Celebrating Cards’ Victorious Season With Historical Parallels

There is no substitute for victory even when success materializes in a form totally unexpected as Farmington coach Brad Johnson and the girls basketball team celebrate a state championship.

Farmington won the 4A-1 Conference championship with an unblemished 12-0 record, captured the District 4A-1 tournament championship and won the 4A North Regional plus two state tournament games over Pocahontas (65-48) and Batesville (76-64). The Lady Cardinals arrived in Hot Springs on Thursday, March 12, prepared to spend the night before tipping off against Star City in the Class 4A State finals scheduled for Friday, March 13, at Bank OZK Arena.

Then came announcement of the state’s first presumed case of coronavirus causing postponement and eventual cancellation of the state finals on April 6 — leaving Johnson and the Lady Cardinals one game short of a complete season.

Historical Parallels

They are state champions nonetheless having been declared co-champions with Star City, which won the other semifinal 55-53 against Pulaski Academy by the

Arkansas Activities Association. To place Farmington’s achievement in perspective let’s examine a history lesson from 244 years earlier which parallels the Lady Cardinal covid-19 impacted state championship.

General George Washington, regarded as the father of our country, realized his ultimate goal in choosing to bottle up Lord Cornwallis and force a British surrender at Yorktown, Va., which led to the Treaty of Paris on Sept. 3, 1783, ending a state of war with Great Britain recognizing America’s independence.

Washington would have preferred to have driven the redcoats out of New York having suffered a defeat and loss of the city to British General William Howe during the Battle of Long Island seven years earlier on Aug. 27, 1776.

Humiliating Defeat

Johnson, too, suffered a humiliating 56-34 loss to Star City in the 2012 Class 4A State finals at Hot Springs in which his former assistant, Spencer Gay, prepared a scouting report for Star City intimately breaking down Johnson’s tactics and strategies with first-hand knowledge of Farmington’s players.

Johnson got Gay into the business by allowing him to coach the Farmington girls AAU team, then an opening came up on the Star City staff and Gay was hired. Johnson never complained publicly, but he felt the sting of what seemed like an unfair advantage Star City possessed in 2012.

To his credit Johnson never held that against Gay realizing the young coach did his job well. The two remain fast friends and Gay is now head coach at Bauxite.

Puzzle Forms

The puzzle pieces for American victory in the Revolutionary War came together in the fall of 1781 at Yorktown roughly 450 miles from New York by land down the Atlantic coast. Opportunity presented itself and Washington seized the day, marching his troops and those of his French ally, the Comte de Rochambeau, south upon word that the French fleet in the Caribbean was sailing north and would be available for a siege south of New Jersey.

Cornwallis figured to refit and resupply his 9,000-man army but got trapped.

The Fr e n c h f lee t commanded by Admiral de Grasse arrived as promised in advance of Washington’s force of almost 8,000 which planned to join other militia, French troops, and Continental troops in a siege of Yorktown. The French fleet blockaded the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay and on Sept. 5, 1781, drove off a British fleet attempting to relieve Cornwallis, leaving him and his army isolated.

Washington had Cornwallis right where he wanted him.

Level Playing Field

Farmington fans felt the 2012 state championship loss, too, and relished a chance to beat Star City on a more level playing field in 2020. This past season Farmington became the most-feared team in the state, showcasing multiple weapons with a running game generating more firepower than opponents could cope with.

“Man, they’ve got so many weapons offensively. I’m sure they have a weak link but they cover it up,” Gay said after witnessing Farmington’s 12-point solid win over 2019 defending champion Batesville which got 39 points from Izzy Higginbottom.

Farmington controlled the game throughout each quarter and withstood everything Batesville threw at them.

“They mask their insecurities really, really well, and so to the naked eye it looks like they’re Goliath,” Gay said.

Victorious Labors

Washington led the Franco-American army on a grueling forced march from New York, arriving near Yorktown on Sept. 28, 1781, and immediately undertook various tasks of besieging Cornwallis’ army. The French proved staunch allies, securing the left flank while the Americans fortified the right flank.

Cornwallis had ordered a

series of redoubts constructed on the outskirts of Yorktown with most of his men occupying the town. French engineers aided in the siege, directing allied troops to dig a series of parallel trenches, enabling the American and French armies to creep in upon the British lines.

On Sept. 30, 1781, French forces attacked British troops in Fueiller’s Redoubt, Cornwallis’ northernmost line of defense protecting his right flank.

Personal Bombardment

When the state finals were postponed in mid- March Johnson said he was going to call the AAA daily and ask for an update as to their status. This became his personal bombardment.

“There needs to be some finality to it,” Johnson said, vowing to pester the AAA while the unfinished season remained in a state of limbo.

Shelled Into Submission

Washington began shelling the British on the afternoon of Oct. 9, 1781, and kept up a round-the-clock bombardment for nearly a week. Two days into the artillery barrage Washington ordered the digging of a new parallel trench 400 yards closer to the British lines.

In order for the parallel to reach the York River the allies had to take British redoubts #9 and #10. They did so on the evening of Oct. 14, 1781, launching simultaneous assaults after a bombardment. Washington effectively used tactics unexpected by the British.

Alexander Hamilton commanded a detachment of 400 light infantrymen who attacked Redoubt #10 with fixed bayonets mounted on muskets that weren’t loaded. The Americans prevailed in bloody hand-to-hand fighting losing only 34 casualties while the Vicomte de Viomenil captured Redoubt #9 with French soldiers.

Cornwallis was now surrounded on three sides by allied artillery with his back to the York River. His position had become indefensible and a desperate counter attack went nowhere. After three days of negotiations Cornwallis surrendered on Oct. 19, 1781.

State Champions

Much as Washington had done, Johnson guided those under his supervision into position to achieve their dreams. The liberties Washington won on the battlefield such as “freedom of speech” and the “right to peaceable assemble” are celebrated by basketball fans every time a game is played. For Washington, it was Yorktown not New York that became the most decisive battlefield of the war. Johnson’s last win which decided the state championship for Farmington came in fine fashion on the Lady Cardinals’ home-court while hosting the Class 4A State basketball tournament at Cardinal Arena March 4-7.

“What we’ll lean on is our last game that we got to play,” Johnson said, referring to a March 7 state semifinal 76-64 triumph over Batesville. “We had an unbelievable game with Batesville in front of our community, fans and parents on our home court.”

The state championship and memories will last a lifetime. MARK HUMPHREY IS A SPORTS WRITER FOR THE ENTERPRISELEADER. THE OPINIONS ARE HIS OWN.