Sports in Arkansas

[johnnydr87]

But Mith, don't you get it?

When you support hockey in Arkansas, the terrorists win.

jk

[Mith242]

But Mith, don't you get it?

When you support hockey in Arkansas, the terrorists win.

jk

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah I know hockey isn't the most popular sport here in Arkansas. Although if it was going to work you'd think northwest Arkansas might be the place. We do have quite a few people that have moved here from out of state. Although I can't say it's mainly from northern areas of the US. I have heard there are a number of people around Bella Vista from Iowa and Minnesota. All I'm saying is even though it's not my first choice just having some sort of semi-pro or minor league team here would be nice.

[johnnydr87]

While I was at the discovery channel store, I looked at this random fact book. Rogers was in the top ten for cities with migrants from the West. Something like 10%.

[Mith242]

While I was at the discovery channel store, I looked at this random fact book.  Rogers was in the top ten for cities with migrants from the West.  Something like 10%.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's interesting they would have some info like that. By the way I wish we had a Discovery store here. But anyway, yeah I'm not too surprised. We've had more Californians moving into Fayetteville than any other place, even Oklahoma and Missouri.

I guess it wouldn't be too surprising to see some of them show up elsewhere in northwest Arkansas. But then again I imagine there are others showing up from other western states. It must be something, because I've heard Fayetteville referred to being like Sante Fe, NM and Flagstaff, AZ.

[Mith242]

Well it's getting close to football season. I was wondering if anyone has heard about everything that's going on here in northwest Arkansas. I believe it will be this season that Bentonville pulls out some of it's new sports complex. Now Bentonville High has a football stadium that's just as good as many small colleges. Fayetteville and Springdale have been competing against each other updating their facilities.

On another note, I've heard that they are trying to attract more than just a minor league team at the future Springdale sports complex. I've heard they're also going after a basketball and hockey team. But it will still be years before they even finish this sports complex so I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

[Aporkalypse]

Well it's getting close to football season.  I was wondering if anyone has heard about everything that's going on here in northwest Arkansas.  I believe it will be this season that Bentonville pulls out some of it's new sports complex.  Now Bentonville High has a football stadium that's just as good as many small colleges.  Fayetteville and Springdale have been competing against each other updating their facilities. 

On another note, I've heard that they are trying to attract more than just a minor league team at the future Springdale sports complex.  I've heard they're also going after a basketball and hockey team.  But it will still be years before they even finish this sports complex so I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The big news in NWA is this is the last big hurrah for Springdale. It's a unique confluence of talent (Springdale alone has more talent than all of NWA has had in 5 years) and the competition (back to back reigning champ LR Central and the FS schools) are down. Next year they split and I don't think Springdale football will ever be the same, meaning NWA football will never be the same. BTW, isn't "Har-Ber" a terrible name for a high school?

Regarding Bentonville, it's the dawn of the Barry Lunney Sr era. The whole saga of an icon like him leaving Southside is very interesting and perplexing. Maybe Bentonville can at last stop being a tackling dummy for the rest of AAAAA.

As for the minor league team in Springdale, I read quite a bit about this. Baum can't be used as a site not only because of schedule conflicts but because beer can't be sold there and this is a big chunk of minor league teams' revenue (have you ever been to Ray Winder?). Apparently, they don't have nearly the support or means to go after a AA team (and no Texas League teams are looking to move) and there is no A or rookie league nearby, meaning Springdale will have to go outside the traditional MLB-affiliated minor league system and join up in a league that really seems more semi-pro. I think it's a waste, I'd rather go see Van Horn's Hogs play.

[Mith242]

The big news in NWA is this is the last big hurrah for Springdale.  It's a unique confluence of talent (Springdale alone has more talent than all of NWA has had in 5 years) and the competition (back to back reigning champ LR Central and the FS schools) are down.  Next year they split and I don't think Springdale football will ever be the same, meaning NWA football will never be the same.  BTW, isn't "Har-Ber" a terrible name for a high school?

Regarding Bentonville, it's the dawn of the Barry Lunney Sr era.  The whole saga of an icon like him leaving Southside is very interesting and perplexing.  Maybe Bentonville can at last stop being a tackling dummy for the rest of AAAAA.

