WALNUT RIDGE — “When I went there 10 years ago, my whole goal was to be the No. 5 team in the conference because they had not been in the playoffs in a long time,” Walnut Ridge coach Larry Treadway said. “Finally, we got to No. 5, then No. 4, then [in 2010], we won the conference.
“We were well settled in [Class 2A]. The move up to [Class] 3A nearly gave me a heart attack.”
But with a team led by do-everything senior Luke Harper, the Bobcats finished 7-4, fourth in their new league, and advanced to the Class 3A state playoffs, where they lost their first-round game at Paris, 36-24.
“We shocked ourselves and shocked everybody,” Treadway said.
Harper (6-2, 215) was a big reason.
As a senior linebacker, he recorded 119 tackles, four sacks and two interceptions. At running back, he finished with 1,652 yards and 25 touchdowns on 213 carries. He scored three two-point conversions and 156 points. He averaged 35 yards per punt and returned four kickoffs.
“He never came off the field,” Treadway said. “We called him the ironman.”
For his play, Harper has been named the 2016 Three Rivers Edition Defensive Player of the Year.
“Luke has been a big leader for us,” Treadway said. “He really had a phenomenal year. He led a group of 22 kids against [such traditionally rich programs as] Osceola, Rivercrest, Newport. He’s a great leader and a great kid.”
Harper, a three-time all-conference selection, earned all-state honors as a senior and was chosen to the 2016 USA Today All-USA Arkansas team as a linebacker. He finished his career with 4,000 all-purpose yards.
“I tried doing my best to leave the best legacy I could,” he said. “I hope I left a good mark on the program itself, and I hope I improved it.”
There’s no question about that.
Like his coach, Harper said he and his teammates, especially his five fellow seniors, knew the Bobcats faced a tough transition in the move up to 3A.
“We really had to lock in,” he said. “We knew we were going to a bigger conference, and we’d never played those teams. We knew we were getting underrated by most everybody. But we also knew we were better than people thought we would be, and we wanted to make it a point to prove that.
“One of our main goals was to try to get that playoff spot. We worked for that. We really tried to put in a good work ethic and have a family atmosphere, and it worked out pretty good.”
During his sophomore season, Harper and the Bobcats earned a fourth seed for the playoffs and had to go to Junction City for the opening round. The Dragons won their third consecutive Class 2A state championship that season.
During Harper’s junior year, the Bobcats qualified third and traveled to Des Arc for the first round. The Eagles went on to the quarterfinals.
During his senior year, the Bobcats qualified fourth from the 3A-3 and had to go to Paris, which fell to Fordyce in the second round.
“We never got a [playoff] win,” Harper said.
But that’s about the only thing he didn’t accomplish.
Perhaps he’s most proud of the turnaround in the program from the 2014 to 2015 seasons.
“My sophomore season, we didn’t have a lot of leadership on the team, which transformed into not having a very good season,” Harper said. “We ended up just breaking even, but the seniors the next year wanted to pick it back up. They showed leadership and got the work ethic back to try to get the program going again.”
Individually, Harper took the leadership reins for his senior season.
“I put in a lot of work over the summer and ended up putting on about 30 pounds of muscle,” he said. “I was very pleased with the outcome. That really made a difference in the way the year went.”
Harper sports a 3.5 grade-point average. He’s a member of the Key Club and the Spanish Club and is senior class president and part of the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership organization. He also plays basketball and baseball for the Bobcats, and he is an outdoorsman, enjoying hunting and fishing.
He will play college football next year, but at press time, he wasn’t sure where. He had an offer from Lyon College in Batesville, and was also drawing interest from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, the University of Arkansas at Monticello and Hendrix College in Conway.
“I don’t really have a favorite,” Harper said. “I’m just trying to get all my options laid out and go from there when the time comes.”
Wherever he winds up, he said, he hopes to study sports medicine.
And though he’s leaving them, he will keep up with the Bobcats, who will continue to build on the foundation he has helped lay.
“I think if they continue to work hard and put in the type of effort we did this year, they should be able to go on and continue to have successful years and winning seasons,” Harper said.