Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
O’Bar and Sims lead by example for Bearcats
BOONEVILLE — Twoway linemen Matt O’Bar and Lance Sims are the epitome of Booneville Bearcats football.
“Both of them practice so hard and their effort is high energy in practice the whole time,” Booneville Coach Doc Crowley said. “When they get to a game, they get after it and don’t get tired. Being a great leaders in practice the way they do has carried over to the younger kids. Practices are fun to watch because everybody is going so hard.”
Friday nights may even be a break for them with neither afraid of hard work.
“Not at all,” Crowley said. “Matt’s an old country farm boy. He’s either cutting hay, hauling hay, working in the chicken house, showing cows. He’s a big-time FFA guy. He’s had some big-time, award-winning cattle and pigs. He’s a very interesting kid. He comes to school for two periods a day, then goes home and works, and he’s back at 2:15 to practice. Lance is the same way. Up until football season, he was working at Sonic 40-plus hours a week. Same thing, different type of work. They’re both hard working kids both on and off the field.”
Up until this year, the two were mostly paving the way for Booneville’s vaunted rushing attack, which set a single-season state record with 5,956 rushing yards last season that broke Gosnell’s record of 5,879 yards that stood for 24 years.
“This year they are twoway guys for us,” Crowley said. “We try to get them a break every once in a while on the defensive side.”
Sims has started every game at center except one over the last two seasons, while O’Bar plays tackle this year, and played guard last year and center as a sophomore.
“That experience of playing every position has helped me,” O’Bar said. “I can help my teammates knowing what they’re doing and what I’m supposed to be doing, and if there’s something that needs to be fixed, we can get it fixed on the field.”
With Sims taking over at center last year, it allowed Booneville’s offensive line be flexible with O’Bar capable of playing guard and tackle.
“Matt’s played a little bit of everywhere,” Crowley said. “Both of them are very athletic for bigger guys, and move well. Both of them are very football smart and know how to play the game. For both of them to be leaders for us is a big deal in what we do and a big part of our success.”
Sims, too, appreciates the experience of playing several positions on the line.
“I’ve played all the positions Matt has,” Sims said. “You’ve got to learn all the
plays especially being a senior to help the lower classmen and help them to keep pushing.”
The Bearcats were driven this year to avenge not one but two losses to rival Charleston last year, including the Class 3A state championship game, but it took a second-half comeback to win, 25-15, in what amounted to the conference championship game at Charleston five weeks ago.
After scoring just once and managing just 157 yards of offense in the first half, Booneville scored on three-straight possessions in the second half and finished with 455 yards.
“We came out with a lot of energy,” Sims said. “We needed to shove it down their throat and get revenge for last year. It’s been on my calendar since the state game last year.”
Sims spot started as a sophomore and rotated on the defensive line.
“He rotated on defense and played guard and center as we needed him to,” Crowley said. “He’s well seasoned.”
This year, they’re both mainstays on the defensive front, too, after rotating in a year ago.
“Last year, they were the guys that were rotating in and getting 10 to 12 snaps per game,” Crowley said. “Now, they’re the guys that hardly come off the field for us. It’s amazing to watch them go both ways and with the effort that they do.”
In addition to being hard working off the field, they’re also taking care of business in the classroom with both being honor students.
“They get done what needs to be done,” Crowley said. “They’re both really intelligent kids.”
O’Bar and Sims are also leaving a legacy behind for future Bearcats with action more than words.
“They’re huge assets, “Crowley said. “They don’t talk a lot. Lance is kind of a quiet kid. Matt is a quiet kid. They lead by example. They’ve been fortunate enough to see some good ones do it in front of them. They learned from those guys, and they’re just passing it down to the next guys underneath them.”
Booneville travels to Camden Harmony Grove on Friday for the quarterfinals of the Class 3A playoffs. Harmony Grove is led by quarterback Caleb Johnson, who has thrown for 1,733 yards and 28 touchdowns and run for 757 yards and 14 scores, and is comparable to a quarterback very familiar to the Bearcats
“It should be a doozy,” Crowley said. “Their quarterback is the real deal. He’s comparable to Brandon Scott at Charleston last year. He’s not as accurate throwing the ball, but running around he’s hard to tackle. He’s a very good quarterback and their offense is explosive. I hope we can tackle him.”
Sims and O’Bar will again be a big key to Booneville’s success on Friday night against Harmony Grove.
“Absolutely, those two guys are probably not going to come off the field much at all,” Crowley said. “They’ve got to be relentless in their pass rush but stay disciplined because they do run it. They’ve got to be gap sound on defense. On the offensive side, they’ve got to keep doing what they’re doing and try to get us in the end zone. They’ve done a real good job of that.”