the toughest conferences in the state.
“Any court. When it’s this tough you’ve got to go everywhere and play at a certain level everywhere you go. You can’t have a drop-off anywhere. You’ve got to make somebody else’s court your court.”
Jacksonville took a first-quarter lead it never relinquished but had to break open a one-point game with a fourth-quarter tear, and even then West Memphis managed to cut it close.
West Memphis used a 9-0 run in the third quarter to pull within 41-40, but Deshjon Penn scored from the inside and a turnover led to Raheem Appleby’s fastbreak dunk with three seconds left to give the Red Devils a 45-40 lead entering the final quarter.
Jacksonville ran its lead to 54-42, allowing the Red Devils to survive a 10-4 run that West Memphis used to close out thegame on the way to losing its fourth straight.
“It’s their demeanor,” Joyner said of the Red Devils’ ability to hang on. “They’re very, very competitive. Even in practice.”
Joyner, who has seen his team lose close conference games to defending state champion Little Rock Hall at home and to one of the conference favorites Marion on the road, was asked if the conference was the best he’s ever seen.
“Period,” Joyner said. “Look man, like tomorrow it can rain any time. Three, four, five of them can rain on your head any time in this conference. You have one moment of lapse in this conference, the clouds are going to open up.”
Appleby led Jacksonville (14-2, 3-2) with 18 points and Terrell Brown scored 12.
“They’ve got great guards, they can shoot, they can score, they penetrate real well,” West Memphis coach Larry Bray said. “That’s a great ball team. We just weren’t able to contain their outside play and they were able to get to the rim and they made a lot of baskets.”
Bray said he wanted to contain Appleby, or at least slow him up, but Appleby wouldn’t be denied, and the Red Devils got points from 10 players.
“I had a few guys that were out there that weren’t giving me anything,” Joyner said. “And I told them, if some upperclassmen aren’t doing anything, I’m starting to put those youngsters out there, starting to get their feet wet.”
West Memphis’ Marcus McVay led all scorers with 20 points and Tony Jeffries scored 10.
West Memphis was moved up to 7A in the last round of reclassification but continues to play against what is primarily the old 6A-East lineup.
The Blue Devils will compete in the 7A state tournament and a power ratings system, criticized by many of the state’s basketball coaches, has been devised to help determine the tournament seedings.
Coaches feel West Memphis gets an advantage playing mostly 6A schools during the regular season, but right now the Blue Devils, who lost their fourth straight, have their hands full.
West Memphis’ losing streak has coincided with the loss of senior shooting guard Arthur Jackson, who has missed four games with a hand injury he sustained in a fit of anger in the lockerroom.
“Sure we miss him but right now we’re just not playing smart,” Bray said. “I’m not going to put it all on that. We’re just not playing smart. We’re not taking advantage of what we have. There’s a lot of things I think we could do better that we’re not doing right now.”
Joyner said if a few more outside shots had fallen for West Memphis, the outcome could have been different.
“Bray has been an idol of mine since I’ve been coaching,” Joyner said. “He always has his teams prepared. I thought my kids came out and battled hard. They just couldn’t hit a few outside shots here and there.
“If they had shot the ball like they shot it in the second half, it would have been a different story.”
Leader sports editor
There isn’t much difference between home and the road in the 7A/6A-East Conference.
The Jacksonville Red Devils beat West Memphis 58-52 at the Devils Den on Tuesday night. But, coach Vic Joyner said, there is no real homecourt advantage in what is considered one of the toughest conferences in the state.
“Any court. When it’s this tough you’ve got to go everywhere and play at a certain level everywhere you go. You can’t have a drop-off anywhere. You’ve got to make somebody else’s court your court.”
Jacksonville took a first-quarter lead it never relinquished but had to break open a one-point game with a fourth-quarter tear, and even then West Memphis managed to cut it close.
West Memphis used a 9-0 run in the third quarter to pull within 41-40, but Deshjon Penn scored from the inside and a turnover led to Raheem Appleby’s fastbreak dunk with three seconds left to give the Red Devils a 45-40 lead entering the final quarter.
