Razorbacks close in on conference crown
After a little over a decade of starving for success, Arkansas High is finally eating again.
The Razorbacks, who have not won a conference championship since the back-to-back state championship runs in 2006 and 2007, find themselves one win away from at least a tie for the Conference 5A-South crown.
Two wins would guarantee an outright conference championship.
“We thought we had a chance to have a really great football team coming into the season,” Arkansas High head coach Barry Norton said. “We have some great players, kids who have played a lot of football and have experience since their sophomore years. Our summer program was really good, and we had a great buy-in from the kids.
“That’s really when the fun started is when they bought into the system. Coming in, we knew we would have a chance to do what we are doing if we just trusted each other.”
A big portion of the Hogs’ success this year comes from recognizing their weaknesses, and according to Norton, one of the best ways to do that is from a loss. With just one of those on their résumé, they went straight to work after the 43-35 defeat to crosstown rival Texas High.
“Thing about losses is they expose you,” Norton said. “It opens your eyes to the things you did poorly and need to work on. There were things we did bad in that game, like kick coverage, and we just did an overall bad job. … but we went back to work and we corrected a lot of those mistakes.
“Winning hides a lot of your problems if you’re not careful. But when you do lose that ballgame, your eyes open to a lot of things, and that has made us a better football team going forward.”
Facing adversity head-on is another area where Arkansas High has excelled.
An example of that came in their victory over Liberty-Eylau, when starting running back Jordan Hall suffered an injury and hasn’t been on the field since. Cameron Collier stepped into the role and has exceeded expectations, with 748 yards and 10 touchdowns on 78 carries. He also has scored on an interception, a fumble return and a kickoff return.
“It’s really heartbreaking to lose a guy like Hall that early in the year because he’s really special to us,” Norton said. “Now, all of the sudden, you have lost a great player. But then you have a guy like Cam, who stepped in and did a tremendous job replacing him. But now you have to replace Cam on defense, and that just weakens your team as you go through the motions.
“As far as adversity goes, the kids have approached it really well—it’s always the next man up and someone has to take that job and run with it, which they have.”
Arkansas High will need that tenacity going forward, starting with its next game against Hope on Friday at Hammons Stadium in the inaugural Battle of the Bridge and next week when it hosts De Queen in the regular-season finale.
Hope (1-7, 1-4) has been a scrimmage opponent for years but has been on the schedule occasionally. The Bobcats come into the contest with a first-year coach and seem to be a team that could potentially be on the rise after a long drought that saw them winless for three seasons prior.
And, not to be overlooked, there’s hardware involved for the winner.
“We talked about this game, and we’ve said if there’s a trophy, we want to win it.” Norton said. “This is going to be something neat. Most of the kids already know each other, and the trophy will bring another level of excitement to it on top of it already being a conference game. Hopefully, this will be a great rivalry that will last for seasons to come.”
As Arkansas High wraps up regular season and approaches its first conference championship in 10 years, they will have another target in their sights: a trip to Little Rock.
“Our first goal is to be conference champions, and that helps us reach our ultimate goal of becoming state champions,” Norton said. “All of those things are still ahead of us. It’s a long journey.”