Seeing an end from the beginning
GENTRY — Gentry coach Justin Bigham wants the Pioneers to see the end from the beginning, keeping a playoff goal in perspective while taking life one day at a time.
A stacked schedule to close out this season almost necessitates retaining that mindset for the Pioneer football squad.
Bigham calls the 4A-1 a rough conference to make a run through, noting it was voted the hardest in
4A this year, and that any time a league includes a defending state champion in Shiloh Christian, which he said sets the gold standard for 4A, the competition level increases.
“You know they’re always good year in and year out, and Prairie Grove is a really, really good program year after year. Even when they’re in a down year, they’re always going to win seven or eight games and then Elkins has always got some good athletes,” Bigham said.
Gentry finishes against Shiloh Christian, Prairie Grove, Elkins and Highway 59 rival, Gravette, in the last four weeks of the regular season.
“So just taking it one game at a time and not looking [ahead]. We’re pretty back-loaded in our schedule, we have all those guys back-to-back and not looking too far ahead into playing those guys, but just getting better today, what can we focus on today? Taking each practice as it is and just getting better each day,” Bigham said.
Lucas Guinn (6-0, 255), who shifts back to left guard where he first broke into the starting lineup as a sophomore, described maintaining that focus coming off a 50-49 loss on Nov. 6 in an epic clash with the Lions.
“We always think about it [the rivalry]. We lost by one point last year and we missed two extra points, which would have gave us the game,” Lucas said. “They’re the people we always want to beat, but this year we kind of take it one game at a time and wait until that week comes until we start preparing for Gravette.”
For Bigham, a big part of the draw in applying for the Gentry job in 2020 came from realizing there’s a structure in place enabling kids to grow up playing football identifying as a Gentry Pioneer.
“We have a Gentry Youth Organization football team and they start in Kindergarten all the way through 12th grade, so the fact that you can be a Pioneer as a Kindergartner and you’re going to graduate at Gentry was a big attraction to me,” Bigham said.
Advancing in the playoffs is an expectation for this year’s team, and that’s not always been the case at Gentry. Senior running back William Pyburn (5-7, 180) takes pride in the fact the senior class has never missed the playoffs while overcoming the mindset of the past where some teams haven’t had that type of success.
“I think that it’s definitely been a big barrier but, as we grow as a team together, we realize that there’s a lot more that we can do than what people think that we can do, and so we just go out there and try our hardest and play,” said Pyburn.
Senior All-Conference tight end Garrison Jackson (6-4, 245) said the team goals coming into the season are simple.
“We just want to win as many games as possible, just be the best that we can be,” Jackson said.