As for the minor league team in Springdale, I read quite a bit about this.  Baum can't be used as a site not only because of schedule conflicts but because beer can't be sold there and this is a big chunk of minor league teams' revenue (have you ever been to Ray Winder?).  Apparently, they don't have nearly the support or means to go after a AA team (and no Texas League teams are looking to move) and there is no A or rookie league nearby, meaning Springdale will have to go outside the traditional MLB-affiliated minor league system and join up in a league that really seems more semi-pro.  I think it's a waste, I'd rather go see Van Horn's Hogs play.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes Springdale High will no longer be the biggest high school in the state soon. And despite Springdale being so good in football recently they still haven't been able to get past the central Arkansas teams in the playoffs to win a championship. There's also rumors of the Springdale coach being offered a job on the Razorbacks next season. So this really might be Springdale's last chance. As far as Lunny is concenred I got the impression Bentonville simply made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Isn't he the highest paid high school coach in the state? I'm not positive on this but I thought I heard Bentonville's sports complex for their high school cost around $35 Mil. Even if that's not true, they still have some pretty nice facilities. Especially for a high school.

As far as a minor league baseball team in Springdale I got the impression they'd have to settle for a team in an independant league. Not the greatest but I'm still all for us getting what we can up here. I'm a big Razorback fan don't get me wrong, but I'd still like to have some semi-pro sports up here too. I'll take what I can get now, and hope we can upgrade things is the growth keeps coming.

[KJW]

Yes Springdale High will no longer be the biggest high school in the state soon.  And despite Springdale being so good in football recently they still haven't been able to get past the central Arkansas teams in the playoffs to win a championship.  There's also rumors of the Springdale coach being offered a job on the Razorbacks next season.  So this really might be Springdale's last chance.  As far as Lunny is concenred I got the impression Bentonville simply made him an offer he couldn't refuse.  Isn't he the highest paid high school coach in the state?  I'm not positive on this but I thought I heard Bentonville's sports complex for their high school cost around $35 Mil.  Even if that's not true, they still have some pretty nice facilities.  Especially for a high school. 

As far as a minor league baseball team in Springdale I got the impression they'd have to settle for a team in an independant league.  Not the greatest but I'm still all for us getting what we can up here.  I'm a big Razorback fan don't get me wrong, but I'd still like to have some semi-pro sports up here too.  I'll take what I can get now, and hope we can upgrade things is the growth keeps coming.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Funny thing...I've read in the past couple of weeks that Springdale will probably need a third high school in the next decade.

Rogers (currently the state's largest) and Bentonville (will tie with Rogers very shortly) are each going to split into two high schools. I wonder...if Alma, Greenwood and Siloam Springs continue to grow toward 5A or 6A status we may have as many as 14 5A/6A teams up here in the coming decade...wonder if we'd then see the 5A-West and the 5A-Northwest districts come into play?

Springfield, MO started its team in the Texas-Louisiana league, and they had John Q Hammons on their side to get the current Springfield Cards. With the corporate money up here, I don't know...I remember reading in the paper in 2002 or 2003 that Van Horn said it would be nice to have a minor league team here but that it was never ideal for college and minor-league teams to share the same facilities due to schedule conflicts, etc.

[Mith242]

Funny thing...I've read in the past couple of weeks that Springdale will probably need a third high school in the next decade.

Rogers (currently the state's largest) and Bentonville (will tie with Rogers very shortly) are each going to split into two high schools.  I wonder...if Alma, Greenwood and Siloam Springs continue to grow toward 5A or 6A status we may have as many as 14 5A/6A teams up here in the coming decade...wonder if we'd then see the 5A-West and the 5A-Northwest districts come into play?

Springfield, MO started its team in the Texas-Louisiana league, and they had John Q Hammons on their side to get the current Springfield Cards.  With the corporate money up here, I don't know...I remember reading in the paper in 2002 or 2003 that Van Horn said it would be nice to have a minor league team here but that it was never ideal for college and minor-league teams to share the same facilities due to schedule conflicts, etc.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah I've heard that Springdale is already planning for their third high school. I think they plan on getting it started around 2010. I guess it will be somewhat like Little Rock and having many different high schools. Looks like they may have to split the divisions at some point.

