Here are some questions regarding high school football in Northwest Arkansas for the 2017 season.
Will Springdale Har-Ber win the 7A-West Conference for the
third consecutive year?
That goal became tougher for the Wildcats with the departure of senior Oliver Nasilia, who Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said was the best linebacker in the state last year as a junior. Nasilia, who is committed to Brigham Young University, moved back to Jessieville, where he played before coming to Har-Ber as a freshman.
Wood said he has a handful of options at linebacker, but it’s still a blow to lose a player who piled up 61 tackles last season, including 14 for loss yardage.
If a vote were taken today, defending state champion Fayetteville would likely be considered the conference favorite.
Is this the year Bentonville West overtakes Bentonville High?
Whoa, now. Those are fighting words in Benton County.
But it’s fair to ask considering Springdale Har-Ber began to overtake Springdale High after losing to the Bulldogs in the first meeting in 2006. Har-Ber has dominated the series after reaching the state championship game in 2007.
Bentonville is still a power in Class 7A with five state championships and a 10-win season last year. Bentonville pounded West 48-8 in the team’s first meeting since the split, but the young Wolverines return nearly everyone from a team that won three games.
The gap between the two schools will close quickly, even if it doesn’t happen this year. Bentonville is picked third and Bentonville West fourth in a preseason poll of the 7A-West coaches.
Is the 7A-West still the best football conference in the state?
Yes. Absolutely.
But let’s not overlook the strong showing by the 4A-1 Conference, which faces a tougher challenge in postseason than the two leagues that comprise Class 7A. Pea Ridge lost to Warren in the state championship game while Prairie Grove and Shiloh Christian advanced to the state semifinals.
Pea Ridge is No. 2 and Prairie Grove No. 6 in Class 4A in the preseason rankings by Hooten’s Arkansas Football magazine.
Charleston went from 6-5 in 2016 to 13-1 and playing for a state championship in 2017. Is there another team in Northwest Arkansas capable of making such a turnaround?
Bentonville West is the easy answer with all its starters returning from a start-up program that went 3-8 last season. Bentonville West may not win a championship in its second year, but few will be surprised if the Wolverines surpass rival Bentonville High, which has won five state championships since 2001.
Fort Smith Southside, a tradition power in Class 7A, could return to prominence after falling to 3-7 last season and missing the playoffs for the first time since 2010.
Teams from Northwest Arkansas had another good season with one state champion (Fayetteville) and three state runners-up (Greenwood, Pea Ridge and Charleston). Has one region of the state ever dominated the state championships?
In 1990 southeast Arkansas produced state champions in all four classes with Pine Bluff High, Pine Bluff Dollarway, Fordyce and Rison. The champions were from the Pine Bluff area and Arkansas high school historian Leland Barclay called it “The Cotton Belt Sweep.”
Voting members with the Arkansas Activities Association recently passed Proposal 9, which reduced the number of classes in Arkansas from seven to six. So, how does that affect football?
It doesn’t. That’s for other high school sports besides football. Class 7A will be re branded as Class 6A beginning in 2018. Farmington, for instance, will remain in Class 5A for football then return to Class 4A in other sports.
Rick Fires can be reached at rfires@nwadg. com or on Twitter @NWARick.