Jacksonville ran its lead to 54-42, allowing the Red Devils to survive a 10-4 run that West Memphis used to close out thegame on the way to losing its fourth straight.
“It’s their demeanor,” Joyner said of the Red Devils’ ability to hang on. “They’re very, very competitive. Even in practice.”
Joyner, who has seen his team lose close conference games to defending state champion Little Rock Hall at home and to one of the conference favorites Marion on the road, was asked if the conference was the best he’s ever seen.
“Period,” Joyner said. “Look man, like tomorrow it can rain any time. Three, four, five of them can rain on your head any time in this conference. You have one moment of lapse in this conference, the clouds are going to open up.”
Appleby led Jacksonville (14-2, 3-2) with 18 points and Terrell Brown scored 12.
“They’ve got great guards, they can shoot, they can score, they penetrate real well,” West Memphis coach Larry Bray said. “That’s a great ball team. We just weren’t able to contain their outside play and they were able to get to the rim and they made a lot of baskets.”
Bray said he wanted to contain Appleby, or at least slow him up, but Appleby wouldn’t be denied, and the Red Devils got points from 10 players.
“I had a few guys that were out there that weren’t giving me anything,” Joyner said. “And I told them, if some upperclassmen aren’t doing anything, I’m starting to put those youngsters out there, starting to get their feet wet.”
West Memphis’ Marcus McVay led all scorers with 20 points and Tony Jeffries scored 10.
West Memphis was moved up to 7A in the last round of reclassification but continues to play against what is primarily the old 6A-East lineup.
The Blue Devils will compete in the 7A state tournament and a power ratings system, criticized by many of the state’s basketball coaches, has been devised to help determine the tournament seedings.
Coaches feel West Memphis gets an advantage playing mostly 6A schools during the regular season, but right now the Blue Devils, who lost their fourth straight, have their hands full.
West Memphis’ losing streak has coincided with the loss of senior shooting guard Arthur Jackson, who has missed four games with a hand injury he sustained in a fit of anger in the lockerroom.
“Sure we miss him but right now we’re just not playing smart,” Bray said. “I’m not going to put it all on that. We’re just not playing smart. We’re not taking advantage of what we have. There’s a lot of things I think we could do better that we’re not doing right now.”
Joyner said if a few more outside shots had fallen for West Memphis, the outcome could have been different.
“Bray has been an idol of mine since I’ve been coaching,” Joyner said. “He always has his teams prepared. I thought my kids came out and battled hard. They just couldn’t hit a few outside shots here and there.
“If they had shot the ball like they shot it in the second half, it would have been a different story.”
SPORTS>>Fast start gives Bears big edge over Wildcats
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Watson Chapel’s Jaymes Farrell did his best to put a damper on the Archie Goodwin show when he entered the game to start the second quarter against Sylvan Hills on Tues-day.
But despite Farrell’s 10 points that sparked a Wildcats’ comeback, the Bears prevailed 64-47 at Sylvan Hills.
Sylvan Hills (14-3, 5-0 5A-Southeast) shot 7 for 9 from behind the three-point line in the first quarter on the way to a 29-2 lead at the end of the period before Watson Chapel (9-6, 3-2) pulled to within 36-26 at halftime.
The Wildcats closed to within six points early in the fourth quarter before the Bears dialed up the defensive pressure and ate up the clock in the frontcourt with a methodical, 11-0 run down the stretch.
The victory keeps the first-place Bears a game ahead of North Pulaski in the 5A-Southeast.
The energetic, capacity crowd had plenty to be excited about with Kentucky coach John Calipari and Missouri coach Mike Anderson in the stands to watch Goodwin, and the junior five-star prospect delivered in a 33-point performance.
Goodwin lit it up immediately with 13 points in the first quarter before sitting out most of the second. In that time, Farrell rallied the Wildcats, who outscored the Bears 24-7 to help them recover from the shaky start and end the half in better shape.