As far as a minor league team I think we'd had to look for an independant league. I don't think there are too many teams that are ready to risk coming to an area that's still somewhat small in many other areas standards. I always got the impression most semi-pro teams would be willing to work around the university as far as schedule. I just get the impression Frank Broyles isn't too interested in sharing the universities facilities with anyone else. I had a discussion recently with some other people here. They noticed there aren't any concerts or anything on campus like there used to be. They used to host events at Barnhill. They have the Wal-mart shareholders meeting at Bud Walton, but I imagine he might have stipulated something before giving the university the money to build it. Ot the university realizes it would be to their advantage to work with Wal-mart for future donations for more facilites in the future.

[Mith242]

The big news in NWA is this is the last big hurrah for Springdale.  It's a unique confluence of talent (Springdale alone has more talent than all of NWA has had in 5 years) and the competition (back to back reigning champ LR Central and the FS schools) are down.  Next year they split and I don't think Springdale football will ever be the same, meaning NWA football will never be the same.  BTW, isn't "Har-Ber" a terrible name for a high school?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I forgot to mention this earlier. Springdale residents are used to seeing Har-Ber, the name pops up a number of times. It comes from the first syllable of Harvey and Bernice Jones. I don't think people outside of northwest Arkansas hear much about them. He ran a pretty good trucking business back in the day. They made quite a bit of money. I don't think they had kids, but anyway they used a lot of their money building things in Springdale.

[Aporkalypse]

I forgot to mention this earlier.  Springdale residents are used to seeing Har-Ber, the name pops up a number of times.  It comes from the first syllable of Harvey and Bernice Jones.  I don't think people outside of northwest Arkansas hear much about them.  He ran a pretty good trucking business back in the day.  They made quite a bit of money.  I don't think they had kids, but anyway they used a lot of their money building things in Springdale.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know who they are, the Jones Eye Institute at UAMS is currently being expanded from 5 to 10 stories making it one of the nation's larger eye research centers. I put some pictures below.

I don't know if you remember this but a few years ago Bernice Jones found out the accountant running the Jones Foundation, Jack Frost, was skimming from them. He went to jail for that and they cancelled the building of the "Jack Frost Campus Centre" at Hendrix College, his alma mater. Poor form on Mr Frost's part to steal from these generous old people.

Nonetheless, the "Har-Ber" contraction is fine for corporate purposes but sounds pretty silly for a high school and no doubt everyone that comes in contact with the name on resumes, etc will assume harbor was misspelled.

[Mith242]

The big 1 vs 3 game is this week, Springdale at Fayetteville. Too bad I will already be out of state and will miss it (and the BBB Festival too). I'm curious to see if Fayetteville can actually make Springdale work for a win. Especially since they are big rivals.

[mcheiss]

The Battle of Benton County last week between Rogers and Bentonville was a good game. Hooray Rogers!!

Bentonville's new athletic campus and football stadium is amazing!! It looks like a small college field. Beat's Rogers old stadium any day.

[Mith242]

The Battle of Benton County last week between Rogers and Bentonville was a good game. Hooray Rogers!!

Bentonville's new athletic campus and football stadium is amazing!! It looks like a small college field. Beat's Rogers old stadium any day.

Yep I heard about that and the 'pre-game activities' that happened up there. Bentonville used to be the whipping boy of the west, but I think they are making a move and won't be taken too lightly in the near future.

[Mith242]

I forgot to mention this yesterday. Coach John McDonnell was voted into the Track Hall of Fame, which of course was a no brainer. It was simply a matter of time. 41 national Titles, does anyone even have half that number? I know he's getting older but I'm hoping he'll have a chance to go for 50 before he retires.

[mcheiss]

I forgot to mention this yesterday. Coach John McDonnell was voted into the Track Hall of Fame, which of course was a no brainer. It was simply a matter of time. 41 national Titles, does anyone even have half that number? I know he's getting older but I'm hoping he'll have a chance to go for 50 before he retires.

He's won more NCAA national titles than any other coach in any NCAA sport.

