FORT SMITH – Northside's DaMari Smith, a sprinting track champion, is coming off a 460-yard receiving season with 32 catches for four touchdowns.
He loves the challenge of going against R.J. Lester in practice and has the mindset that iron sharpens iron.
"It's so much fun going against him in practice because I love that guy," Smith said. "It is a friendly rivalry. We go back and forth in practice. I know he will lock me up on some plays and I will get him on some plays. We are getting each other better. It really helps us out when it comes to Friday nights. He makes my job easier because I know I have been going against one of the best."
Smith was the 200-meter champ at both the Class 6A state meet and Meet of Champs, and won both the 100 and 200 at the 6A-Central meet.
Lester is one of the top cornerbacks in the state and just committed to Kansas State last week. Lester intercepted four passes last season and was named all-conference. As a sophomore, he returned interceptions 62 and 32 yards for touchdowns against Little Rock Southwest.
Smith and Lester are members of Northside's 400 relay team along with Cam Massey and Tkavion King.
Northside will scrimmage Bentonville West on Aug. 16 at home and open the regular season against crosstown rival Southside on Aug. 26 also at home.
-- Harold McIlvain
VAN BUREN - Starting without Henry
Van Buren senior receiver Malachi Henry will miss the season opener against rival Alma.
Henry underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee this week and will miss the first few games of the season.
"We were doing a drill and it was non-contact," Van Buren coach Moe Henry said. "He caught a ball and landed on it funny. Our goal is to try to get him up and rolling by the start of conference play."
Henry is one of the top playmakers in the state going into the season.
He caught 60 passes for 1,152 yards and 14 touchdowns last year. Henry also ran for 204 yards and two scores. As a sophomore, he caught 53 passes for 861 yards and nine scores.
Van Buren will host Farmington in a scrimmage on Aug. 16 before the Aug. 23 opener at Alma in the 76th meeting between the Pointers and Airedales. Van Buren also travels to Southside on Spt. 2 before playing the home and 6A-West opener against Greenbrier on Spt. 16, which is six weeks away.
"We do have a little bit of time to prepare to form an identity offensively without him until we get him back," Moe Henry said. "We have some guys that over the summer, some other receivers that have stepped up and have the ability."
-- Leland Barclay
BENTONVILLE - Tigers put in 'six good days'
Bentonville capped its first week of practice with a Saturday morning workout, the first the Tigers could do with full pads.
Coach Jody Grant then capped the practice by telling his team that it had put in six good days of workouts and to rest up until practices resume Monday.
"What I talked to our kids about all week was just getting better each day," Grant said. "I think we did that. There were a lot of moments where you could see signs of improvement, and that was fun to see. I saw things on both sides of the ball that got me excited.
"There are still some areas we need to work on and areas we need to clean up, but ultimately being six days into camp we feel like we're where we need to be."
Grant pointed out that a number of players stood out during the first week of drills. Those players included tailback Josh Ficklin, receiver C.J. Brown, quarterback Carter Nye, defensive end Ben Pearson, sophomore tight end/linebacker Eli Brooks and defensive backs Johnny Pike and Eli Estes.
"The guys we are counting on are confirming that we can count on them," Grant said. "They are doing some good things. I could probably name some more, but I'm really pleased with what we're seeing out of those guys."
-- Henry Apple
PEA RIDGE - Win provided boost
The Blackhawks opened last season with a shutout win over Elkins and then lost six straight before beating Clarksville.
That lone 5A-West win, though, provided the Blackhawks with a big momentum boost.
"They absolutely bought in after that," Pea Ridge coach Brey Cook said.
Pea Ridge trailed 28-14 but got a sack late in the second quarter and a 21-yard touchdown pass from Gavin Dixon to Will Anderson as time expired in the half cut the deficit to 28-24. Dixon completed the comeback with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Anderson with 49 seconds left for a 54-49 win.
"I look at my career and that was easily one of the most exciting games I've ever been a part of," Cook said. "It was amazing; the buildup of senior night at home with a special group of seniors that had been through a lot, it was huge."
Dixon, a sophomore, completed 19 of 32 passes for 354 yards and five touchdowns in the game.
Dixon won the starting job at quarterback with a strong lead up to the season.
"He earned it as a young sophomore during the offseason," Cook said. "He came in and did some special things leading up to that game one. He kind of took it over. We let him run with it. We obviously limited him last year with what we did but this year it's wide open."
Dixon threw for 1,749 yards and 19 touchdowns last year.
Pea Ridge host Elkins in a scrimmage on Aug. 16, and will play Gravette in the season and home opener on Aug. 26.
-- Leland Barclay
GENTRY - Midnight strikes on Pioneers
Some teams just can't wait until the moment they can finally take the field and work out in full pads.
That ringed true for Gentry, which elected to have a Midnight Madness practice. The Pioneers hit the field at 12:01 a.m. and enjoyed a 90-minute workout in front of about 100 fans at Pioneer Stadium.
"We all collectively came up with an idea to come up with it and make a big deal about the first day in pads," Gentry coach Justin Bigham said. "We told the kids about it, and they were excited about it. We then said to make it a big community deal and had a pretty good turnout for midnight."
Bigham utilized the second half of the workout by putting both units in certain situations they may experience on the field. It included the typical first-and-10 plays, but also third-and-long plays and a hurry-up detail where the offense trailed by six points and needed to score in either 90 seconds or less.
