Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Local Coach, Players Honored
Footballers Recognized For Efforts
U.S. 62, NW Ark. — Mike Adams of Farmington was recognized as coach of the year for small schools; Deon Clay of Farmington was honored as player of the year and Tyler Cummings of Lincoln was awarded newcomer of the year by NWA Media.
Adams was a master tactician in guiding the Cardinals to their second game played in December. The first was on Dec. 1, 1989, when the Cardinals also reached the state semifinals, in the 2A old fourround playoff format.
This season Adams guided Farmington to an appearance in the 4A semifinals. He consistently demonstrated faith in his players’ willingness and ability to make plays and switched personnel like chess pieces. Moving Clay into the starting quarterback position in mid-season jelled the Cardinal offense. Adams played Spencer Boudrey at safety, nose guard and defensive end. Opposing offenses never knew where the speedster would line up.
Clay made good on numerous opportunities, completing clutch passes in key situations as a quarterback. He threw five touchdown passes to five different receivers against Dumas in a 42-6 playoff win. Clay was 83-of-142 on passes for the season with a touchdown to interception ratio of 14-to-4. The 6-foot-1-inch, 245-pound senior also ran for seven more scores and was tough to bring down.
Cummings was explosive, kicking Lincoln’s running attack into overdrive. The 6foot, 170-pound sophomore rushed for 1,485 yards with 16 touchdowns and had 10 pass receptions for 159 yards and a touchdown. He also made his presence known on defense with 75 tackles from a linebacker position.
Other noteworthy recognition goes to Brad Harris, head football coach at Lincoln, who was a finalist for Hootens for Coach of the Year, after guiding the Wolves to a 7-4 record in only their second appearance in the state playoffs in school history; and to Lincoln junior Cheyenne Vaughn attaining All-state status for the second consecutive year as a quarterback. Vaughn threw for 2,116 yards and 18 touchdowns and rushed for 526 yards with seven more touchdowns.
Among the list of All-state players from the 4A-1 conference are: Clay (linebacker) and Jared Martin (runningback) of Farmington, plus Jacob Kahl (linebacker) of Prairie Grove.
Clay said the close- knit Farmington football team was like a brotherhood and has no regrets about transferring back to Farmington after a year at Fayetteville. Clay made 112 tackles, forced three fumbles and picked off four passes as a linebacker on defense.
“We don’t just have one leader, we’re all leaders,” Clay said, adding the comeback against Mcgehee in the playoffs after getting down, 16-6, showed true brotherhood.
Martin said this year’s Cardinal team was the closest team he has ever played on and called it a great experience. Farmington won three playoff games including road wins at Heber Springs (28-12) and Mcgehee (26-23) where the Cardinals were underdogs, yet advanced to the state semifinal.
Martin rushed for 939 yards and 17 touchdowns, despite missing games with a knee injury. He also caught 15 passes for 145 yards and had one passing touchdown on a halfback option play against Shiloh Christian.
Martin said it was tough coming back twice from injury.
“I knew my team needed me and I worked rehab as hard as I could,” Martin said.
Martin described his halfback option touchdown pass against Shiloh Christian in the regular season finale, won 58-37 by Farmington, as “awesome” and credited Clay, who was playing quarterback, with doing a good job on selling the play as a run.
“We never leave somebody out,” Clay said, saying the team accepted him when he transferred back to Farmington.
By a stroke of the pen, mayors can begin to actively engage families, schools and diverse community partners in advancing the welfare of children. This is done by acknowledging the role extracurricular activities play in providing structured, challenging, engaging and teambuilding experiences to help children and youth develop social, emotional, physical, cultural and athletic skills.
The whole community wins when elected officials demonstrate support for local interscholastic athletic programs and help ensure children have parental involvement. It’s a given that parental demonstrations of good sportsmanship provide a model for the conduct of children and youth during interscholastic athletic competitions.