Teams get ready as conference play set to start

The 4A-1 Conference has a few new looks this season, including a split into two divisions. The league now has nine teams instead of the normal eight, which led to a decision by the schools’ athletic directors to split them into two divisions. The West Division consists of Farmington, Gentry, Gravette, Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove, while Berryville, Harrison, Huntsville and Shiloh Christian form the East Division. Instead of the usual double round-robin format, each team plays the teams in their division twice and plays one game against each of the teams in the other division. All conference games will still count in the standings. “With nine teams, that means there would have been 16 conference games under the regular format,” Pea Ridge athletic director Kevin Ramey said. “The Arkansas Activities Association only allows 20 regular-season games with two tournaments or 18 games with three tournaments. “By going to the two divisions, it reduces the number of conference games and gives coaches a little flexibility as far as scheduling goes. It also makes it a little better for coaches to develop their teams before conference play starts.” Ramey pointed out that, under the normal format, the 4A-1 might have had to start scheduling conference games in November. That would have made things difficult on teams who rely on players who also play football, and those teams make deep runs into the playoffs, such as Shiloh Christian or Harrison. “It’s certainly different,” Gravette boys coach Matt Busch said. “We still had to schedule second games against Shiloh Christian and Huntsville to fill our schedule. It’s a bit confusing at times because we still have fans wondering if games against certain schools are still conference games or not.”