NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — For the average sports fan, the only activity more enjoyable than watching an athletic event is talking about the one that can’t happen.
Everything in sports has to be compared, and records and statistics often times aren’t the final answer — not when discussing different eras or levels of competition.
It’s an eternal pursuit that usually leads to an assigned value of some kind, usually in the form of some kind of ranking, be it a random “best of all-time” set or the kind that ranks teams from season to season.
Fans aren’t the only ones involved in the sports world who fall victim to the need to compare. If you were to sit around and listen to a group of professional baseball scouts sometime, you might be surprised what you would hear.
Sure, they talk about a player’s strengths and weaknesses — usually assigning an arbitrary number of some kind to a particular skill. When projecting a player’s career, however, even the people who are paid to evaluate fall back on the need to compare.
“He reminds me of (insert some random player from the 1970s or 80s),” the scout will often times say.
Over the past year, one area high school football team has been the cause for more than its fair share of debate and comparing throughout the state. Shiloh Christian, the two-time defending Class 4A state champion, has garnered plenty of recognition during the past offseason — thanks to an abundance of college-level talent and a track record of success that has lasted nearly a decade and a half.
Some will rank the Saints as the top team in the state to begin the season, while others will go as far as to include them in their national rankings.
The problem with that is Shiloh simply doesn’t play the same game week in and week out that other, larger, schools do. And if you don’t believe me, listen to someone who knows both sides of the debate.
Chris Wood coached Shiloh to a state championship in 2001, and back then, he was as adamant as any that the Saints program was among the state’s best. Now about to begin his fifth season as the coach at Class 7A Springdale Har-Ber, where he won the school’s first state championship last season, Wood has seen first hand how much more difficult each and every week is in the state’s largest classification.
It’s not necessarily that there is a difference in the top talent at the lower and higher classifications; it’s how much more talent there is.
And no matter how well coaches teach offense, defense and special teams, they have little or no control over the other critical part of the game — attrition.
“There’s a big difference in an 18-year-old and a 15-, 16-year-old,” Wood said. “With the depth, at bigger schools you continue to plug in 18-year-old kids, while at the smaller schools you plug in 15-, 16-year-old kids.
“Those kids are going to be great players in time, but they’re young.”
To combat the perception that comes with its smaller classification, Shiloh went out and scheduled the best — and largest — opponents it could this season during its nonconference schedule. The Saints open the season against Class 6A Watson Chapel and close their nonconference schedule against Class 5A Greenwood.
In between, Shiloh will travel to Cowboys Stadium in Texas to face perennial power Euless Trinity on national television.
It’s a game where Wood said Shiloh — and its national ranking — will carry the banner for all of Arkansas high school football. It’s also a game he wants the Saints to win, exactly for that reason.
One of the difficulties for a team with such high expectations, and a difficult nonconference schedule, is managing those expectations. It’s a balancing act for Shiloh coach Josh Floyd, who doesn’t shy away from the Saints’ desire for an undefeated season — while also making it clear their main goal is to win a third straight state championship.
“The best way to put it is that the most disappointing thing would be if we didn’t win a state title,” Floyd said.
Regardless of rankings, in a one-game scenario, there’s little doubt Shiloh would have a chance against any team in the state. The season, however, isn’t one game — and it isn’t always played on the field.
Sometimes the most critical moments happen at halftime or midweek, in the training room or doctor’s office.
Shiloh may or may not be ranked No. 1 in the state to begin the season. If it’s not, that’s not a sign of disrespect or some kind of personal agenda against the school.
It’s simply a matter of looking at the entire picture — and comparing.
KURT VOIGT IS THE ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR FOR NORTHWEST ARKANSAS NEWSPAPERS.