Charles Dawson did it all -- and did it well -- when it came to high school sports at Bentonville, but it was his baseball feats that stood out the most.
He was an all-district selection in both basketball and football as a senior. He also competed in track, where he threw the discus 166 feet, 11 inches -- a school record at that time.
"That was a feat, considering I was about 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds and going against suckers that were 6-2 and 270," Dawson said.
Baseball was where his feats stood out the most, especially in a time when Bentonville had just started its high school program. He was a three-time all-state and all-district player, and he was chosen an Oscar Mayer All-American and the Arkansas player of the year in 1989.
In the district tournament that year in Harrison, Dawson did it all -- both on the mound and with his bat.
"In a game against Harrison, I had three solo home runs and pitched a complete game in a 3-2 victory," Dawson said. "I hit one to left, one to center and one to right. Then against Rogers -- and we hardly beat Rogers in anything during that time -- I went 6-for-6 with three home runs and 11 RBIs."
Dawson's feats in American Legion baseball were even more impressive. He hit .478 with 22 home runs and 118 RBIs -- at one time a national record -- in only 68 games during the 1989 season and helped Bentonville reach the state championship game.
He then went to Manatee (Fla.) Community College, a national junior college runner-up in 1991, then went to Southern Arkansas. He led the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference in hitting with a career .424 average with 15 home runs and 113 RBI and was an NAIA All-American with the Muleriders in 1994, then became the Pioneer League Player of the Year that year with the Idaho Falls Chukars, then a rookie league team for the Atlanta Braves before a back injury shortened his baseball career.
He still has an impact on high school and college athletics in Northwest Arkansas these days, as well as other places throughout the state. He is the chief executive officer of GeoSurfaces, a professional engineering firm based in Baton Rouge, La., that specializes in the design, construction and installation of high performance sports surfaces and sports lighting.
His company is responsible for installing the field turf and the track surface at the new Blackhawks Stadium in Pea Ridge last year. It also installed the field turf surfaces for the stadiums at Arkansas State and Henderson State, as well as the unique purple-and-gray turf at Central Arkansas' Estes Stadium.
"I've had a lot of Arkansas clients over the years," Dawson said.
Sports on 07/06/2014