"We tried to keep things pretty short and have some fun stuff to watch," Bigham said. "There were some good things and some things we need to work on. We wanted to put kids in certain situations where it's not a shock for them when they experience it in a game.
"I thought we had some good energy. We came out and popped a little bit. I thought the intensity was good and we had a good day."
-- Henry Apple
GREENLAND - Pirates Muscle Up
Veteran coach Lee Larkan noticed something near the beginning of last season and it was an omen of things to come for the Pirates.
"The weight room is a big thing for us, we lift on game day," Larkan said. "Our kids are always strong. That was one of the first things we noticed leading up to the season, our maxes were going down. We really didn't have the buy in that we normally have. The result was a 2-7 season. Last year, they were going through the motions. This year, it's been a little more intense." It starts with strongman quarterback Max Meredith, arguably the strongest quarterback in the state.
"I would say so," Larkan said. "He can throw up some weight. He loves to lift. It's something that he's taken naturally to."
Meredith was second in the state weightlifting meet in May at Lake Hamilton in the 221-242 pound division with a total lift of 630 pounds combined in power clean and bench press.
"He weighs 231 and he looks trimmer to me than last year at the same weight," Larkan said. "It's a better 231 than it was last year."
Larkan begins his 23rd season as a head coach, including 18 at Greenland.
Larkan is a Hazen native and played in the 1982 Class A championship game, which Rison won, 2-0, in the final year that championship games were held at host sites and not War Memorial Stadium. All four championship games were played in torrential rains which caused horrible field conditions across the state.
"We had a bad snap in the end zone and fell on it in the end zone," Larkan said. "I have nightmares of losing the championship 2-0. The week before, we played Farmington up here and it was way worse weather. They were undefeated and we beat them, 12-8. It rained and rained. You couldn't see the numbers on our white jerseys."
Larkan started his coaching career at Des Arc as an assistant under John Rollins, who coached Cliff Harris his senior season there in 1965 and also Ronnie Elam, who was the first quarterback in state history to throw for more than 6,000 yards in his career. Elam finished his career in 1976, and the next one to reach the plateau was Nashville's Jared McBride in 1996.
"Our base offense is the Pro-T, which came from coach Rollins," Larkan said. "That offense led the state in passing until McBride. Coach Rollins threw the crap out of it. He'd throw the out 10 times in a row. He'd make you cover it. He was an old-school coach, but passing-wise he was ahead of the game. He did some Spread stuff but instead of the Wing-T he'd split the wing out and put a split end out."
Larkan was presented last year with the Buddy Harding Award, presented annually to a University of Central Arkansas alumnus for coaching excellence.
Greenland will scrimmage at Gravette on Aug. 16 before traveling to Lincoln to open the regular season on Aug. 26. The Pirates will play their home opener on Sept. 2 against Green Forest.
-- Leland Barclay
CLARKSVILLE Colvin leads resurgence
Clarksville offensive lineman Matt Colvin, considered one of the top overall senior talents in the state, is all smiles when asked about the upcoming season.
The Panthers finished 2-8 and missed the playoffs last year after a stellar 2020 season that ended in the second round of the playoffs.
That doesn't have Colvin, who is committed to Harding, down at all entering this year. He knows that Clarksville is ready to bounce back in a big way.
The Panthers closed out the season running wild during a 35-28 win over Morrilton. He has seen that momentum extend into the offseason.
"We had a really, really good team last year," Colvin said. "The 5A-West is brutal, but we showed signs and it clicked during the Morrilton game. We ran for a lot of yards and had big plays. It was a great game to end the year. That has carried over to this season. If we played as well that night as we did all season, who knows how far we could've gone. We are preparing to do something special this year."
Clarksville led Morrilton from start to finish in the season finale, scoring four first-half touchdowns. The Panthers will play their home opener on Sept. 2 against Morrilton, which switches conferences to the 9-school 5A-Central for the Arkansas Activities Association reclassification two-year cycle.
Clarksville will host Green Forest on Aug. 18 for a scrimmage game and opens the season at Ozark on Aug. 26.
-- Harold McIlvain
EXTRA POINTS
Greenwood will have a visitor's pressbox ready for the home opener on Sept. 2 against Fort Smith Northside. ... Alma will have its new scoreboard ready for the Battle of Crawford County on Aug. 23 against Van Buren. Kickoff for the game has been moved to 7:30 p.m. because of the heat.
TIME TO SCRIMMAGE
Schedule of football scrimmage games featuring Northwest Arkansas teams:
Aug. 15 Alma at Ozark
Aug. 16 West Fork at Gentry, Elkins at Pea Ridge, Shiloh Christian at Springdale, Greenland at Gravette, Booneville at Dardanelle, Pottsville at Charleston, Cedarville at Quitman, Mansfield at Mena, Harrison at Rogers, Greenwood at Fayetteville, Siloam Springs at FS Southside, Bentonville West at FS Northside, Farmington at Van Buren, Magazine at Paris, Johnson County Westside at Danville, Yellville-Summit and Berryville at Hackett
Aug. 18 Green Forest at Clarksville, Lincoln at Lamar, Bentonville and Springdale Har-Ber at Tulsa Union
Aug. 19 Rogers Heritage at Prairie Grove, Waldron at De Queen