WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Pointers ruled the state behind Boster, Sandlin

Michael Boster (left), now a fireman in Van Buren, and Kenny Sandlin, who formerly worked as a fireman in Bentonville and Lowell, are pictured recently.
Michael Boster (left), now a fireman in Van Buren, and Kenny Sandlin, who formerly worked as a fireman in Bentonville and Lowell, are pictured recently.

Remember when Van Buren was really good in football? Probably not, considering it has had only one winning season since 2000. But the Pointers were top dogs in 1996 with a 12-1-1 record and a state championship in Arkansas’ largest classification.






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Democrat-Gazette file photo

EAST’s Derrick White from North Little Rock gets hung up by a WEST defender as WEST’s Michael Boster from Van Buren closes in to make the tackle in 1997 during the High School All-Star Football game at War Memorial.

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Democrat-Gazette file photo

Arkansas’ Kenny Sandlin drops back into pass protection against Alabama in 1999.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Michael Boster (left) and Kenny Sandlin show off their state championship rings from 1996. The Pointers went 12-1-1 and ended the season with an 11-game winning streak.

Van Buren was led that year by Kenny Sandlin and Michael Boster, a pair of all-state linemen who cleared the path for the Pointers’ potent Wishbone offensive attack. Van Buren finished with an 11-game winning streak that year, capped by a 28-7 victory over Fort Smith Northside in the Class AAAA state championship game at War Memorial Stadium.

Van Buren also beat Northside 21-7 earlier in the season while going 7-0 in conference play.

“We ran a Wishbone offense that was mostly all read,” former Van Buren coach Gary Autry said. “I played Kenny and Michael at guard to keep the defense from penetrating at the point of attack. We got a lot of movement with our offensive line, especially with those two, who were both Division 1 type players.

“I love those guys and that team. They did a lot more for me than I did for them.”

The Pointers’ drive to the championship was fueled by a 34-31 loss in double overtime to the Grizzlies in the state semifinals the previous year. Expectations were high for Van Buren in 1996, and the Pointers achieved their goals after beginning the season ranked No. 2 in the state.

“When we played, you couldn’t do organized things in the summer like 7-on-7,” Sandlin said. “But we had made a commitment to each other from the year before after we lost to Northside in the semifinals. We called each other up and practiced on our own without the coaches. We had a tight-knit group anyway, and that brought us together even more.”

Twenty years later, Boster is a full-time fireman and co-owner with his wife of a family pool business in Van Buren. Sandlin lives in Bentonville and worked as a fireman for eight years. He now works for Pace Industries, a die-cast company where he is vice president of health and safety.

Both men, each now 37, said the lessons they learned on the football field proved valuable in their careers as adults.

“It’s the same mentality here as a fireman as it is in football,” Boster said. “You have to work together to get the job done. If one man goes down, another man steps up or helps the one out who has fallen. It’s still all about teamwork.”

Van Buren had no need for flashcards, bubble screens or a complicated playbook in 1996. The Pointers simply overpowered their opponents with an option rushing attack that piled up nearly 4,500 yards in 14 games.

Boster and Sandlin were the leaders on a standout offensive line that paved the way for quarterback Jamie Yates and running backs like Anousack Vong, who ran for two touchdowns when Van Buren eliminated defending state champion Pine Bluff 34-13 in the playoffs.

“Basically, we had three running plays and one pass play,” said Boster, who also started on the defensive front with Sandlin. “Again Alma, we ran the same play, 18-option, all the way down the field and scored. If they ever stopped it, we’d run the same play on the other side.”

Van Buren was only 1-1-1 after three games, including a 12-0 loss at Conway in a game that was interrupted for more than an hour by rain and lightning. Instead of wallowing in disappointment, the Van Buren seniors held a team meeting the next morning and rededicated themselves to their goal of winning a state championship.

The result was an 11-game winning streak, where the Pointers posted four shutouts and outscored their opponents 304-60 during that span.

“The Conway game was frustrating with the weather and the way we were playing,” Boster said. “After we lost, the seniors all came together at the fieldhouse. We took a vow we would all work together, not get mad at each other and raise that person up instead. From then on, it felt like we were rolling the whole time.”

Sandlin and Boster followed their senior season at Van Buren with successful careers in college. Boster played at Southern Arkansas, where he helped the Muleriders win a conference championship his freshman year. Sandlin played four year at Arkansas and was selected second-team All-SEC by the Associated Press in 2001.

Many Arkansas fans still remember Sandlin for his hustle, especially with downfield blocking that often ended with him picking a Razorback running back off the ground after being tackled.

“I hear about that a lot from (Arkansas) fans, but I learned it from Boster,” said Sandlin, who briefly spent time on NFL rosters with Carolina and Minnesota before retiring from football in 2003. “He was doing it at Van Buren before I was.”

Rick Fires can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter@NWARick.

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