Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Booneville getting lots of attention after dropping back to Class 3A
Booneville returns 19 starters from a 10-win team and drops from Class 4A to 3A.
That makes the Bearcats not only the preseason conference favorite but also a state title contender.
Lamar coach Josh Jones, a Booneville graduate, understands the tradition and also knows there’s plenty of talent there, too. He now has to figure out how to compete with them.
“They’re gonna be pretty tough,” Jones said. “They’ve got a really strong senior class. About every publication has them ranked number one in 3A. They return about everybody from a quarterfinal team in 4A. If you’re Booneville, what’s not to like about it?”
Booneville coach Scott Hyatt said the Bearcats are essentially the same team as a year ago but with a key difference.
“Just a year older, we lost a couple seniors that contributed quite a bit,” Hyatt
said. “This year’s gonna go how the kids want it to go. What they put into it, their attitudes and their efforts.
“We’ve got our whole starting offensive line back. We won the overall state weight meet this year, so pretty strong right now. The biggest thing we don’t have right is that dude that can just break away and go. We’re not slow, but we’re not fast.”
A healthy Brandon Ulmer should help the Bearcats’ cause. The senior quarterback
is a two-way threat, rushing for a team-high 762 yards and throwing for 810 more despite missing 1½ games with a partial tear of his posterior cruciate ligament.
He returned late in the season, after being fitted with a brace. But Hyatt acknowledged Ulmer, who also plays safety, wasn’t full speed.
Ulmer is far from Booneville’s lone offensive weapon, which also includes senior all-conference fullback Carson Ray, all-conference halfback Mike Hesson
and senior receiver Ethan Dobbs.
The Bearcats’ move down in classification also sets up a nice conference matchup against longtime rival Charleston, which rolled through the league undefeated a year ago and lost in the state quarterfinals.
Booneville, Charleston and Lamar move into a revamped 3A-1 Conference that includes Greenland, West Fork, Paris, Mansfield and Cedarville, while Atkins, Perryville and Two Rivers remain in the 3A-4.
Tigers coach Greg Kendrick said his team is different from a year ago, after the graduation of standout Sean Michael Flanagan, who is now at Oklahoma State after piling up almost 5,000 career all-purpose yards and 67 touchdowns.
“That’s comparing apples to oranges,” Kendrick said. “We’re finding our identity post-Sean Michael, which is a hard pill to swallow for me. When you lose someone that’s just special. Not only special as a player, but as a young man.
“We’re still gonna pride ourself with a defense that swarms the football. That’s our identity. Way before I ever got here, and we’ll win way after I leave, and that’s due to a defense that swarms the football. That goes back to the early ’80s here. We won’t be as
explosive, but at the same time we feel like we have a lot of weapons that haven’t been shown yet.”
Quarterback Brayden Caudle is a key returner for Charleston. He threw for 2,792 yards and 38 touchdowns, but only four interceptions for the Tigers, who went 12-1 a year ago.
Both Kendrick and Hyatt agree the rivalry between the schools is intense.
“We’ve played or scrimmaged them every year since I’ve been here, and it’s been a bloodbath,” Kendrick said. “It’s a physical, physical game. You hope to get out of that scrimmage healthy.
“When you heard they were coming down that’s all the communities wanted to talk about. Being a stone’s throw away, maybe 10 minutes as the crow flies. It’ll be a heated one.”
Lamar returns eight starters on each
side of the ball from a team that finished 5-6. But Jones said his Warriors are one of several teams in the league that are much improved this season.
“Mansfield and Cedarville feel like they’ve got the best teams they’ve had in several years,” Jones said. “I think the entire league will be competitive.”