The Best Of 2013

Fayetteville High students (left to right) Brooks Ellis, Alex Brignoni and Austin Allen signed letters of intent to play football at the University of Arkansas.

Fayetteville High students (left to right) Brooks Ellis, Alex Brignoni and Austin Allen signed letters of intent to play football at the University of Arkansas.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Former Fayetteville athletic director Barry Gebhart’s arrest and resignation headlined a busy sports year in Northwest Arkansas.

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Malik

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Tang

The story, which made national news, was voted NWA Media’s No. 1 sports story of the year by a wide margin in a poll of NWA Media sports staff that included Chip Souza, Matt Jones, Jimmy Carter, Vernon Tarver, Henry Apple, Paul Nielsen, Rick Fires, Paul Boyd and Graham Thomas. Nominees for the poll included any notable non-Razorback sports stories from the region that occurred in 2013.

Gebhart was arrested on suspicion of Internet stalking of a child in October, which led to the resignation of the 50-year-old longtime Fayetteville employee who spent 18 years as Bulldogs basketball coach before taking over as athletic director in 2009. The story garnered six of nine first-place votes and was ranked either the No. 1 or No. 2 story on every writer’s ballot.

There were many other, more positive, notable sports stories in the area in the past year, too. Bentonville’s march to its second Class 7A state football championship in its fourth straight appearance garnered enough votes to nab the No. 2 spot, including one second-place vote and four third-place votes.

Former Shiloh Christian and Springdale High football coach Gus Malzahn’s highly successful first season as Auburn’s head coach led to the Tigers earning a BCS championship game berth and him being named the Associated Press Coach of the Year. Malzahn received three first-place votes and four second-place votes in the poll, but was left off three ballots and finished as the No. 3 story.

Lincoln’s historic 11-win football season, Vance Wilson being named NWA Naturals manager and highly touted basketball recruit Malik Monk’s transfer to Bentonville were just some of the other stories that earned top billing by NWA Media staff in an eventful year.

6. MALIK MONK TRANSFERS TO BENTONVILLE

As the state’s largest high school, Bentonville has grown accustomed to students who move into the district on a regular basis.

It’s not every day, though, someone like Malik Monk transfers to Bentonville. He and his mother, Jacaynlene, moved during summer and ended the rumors that swirled around one of the nation’s top basketball players in his age category.

Monk, a 6-foot-4 sophomore shooting guard, moved to Bentonville from East Poinsett County, which lost to Cedar Ridge in the Class 2A State Championship in March. He averaged 22.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game for the Warriors (25-8) as a freshman, then he was a member of the Arkansas Wings team that won the 16U AAU National Championship just before the move took place.

“There are just no jobs to be found in Lepanto,” said Marcus Monk, Malik’s older brother and a former two-sport athlete at Arkansas. “People have to go out 40-45 minutes from here to find work. There are way more opportunities for my mother here so she can support my little brother.

“It’s a better situation for both of them.”

The addition of Monk brought immediate attention to a Bentonville team that enjoyed its most successful season in recent history. The Tigers, who were 21-9 last season and reached the Class 7A state semifinals, received an invitation to play at the Midwest Showdown Shootout near St. Louis earlier this month.

He made his Bentonville debut with 29 points in the Tigers’ 81-75 victory over Clarksville in November, then scored that amount again in a win over Greenwood during the Citizens Bank Classic — the only game the Tigers played in that tournament before it was canceled by the winter storm. He then added 28 points in Bentonville’s loss to Christian Brothers (Mo.) in the Midwest Showdown Shootout and was named to the all-tournament team at the Neosho (Mo.) Holiday Classic after averaging 22 points in three games.

— Henry Apple • @NWAHenry

7. FAYETTEVILLE TRIO SIGNS WITH ARKANSAS

Austin Allen, Brooks Ellis and Alex Brignoni spent the better part of their Fayetteville careers setting records and helping the Bulldogs win back-to-back Class 7A state championships. So when the time came to pick a college, the three best friends knew one thing for sure.

They all wanted to stick together.

All three former Bulldogs toyed with the idea of playing college ball at different schools. When the offer came to play at Arkansas, the three friends couldn’t resist.

