Scrappers aim for undefeated regular season
NASHVILLE, Ark.—Secondranked Nashville will have one more big test to pass to be able to capture an undefeated regular season in Mike Volarvich’s first year as head football coach.
“Sometimes as a coach, you may have an unrealistic expectation of what you’re trying to get accomplished,” Volarvich said. “It’s good to set your goals high—almost unattainable—so if you do miss and just fall short, you’re still going to be in a pretty good place. The one thing we talk about is just to get better every day. We don’t worry about our opponent as much as we want to take care of the things we can control.”
The Scrappers (7-0, 4-0) host Mena, play at Malvern, and finish the regular season at home against Bauxite. Mena and Bauxite are a combined 2-12, while Malvern (5-2, 3-1) plays at Fountain Lake (5-2, 3-1) this week.
“Whether it’s one of the tougher opponents in our conference, one of the teams from the bottom of the standings, or a playoff opponent, we approach every game concentrating on Nashville and what we need to do,” Volarvich said. “We want to eliminate the mental mistakes and eliminate the errors. I don’t feel like there’s been any surprises. Ultimately this is still
football, with 11 guys lining up against 11 guys.”
The Scrappers’ drive and work ethic have contributed to the success.
“I’ve been really happy with the guys’ work ethic from the first day,” Volarvich said. “The coaches I have here do a great job with those guys of demanding the work ethic. When they get on the field it’s just a reflection of what they’ve done in the weight room and offseason. A nice thing is that they just compete when they get on the field.”
While building the perfect record over the past two months, Nashville has experienced some spots of adversity and responded positively.
“We’ve been in several close games: We played Hope and Fountain Lake to 1-point games, got down to Arkadelphia a couple of touchdowns early,” the coach said. “These guys battled back. In the Arkadelphia game one of the players said to me, ‘Don’t worry coach. We’ve got this.’ There are a lot of peaks and valleys to this game, and especially in high school with the 12-minute quarters, you can’t afford to go down a couple of scores a bunch of times. But to face adversity and have the kids have the confidence of we’re going to get this done and fight through it has been nice.”
Quarterback Leonard Snell has completed 56 of 125 passes for 825 yards, four TDs and two interceptions. He has also rushed for 942 yards and 14 touchdowns on 116 carries. Junior tailback Darius Hopkins has 108 rushes for 803 yards and 14 TDs, and sophomore Trent Harris has 45 carries for 427 yards—a 9.5 yard average—with six TDs.
De’ajeon Armstrong (17 catches, 326 yards, 2 TDs), Trey Hughes (15, 313, 2) and Andrew Hawthorne (10, 141) lead the receiving corps.
Defensively, Ashton Nelson has 60 tackles and four fumble recoveries to lead the Scrappers, and Billy Stewart had 49 stops with 12 sacks. Garrett Gordon has 47 tackles, and Terell Grundy adds 45 tackles and five sacks. Armstrong, Shaundell Scott and Kailus Hughes have two interceptions apiece.
Nashville has 23 seniors on its roster and almost as many juniors.
“One of the things I was told early was that we had a large senior class but there was not great senior leadership,” Volarvich said. “The guys didn’t hold each other accountable. One thing in the offseason we tried to address and really focus on was developing senior leadership.
“My group of seniors is a unique group; they’re a loose group but are pretty tight with each other. They joke around, like to have fun. Sometimes at practice you want to pull your hair out because they’re kind of loose out there, but when the lights come on on Friday nights they know what they need to do and focus. As the season has progressed, the leadership has gotten better, and guys have stepped up.”