“It’s hard to script one better than what we did at the beginning,” Sylvan Hills coach Kevin Davis said. “Everything that you run in your break is working– everything. We had to make adjustments, because 33 was doing really well.”
The Bears answered Farrell with defensive pressure from quick-handed Anthony Featherston, who limited the Watson Chapel standout to eight points in the second half.
“I don’t believe that if 33 would have been in the ballgame in the first quarter, the difference would have been that much,” Watson Chapel coach Danny Myatt said of Farrell, who sat out the opening period as punishment for a minor disciplinary infraction.
“We may have scored a little bit. Taking nothing away from Sylvan Hills, but they won’t shoot that ball that well in the first quarter the rest of the year.”
Trey Smith got things going with a three-point basket on the Bears’ opening possession. Larry Ziegler then scored on an ally-oop lay-in assisted by point guard Dion Patton, followed by Goodwin’s first points of the night on a three pointer from the right side.
Smith made it 11-0 with another three-pointer before pressuring Jovione Bailey into a traveling call near midcourt.
Patton got in on the scoring when he made a three pointer with 4:58 left in the first quarter to give the Bears a 14-0 lead, and Goodwin followed with two free throws. Smith completed his first-quarter hat trick with another three-pointer that gave Sylvan Hills a commanding 19-0 lead with 3:20 left in the first period.
Bailey finally got the Wildcats on the scoreboard with an inside jumper.
Goodwin ended the first quarter with a long three-point shot at the buzzer. Pressure from Bailey caused Goodwin to fall down as he launched the ball, but it swished through the net to the delight of the Bears fans.
“They couldn’t have shot the ball any better,” Myatt said of Sylvan Hills. “We missed some layups that could have helped us a little; it just kind of snowballed on us.”
Farrell quickly helped the Wildcats make up ground in the second quarter.
Darrell Russell hit two three-pointers early in the period to close the gap to 31-10 and Farrell led a 10-2 charge by Watson Chapel that cut it to 33-22 with 1:03 left in the half.
Devin Pearson scored in the lane and was sent to the line for a successful free throw for the Bears, but Farrell closed out the half with a dunk and a pair of free throws.
“They fought – they challenged back,” Myatt said.
“We could’ve gotten over the hump a little more, and that may have helped. Trailing 29-2 at the end of the first quarter, and getting it back to a five-, six-point ballgame, they deserve a lot of credit for coming out there.”
Goodwin showed out at the end of the game with the Bears leading 58-47 and needing to kill the final five minutes.
He stood above the top of the key and invited challenges from Watson Chapel defenders. Russell, Antonio Jenkins and Bailey took a few shots at stealing the ball, but Goodwin prevailed each time, scoring twice and assisting Featherston on the game’s final points.
“He took over there a little bit,” Davis said of Goodwin. “It gave him some lanes to drive the basketball, and he’s able to get all the way to the rim. Those were huge, and then at the end, we’re trying to run out clock; we’ve got the lead that we want.
“Archie is who he is, he can handle the ball with both hands. He’s a tough guy.”
Goodwin added a game-high eight rebounds to go with his 33 points. Smith added nine points, all on three-pointers, in the first quarter and Pearson scored seven.
Patton scored six points and Ziegler had five, eight rebounds and three steals.
Farrell led Watson Chapel with 18 points and seven rebounds and Bailey scored 11 points.
Leader sportswriter
Watson Chapel’s Jaymes Farrell did his best to put a damper on the Archie Goodwin show when he entered the game to start the second quarter against Sylvan Hills on Tues-day.
But despite Farrell’s 10 points that sparked a Wildcats’ comeback, the Bears prevailed 64-47 at Sylvan Hills.
Sylvan Hills (14-3, 5-0 5A-Southeast) shot 7 for 9 from behind the three-point line in the first quarter on the way to a 29-2 lead at the end of the period before Watson Chapel (9-6, 3-2) pulled to within 36-26 at halftime.
The Wildcats closed to within six points early in the fourth quarter before the Bears dialed up the defensive pressure and ate up the clock in the frontcourt with a methodical, 11-0 run down the stretch.
