Skewed football all-state list released

As I saw coming, the list of all-state football players was released recently and again, it was political correctness all over again, with the AAA handing out AllState status awards kind of like party favors.

There were several athletes who were honored with that designation that really earned the distinction, say like the Blackhawks’ Drew Winn. Winn was just a few yards behind the state rushing leader Austin O’Brien. O’Brien, a fine tailback for the Gravette Lions, totaled 2,294 rushing yards just 9 yards ahead of Winn’s total of 2,285. O’Brien was pretty much the entire offense for the Lions with Winn sharing the attack with several receivers and other athletes.

The reason I say the list is skewed is because the AAA mandates that all six of the 4A districts receive the same number of allstate athlete designations. It doesn’t matter how good the players are, but the AAA wants to make sure each district receives an equal number of honorees. The 4A-7 district with a raft of top athletes and good teams, got the same number of all state honorees as the 4A-3, and the 4A-2, very week districts, and that is just wrong.

I saw a very peculiar pick in an offensive player for one team in the 4A-2 whose stats were as follows. This player was 10th in receiving, 64th in passing, and 145th in rushing. In spite of the minuscule statistics, this athlete is an all-state athlete as a back. I won’t reveal the name of this athlete as I wish to make fun of no one, and after all, the player didn’t volunteer for the all-state team.

We had a Blackhawk lead the state in tackling (Tristin Brewer) but no all-state citation. Hayden Holtgrewe was the second best receiver in the state and was given no all-state recognition for that and was also the third best punt returner, the fourth best kickoff returner, and finished 12th in scoring, He caught passes for 1,271 yards just 98 yards behind the state leader Domonick Knight and over 300 yards ahead of the rest of the state.

Back to the 4A-2, there was another athlete accorded all-state honors who finished 43rd in passing, and 55th in rushing but was deemed an all-state athlete. There were a couple of athletes from the 4A-4 taking all-state honors with one finishing 24th in passing with another teammate finishing 59th in tackling but all-state just the same.

Arkadelphia won the state championship, beating Warren in the state final. Who got more all-state honors? Warren got five spots with the state champion Senators getting two selections. Why? Warren played in a weak district this year with Arkadelphia playing in a league with every team in it solid. A lot of really good 4A-7 players were ignored in order to “honor” other players in weak districts.

Most of the players on the all-state team deserved to be there, but several weren’t because of the politically correct way the AAA gets these things decided.

Kickers cannot be allstate as there is no place for them. They only allow for four linemen from each conference to be all-state, and they ought to know that there are a lot more linemen than that when you count for offense and defense.

I know of no other state who handles all-state selections like this. I have said before, if we had been playing in Missouri, we would have had seven to 10 allstate athletes.

I wish there were a group of school officials who could question the Arkansas Activities Association and ask them why they do the things they do. I don’t believe in handing every kid a trophy because they showed up to play, but I do believe that when our athletes have stellar years, they can get the recognition they deserve.

These past two years, we have seen a bunch of top notch performances from Blackhawk football athletes. All-State or not, we had some of the best players in the state these past two seasons, a lot more than we are given credit for.

State brackets out for basketball

The Blackhawks have motivation to win out in the regional coming up in late February. The winner of the North Region will be in the lower bracket, away from defending twotime champion Baptist Prep with their 7’5” center should they win their regional.

However, anyone winning the North Region will have to play either Batesville Southside or Prep early, depending on who beats whom. Having won two state titles back to back, some might think that Prep will be a shoo in. Maybe not.

Last year, the Southerners over at Batesville were tearing it up, and hoped to make a run at Prep in the East Region. They were upset in the first round of district by ESTEM and that was that. They are all back this season and the rumors are they are very very good with one small possible problem.

There seems to be a dad over there at Southside who many think is running the team. They are calling him the Lavar Ball of Batesville, named for a terrible parent from Los Angeles who is messing up his outstandingly athletic sons with his need to control them wherever they play.

I used to teach in Batesville at Southside and the people are such fine folks there. I hope that they don’t go down because of ego and arrogance.

Conference races heating up

After the Blackhawks and the Lady ’Hawks get through the Holiday Tournaments, they will be gearing up for the conference season.

The ’Hawks are still in that blended 3A-4A conference thing that the AAA foisted on local basketball teams. Combing big teams with smaller teams has had the predictable results. Most of the bottom dwellers are the smaller teams. This format will die a natural death next year and the league that never should have been will be gone.

In the meantime, the ’Hawks will be playing with the nine other teams of the conference until the