By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The 3AA Conference is a long way from being decided but one thing is already certain, the final three weeks of the season will be a wild ride for at least three of the league members.
Palestine-Wheatley, Hughes and Cross County are all knotted at the top of the league -- in a three-way tie for first place.
All three teams are 5-1 in the conference with three games left to play.
Wait, it gets better.
Each team owns a victory over the other. Cross County defeated Palestine-Wheatley; Palestine-Wheatley defeated Hughes and Hughes defeated Cross County.
P-W has Parkin (0-7), Marked Tree (3-4) and Salem (4-3) remaining. Hughes has Earle (5-2), Turrell (3-4) and Marked Tree (3-4 left on the schedule while Cross County has Salem (4-3), Walnut Ridge (2-5) and Turrell (3-4) left to play.
All three will be going to the Class AA state playoffs unless total self-destruction occurs -- which is unlikely. Earle and Salem are both candidates and Marked Tree has an outside shot -- way outside.
Determining in which order the teams enter postseason depends on the next three weeks, then head-to-head, which probably won't help and then to the points system.
The Arkansas Activities Association, which governs high school sports in Arkansas states that "conference championships shall be determined on a percentage basis of games won and lost."
Head-to-head competition is always the first consideration. After that, the tie-breaking process moves to the point system based on each team being awarded 13 points for each victory if the winning margin is 13 points or greater.
Victories by less than 13 points will count as only the winning margin.
In the case of P-W's seven-point win over Hughes, P-W only gets the seven points and not the 13.
If three teams end the season tied with identical conference records, if one team has beaten the other two teams the winner is the first qualifier for the playoffs.
If there is a perfect triangle, which is the current case in the 3AA -- A beats B, B beats C, and C beats A-- the 13-point system is used to determine which two teams are first considered for head-to-head competition.
In this system the two teams with the most points are matched to see which team won in the regular season conference game. The winner is the first qualifier for the playoffs. The loser from this game is then matched with the remaining team from the triangle and again head-to- head competition is used to determine the second qualifier for the playoffs. If a third qualifier is needed, it shall be the remaining team in the triangle.
The top four teams from each Class AA Conference will advance to the playoffs.
With three games to play, Hughes, the conference runner-up a year ago, holds the points advantage with 65 while the Patriots have a one-point cushion over Cross County.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City seventh and eighth-grade Mustang football teams will play for the final time this season tonight.
The two teams will make the trip to Jonesboro to take on Jonesboro MacArthur.
The seventh-grade game is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. and the eighth-grade game will follow at approximately 7 p.m.
Both Forrest City teams are 1-4 going into tonight's finale.
Lewis Etheridge and John Burgess have been coaching the seventh-grade Mustangs this season while Rich Trail is the eighth-grade head coach.
Etheridge and Burgess have been dressing out about 70 seventh-graders for each game, and have tried to play every one in every game. Trail has about 30 eighth-graders.
On Thursday, the Forrest City Junior Mustangs (ninth grade) will play at West Memphis East before returning to Sam Smith Stadium on Oct. 30 for their season finale against Blytheville.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
"One month, that's all, just one month."
Words uttered by Forrest City Mustang basketball coach Dwight Lofton Tuesday morning, in reference to how long until the 2003-04 prep hoops season tips.
Actually, Lofton's Mustangs will open the season on Nov. 18, a little less than a month away, at Little Rock Central.
Then it's on to the Rumble on the Ridge -- the seventh annual Thanksgiving weekend tournament.
With three starters back from last year's 11-14 team and some quality incoming sophomores, Lofton's Mustang team should be fun and exciting to watch.
The Mustangs finished 8-6 in the AAAAA-East and made the Class AAAAA state tournament by winning five of their final seven games to clinch the No. 4 seed.
They fell to the fourth ranked El Dorado Wildcats 64-60 in the opening round.
Lofton believes the returning players will take that season-ending loss and use it as a building block for the upcoming season.
The Mustangs will play Provine, Miss. in the opening game of the Rumble on the Ridge.
"We just have to keep the high expectations we have for ourselves under control," Lofton said. "We have a chance to be a contender for the conference championship this season, but we have to keep things in perspective."
The Lady Mustangs will tip their season on Nov. 17, at the Mount Saint Mary's Heavenly Hoops Tournament in Little Rock.
And this season, the Lady Mustangs will play in the Rumble on the Ridge when they take on Pulaski Academy in the first girls' game to be layed at the tournament.
Forrest City and P.A. will play on Saturday, Nov. 29, preceding the Rumble championship game.
The Lady Mustangs will also participate in the Paragould Tournament and the Conway Invitational this season.