The victory keeps the first-place Bears a game ahead of North Pulaski in the 5A-Southeast.
The energetic, capacity crowd had plenty to be excited about with Kentucky coach John Calipari and Missouri coach Mike Anderson in the stands to watch Goodwin, and the junior five-star prospect delivered in a 33-point performance.
Goodwin lit it up immediately with 13 points in the first quarter before sitting out most of the second. In that time, Farrell rallied the Wildcats, who outscored the Bears 24-7 to help them recover from the shaky start and end the half in better shape.
“It’s hard to script one better than what we did at the beginning,” Sylvan Hills coach Kevin Davis said. “Everything that you run in your break is working– everything. We had to make adjustments, because 33 was doing really well.”
The Bears answered Farrell with defensive pressure from quick-handed Anthony Featherston, who limited the Watson Chapel standout to eight points in the second half.
“I don’t believe that if 33 would have been in the ballgame in the first quarter, the difference would have been that much,” Watson Chapel coach Danny Myatt said of Farrell, who sat out the opening period as punishment for a minor disciplinary infraction.
“We may have scored a little bit. Taking nothing away from Sylvan Hills, but they won’t shoot that ball that well in the first quarter the rest of the year.”
Trey Smith got things going with a three-point basket on the Bears’ opening possession. Larry Ziegler then scored on an ally-oop lay-in assisted by point guard Dion Patton, followed by Goodwin’s first points of the night on a three pointer from the right side.
Smith made it 11-0 with another three-pointer before pressuring Jovione Bailey into a traveling call near midcourt.
Patton got in on the scoring when he made a three pointer with 4:58 left in the first quarter to give the Bears a 14-0 lead, and Goodwin followed with two free throws. Smith completed his first-quarter hat trick with another three-pointer that gave Sylvan Hills a commanding 19-0 lead with 3:20 left in the first period.
Bailey finally got the Wildcats on the scoreboard with an inside jumper.
Goodwin ended the first quarter with a long three-point shot at the buzzer. Pressure from Bailey caused Goodwin to fall down as he launched the ball, but it swished through the net to the delight of the Bears fans.
“They couldn’t have shot the ball any better,” Myatt said of Sylvan Hills. “We missed some layups that could have helped us a little; it just kind of snowballed on us.”
Farrell quickly helped the Wildcats make up ground in the second quarter.
Darrell Russell hit two three-pointers early in the period to close the gap to 31-10 and Farrell led a 10-2 charge by Watson Chapel that cut it to 33-22 with 1:03 left in the half.
Devin Pearson scored in the lane and was sent to the line for a successful free throw for the Bears, but Farrell closed out the half with a dunk and a pair of free throws.
“They fought – they challenged back,” Myatt said.
“We could’ve gotten over the hump a little more, and that may have helped. Trailing 29-2 at the end of the first quarter, and getting it back to a five-, six-point ballgame, they deserve a lot of credit for coming out there.”
Goodwin showed out at the end of the game with the Bears leading 58-47 and needing to kill the final five minutes.
He stood above the top of the key and invited challenges from Watson Chapel defenders. Russell, Antonio Jenkins and Bailey took a few shots at stealing the ball, but Goodwin prevailed each time, scoring twice and assisting Featherston on the game’s final points.
“He took over there a little bit,” Davis said of Goodwin. “It gave him some lanes to drive the basketball, and he’s able to get all the way to the rim. Those were huge, and then at the end, we’re trying to run out clock; we’ve got the lead that we want.
“Archie is who he is, he can handle the ball with both hands. He’s a tough guy.”
Goodwin added a game-high eight rebounds to go with his 33 points. Smith added nine points, all on three-pointers, in the first quarter and Pearson scored seven.
Patton scored six points and Ziegler had five, eight rebounds and three steals.
Farrell led Watson Chapel with 18 points and seven rebounds and Bailey scored 11 points.
SPORTS>>Burgan on deck
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
Leader sports editor
Shayne Burgan is rudderless no more.
