By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
There is still just a little high school track business left to take care of before the school year draws to a close in a few weeks.
The preliminaries for the Class AA through AAAAA state track meets will be held Friday at four different sites -- Conway, Hot Springs, Heber Springs and Danville.
The state finals in each of the four classifications will be held next week at Hot Springs.
Class A schools will hold their prelims and finals all on the same day -- Tuesday, May 7 at Fort Smith Christian in Alma.
The Meet of Champs will be held Wednesday, May 15, at Lake Hamilton High School in Pearcy.
Forrest City will be well represented at Friday's prelims.
The Mustangs finished second last week at the AAAAA-East conference meet at Jonesboro. The Lady Mustangs finished fifth.
The Lady Mustangs qualified three of their four relay teams and one individual, Jessica Perkins, for state competition.
Jessica will compete in the long jump.
Perkins will join Chasna House, Shianekia Blunt and Melissa Humphrey on the 400-meter relay team and will run with House, Blunt, and Deosha Agnew on the 800-meter relay team.
The mile-relay team of Blunt, House, Caronica Randle and Chiklisha McDaniel also qualified.
The Mustangs qualified three of its relay teams for the state meet -- the 400, 800 and 3,200-meter teams.
The 400-meter team consists of Lafayette Smith, Daniel Echols, Montrell Ashcraft and Chevelle Wilson while the 800-meter relay team will be made up of Smith, Echols, Wilson and Kenyatae Chism.
The two-mile relay team is comprised of Willie Wade, Jesse Ballard, Kelton Hamlin and Vince Millen.
Echols, Smith and Wilson each qualified for state in the 100-meter dash while Smith and Wilson qualified in the 200-meter run.
Wade and Ballard made the state cut in the 400-meter run and in the 800-meter run.
Justin Jones will represent the Mustangs in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles.
Ballard and Ashcraft qualified for the triple jump and Ray Dixon qualified in the shot and discus.
The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots will send Charles Autry, Roman Harris, John Chapman and Steve Eldridge to the Class AA state meet prelims in Danville.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
If the weather holds, Forrest City will officially open its 2002 youth baseball, softball and adult softball seasons tonight at the Sports Complex.
At least on a limited basis.
Everything is "a go," according to Kenneth Taylor, who heads up the Forrest City Recreation Department's youth programs.
"We have the fields ready and almost all of the off-season improvements made at the complex are complete," Taylor said. "All we need is for the rain to hold off."
The Minor League (pitching machine) starts play tonight as will the Bambino League for 11-12-year-olds.
The Minor League will play two games a night each night of the week except Wednesday most of the season. Field 7 will be home to all of the pitching machine games.
The Minor League slipped from nine teams to eight teams a year ago and remains at that number for the 2002 campaign.
Ben's Auto will take on M&T Paving tonight at 6 p.m., followed by Devazier Brothers taking on T&J Properties at 7:30 p.m.
The Bambino League is holding firm with eight teams for the second straight season.
Four games are on tap tonight with Bonanza taking on Ray Houser and last year's league champion, Cochran Auto going against Pearson Insurance at 6 p.m.
The two 7:30 p.m. games have L&L Electric taking on Taylor Glass and Taco Bell going against Vaccaro Lumber.
The 11-12-year-olds will play on Monday and Thursday during the year.
On the front side of the complex, the adult men and women will open their respective seasons.
The women's league will field just five teams this season and will play on Monday and Thursday nights.
Tonight's two-game season opener has Mohr Sports battling First National Bank at 7 p.m. and Purple Haze taking on Chism Concrete at 8 p.m.
Field 1 will be home for the women this season.
The men's league will field 13 teams this season and an ambitious schedule which take the season through Aug. 5.
Like the women, the men will play on Monday and Thursday nights beginning at 7 p.m. each night on Field Nos. 3 and 4.
T.S.M. Computers and the
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The high school baseball season ended Tuesday at Cabot for the Forrest City Mustangs.
Friday, the American Legion season begins when first-year coach Darrell Gaskin holds the first of 11 practices before the start of the 2002 season on Saturday, May 18.
"The high school finished Tuesday, I gave them Wednesday and today to rest, on Friday we will hit the field and hit it hard until the opening game," Gaskin said.
Gaskin takes over a Legion program which has fallen on very hard times over the past two seasons.
A year ago, the Legion teams (A and AAA) managed less than 10 combined victories.
"I think we can better that this year," Gaskin said. "I think we have some talented kids, at least in the first two workouts I saw some good things. I'm not saying we are going to win 20 games, but things will be better and things will be different. I can promise you that we will return some respect to this program."
Gaskin said he handed out 30 uniforms last weekend.
The team, which will be known as Forrest City American Legion, will practice Friday, Saturday and Sunday before taking Monday off. Then, it will be three straight practice days and one off until the season opens on May 18, with a home game against Newport.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Remember when Major League Baseball coined the slogan -- 'Baseball Fever - Catch It!?'
Boy howdy, have we ever taken that to heart.
Anyone who has ever been remotely involved in the game of baseball -- whether a player, a coach or just a spectator -- knows it is not difficult at all to catch a large dose of this fever.
And it doesn't matter at what level the fever hits. Being no respecter of leagues, baseball fever can strike at the youth, high school, college and major league levels.
Studies have shown it is the youth leagues which appear to be the highest risk areas..
Catching baseball fever is easy -- getting rid of it, once you have contracted the virus -- is the difficult part.
Finding a cure for cancer would be an easier task.
