Pottsville rebounds, rolling on
Everything seems to have fallen into place for Pottsville, which is ranked No. 6 in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Class 4A Super Six.
The Apaches’ starting quarterback is back from injury, the defense is holding opponents to 22 points per game and young players have filled into the starting lineup to give Pottsville (5-1, 4-0 4A-4) its best start since 2012.
“I knew we could be pretty good because last year. We played a lot of sophomores, lot of young guys, so they got a lot of experience,” Pottsville Coach Bryan Rust said. “I was really worried up front, how that was going to work out. Defensively, I felt good. Offensively, we’ve had some guys come to develop and fill in some spots.”
Rust said he felt he had a similar group a year ago, but a seasonending meniscus injury to sophomore quarterback Miller Mahan left Pottsville without an answer, finishing 6-5 and falling to eventual state champion Malvern in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs.
After offseason surgery to repair the injury, Mahan is back and flourishing.
“Getting him back as a junior, we knew he was going to make a huge difference for us,” Rust said. “And he just keeps getting better every game. So it’s been a huge lift for us.”
Last week against Bauxite, Mahan totaled 111 passing yards, 112 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns in a 40-14 win.
Mahan’s first varsity game came in Pottsville’s season-opener, a 51-0 thumping at the hands of Elkins. Rust called the game “a perfect storm” of things that could have gone wrong, playing on the road and inexperience.
Since that game, the Apaches have won all five of their games, four by more than a touchdown, and are leading the 4A-4 Conference standings.
“[For] some teams, that could really hurt, having a showing like that,” Rust said.
“But our guys really responded. [They] didn’t want that to happen again. And they’ve been working hard ever since, trying to get better.”
Pottsville will have its toughest test yet in conference play Friday as it hosts Central Arkansas Christian, the No. 2 team in the conference.
The Mustangs (5-1, 3-1), under first-year Coach Ryan Howard, are averaging 45.7 points per game. CAC quarterback Grayson Wilson has thrown for 1,674 yards and 20 touchdowns and is also a running threat.
The 4A-4, made up of nine teams, has been a gauntlet this season. All but one team has a conference win and five have more than one.
“I would say for the most part, we’re kind of a run-heavy league,” Rust said.
“CAC, they don’t mind running the ball, they don’t mind throwing it. They stay pretty simple. They’re not going to do anything fancy, they just want to do it as fast as humanly possible.
“It’s definitely something we’ve had to work on in practice all week. But we got to be prepared for it because there’s no slowing down when they get the ball.”
JONESBORO
Step by step
Off the back of a threewin season, its fewest since 2007, the Jonesboro Golden Hurricane are under different leadership.
It’s not new. First-year Coach Tyler George was with the team last season as defensive coordinator. But it’s undoubtedly different.
Jonesboro is 1-4 overall and 1-2 in the 7A-Central in his first season.
The process of turning Jonesboro back into a contender, this time in the state’s top classification and one of its toughest conferences, will not be easy — or quick.
“We’re just trying to build it from the foundation up,” George said. “I’m really just talking about our culture, getting it to what I believe and how I want it. And that takes time. It’s hard on the kids at times as well because it’s different, you know, and I tell people all the time, yeah, we do have talent, but again, we have kids who really haven’t had to be in the spotlight and be playmakers.”
For the Golden Hurricane’s seniors, there is no next season. That group will be done come December whether Jonesboro wins or loses its remaining five regular season games. But George is challenging that group to make the most of what time they have left.
“I tell our guys all the time, I’m always going to be honest, you know? Whether it’s good or it’s bad, I’m gonna be honest with them,” He said. “I told our seniors on Monday, I said, ‘Listen fellas. You have a choice. You can either make the best of the rest of this year, or you can call it quits. That choice is only you personally as an individual.’ Our sophomores and juniors, they won’t have a choice once the season’s over. We get the offseason with them and things will be ran the way that I want them run. But those seniors, they do have a choice.
“The good thing is, I’ve been around. I have those relationships with a lot of our seniors. They believe in me and in what we’re doing and really, they want to be the staple for whenever they do come back and say, ‘Yeah, we started that. We had a big part in the success that they’re having now.’ And that comes with pride.”
EXTRA POINTS Country roads
With the limited number of schools in Class 7A and 6A, the four conferences encompass a larger area of the state than many of those in the lower classifications.
Long road trips, like the ones 5A-2A schools make during the early rounds of the playoffs, are routine amongst the state’s top classifications.
In the 6A-East, Greene County Tech has made trips to Little Rock and Jacksonville this season. In between, it hosted El Dorado after a 270-mile trip to Northeast Arkansas.
In the 6A-West, Mountain Home played at Lake Hamilton on Sept. 15, a trip just over 200 miles.
On Friday, Fort Smith Northside will nearly go border-to-border as it travels to Jonesboro for a 7A-Central game, while its crosstown rival, Fort Smith Southside stays home to host Fayetteville in the 7A-West.