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Hometown Heroes, Arkansas

As told by EAST Youth Storytellers
Batesville, Arkansas

Story Narrative:

A young man in a black shirt holds a football as he stands in front of trophy cases in a high school.

“Hometown Heroes” was filmed, edited, and produced entirely by EAST programs from Batesville, Cedar Ridge, Midland, and Southside schools, in partnership with Old Independence Regional Museum, to celebrate the traveling exhibition Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America. Over the last year, students interviewed more than thirty local current athletes, former athletes, coaches, fans, school faculty, and community officials about the impact of team sports on their lives, careers, and communities. The collected stories include personal triumphs and defeats, wacky game day superstitions, the thrill of rivalries, the economic impact of athletics, and much, much more.

Kyle Christopher (00:43): Hey, I'm Kyle Christopher, Tourism director at the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce. I'm here today at the Old Independence Regional Museum for the Hometown Sports Exhibit. The value of sports to a small community extends well beyond just a competitive event. It can play a role in bringing communities together, having social and cultural impact and developing social capital. But student athletes learn the benefit of representing their community on the field or court. Athletes learn the fun of team rivalries and the delight and feeling of accomplishment for themselves, team and school. The feeling of community and the honor of representing their home team often spills over into their adult life. South Side, Batesville, Midland, Cedar Ridge, and Lyon College all do an excellent job of using athletics as a tool to build individual student skills, promote school pride, and help bring the school and community closer together. Everyone has a personal reason for loving sports. Each person's connection is unique to their own experience as an athlete, fan or coach. Each experience is special.

Brett Barber (01:45): What influenced me to become a coach? Well, ever since I was growing up, I always loved athletics, loved to be outside, loved to do anything, ball, physical activity. So I kind of always knew that I wanted to be a coach. And then just getting into high school sports just influenced me even more. Having coaches that I looked up to coming up through high school.

Doc Freeman (02:06): I like sports because it's very competitive and you know people that are on each team maybe and you have a certain team that you want to win over the other one. That's what's interesting about it.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (02:19): The reason why I played sports in high school was because I loved competition. I loved being with friends, traveling across the state. It taught me so many things, playing sports in high school, although I didn't get to play as much as I wanted to, it was still a heck of a lot of fun to go to practice every day, to travel across the state and again, to have that healthy competition.

Joe Franks (02:39): Well, what influenced me to become a coach is as a player, I was so competitive and when I got out of school, I really wasn't ready to give that competitiveness up. And it just seemed like at college I was always hanging around the PE building and so I was an athlete, played baseball and then, so it seemed natural that I do that and I love that competition. And after I got out and got into it and got to working with young people, that was my passion.

Tim Pugh (03:12): What I like to instill in my athletes is commitment, dedication to the sport. There's a lot of aspects of life that they can learn in athletics and whatever sport they play, but especially in football, that's what I'm concerned about. So I mean, I just feel like that they can learn the team concept and how to get along with people, how to work together.

Tracy Lagne (03:33): But I enjoyed it. I found that I enjoyed the experience of not only the sport but just playing with other kids around. And we didn't have as many offerings as they obviously do today. A lot of options and a lot of choices. But I think I played sports because my family introduced them to me. And once I experienced them, I really, really enjoyed them. And I love-

Whitney Crutcher (04:01): Sports have been everything. I didn't even play. I was a really mediocre golfer and that was about the extent of me being an athlete. But all of my friends played either softball or basketball or when I was a senior, that was our first year of full senior high football here. And pro sports too. It means everything to me. It's where I knew that I was going to see the people that matter to me, whether it be my actual biological family or my family friends that I consider family. I was going to see them in football season. For sure going to see them on Friday nights in basketball season. I was going to see them two or three nights a week. Softball season, going to see them consistently. And we've traveled everywhere. I've followed with Cedar Ridge Sports. And now with me working at Pocahontas with Pocahontas Sports too, I've got to see every corner of Arkansas and sometimes Mississippi or Missouri. And that meant the world to me.

Wanda Wilson (05:02): I love sports. Actually, I didn't play sports in school. I was a cheerleader. But I love to go to the games. I love watching the games on TV. I love the Razorbacks and love watching Austin with the Shockers. And I truly love our Cedar Ridge students. And watching them play.

Kyle Christopher (05:28): The sports experience has been part of our society for many years. But every generation has put their stamp on it. Changes in sports are inevitable. Each bringing about its own challenges and new opportunities,

Coach Tony Roepcke (05:40): Obviously at a young age, for me, a lot of people remember Bobby Knight. Bobby Knight was the dictator. And as coaching progresses, I think it's gone more to the individual player. To me, psychologically there's one young man. And to get the best result out of that young man, you may have to be a dictator. You may have to be harsh with him. And then you may have another young man who that's not going to get the best out of that young man. So I think to a point, individually, you kind of have to be a chameleon as a coach. And you have to be able to do it all different-

Mike King (06:27): ... Say coaching styles. But the major change is everybody is so specialized now. You have very few kids or athletes that play multiple sports. Cause basketball, football, baseball, all sports have almost got to be a 12 month a year job more or less. But you have to almost specialize. There are a few of your really, really good athletes can play maybe two sports in high school, but very, very few that played three sports. So I guess specialization into one sport.

