Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Coaches, Athletes: Merry Christmas
Last week, the Enterprise-Leader engaged basketball coaches and student-athletes drawing out Christmas salutations. Responses varied from concern for colleagues, wonder at a breakthrough victory over a mentor, to genuine appreciation for fan and community support, to emphasis of valuing family and faith to cope with holiday tragedy.
Emilianne Slamons
Lincoln head girls basketball coach Emilianne Slamons has a message for her high school coach and mentor, Greenland head coach Alan Barton.
Get well soon.
Barton was scheduled for knee surgery on Friday, Dec. 13. Meanwhile Greenland girls basketball assistant coach Zach Tenberge was also recovering from a recent surgery.
The fact that Barton’s program and the Lady Pirates represent a conference opponent for Lincoln didn’t prevent Slamons from extending holiday greetings and wishing Greenland’s staff a quick recovery.
“Well, Coach B, I wish you a ‘Merry Christmas’ and I hope that you are off your crutches,” Slamons said. “And you better come back crutch-free so everybody sees you back healthy. Zach’s not doing his best. Zach’s just got out of surgery so I wish him a ‘Merry Christmas,’ too; and hopefully he’s back, too. You know, both coaches can’t be sick at Greenland so Coach B you better get good.”
Michelle Lumsargis
Lincoln assistant girls basketball coach Michelle Lumsargis graduated from Prairie Grove High School in 2012 and was part of Lady Tiger coach Kevin Froud’s 21-game winning streak against Lincoln between the Lady Wolves’ last win in the series, 52-32, on Jan. 20, 2006 until Tuesday, Dec. 10, when Lincoln knocked off the Lady Tigers 49-48.
Lumsargis did her internship at Lincoln serving as a volunteer assistant girls basketball coach for the 2017-18 season. Lincoln came close losing 32-30 at Prairie Grove on Jan. 6, 2017, and went into overtime before being upended, 58-50, on Feb. 2, 2018. She’s had her fingers crossed each time the rivalry came up.
“The moment that I got to Lincoln there was one game that I always wanted to win and it’s been Prairie Grove. So, I’ve been at Lincoln four years now, and so it’s been four years waiting for this game to happen. I always knew to circle that day, this is the game, and every year we’ve had a chance,” Lumsargis said. “Every year we competed really hard and this year it felt right. I felt like this is going to be our year and the girls pulled it off. They played extremely hard. They listened to Coach (Slamons). They listened to both of us and they did what they had to do to win.”
Lumsargis holds Froud in high regard calling him “an absolutely amazing coach,” who is the reason why she’s in the profession.
“What he did for me I hope to do for my girls and it was nice to have a little competition. That’s the way he helped us,” Lumsargis said, explaining Froud’s philosophy is to build competition against anybody no matter who it is or who you are.
“So, coaching for three years for me and for him, who knows how many, it was nice to beat him,” she said.
Beau Thompson
Farmington head boys basketball coach Beau Thompson sends his holiday sentiments out to fans of Cardinal basketball noting the school attracts an uncommon local turnout.
“We’ve got the greatest fans in the world, win, lose or draw. We appreciate all the support we get from our administration, from our school board, extend it again to all our fans,” Thompson said. “We’re one of the few schools left that still has casual fans.
If you go to most big schools the only fans you see are parents, parents of the players. We still have a casual fan, who doesn’t have a kid playing, who just comes to watch Farmington play.”
“In this day and age that’s special.” Thompson recently talked to two or three sets of parents of kids who played in the past. Those fans come to Cardinal Arena and they just want to watch the high school kids play.
“There’s very few towns like that anymore especially our size that are a big town, but a small town, too,” Thompson said. “So, we really appreciate our fans.”
Brad Johnson
Farmington girls basketball coach Brad Johnson enjoys the Christmas season. His program purposely cultivates a family-type atmosphere as a routine practice — something he perceives as a community base.
“Christmastime is my favorite time of the year. It always is. I think it’s a wonderful time that brings people close together and certainly I wish our entire community, all the Cardinal fans out there a Merry Christmas,” Johnson said. “We can’t do what we do without them and as a coach in this community, in Farmington, I’m blessed every day to come to work at this school and to work within this community and it’s certainly a blessing to be called the Lady Cardinal basketball coach. I’m proud of that every single day and certainly proud to serve those folks and I want every one of them in our community and beyond just to know how much they mean to us.”
Drew Sturgeon
Farmington senior Drew Sturgeon, who along with classmates Evan Shoffitt and Trace South, signed national letters of intent to continue an athletic career in college on Friday, Dec. 13, honored his hometown.
I’d just like to say ‘Merry Christmas’ to Farmington and thank you for everything.”
Landree Cunningham
Lincoln sophomore Landree Cunningham got a hand on the ball deflecting a potential game-winning shot by Prairie Grove in the literal last second of the Lady Wolves’ 49-48 win.
“I just did what my gut told me to do and I trusted in myself and in my team that even if I did foul or if she got the shot off then we would recover from it,” Cunningham said.
No stranger to competition Cunningham won the 2019 Lincoln Riding Club Rodeo queen crown as a sixteen-year-old contending against cowgirls as old as 21 in the pageant. That experience translates into confidence Cunningham displays on the basketball court.
“It definitely does because I go up against a bunch of girls that are a lot older than me,” she said. “And me, being a sophomore, a lot of older girls underestimate me so it helps.”
Cunningham considers the Tuesday, Dec. 10, home-court victory to break a losing streak to rival Prairie Grove a bit of an early Christmas present.
Speaking as Lincoln Riding Club rodeo queen she wishes “Merry Christmas” to “all the people, who don’t have families.”
To rodeo participants, organizers and fans, she says, “Never give up, always trust in yourself, and in the people around you. Family and friends are the most important thing and to just stick with what you have. Go for your dreams and dream big.”
Addressing the issue of slain Fayetteville Police officer, 27-year-old Stephen Carr, who was ambushed and shot 10 times while sitting in his patrol car in the police parking lot on Dec. 7, Cunningham spoke with clarity.
“Family is a big thing to me so I would say trust in your family. Grief is going to be hard, but just keep going on. God has a way for everyone and he will show you the way.”