Not long ago, Burgan, a one-time catcher for the Cabot Panthers, found himself drifting between baseball and whatever comes next. Things weren’t panning out at Williams Baptist College, where Burgan couldn’t find the motivation to make his grades.
But that is no longer the case.
After hitting baseballs for the Panthers and Eagles, Burgan, who graduated in 2008, is set to fire torpedoes for the U.S. Navy. He ships out at the end of this month as a torpedo man on the U.S.S. Seawolf, a first-of-the- line nuclear submarine out of Bremerton, Wash.
For the first time in a few years, Burgan, who will earn his rating as a machinist’s mate weapons, feels his future is set and he has the direction he has sought since he wrapped up his high school career and took a stab at playing for Williams Baptist in Walnut Ridge.
“The military has definitely matured me, I feel,” Burgan said. “I especially feel it when I come home. I’m used to making myself better.”
Burgan hit close to .400 and played catcher as a Cabot junior. He was relegated mostly to designated-hitter duty as a senior to make way for an up-and-coming catcher in 2008, but still performed well enough to get a partial scholarship to Williams Baptist.
Burgan said things were fine when he was on the field, but not so good elsewhere.
“I was very focused on baseball,” Burgan said. “I didn’t have my focus where I needed to be on the books.”
Burgan moved home after a semester and enrolled at Arkansas State-Beebe.
“I hate the fact I had to leave baseball,” said Burgan, a committed St. Louis Cardinals fan. “It was my first true love. I had been playing since I was five years old.”
Burgan fared no better in the classrooms at Beebe, where he completed just three credit hours while also working at Wal-mart, and life seemed even emptier without baseball.
“I sat down and thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to do something,’ ” Burgan said.
Like many young men looking for direction, Burgan began to consider the military. His father, Garland Junior “Smokey” Burgan, had been in the Air Force and one of Shayne’s best friends, former Jacksonville football player Josh Dougherty, had gone into the Navy straight out of high school.
While Little Rock Air Force Base was close by, Burgan rejected the Air Force, and the Army too, because they seemed the easy, obvious choices. To avoid upsetting his mother, Nina, he also passed on the Marines and ruled out the Coast Guard because he wanted to work in a branch under the Department of the Defense.
The Coast Guard was reassigned to the Office of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
For Burgan, then, the Navy became the only real choice.
Though admittedly not the greatest when it comes to bookwork, Burgan still posted a high enough score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery and a separate exam to qualify him for the nuclear program at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Charleston, S.C.
But first he had to spend the better part of fall and winter at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago.
“It snowed literally every day and I absolutely hated it,” Burgan said in a nod to his Arkansas roots.
Burgan left for Charleston on Jan. 3, 2010 and there his old classroom problems surfaced as he washed out of the two-year nuclear program and found himself again in limbo, though this time it was the Navy’s version.
But the military in its wisdom found a new job for Burgan and shipped him to the torpedo school at Groton, Conn. —where it is more snowy than Chicago, Burgan noted — and that is where he has been until the present day.
Torpedo man is something of a naval misnomer, as Burgan also handles weapons ranging from Tomahawk missiles to 9 mm handguns. But the Navy traditionally calls its weapons guys torpedo men.
“We are known as torpedo men because it’s one of the oldest rates in the Navy,” Burgan said.
The Seawolf is so named because it was the first of the Seawolf Class nuclear submarines. Only three were placed into service before the Department of Defense opted for the Virginia class.
The Seawolf will patrol under the Western Pacific Command (WESTPAC) and Burgan, who will help operate eight forward torpedo tubes, is looking forward to ports of call in places like Australia, Japan and Thailand.
Beyond that, there is not much Burgan is allowed to reveal. He can’t talk about specific missions or locations and is sworn to secrecy even after he leaves the Navy.
“It’s called the silent service for a reason,” Burgan said.
Burgan met his girlfriend, medical school student Sierra Barrick, while in Charleston. He has three years on his current contract and she has three years of med school left.
