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BEARS LOOK FOR BETTER SEASON IN 2022

By KELLY BLAIR
Y95 Sports Director
BEARDEN - Obviously things could not have gone much worse for the Bearden Bears in 2021. 
An 0-11 record, with almost all of the losses by blowout margins, led to the eventual dismissal of former coach Greg Anthony.
Brandon Austin, who had been serving as the team's defensive coordinator, took over as the new head coach and immediately went to work, getting Bearden's overall numbers up from just over a dozen that they ended the '21 season with to now almost two dozen (23).
The team went through an ambitious offseason too, participating in 4 team camps and a 7-on-7 competition over in Rison.
The team welcomes back five starters who played significant minutes last year, and who Austin said would likely serve as the foundation for this year's team to build off of.
"I think we've had a really good turnout," Austin said of the first week of official fall camp for the Bears. "We've had upwards of 20 to 23 kids show up each day, so that's a plus. I think we're heading in the right direction. We've gotten a chance to work on installs - our offense and looked at a few things defensively, so I think we've come a long way in this short week."
Austin said while the Bears will continue to base out of their 3-5 defense they have played for the last couple of seasons, they are switching to a Slot Wing T offense to try and take advantage of the skill set the Bears currently have.
"We're gonna try to run the ball quite a bit, try to control the line of scrimmage," Austin said. "We've got some bigger kids in the backfield that will do well moving the ball for us ... and defensively we'll continue to do what we did last year ... do a lot of blitzing and really try to get after it."
Like most teams this year, Bearden is opting to forego a instrasquad scrimmage to take full advantage of their practice days. They will travel to Stamps on Aug. 16th to participate in a preseason benefit game vs. both Smackover and Lafayette County.
They will then host Drew Central on Aug. 26 to open the 2022 season. 

BULLDOGS LOOK FOR BOUNCE BACK YEAR UNDER NEW COACH

By KELLY BLAIR

Y95 Sports Director
HAMPTON - There is a whole new look and new attitude around the Hampton field house this season. 
How much success that will translate to on the actual playing field will be determined a little later on, but first-year head Bulldog coach Chris Morphis said he likes the progress the 28 players who have reported for practice have made so far.
"First couple of days of practice have been good," Morphis said. "We've had good participation, our kids have worked hard ... we've had great attitudes ... I mean, they are taking it and running with it and we're now just putting in the fine tuning points of it. So everything is going pretty well."
Morphis took over the Bulldog program after Hampton finished the 2021 campaign 3-7 overall. He had spent the last three seasons as an assistant at Poyen and was the head coach at Western Yell Co. for one season before that.
The coach said the Bulldogs prepared for preseason camp by attending two team camps during the summer, and three 7-on-7 competitions. He said while the 'Dogs are going back to a more ground oriented offense this fall (Flexbone), he still believes the passing competitions helped his team a lot.
"We got better (in the 7-on-7's) as the summer went on," Morphis said. "Obviously that is not going to be our forte, but people think the Flexbone teams don't have to work on passing the ball ... the truth is we have to work at it a little bit harder. Because it's not something we do a lot of, but when we do decide to pass the football it's something we need to be very disciplined and very precise with it."
Hampton will continue to work out through the week as it prepares for a benefit preseason scrimmage game against Magnet Cove on Aug. 18th. 
The Bulldogs have already had a schedule change as Parkers Chapel, who the Bulldogs were supposed to open with, have switched to 8-man football for the upcoming year.
That forced Hampton to take a bye in Week Zero, but they were able to add Junction City as a non-conference opponent on Oct. 21. That was the date Junction would have played Chapel.

