Two new coaches highlight pending 7A-Central season

The high school football offseason has seen some major upheaval, especially at the Class 7A level. Arguably the state’s toughest league, the 7A-Central Conference landed two of Arkansas’ top coaches over the past three months. North Little Rock, which has played in the state championship the past four seasons, hired J.R. Eldridge from Arkadelphia. The state’s newest football program for 2020, Little Rock Southwest, tabbed former Fayetteville and Bauxite coach Daryl Patton as its new leader in January. Even though North Little Rock has a new coach, Cabot Coach Scott Reed said the state’s largest classification will run through the Charging Wildcats and two-time defending state c h a m p i o n Bryant. “That’s the measuring stick,” Reed said. “We’re capable of it. We’re hopeful it won’t take too long of a time for us to get there.” Bryant has defeated North Little Rock in the past two Class 7A state championship games. The Hornets return several key players from last season’s 13-0 team, including junior quarterback Austin Ledbetter. In January, the Hornets got a boost in their backfield when junior Jamarien Frye transferred from Rison to Bryant. Frye will have one season at Bryant where Coach Buck James plans to have him play at both running back and linebacker, similar to the role Ahmad Adams played last fall. Adams signed with Arkansas State University as a linebacker in December. However, the state’s top team after the 2019 season is like every other high school football team — on hold — because of the coronavirus pandemic. James, who has overseen one of the state’s top offseason weight programs since he became the Hornets’ coach in 2016, said his team has been given workouts to use via Hudl. “I’m sure it’s tough on them right now,” said James of his players not being able to use on-campus facilities because of the dead period. “But I hope they have a new perspective of how much they enjoy doing this. “We take a lot of it for granted. It [the virus] has opened up my eyes, for sure.” Patton, who won four state championships at Fayetteville and spent the past four seasons at Bauxite, was hired as Little Rock Southwest’s first coach. The Gryphons also will have former Bryant coach Paul Calley and former Little Rock Fair coach Roosevelt Turner on the staff. “What a great asset for Southwest,” Conway Coach Keith Fimple said. Then, on March 30, Eldridge was hired by North Little Rock to take over for Jamie Mitchell, who went 52-12 in five seasons with the Charging Wildcats. Fimple coached Eldridge when he was at Henderson State University. Eldridge’s hiring at North Little Rock — where Fimple’s brother Daryl is the girls basketball coach — has made the 7A-Central even more competitive, Fimple said. “He’s going to be a great fit at North Little Rock,” said Fimple of Eldridge, who won two Class 4A state championships at Arkadelphia in 2017 and 2018. “It’s a great conference to be in,” Fimple said. “It doesn’t take you long to figure out it’s going to be a battle every week.” Reed agreed with Fimple that the addition of Patton and Eldridge to the 7A-Central will make the league better. “Coach Patton has those kids excited,” Reed said. “Coach Mitchell did a great job at North Little Rock. I know Coach Eldridge will too. He’s got an excellent staff with him.” Said James: “They’ve got six state championships between them. They’re good coaches. It just goes to show that football is important in Central Arkansas.” Cabot made the Class 7A playoffs in Reed’s first season last year. Quarterback Tyler Gee, who will be a senior this fall, completed 146 of 259 passes for 2,319 yards with 24 touchdowns and 8 interceptions last season as the Panthers went from longtime coach Mike Malham’s Dead-T offense to Reed’s Spread offense. Before the coronavirus pandemic put a halt to football offseason programs in the state March 15, Reed believed the Panthers were improving. “It was going great,” Reed said. “We had 160 kids out. It’s the second year of a totally new system for them. The kids were getting stronger.” Then, like all teams across the state, Cabot has had to put its offseason program on a virtual level. Reed said his main goals for the Panthers right now are to stay healthy and finish their schoolwork via AMI. Bryant was scheduled to go through spring football from the last week of April to the middle of May. James said that the Hornets are planning to play in two of the state’s high-profile 7-on-7 tournaments, the Shootout of the South in Little Rock and the Southwest Elite 7-on-7 Showcase in Springdale, this summer. The AAA’s dead period runs through May 30 and has not made a decision on what will happen with the state’s athletic programs after that date. Conway’s spring football schedule was scheduled to begin in the last week of April and run up until May 21. “It’s been a strange year,” Fimple said. “But I hope everybody is safe and we can flatten the curve.” Reed said Cabot was to have started spring football in the last week of April, then go into the middle of May. The football regular season isn’t scheduled to kick off until Aug. 24. However, Fimple said he didn’t want to speculate on if football will start on time this fall. “You can only control what you can control,” Fimple said. “You just put it in the Lord’s hands. I just want to protect our kids.” James isn’t sure if the football season will start on time. “I don’t see anything happening until the numbers go down,” James said. “If one kid in the dressing room were to get ill, it would put a screeching halt to the season. “With social distancing, I hope it will slow down the virus.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Cabot High School Athletics

TWO NEW COACHES HIGHLIGHT PENDING 7A-CENTRAL SEASON

JEREMY MUCK

Arkansas Democrat Gazette | 4/13/2020