He deserves it.

[Mith242]

I just saw on KNWA they actually have Matt Jones figures out now. There's even one with his Razorback jersey on.

[mcheiss]

I just saw on KNWA they actually have Matt Jones figures out now. There's even one with his Razorback jersey on.

Haven't seen that yet.

[Aporkalypse]

I forgot to mention this yesterday. Coach John McDonnell was voted into the Track Hall of Fame, which of course was a no brainer. It was simply a matter of time. 41 national Titles, does anyone even have half that number? I know he's getting older but I'm hoping he'll have a chance to go for 50 before he retires.

Best coach ever, in any sport.

Nutt on the other hand, this is just getting ridiculous. I just hope the rumors about Butch Davis are true.

[mcheiss]

Best coach ever, in any sport.

Nutt on the other hand, this is just getting ridiculous. I just hope the rumors about Butch Davis are true.

I've heard that Guz Malzhoun is going to the univeristy next year. Guz Malzhoun is the coach of Nationally ranked Springdale High School.

[Aporkalypse]

I've heard that Guz Malzhoun is going to the univeristy next year. Guz Malzhoun is the coach of Nationally ranked Springdale High School.

That rumor's circulating. He would probably be a position coach, possibly WRs. If I were him I would look for a Gulf South head coaching job or OC job and work his way up. He needs to adjust to the college game.

This Springdale team may be the best Arkansas high school team of my life. It's a shame they're fragmenting the team but this kind of confluence of talent is a little flukish - even the LR Central team that knocked Springdale out of the playoffs the last two years didn't have this kind of talent.

My alma mater, Little Rock Catholic, is 9-1 and was undefeated in the AAAAA-Central for the first time in a long while. They'll be a power to be reckoned with for the next several years.

[mcheiss]

That rumor's circulating. He would probably be a position coach, possibly WRs. If I were him I would look for a Gulf South head coaching job or OC job and work his way up. He needs to adjust to the college game.

This Springdale team may be the best Arkansas high school team of my life. It's a shame they're fragmenting the team but this kind of confluence of talent is a little flukish - even the LR Central team that knocked Springdale out of the playoffs the last two years didn't have this kind of talent.

My alma mater, Little Rock Catholic, is 9-1 and was undefeated in the AAAAA-Central for the first time in a long while. They'll be a power to be reckoned with for the next several years.

Springdale is amazing.

Every game this season, they have forced the mercy rule against every opponent. They were ranked 5th I think by USA Today a little while ago. I'm pretty sure that they will be the state champions.

[Aporkalypse]

Springdale is amazing.

Every game this season, they have forced the mercy rule against every opponent. They were ranked 5th I think by USA Today a little while ago. I'm pretty sure that they will be the state champions.

Catholic is the 2nd best team in AAAAA and Fayetteville is probably 3rd and neither is within 5 TDs of Springdale. They'll run away with the state title.

[Mith242]

Yeah Springdale is a pretty scary team, seeing so much talent like that all at one time. One poll I saw recently moved them up to number 3 and they had some first place votes also. I've also heard a bit about LR Catholic. One of my coworkers also went there. I think their only loss was to Fayetteville correct? If Fayetteville hadn't have that bad game against FS Northside they'd probably still be number 3 in the state. Does anyone know much about West Memphis? I don't get to hear much about them on this side of the state. They've been plugging along at number 2 most of this season. But it's weird to see the 5A West so talented. I think Hooten's said that Rogers would easily be a playoff team in any other conference in the state.

[mcheiss]

Yeah Springdale is a pretty scary team, seeing so much talent like that all at one time. One poll I saw recently moved them up to number 3 and they had some first place votes also. I've also heard a bit about LR Catholic. One of my coworkers also went there. I think their only loss was to Fayetteville correct? If Fayetteville hadn't have that bad game against FS Northside they'd probably still be number 3 in the state. Does anyone know much about West Memphis? I don't get to hear much about them on this side of the state. They've been plugging along at number 2 most of this season. But it's weird to see the 5A West so talented. I think Hooten's said that Rogers would easily be a playoff team in any other conference in the state.

I did see where West Memphis was number 2 in the state last week.