HORNETS LOOK TO KEEP MOMENTUM GOING IN 2022

By KELLY BLAIR

Y95 Sports Director

HARMONY GROVE - Over the last handful of seasons, there may not be another 3A school who has played a tougher schedule than the Harmony Grove Hornets. 
And the Hornets are ready to test their mettle against another challenging slate in 2022, with 13 starters returning on both sides of the ball.
Harmony Grove got their 2022 campaign started on Monday with their first official preseason practice, with 44 players reporting for duty. 
Like most of the other area teams, however, the Hornets have conducted a number of practices and 7 one 7 passing camps through June and July.
Harmony Grove coach Ernie Horstkamp said the Hornets attended three team camps and three 7-on-7 competitions, serving as the host for 2 of each of the events.
The coach said the Hornets spent most of Monday "just getting back into the flow of things" and said they would continue to re-install their offensive and defensive schemes through the week, working up to full pad practices next Monday.
Teams are required to practice in t-shirts, shorts and helmets for the first two days of fall camp, before moving up to "shells" or half-pad practices for three days. After the first week of acclimation, mandated by the Arkansas Activities Association, teams are allowed to practice in full pads.
"We do so many things throughout the year now, especially during the summer with 7-on-7's and team camps, there is not as much rust as there was years and years ago," Horstkamp said of starting preseason camp. "It still feels different, once you get that official start on Aug. 1st ... and I guess the pace of install really picked up - offensively and defensively, and including special teams."
The coach said his goal every year is that by then end of the first week of practice, if the team had to play a game immediately on Friday, they would be able to do so.
"So we really push the pace this first week," Horstkamp said. "Then we can just kinda review and back off the pace from there."
The coach added the team would work out from 8 to 11 AM for the rest of this week, before switching to afternoon practices next week to work around teacher seminars. 
Harmony Grove plans to have a Black & Gold scrimmage game on Aut. 12th with the junior high working out at 6 PM, and the senior high going around 7 PM.
They will then host Hope High School for a preseason scrimmage game at Bill Manning Field on Aug. 16th, before opening their season on Week Zero against Junction City on the road.
Horstkamp said the school was originally slated to scrimmage Genoa Central, but the Dragons dropped down to 8-man football just a few weeks ago. He was able to find Hope looking for a scrimmage partner on the AAA website.

First day of practice goes well for Camden Fairview

By KELLY BLAIR

Y95 Sports Director

CAMDEN - The Camden Fairview Cardinals kicked off their first day of pre-season practice for the 2022 football season on Monday, the first day allowed by the Arkansas Activities Association. 
First-year head football coach Nick Vaughn said things went well for the group, despite having a serious knee injury to a player towards the very start of the session. Vaughn declined to share the player's name for the time being until a complete evaluation on his status can be completed.
The former El Dorado and Little Rock Parkview assistant said that he was proud of the effort he saw out of his squad, however. 
"Our timing wasn't bad," Vaughn said. "We had a lot of young guys get some work today ... We had a few not show up so that opened up some practice time for some of the young guys ... when that happens we get a chance to see what some of the others can do. We got a lot of good work in today."
The coach added he feels the Redbirds are in good shape after they went through 7 team camps and one 7-on-7 competition this summer, taking on top flight competition such as Bryant, Parkview, North Little Rock, Dumas, Watson Chapel, Hamburg, Prescott, Bismark and Magnolia. 
Coming off a 10-2 season which saw them win the 5A South conference championship, the Cardinals have 9 returning starters this year, including 6 on offense. Vaughn said the coaches expect 82 players on the roster this fall, with 72 showing on the first day. 
Teams in Arkansas are required to practice in t-shirts and helmets only for the first two days of fall camp, then can move to using blocking sleds and tackling dummies with shoulder pads. After 5 full days, they can start practicing in full pads if they choose.
Vaughn said the Cards would continue to work on fundamentals and rules, with a lot of teaching going on this week. They are also adding one special teams aspect each day, covering punts today, while expecting to install kickoffs on Tuesday.
Camden Fairview will not have an official Red-White scrimmage during fall camp, with Vaughn stating he would rather just get a regular day of practice instead. The Cardinals will scrimmage Star City at Cardinal Stadium on Aug. 18th. 

New Camden Fairview football coach Nick Vaughn

    

     

         

 

 

CAMDEN FAIRVIEW CARDINAL

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Hampton Bulldogs

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HARMONY GROVE HORNET

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