“It was an easier decision than I thought it would be,” Allen said. “Basically whenever Alex got his offer (from Arkansas), we all sat down and talked about and decided this was what we wanted to do.”

On national signing day of 2013, Allen, Ellis and Brignoni held true to their word, signing with Arkansas.

“I’ve been best friends with Alex and Brooks since I was a little kid,” Allen said on National Signing Day. “Not too many people get the chance to continue their education and play football with their two best friends beyond high school. It’s really like a dream come true.”

— Vernon Tarver • @NWAVernon

8. SPRINGDALE HAR-BER ANNOUNCES NEW STADIUM

Springdale Har-Ber’s football team and fans won’t have to drive across town for home games anymore.

The Springdale school board unanimously approved the construction of a new football stadium on location at Har-Ber High School in November. The project has a target completion date of Sept. 1 and should be completed in plenty of time for the Wildcats’ Week 3 home opener against Conway.

The new stadium will feature about 5,000 seats and came with a $5.5 million price tag. It will finally give Har-Ber its own stadium after playing home games at Springdale High’s Jarrell Williams Bulldog Stadium for the school’s first eight years of existence.

“It’s extremely exciting,” Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said. “Since we started our program in 2006, I really look back and reflect on all of our alumni that’s come through here. You traveled every Friday night, even though you played at home over at Bulldog. We were thankful for that, but to be able to talk to the alumni, they’re excited for us. … It’s just one of those facilities that is a big piece of the whole school culture. Being able to be at home on a Friday and look out of the cafeteria and see our own stadium and get fired up, I just think it’s going to enhance the culture and environment of Har-Ber High.”

— Jimmy Carter • @NWAJimmy

9. ROGERS' TIFFANY TANG WINS FOUR STATE TENNIS TITLES

For four years, Rogers High tennis player Tiffany Tang had no equal on the tennis court, whether it was in singles or doubles play. As a freshman and sophomore, Tang won the 7A-West Conference singles title, the Class 7A singles championship and won the overall singles crown. In two years of singles competition, Tang lost just one set.

When her younger sister, Katherine, entered the Lady Mounties program in 2012, Tiffany switched to doubles, and the sisters were as equally dominating. They teamed to win two conference doubles titles and two Class 7A state championships, and they repeated as overall doubles champions in October.

In her four years, Tang had an incredible 101-0 record in singles and doubles matches while helping the Lady Mounties to Class 7A state championships her sophomore, junior and senior seasons.

“As a coach, having a player and a person like Tiffany is something you may only see once,” Lady Mounties coach Matt Fulton said. “She was such a pleasure to have on the team. Tiffany is just the third person in Arkansas history to achieve four individual championships. I don’t foresee another player like Tiffany coming through here.”

— Paul Nielsen • @NWAPaul

10. QUARTET GETS ARKANSAS FOOTBALL OFFERS

Bentonville tight end Jack Kraus became one of the first to receive an offer to play football for new Arkansas coach Bret Bielema in the Class of 2014. Turns out Kraus wouldn’t be the last from Northwest Arkansas who Bielema and staff felt worthy of an offer to play for the Hogs.

Kraus, who committed to play for the Razorbacks on April 2 soon after receiving the offer, was joined by Springdale Har-Ber four-star defensive tackle Josh Frazier, Har-Ber three-star defensive end Jake Hall and Rogers High three-star linebacker Zack Wary as 7A/6A-West Conference standouts who all attracted offers from the Razorbacks.

Hall joined Kraus in committing to Arkansas on Oct. 26, while Frazier’s decision came down to the Razorbacks and Alabama. Soon after his season ended Nov. 23, Frazier went to twitter to announce his decision to commit to the Crimson Tide.

“Ok Arkansas I’m sorry but I’ve decided Alabama,” Frazier wrote on Twitter. “I hope u will still support me when I go rep Arkansas in Alabama.”

Wary, the NWA Media Defensive Player of the Year, received his offer from Arkansas in early December and is still undecided.

The four offers by Arkansas to local high school players is impressive, but not a first. In 2006, the Razorbacks signed four players from Springdale High alone, and in 2011, Arkansas signed five players — Brey Cook, Marcus Danenhauer, Mitch Smothers, Brandon Allen and Demetrius Dean — from local schools.

— Vernon Tarver • @NWAVernon