The warning signs manifest themselves innocently enough, usually around March when most cities and towns start preparing for the upcoming youth seasons by holding youth registration, closely followed by team drafts and then full-fledged practices.
The symptoms begin to accelerate.
Head coaches start having their fair share of sleepless nights -- some dreaming of a championship season while others struggle in their mind with pitching rotations, starting line ups and potential problem areas.
Players hurry home from school and hang just long enough for a between meal snack, before heading to practice. Some are even on time.
Moms and dads, of the non-coaching variety, begin the process of re-arranging their daily schedules, so they can be in not one, but several places at one time -- especially those parents who have more than one son or daughter in uniform for the summer.
It isn't long before dirty laundry and unwashed dishes began to pile up at home. Nerves began to fray, but somehow never completely unravel.
Before anyone realizes, it is OPENING DAY.
Baseball Fever has reached its full potential.
There is no known cure and consulting a physician won't help.
Truth be told, most doctors have been infected with the fever as well which tells us that no one -- no not one -- is safe from the wide-reaching tentacles of Baseball Fever.
The disease knows no color barriers nor does it discriminate against either sex or profession.
It affects the young and old alike and seriously dents the wallets and checking accounts of the rick and almost rich.
Baseball fever can reduce the well-bred, well-spoken purebreds into nothing more than hapless, screaming, hangin' from the fence, incoherent fanatics -- whose sole purpose for three months is to elevate their child to super star status and make life a living "HECK" for the umpires.
Baseball Fever wounds and cripples, but it is not fatal.
The affected never die. They just keep resurfacing season after season at the local sports complex.
There is no explanation for Baseball Fever.
Scholars have tried, few have succeeded.
My suggestion is simple -- give in to it. Those who fight it usually fall harder. trust me, I've seen the effects.
Take a drive to the sports complex and just suck it all in.
Sort of like breathing through your eyelids.
* TOURNAMENTS
High school baseball Regional tournaments
CLASS AAA
Region 1 at Harrison
Wednesday's Scores
Consolation Game
Clarksville 13, Gentry 7
Championship Game
Booneville 3, Prairie Grove 2
Region 3 at North Little Rock
Tuesday's Scores
Consolation Game
DeWitt 4, Dover 0
Championship Game
Pulaski Academy 4, CAC 3
Region 4 at Warren
Tuesday's Scores
Consolation Game
Warren 16, Star City 5
Championship Game
Ashdown 5, McGehee 1
CLASS AA
Region 4 at Buffalo Island Central
Wednesday's Scores
Walnut Ridge 7, Bay 2
Region 5 at Poyen
Arkansas Baptist 14, Pottsville 4
Poyen 4, Hector 3
Championship Game
Poyen vs. Arkansas Baptist
Region 6 at Des Arc
Tuesday's Scores
Des Arc 3, Carlisle 1
Hazen 8, McCrory 2
STATE TOURNAMENTS
CLASS AAAAA
Saturday, May 4 at Burns Park (NLR)
Pine Bluff vs. Fayetteville, noon
Central 2 vs. Cabot, 2:30 p.m.
Sylvan Hills vs. Central 4, 5 p.m.
Russellville vs. Sheridan, 7:30 p.m.
at Lakewood (NLR)
Bentonville vs. East 4, noon
Benton vs. Catholic, 2:30 p.m.
Central 1 vs. El Dorado, 5 p.m.
West Memphis vs. Rogers, 7:30 p.m.
CLASS AAAA at Pulaski County Field
Saturday, May 4
Alma vs. Paragould, noon
Nettleton vs. West 4, 2:30 p.m.
Malvern vs. Southeast 4, 5 p.m.
Watson Chapel vs. Southwest 4, 7:30 p.m.
Monday, May 6
White Hall vs. Southwest 3, noon
HS Lakeside vs. Monticello, 2:30 p.m.
Batesville vs. West 3, 5 p.m.
Greenbrier vs. Greene Co. Tech, 7:30 p.m.
CLASS AAA at Nashville
Saturday, May 4
Ashdown vs. Gosnell, noon
Booneville vs. Dover, 2:30 p.m.
Trumann vs. Gentry, 5 p.m.
Pulaski Academy vs. Star City, 7:30 p.m.
Monday, May 6
CAC vs. Clarksville, noon
Bald Knob vs. Warren, 2:30 p.m.
McGehee vs. DeWitt, 5 p.m.
Prairie Grove vs. Pocahontas, 7:30 p.m.
CLASS AA at Lavaca
Saturday, May 4
Des Arc vs. Poyen, noon
Greenland vs. Bradford, 2:30 p.m.
Jasper vs. Parkers Chapel, 5 p.m.
Midland vs. Bay, 7:30 p.m.
Monday, May 6
Junction City vs. SS Bee Branch, noon
Walnut Ridge vs. Dierks, 2:30 p.m.
Arkansas Baptist vs. Elkins, 5 p.m.
Mount Ida vs. Hazen, 7:30 p.m.
CLASS A at Augusta
Saturday, May 4
Calico Rock vs. Magazine, noon
Black Rock vs. Bradley, 2:30 p.m.
Ouachita vs. Guy-Perkins, 5 p.m.
FS Christian vs. Armorel, 7:30 p.m.
Monday, May 6
Scranton vs. PB St. Joseph, noon
Taylor vs. Omaha, 2:30 p.m.
Abundant Life vs. Lynn,, 5 p.m.
Concord vs. Guy-St. Joseph, 7:30 p.m.