Decatur teams have full schedule as second half of season begins
DECATUR — With the first half of the 2023-24 basketball season now in the history books, the Decatur Bulldog and Lady Bulldog junior and senior high teams turned their full attention to the start of the conference season, which begins Jan. 4 with a road trip to Magazine.
The Lady Bulldogs started their nonconference schedule with a string of five wins. And just as it looked like the team would continue this streak, the bottom dropped out due to the loss of several players to injury, illness, and other unforeseen factors. The remainder of the first half of the season was a mixed bag of wins and losses. The girls ended 2023 with seven wins and six losses.
Unlike their sister counterparts, the Bulldogs struggled during the last half of 2023, only posting one win and a long series of losses — 13, to be exact.
But the two teams squared off against a few of the area’s top-notch teams from the 3A, 4A, and 5A conferences, such as Lincoln, West Fork, Greenland, and Charlton, as well as old adversaries from the 2A, such as Eureka Springs, Life Way, and Haas Hall-Bentonville.
This year, the Arkansas Activities Association moved Decatur back into the 1A West conference, which it was a part of three years ago. Now, it will face some all-too-familiar teams, including St. Paul, Mulberry, and Ozark Catholic Academy. Besides these three teams, the remainder of the 1A West conference includes Fayetteville New School, County Line, Thaden, and Classical Academy.
For head boys coach Austin Frederking and head girls coach Fess Thompson, putting behind the first half of the season and focusing on the conference schedule ahead presents a challenge and one that involves rethinking the playbook and a possible change in personnel, all in the hope of flipping past losses into future wins.
To turn both boys’ and girls’ junior high and senior high teams around, support from the community is needed, not just the school but the entire city of Decatur. The biggest way to support all the basketball teams this season is to fill the bleachers at Peterson Owens Fieldhouse to show your Bulldog Pride and let these athletes know you are behind them all the way. These kids work very hard all year round to stay in shape, learn new plays, and they sacrifice time to have an excellent program and one the community can be proud of.
Above is the schedule for the last half of the 2023-24 Decatur basketball programs. Please make an effort to come out and stand behind these hardworking athletes and show them that their efforts make a difference. Together, we can make this conference season successful for the Decatur Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs.