By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Are you ready for some football?
You don't have to be Hank Williams Jr. to know that football season is just around the corner.
Especially in Forrest City.
The Forrest City junior high school Blue and White Mustang eighth and ninth-grade teams will gather Thursday, Aug. 1, for an orientation team meeting session at the junior high school field house.
For those junior high football players who have already had their physical exam, equipment will be given out on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (July 30, 31 and Aug. 1) at the junior high field house from 2 until 4 p.m. each day.
Stan Siler and Sonny Shields will once again coach the White team while Rich Trail and Barry Hodges will coach the Blue teams.
The junior high football teams are scheduled to open their season on Thursday, Sept. 5.
The White Mustangs will host Marianna while the Blue Mustangs will open the year at Brinkley.
*The Forrest City seventh-grade football program has two new coaches this season -- Lewis Etheridge and Tommy Wheetley. Both are former assistant coaches at the high school level.
The seventh-graders will open the season on Sept. 14, when they host West Memphis East.
*The Forrest City High School Mustangs will begin summer practices on Monday, Aug. 5, at 8 a.m., according to head coach Donnie Willis.
All players muct have physicals before they will be allowed to practice. Physical examinations are being given by Dr. Sudhir Kumar for $10.
The high school will have morning practice sessions during the first week.
"We had one of the best off-seasons we've ever had," said Willis.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City AAA American Legion baseball team ended its season a little bit earlier than originally planned last week.
But it probably didn't come as a surprise to head coach Darrell Gaskin.
After having to cancel last Monday's scheduled regular season game against Mountain Home, due to a lack of players, Forrest City was forced to drop out of the Zone 2 AAA District Tournament this past weekend -- again due to a lack of players.
"It's a little discouraging and I was disappointed, but you can't the kids want to play," Gaskin said.
The team was forced to withdraw from the district tournament on Wednesday after Gaskin could get commitments from only eight players.
"We had a team meeting on Tuesday and I had nine players commit to the tournament," Gaskin said. "But Wednesday morning, one of the players called and said he wouldn't make it after all."
The Forrest City AAA Legion team -- which was , with the exception of just two players, the same team as the A squad -- won just one game this season and finished 1-17.
As far as returning next season, at this point Gaskin is unsure about his plans.
"Right now I just don't know if I will come back as coach or not," Gaskin said. "It has nothing to do with the wins or losses or the season. It's a matter of trying to juggle everything, the team, the schedule, my work and my home life."
Gaskin said the Forrest City American Legion baseball program still has a big mountain to climb.
"We had a core group of about eight kids who wanted to play," Gaskin said. "You've got to have at least 18 to 20 kids who are committed and who want to play."
Gaskin began the year with close to 30 kids but lost several along the way, finally finishing the final few games with less than 20 roster players.
"Some quit early, others left for other reasons," Gaskin said. "If some left because they thought I was too hard on them, my comment to that is 'I wasn't as hard as I could have been.' I made some mistakes as a coach and I will be the first to admit that, but being too hard on them as a team wasn't one of those mistakes."
Gaskin said he will take some time to consider his decision regarding returning as coach next year.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Barnes Timber all but locked up the adult men's softball league title last Thursday with a 17-0 shut out win over second-place Sanyo.
The win leaves Barnes at 19-0 for the year with two regular season games and two makeup games remaining on the schedule.
Sanyo slips to 16-3 for the year and into a tie for second with M&T Paving, also 16-3, following last Thursday's 15-5 win over Boar's Head.
In other games last Thursday, Kerby's ran their season mark to 12-6 with a 16-2 victory over TSM Computers, Morgan defeated the Young Guns 15-5 and Miller Insurance put away Food Giant 23-14.
Barnes gets back into league play tonight taking on winless Food Giant and will go against M&T Paving on Thursday. Barnes has an open date next Monday.
Sanyo has lost to Barnes twice this season and once to M&T.
Sanyo has games remaining against Boar's Head, Miller and the Bulldogs.
M&T has remaining games against Kerby's Barnes and Greg's.
Gym 2000 stayed in third place in the league with its 20-5 win over Greg's last week, improving to 15-3 for the year.
The league's regular season schedule runs through Monday, Aug. 5.
Program Director Kenneth Taylor said he will make a decision Wednesday about the make up games.
By TIFFANY MICHAELIS
T-H Sports Writer
LITTLE ROCK -- Forrest City didn't attend last Thursday's meeting of the Arkansas Activities Associations governing body for the vote to decide whether or not to split the Class AAAAA schools in to two groups, but they feel that if the vote had been in favor of the split, it might have benefited Forrest City.
The Class AAAAA principals voted 19-7 against the proposed split.
Benton, Camden-Fairview, Lake Hamilton, Mountain Home, Searcy, Sheridan and Watson Chapel voted for the proposal. Searcy and Mountain Home both joined the AAAAA-East Conference this season.
The proposed split would have expanded the playoff system in six sports involving the 32 Class AAAAA schools.
The idea was drafted by Conway athletic director Buzz Bolding and called for dividing the 32 schools into two divisions, based on enrollment figures -- one for the larger schools and one for the smaller schools. The divisional playoffs would end with the crowning of a champion in the six team sports, but there would be no overall AAAAA champion.
The 16 schools with the largest enrollment would make up one division while the next 16 schools with lower enrollments would make up the second division.
The six sports were football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball and soccer.
"I think it would have been better for us (Forrest City) to vote in favor because it is difficult for us to compete against schools who have 2000-2700 students," said Forrest City School Superintendent Lee Vent. "There is a bigger discrepancy between the 32 Class AAAAA schools than in any other class such as AAAA."
Forrest City Athletic Director Michael Bender was concerned about all 32 schools making the playoffs.
"I think they are going to have to revamp that. I don't see how every team can be in the playoffs," Bender said.
Forrest City Mustang football coach Donnie Willis, likewise, was in favor of the proposal.
"I think splitting the AAAAA schools would have been a good thing for Forrest City and I was very much in favor of the idea," Willis said. "It would have been beneficial for Forrest City. We have a little more than 850 students compared to Springdale with more than 2,000 population.
There are many other ideas on how to handle the Class AAAAA.
"One proposal was to vote to have the Big Eight and the rest to stay the same," said Vent.
The proposal went to the principals for a vote after the 19-member AAA board of directors voted to refer the plan to the administrators before making any final recommendations.
Hughes hired first-time coach, John Bateman, as the schools girls' basketball head coach.
Hughes had a number of applicants for the position, but narrowed it down to Bateman and two others.
"We chose him (Bateman) because we were looking for someone to coach girls basketball and teach health, and he met both of those qualifications," said Hughes' Principal Travis Case.
Bateman will have many responsibilities at Hughes.
Not only will he coach girls basketball and teach health, he will be the assistant football coach.
Former Hughes coach Steve Maynard resigned to take the boys' basketball coaching position at Newark.
Maynard coached junior and senior girls basketball at and assisted in football Hughes for the past two years.