COLLEGE FOOTBALL
ASU loses another assistant
A week before unveiling a recruiting class, Arkansas State Coach Blake Anderson is down two assistant coaches again.
DeAndre Smith was announced as ASU’s new running backs coach Jan. 14, but Purdue announced Tuesday afternoon that Smith was joining the Boilermakers’ staff. Smith, according to a school spokesman, had not yet finalized his ASU contract.
“DeAndre’s track record speaks for itself,” Purdue Coach Darrell Hazell said in a news release.
Smith joins offensive line coach Darren Hiller as coaches Anderson has hired since the end of his second season to leave before coaching a practice. Hiller left last week, but his destination is not yet known.
Anderson has lost an offensive coordinator, two running backs coaches and two offensive line coaches since the season ended.
Buster Faulkner was hired earlier this month as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach to replace Walt Bell, who left for Maryland. Smith was to replace Anthony Tucker, who left for Maryland, too. Hiller was to replace Glen Elarbee, who left for Missouri.
— Troy Schulte
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Jessieville hires Burk as coach
Jessieville has hired T.J. Burk as its new football coach.
The Jessieville School Board announced the hiring in a board meeting Monday night. Burk succeeds Don Phillips, who stepped down after the 2015 season.
Burk was the starting quarterback on Jessieville’s Class 2A state championship team in 2006 that finished 15-0. He had been an assistant coach at Hot Springs Lakeside since 2013.
— Jeremy Muck
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Adams honored by conference again
Arkansas Tech senior forward Fatima Adams was named the Great American Conference’s women’s player of the week Tuesday for the second consecutive week.
Adams led the Golden Suns, ranked No. 21 in this week’s USA Today coaches’ poll, with 21 points and 10 rebounds in a victory over Harding on Jan. 18. She followed that up with 31 points and 14 rebounds in Thursday’s victory over Henderson State and finished the week by scoring 20 points and grabbing a team-high 8 rebounds in Saturday’s victory over Arkansas-Monticello.
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Three ranked in Central Region poll
Southern Arkansas finished with 53 points and received one first-place vote to finish third in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association’s Central Region preseason poll released Tuesday.
Henderson State, which is ranked No. 16 in the Collegiate Baseball preseason national poll, received 30 points to finish sixth in the regional poll. Ouachita Baptist (12 points) finished ninth, and Harding (nine points) rounds out the top 10.
St. Cloud (Minn.) State received five first-place votes and finished atop the regional poll with 68 points, followed by Minnesota State (54 points).
SWIMMING
OBU’s Ewart earns conference honor
Ouachita Baptist senior Rachel Ewart was named the NSISC women’s swimmer of the week Tuesday.
Ewart swept all three events she competed in Friday during a home meet against Henderson State. She won the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 14.89 seconds; the 200-meter butterfly in 2:17.39; and the 500-meter freestyle in 5:18.55. Her time in the 200-meter butterfly was a season best, beating her previous mark by 3.2 seconds. She also had the third-fastest time this season in the 500-meter freestyle, despite it being her first time this season to compete in the event.