By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The State High School Cross Country Championships will be held Saturday, Nov. 9, on the infield oval at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.
The state meet is being hosted by Lake Hamilton High School
The Forrest City Cross Country Mustang team will take part in the meet along with AAAAA-East conference members Cabot, Searcy, Mountain Home and West Memphis.
Forrest City is completing their second full season of cross country under coach Lewis Etheridge.
At the East conference meet held last week at cabot, the Mustangs finished fourth.
In cross country, school must have at least five to a team (boys and girls) to qualify for team honors.
The Mustangs will have five girls running on Saturday but only two boys. All five girls run at the same time and will each earn an individual finish place and time. Those places will be added together to comprise the overall team score. The school with the lowest team score will be declared the winnng team. For example, the best overall score a school can get is 15 points should their five runners finish 1-2-3-4-5.
While all of the state's classifications will be represented at the state meet, each school will run against competition from their own class.
In the girls competition, Fayetteville, Siloam Springs, Berryville and Harding Academy are the defending state champs while Russellville, Little Rock Fair, Berryville and Acorn are the boys' defending state champs.
Opening ceremonies will begin at 9:10 a.m., and the first competition will begin at 9:30 a.m.
The boys will run a three-mile course while the girls will run a 2.5-mile course.
by FRED CONLEY
While some of Tuesday's election results are still up in the air and will have to be decided using the "run off" voting process in three weeks, it won't take nearly that long to fill in the remaining state football playoff holes.
Most of the 2002 state playoff brackets -- in all four classifications -- will be complete Friday after Thursday's round of high school games and the remainder will be complete on Saturday.
Locally, the Hughes Blue Devils know they will be making their third trip to the state playoffs under fifth-year coach James Wright.
The Blue Devils made the Class AAA field in 1998, Wright's first year, and against last season.
In '98, the Blue Devils lost to McGehee in the first round and last year, Hughes lost to Pulaski Academy in the first round.
This time around, Hughes will be packing their bags for the Class AA state playoffs after dropping down from Class AAA this year.
While the Blue Devils know they have already qualified for the playoffs, they won't know until late Friday night if they are going as the No. 1 or No. 2 seed.
That will be decided at Marked Tree when the Blue Devils and Indians meet for all of the marbles.
Hughes and Marked Tree are both unbeaten in the 3AA Conference and both have lost only once this season -- each losing their opening game.
Hughes leads the 3AA in offense and defense. The Blue Devils have scored 414 points in nine games, averaging 46 points per game and given up just 100 points -- holding their opponents to an average of 11 points per game.
The Indians rank second in the conference on both sides of the football.
Through nine games, Marked Tree has scored 364 points or just a little better than 40 points per game while allowing 151 points defensively or just a little more than 16 points per game.
Friday's winner gets the outright conference crown and the top seed into the playoffs and a probable first-round playoff date at home against either Des Arc or Carlisle.
The loser gets the No. 2 seed and a first-round home playoff game against, more than likely, one of the same two teams. Hazen could be in the playoff mix and figure into either one of the two equations.
Wright says right now, he isn't overly concerned with a first-round opponent.
"We just need to focus on Marked Tree," Wright said. "We aren't going to do anything different than we have the past nine games."
Meanwhile, the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots still have some work to do.
The Patriots will make the trip to Salem Friday to face the Greyhounds in the final regular season game for each team.
The winner goes on to the playoffs while the loser stays home.
The Patriots are looking for their third straight playoff trip under Coach Terry Farmer.
A year ago, the Patriots lost to Hazen in the first round.
In this matchup, the winner already knows who they will be facing in the first round -- Harding Academy.
Speaking of Hughes and Coach Wright, it seems that Forrest City Mustang Coach Donnie Willis likes what he sees in Hughes' version of the Single Wing offensive set.
The two coaches discussed the offensive formation, which has been Wright's formula to the success he has had in his long coaching career.
The Single Wing does not use one distinct quarterback but rather four backs and the football is snapped directly to either of the four who then has the option to keep or handoff, utilizing a series of spin moves and misdirection maneuvers.
While Willis hasn't committed to changing the Mustangs' offensive look, a formation such as the Single Wing would certainly suit Willis' returning athletes next year, especially projected quarterback Tae Chism and the up-and-coming junior high players.
Wouldn't that shake up the AAAAA-East.
Besides Hughes, just about the only other schools in the state to use the Single Wing are Watson Chapel, Joe T. Robinson and Des Arc, in a simplified version.
In fact, maybe shaking up the Mustang football program by inserting a new offense and a new defense, might be just the ticket to help turn the program around.
The Single Wing is fun to watch, versatile enough for most any running back and tricky enough to fool most any defense.
* PREP FOOTBALL
MEN'S FALL SOFTBALL
CO-ED SOFTBALL
Tuesday's Scores
Wynne Cinema 22, Boar's Head 8
Butler Building 27, T. Rodgers 7
Final Season Standings
Wynne Cinema 7-2
Butler Building 6-3
Boar's Head 4-5
T Rodgers Const. 1-8
End Season
MEN'S FALL SOFTBALL
Thursday, November 7
Barnes Timber vs Section 8, 6 p.m.
M&T Paving vs Morgan, 7 p.m.
Miller Ins. vs Wynne, 8 p.m.
Gym 2000 vs Young Guns, 9 p.m.