By Jason Avery
News-Times Staff
There’s been a great deal of upheaval on the sports landscape at Parkers Chapel in 2015.
This summer, the Trojans lost Junction City as a conference foe after the Dragons moved up to the 3A ranks.
Then Trojans lost a second Union County rival in Strong after the Arkansas Activities Association didn’t place the Bulldogs and Trojans together when they combined classes and districts together.
The only time now that the Trojans and Bulldogs will meet in conference play is in football.
Outside of Harmony Grove dropping to 2A for the first time in over a decade to take Junction City’s place in the 8-2A, there are no changes on the football side of things.
However, that is not the case in other sports.
Although it would seem on the surface that the Trojans lost a great deal with the new reshuffling of conferences, there are some positives.
From a basketball standpoint, there is no question that the Trojans have been placed in a league that prides itself on the hardwood.
Emerson’s boys basketball team handed Junction City its lone loss of the regular season last year on their way to reaching the state finals, while Nevada County’s girls basketball team won the state title two years ago.
Bradley, Sparkman and Taylor round out the contingent of 1A schools in the league. Lafayette County and Harmony Grove join the Trojans as the representatives from the 2A ranks.
“It’s really good,” said Parkers Chapel girls basketball coach Mark Young. “Nevada County has got very athletic teams both boys and girls. Bradley, Taylor and Emerson produce quality teams from year to year. It’s certainly going to be a process of getting to know new opponents and them getting to know you.”
Boys basketball coach Trey Lynch concurred.
“They are very tradition-rich when you talk about Bradley, Nevada County and people like that,” Lynch said. “It will be different, but it will be just as much, if not more quality than we’re facing right now.”
But there are plenty of questions surrounding the move that must be hashed out, including seeding for the district tournament.
When the regular season concludes, only Harmony Grove and Lafayette County will be joining the Trojans for the district tournament. Spring Hill, Rison and Bearden comprise the new-look 7-2A East for the postseason.
“I think it’s going to be very, very difficult,” Young said. “I think of all the issues that have been brought up about the new alignments, having to seed district tournaments with the possibility of teams having not played each other during the regular season is going to be very tough. I think it’s going to lead to some very heated meetings at the end of the year when they get ready to seed these things.
“We’ve got to figure out what these games are going to mean. We’re going to play Taylor, Nevada County, Emerson and Sparkman twice, but we’re not going to see them in the district or regional tournament because they’re going to be down in 1A.”
As far as travel goes, Lynch doesn’t believe there won’t be a great difference between their present schedule and the new league.
“On the whole, it’s probably a little bit more because we lose those close ones,” Lynch said. “The only real long one we lose is Dermott, although I’m not big on making those trips to Rison and Woodlawn. I don’t think it’s going to be anything real significant one way or another.”
Interestingly, the Trojans have already played future league members Nevada County, Harmony Grove and Taylor on the road, but Lynch said there was no strategic purpose to it.
“It just kind of worked out that way,” Lynch said.
Although Young is hopeful of keeping Parkers Chapel’s former conference rivals from Union County on the schedule, it won’t be easy.
“Junction City is really hard to get non-conference because they play so deep in the football playoffs that they’re not ready to play boys basketball until the second or third week of December,” Young said. “By that time, the conferences are going to get started, so it’s going to be real difficult to schedule them. We’ll certainly take a look at it, because they have a really good draw when we come to town, and we have a really good gate when they come to town, so that’s important.
“Strong is another one that’s based on how teams do in the football playoffs, so you’re kind of hit and miss with those teams. We’re certainly going to entertain the idea of playing those teams, but we’re in an eight-team league where we have to play our opponents twice, and that’s 14 conference games.
“We only have 18 total games that we can play in if we play in three tournaments or 20 if we play in two tournaments. We don’t have a lot of space for them and they don’t have a lot of space for us. I think there’s no doubt that the landscape of the rivalries in Union County is going to be changed for quite some time. I guess it’s good that we’re going to get to play new teams, but we’re going to miss the home-and-home with Strong, Junction and all the schools we’ve been rivals with for so long. It’s going to be different.”
Lynch added that the logistics of putting the schedule together will be difficult.
“We haven’t done anything yet with scheduling, and it’s going to be a headache,” Lynch said. “We’re involving not only our regular season league, but our postseason league, and every school that’s involved with the two leagues that they’re in. I’ll be interested to see how it shakes out.”
Regardless of what happens down the line, Lynch is interested to see how everything plays out.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Lynch said. “Do I think it’s the best idea in the world? No. It’s just one of those things we’re going to have to make it work. We’ll see if it lasts two years or 20 years. I don’t know. I understand what they’re trying to accomplish with it, I’m just not sure how much progress we’re making towards that goal.”
2016-18
Combined District (Regular Season)
15-1&2A
Bradley
Emerson
Harmony Grove
Lafayette County
Nevada County
Parkers Chapel
Sparkman
Taylor
7-2A East Basketball, Baseball, Softball (Postseason District Tournament)
Bearden
Harmony Grove
Lafayette County
Parkers Chapel
Rison
Spring Hill
8-2A Football
Bearden
Hampton
Harmony Grove
Hermitage
Parkers Chapel
Rison
Strong
Woodlawn