BLYTHEVILLE -- The Blytheville Chickasaws are treating the 2003 season as a gridiron version of David vs. Goliath.
Blytheville, the smallest Class AAAAA school in the state, is beginning its final season in AAAAA play and has plans to go out with an aerial bang.
Blytheville has been on Forrest City's season schedule for as long as can be remembered as a conference foe.
The Mustangs and Chicks will play their final conference game on oct. 17, when Forrest City makes the trip to Blytheville.
Forrest City has won the last three consecutive games against the Chicks.
While no permanent conference replacement for Blytheville has been announced, it is expected that former AAAAA-East conference member, Sylvan Hills, which dropped down to Class AAAA two seasons ago, will move back into the East.
Blytheville, with a starting lineup filled with underclassmen, may have growing pains left to endure.
The Chickasaws will try and rebound from a 2-8 season a year ago that sparked hope after their stunning season-opening shutout over Osceola.
The win gave Blytheville, a team with a sophomore quarterback in an innovative offensive system, a sense of hope -- hope that turned into an unanswered prayer.
But this is 2003, a year Blytheville can go for broke in the AAAAA-East.
A year which hinges on the new spread offense with a rising star at quarterback and a defense with holes to fill.
Now a junior, Brice Beck, who was named as one of the top 20 juniors to watch this season, took his lumps last year along with former teammate Chris Harralston.
The two shared time under center in 2002, but with Harralston transferring to Bentonville, Beck will own the position alone.
Beck (6-3, 226) threw for 1,566 yards and 16 touchdowns last season while learning the spread offense with the rest of the Chickasaws. With a year under his belt, Beck has the confidence of not only the coaching staff but most importantly his teammates.
"We have a lot of confidence in him," Coach Doug Quinn said. "He is going to be an outstanding quarterback. He has the height, the arm. I think we will see more huddle this season because he has established himself as a leader and as a guy who can step up there and play. I think the players have confidence in him."
Beck will also handle the placekicking and punting duties. Last season Beck averaged over 35 yards a punt.
Hand in hand with the spread offense in an ambitious passing game, Beck's success will have a lot to do with capable receivers making plays -- junior receiver Chris Smith (5-11, 154) will move from the slot to the wideout position and Logan Rebstock (5-10, 165) who will play the other split end position opposite Smith in the spread formation.
Last season's leading receiver, DeMarcus Smith, will not be joining the football team this year. Smith caught 33 balls for 485 yards and five touchdowns in 2002.
Blytheville's undersized offensive line averages 227 pounds and in a conference with Cabot, Jonesboro and West Memphis, size on the front line is at a premium.
Quinn has a plan to work around Blytheville's strength disadvantage by using the passing game and quick running plays and use its speed against the opposition's brawn.
*Wynne, Forrest City's opening opponent Friday night, squeaked past Searcy, 13-10 on a late 25-yard field goal in a preseason scrimmage game played Friday at Wynne.
Forrest City and Searcy will hook up at Searcy on Oct. 3
*The Forrest City junior high eighth-grade Mustangs will open the year Tuesday (Sept. 2) when they host Brinkley at Sam Smith Stadium.
The varsity Junior Mustangs will kick off their year on Thursday (Sept. 4) when they travel to Marianna.
The Hughes Junior Blue Imps, coming off a preseason scrimmage win over Trumann last week, will host Walnut Ridge on Thursday as the team takes its first steps toward a repeat conference title.
The Blue Imps finished 8-1 last year and were co-champions of the 3AA junior high league.
The Hughes Blue Devils will host Barton Friday in their season opener.
The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots, winners over Clarendon in their preseason scrimmage last week, will open the season Thursday at Earle.
The senior Patriots will open at Des Arc on Friday.
The first 2003 Professor Pigskin Football Contest will appear Tuesday, Sept. 2.
Beginning tomorrow, readers have a chance to win a $50 weekly cash prize which will be awarded to the person who has the most correct winning picks from a list of high school, college and NFL football games.
Each week's list of games will appear in the Tuesday edition of the Times-Herald with the entry form and the previous week's winner.
All entries must be received and postmarked by noon on the Friday following Tuesday's published list. All entries for tomorrow's Pigskin, will be due by noon on Friday, Sept. 5.
Any "unreadable" entries will be discarded from that week's contest.
Entries may be dropped off at the Times-Herald main office, located at 222 North Izard, in the outside mailbox or in the "Professor Pigskin" box, located in the Times-Herald lobby.