Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
5A-West challenges awaiting Pea Ridge
Hello, Blackhawks. Goodbye, Eagles.
That’s a significant change in the 5A-West Conference, where Pea Ridge will replace Huntsville in football for the 2020-2022 reclassification cycle. The addition of Pea Ridge will make a tough 5A-West Conference even tougher, where the Blackhawks will trade games against Class 4A teams with programs like Harrison, Alma, and Morrilton.
Huntsville, which has struggled for several years in football, will drop down and play in the 4A-1 Conference.
Pea Ridge loaded up with nonconference games against Class 5A schools the past two years in anticipation of its move to the 5A-West. The Blackhawks started 0-3 last season following losses to Harrison, Maumelle, and Farmington, but still recovered to finish 8-5 overall after losing 21-14 to Ozark in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A state playoffs.
The Blackhawks, who won 13 games in 2016 and 12 games in 2017, will make their 5A-West Conference debut at Alma on Sept. 25.
“We played six games against 5A schools the last two years,” Pea Ridge Coach Stephen Neal said. “Even in our benefit games, we played Siloam Springs and Rogers, and we’ve played in 7-on-7 games at places like Bentonville West. We saw what was coming.”
The Arkansas Activities Association cancelled all spring sports Thursday, which eliminates spring practice for the high school football programs across the state. The news is especially tough for coaches like Rusty Bush, who takes
over at Alma after 14 years as an assistant coach at Fort Smith Northside.
Bush replaces Doug Loughridge, who stepped down as coach to concentrate fully on his job as athletic director.
“Fortunately, I was hired on Jan. 16, so I got to spend a little time with the team,” said Bush, who is originally from Fordyce. “Normally, you start with the fundamentals with your players and then put in the scheme, so we’re working backward. I hired an offensive coordinator and a defensive coordinator and we’re going to do our special teams differently. We’re putting it all in on-line and that’s a tough road. Nobody ever taught you how to coach off a computer.”
Farmington was in the same position as Pea Ridge in 2014 when the Cardinals moved from the 1-4A to the 5A-West Conference. Farmington made the playoffs last year and finished 6-4 overall after being eliminated by Harrison.
“Tony Travis got it rolling at Pea Ridge and Pea Ridge has a great program with Stephen Neal up there,” Farmington Coach Mike
Adams said. “The biggest thing for us coming into the league was the depth issue. The 5A-West is a physical conference. It’s in their DNA. Everyone is pretty well beat up by Week 7 or 8 and, if you don’t have the depth, you’re not going to be as successful.”
Harrison has been a dominant team of late in the 5A-West and the Goblins finished 11-1 last season after losing to 28-21 to eventual state champion Pulaski Academy in the playoffs. But Harrison has to replace an exceptional senior class led by Gabe Huskey, a three-time all-state running back, quarterback Ben Johnson, and linebacker Brooks Both, who’ll be a walk-on this season at Arkansas.
Pea Ridge will be on the road more in its move from the 4A-1 to the 5A-West Conference. Farmington and Alma are relatively close but the league is spread out toward the east with Greenbrier and Vilonia, which are both about 200 miles away from Pea Ridge.
“We’re going to have to learn to travel,” Neal said. “It’s a challenge and we’re going into a league where they play physical football. We graduated a really good class but our numbers are good and we’ve got some big linemen coming up we’re really excited about.”