Burgan is leaning toward reenlisting at least once, because that would give him one more year of sea duty and allow him to spend the rest of his stretch on shore and give him more time with Barrick.
In his dark winter uniform, Burgan still looks like he could block a plate or swat a baseball and has filled out some since his high school days. At Cabot, he was a teammate of Sam Bates, who signed with the Arkansas Razorbacks out of junior college last year and was then drafted by the Florida Marlins in June.
Burgan recalled leaving an Arkansas hog call on Bates’ phone when he heard the news of Bates’ college deal.
“It makes me feel great just to know that I even played with him,” Burgan said. “You still have that old brotherhood from playing ball.”
Burgan said he would have liked to try out for the armed forces team based in San Diego, but it would be logistically difficult given his submarine job.
So Burgan, who sold his catcher’s gear on eBay, is looking toward his future on the Seawolf, and maybe down the line with Barrick, and not so much his past on the baseball diamond.
But he will always keep the game close to his heart.
“As soon as I have a son,” Burgan said. “As soon as I have a son, he’s going to have a baseball glove sitting there with him.”
Not long ago, Burgan, a one-time catcher for the Cabot Panthers, found himself drifting between baseball and whatever comes next. Things weren’t panning out at Williams Baptist College, where Burgan couldn’t find the motivation to make his grades.
But that is no longer the case.
After hitting baseballs for the Panthers and Eagles, Burgan, who graduated in 2008, is set to fire torpedoes for the U.S. Navy. He ships out at the end of this month as a torpedo man on the U.S.S. Seawolf, a first-of-the- line nuclear submarine out of Bremerton, Wash.
For the first time in a few years, Burgan, who will earn his rating as a machinist’s mate weapons, feels his future is set and he has the direction he has sought since he wrapped up his high school career and took a stab at playing for Williams Baptist in Walnut Ridge.
“The military has definitely matured me, I feel,” Burgan said. “I especially feel it when I come home. I’m used to making myself better.”
Burgan hit close to .400 and played catcher as a Cabot junior. He was relegated mostly to designated-hitter duty as a senior to make way for an up-and-coming catcher in 2008, but still performed well enough to get a partial scholarship to Williams Baptist.
Burgan said things were fine when he was on the field, but not so good elsewhere.
“I was very focused on baseball,” Burgan said. “I didn’t have my focus where I needed to be on the books.”
Burgan moved home after a semester and enrolled at Arkansas State-Beebe.
“I hate the fact I had to leave baseball,” said Burgan, a committed St. Louis Cardinals fan. “It was my first true love. I had been playing since I was five years old.”
Burgan fared no better in the classrooms at Beebe, where he completed just three credit hours while also working at Wal-mart, and life seemed even emptier without baseball.
“I sat down and thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to do something,’ ” Burgan said.
Like many young men looking for direction, Burgan began to consider the military. His father, Garland Junior “Smokey” Burgan, had been in the Air Force and one of Shayne’s best friends, former Jacksonville football player Josh Dougherty, had gone into the Navy straight out of high school.
While Little Rock Air Force Base was close by, Burgan rejected the Air Force, and the Army too, because they seemed the easy, obvious choices. To avoid upsetting his mother, Nina, he also passed on the Marines and ruled out the Coast Guard because he wanted to work in a branch under the Department of the Defense.
The Coast Guard was reassigned to the Office of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
For Burgan, then, the Navy became the only real choice.
Though admittedly not the greatest when it comes to bookwork, Burgan still posted a high enough score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery and a separate exam to qualify him for the nuclear program at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Charleston, S.C.
But first he had to spend the better part of fall and winter at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago.
“It snowed literally every day and I absolutely hated it,” Burgan said in a nod to his Arkansas roots.
Burgan left for Charleston on Jan. 3, 2010 and there his old classroom problems surfaced as he washed out of the two-year nuclear program and found himself again in limbo, though this time it was the Navy’s version.
But the military in its wisdom found a new job for Burgan and shipped him to the torpedo school at Groton, Conn. —where it is more snowy than Chicago, Burgan noted — and that is where he has been until the present day.
