State playoffs the goal this season for Coach Daryl Patton, Bauxite.
Bauxite went from a winless season to four victories in 2017, undergoing one of the state’s most surprising turnarounds.
As Coach Daryl Patton enters his third season with the Miners, he was clear during Friday’s 7-4A Conference media day at Joe T. Robinson in Little Rock that his team expects to reach the Class 4A playoffs this season.
“I like where we’re at,” Patton said. “I think we’re going in the right direction. We talk about it each day with our kids: The playoffs are our goal. If we don’t make the playoffs, we’re not going to be real happy in Bauxite.
“But we’ve got a chance to compete and make the playoffs.”
The Miners were 0-10 in 2016 in Patton’s first year after he spent the previous 13 years in Fayetteville, where he won four Class 7A state championships. Last season, Bauxite snapped a 13-game losing streak by defeating Glen Rose 22-21 in the second week of the season. Bauxite was 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the 7-4A, but lost its final four games to miss the playoffs.
“We took our bumps two years ago,” Patton said. “We battled through it. We’re battle tested. We’re bigger, faster and stronger.
“We’re excited about our football team, but we also
know this is the toughest conference in the state.”
If Patton’s Miners are to reach the playoffs, they’ll have to do so against a schedule that features defending state champion Arkadelphia, state semifinalist Joe T. Robinson and perennial power Nashville.
Bauxite returns
18 starters, including quarterback Seth McDowell and running back Dawson Dabbs, both seniors. The
Miners have 62 players in the program as of Friday.
“We feel really confident this year,” Dabbs said. “We’ve all been working really hard. We feel like this can be a good year. We’ve got faith.”
The Miners open the season against Conway Christian on Aug. 25 at North Little Rock.
NASHVILLE Bigger goals
After winning the Class 4A state championship in 2015, Nashville has seen its season end in the second round the past two years.
Senior wide receivers Jordon White and Jamarta Gilliam understand the expectations of the footballcrazed town. The team’s 24-21 second-round loss at Booneville motivates the seniors as they enter their final season with the Scrappers, who have won five state titles.
“Our expectations are high,” White said. “We didn’t have very many wins. We had some games we shouldn’t have lost. I think we’ll have a good season [in 2018].”
Leadership was one issue Gilliam pointed to as to why the Scrappers finished with an 8-4 record and a secondround exit.
“We didn’t work as a team,” he said.
Nashville Coach Mike Volarvich led the Scrappers to the 2015 Class 4A title. Entering his fourth year in Nashville, Volarvich is aware of the state championship expectations.
“That’s what I was hired to do,” Volarvich said. “That’s what our community wants. That’s what our administration wants. That’s what our players want.
“We put pressure on ourselves to get there. Hopefully, we’ll work and have an opportunity to get there.”
BEARDEN Filling in holes
The Arkansas Activities Association’s approval of eight-man football as a club sport for the 2018 and 2019 seasons in June changed the landscape of Class 2A and 3A football.
Augusta, Decatur, Episcopal Collegiate, Hermitage and Woodlawn are the five AAA schools that will play eight-man football. Two non-AAA schools, Arkansas Christian Academy in Bryant and the Arkansas School for the Deaf in Little Rock, also will play eight-man football.
With the departures of those schools, the schedules for the 6-3A, 3-2A, 4-2A and 8-2A conferences were affected.
Bearden, an 8-2A Conference member, had to scramble to fill its two open dates after hiring a new coach, Trey Outlaw, in June. Outlaw said that one of the issues he had with scheduling was a team can play only three nonconference games in a season. Typically, a team plays its nonconference games during the first three weeks of the season, but with the addition of Zero Week this year, teams can play their three out-of-league games in the first four weeks. Bearden, along with other teams affected by the eightman departures, were able to schedule a nonconference team during the open dates as long as it was one of three nonconference games on its schedule.
The Bears filled their two open dates. They will play Cross County in a Week Five game Sept. 28 in Stuttgart and travel to Lake Village in a Week Nine game Oct. 26.
“I had to look up every schedule and see who was playing eight-man football,” Outlaw said. “We wanted to play somewhere close to home. That left very few teams left for us to play.”
The Cross CountyBearden game will be on an artificial turf field at Ned Mosley Stadium in Stuttgart, which Outlaw said is special for his team.
“We’re almost treating it like a bowl game,” Outlaw said. “It was real important to get 10 games in.”
Outlaw, a former assistant coach at Wynne, is installing the Show Gun offense and the 4-2-5 defense at Bearden. He’s been pleased with how the Bears have transitioned.
“The kids have done a good job of buying in,” Outlaw said. “We’re asking them to do something new. They’ve been great with it. Our numbers have risen. We’ve had 33-35 kids from about 27. We’re gaining kids each week.
EXTRA POINTS
Junction City will play Hector in a Week Nine game Oct. 26 at CarpenterHaygood Stadium on the campus of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Coach Steven Jones announced last week on Twitter. The addition of Hector to the Dragons’ schedule was necessary after Woodlawn dropped from 11-man to eight-man football. … Chris Babb has switched positions from Arkadelphia athletic director to the school’s communications director. The Cabot native was in charge of an athletic department that saw the football program win its first state championship since 1987 last season. … Fall practice for high school football teams begins Monday, July 30. Players must practice in helmets only for the first two practices, then can switch to helmets and shoulder pads. Once a team has had five practices, it can wear full gear.