Tigers learn from last year’s showdown

Bentonville coach Jody Grant said some things that happened during last year’s game against Bentonville West proved to be beneficial when preparing for Friday’s showdown against the Wolverines.

“It’s the experience of playing in an environment that I expect to have Friday night,” Grant said. “You have to reflect back on that and take some stuff. It’s going to be an awesome environment, and I’m glad to be part of it.

“Schematically, we’ve evaluated some of the things we’ve done, and I’m sure they are too. It’s different teams, but for them, they have a lot of the same bodies still over there. For us, we have some different faces and some of them will see significant time in this game for the first time.”

The two teams, just like they did last year, will play for the outright 7A-West Conference championship and the league’s top playoff seed. Regardless of the outcome, both Bentonville (6-3, 6-0) and Bentonville West (6-3, 6-0) will enjoy a first-round bye in the playoffs before hosting a quarterfinal game.

That allows both teams to go a little more out for this game, knowing they have two weeks to prepare for their next game.

“Knowing you have that bye in the playoffs is a game-changer in that sense,” Grant said. “You won’t know who your opponent is for the first week, but you can predict and plan. But this is the final regular-season game, and we’re going to go all in and hope our kids will perform well.”