Torpedo man is something of a naval misnomer, as Burgan also handles weapons ranging from Tomahawk missiles to 9 mm handguns. But the Navy traditionally calls its weapons guys torpedo men.
“We are known as torpedo men because it’s one of the oldest rates in the Navy,” Burgan said.
The Seawolf is so named because it was the first of the Seawolf Class nuclear submarines. Only three were placed into service before the Department of Defense opted for the Virginia class.
The Seawolf will patrol under the Western Pacific Command (WESTPAC) and Burgan, who will help operate eight forward torpedo tubes, is looking forward to ports of call in places like Australia, Japan and Thailand.
Beyond that, there is not much Burgan is allowed to reveal. He can’t talk about specific missions or locations and is sworn to secrecy even after he leaves the Navy.
“It’s called the silent service for a reason,” Burgan said.
Burgan met his girlfriend, medical school student Sierra Barrick, while in Charleston. He has three years on his current contract and she has three years of med school left.
Burgan is leaning toward reenlisting at least once, because that would give him one more year of sea duty and allow him to spend the rest of his stretch on shore and give him more time with Barrick.
In his dark winter uniform, Burgan still looks like he could block a plate or swat a baseball and has filled out some since his high school days. At Cabot, he was a teammate of Sam Bates, who signed with the Arkansas Razorbacks out of junior college last year and was then drafted by the Florida Marlins in June.
Burgan recalled leaving an Arkansas hog call on Bates’ phone when he heard the news of Bates’ college deal.
“It makes me feel great just to know that I even played with him,” Burgan said. “You still have that old brotherhood from playing ball.”
Burgan said he would have liked to try out for the armed forces team based in San Diego, but it would be logistically difficult given his submarine job.
So Burgan, who sold his catcher’s gear on eBay, is looking toward his future on the Seawolf, and maybe down the line with Barrick, and not so much his past on the baseball diamond.
But he will always keep the game close to his heart.
“As soon as I have a son,” Burgan said. “As soon as I have a son, he’s going to have a baseball glove sitting there with him.”
Thursday, January 27, 2011
TOP STORY >> Jacksonville military museum lands C-130
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writerA C-130 will soon leave Little Rock Air Force Base for a permanent position just a mile or so away next to the Jacksonville Museum of Military History off Main Street.
DannaKay Duggar, museum director, made the announcement at the recent meeting of the city’s advertising and promotion commission, adding that the museum may possibly need the commission’s help in funding the cost of the concrete pad needed to display the aircraft. The commission helped the museum about two years ago with the concrete pad that holds the F-15 on the south side of the museum.
The C-130, which will be one of the recently decommissioned E models, will be placed on the north side of the museum. If all goes right, it should be on display in September to help celebrate the base’s birthday.
This will be the second C-130 display in the area. The other is at the base’s Heritage Park.
Warren Dupree, curator and catchall for the museum, said the organization has been working on getting a C-130 for a number of years now. “It’s been an on-again, off-again proposition, that is on, we hope for sure, this time,” he said.
Dupree said the museum has had a C-130 “with its name on it for about a year and half,” but has been taking care of all the red tape. “We are happy to finally be on the homestretch. We look at this as a major recycling project. Instead of the plane going to the bone yard, it’s coming to us,” he said.
The C-130 first joined the Air Force fleet in December 1956. The C-130E models, at a cost of about $12 million apiece, first hit the skies for the Air Force in August 1962.
When asked if there was enough space for the nearly 98-foot-long aircraft and its 133-foot wingspan, Dupree said without a doubt. He and Joan Zumwalt had spent a hot July day a number of years ago taking very careful measurements. Those measurements were then verified by a consulting engineer. “We have the space,” Dupree said.
Dupree said the museum can’t calculate a true cost of the pad yet. “We are waiting to find out everything we need, but we will have it ready,” he said.
The museum may go back to the A&P commission to ask for funding to build the pad and cover other costs to display the C-130, but at the meeting the commission approved its 2011 budget, which already includes $43,000 in assistance to the museum.
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