Danny Brustrom (07:04): When I played, there was a lot of in your face type coaching and all of that has went away throughout the years. It's more of a proactive style of coaching is what I tend to use here.

Gary Ford (07:18): Major changes in sports, really it's been the focus on safety and I think it's starts at the top at the pro level, working its way through college and down into high school level. The idea of concussions and protocols that are important for students to be able to recover and then be able to get back to their sport at a later time.

Kyle Christopher (07:37): Each player has their own style preparing for game day. Past experience, future opponents and luck drive most players superstitions. While they may not be logical to the bystander, they make perfect sense to the athlete.

Doc Freeman (07:51): Always heard about if you're going to the game and a black cat runs across the road, just bad luck. And there's various other reasons too that would cause you to say that.

Gary Ford (08:03): What are my game day superstitions? I don't know that I have any particular superstitions. There's just a few things that I do every game day that's normal for me. Always put on my left sock first. Maybe a superstition, probably more of a habit. The last thing I do before the game starts, coin flip is happening, but I walk around without my headset on and paying attention to the crowd because it just reminds me, why we're there. All the hard work we put in and for our communities. And so the moment I put my headset on, it's like it disappears for me. So I usually just take a moment to take in the crowd, take in the band and the cheerleaders before the game starts.

Jake Butler (08:46): My game day superstitions are, I wear the same socks, I wear the same underwear, I wear the same clothes to school every Friday. I listen to the same playlist in the same order before every game. I sit by the same people on the bus ride there and from, I sit by the same people in the locker room. I sit in the same place every Friday and I wear my same cleats.

Joe Franks (09:11): When I was a player I had all kinds of superstitions. I had to wear my uniform just the right way. I had to dress in a certain order. As a coach, I always listened to the radio for a special song or I ate the same thing before every game. It was a chicken sandwich, nothing else on it. To prepare for a game, I had a little towel that I'd been given early in my career at Batesville and I had to always loosen my tie, take off my jacket and roll up my sleeves. That's that game day superstition. I didn't feel comfortable unless I did that.

Jordan Dunegan (09:59): What's my biggest superstition on game day? Well, before every single game I go to the concession stands and tell them to put it on my tab and I get me a big ole cheeseburger.

Coach Steve Baxter (10:09): Did I have any game day superstitions? Yes, would wear the same clothes on game days. A lot of times would eat the same meal on game days, especially if we had won the previous game. So I became superstitious at that point. And then I think one of my funniest ones was that I would always try to park in the same parking spot when I got to the field on game day.

Coach Haigwood (10:33): The superstitions, I really don't have any superstitions as you know what I've got to do on game days. Really just keep it relaxed, keep it fun, keep God first. Just make sure you've got your bags packed. I know the girls they have certain superstitions on, they've got to have a certain ponytail, they've got to have a certain headband, certain spandex, certain socks, they've got to have their ponytail holder, an extra one on their shoe. There's all kinds of different things that they have superstitions on. But as for me, I just want to keep it relaxed, keep it fun, keep them focused in on the game and like I said, keep God first.

Katie Vinson (11:20): One superstition one of my best friends and I had for home basketball games is we would go to Mazzio's and get a mini chocolate chip pizza before every home game. Also in the summer, it was always a real absolutely no swimming on the day of any games.

Dave King (11:35): Being an old baseball player and being raised by an old baseball player, I definitely am superstitious. But as far as game day superstitions, I like to get there early before the game. Walk around, let the kids walk around and kind of stretch their legs out on away games and home games, I always go out and our PA people are always playing some Rolling Stones on the PA. They know I love the Rolling Stones, so they've always got some Rolling Stones playing and I usually go out and walk a mile or two just to take the jitters off on home games.

Chad LaRose (12:10): What are some game day superstitions that I have or things that I do? I think it varies from game to game. If we were a close game or a big game and I noticed the socks I was wearing, I may wear the same socks again or I try not to ever wear the color of the opposing team. So if we're playing a team with a little bit of red in their team colors, I don't want to wear a red shirt or something like that. But as for a game day superstition, if we have a bad game, I'll throw my card that I have all our plays away and I'll come up with the new card. Or if we're playing well, I'll keep that card until I can't read the writing on it anymore. So I think game to game it changes.

Fred Denison Jr. (12:51): My game day superstitions are number one, I always try to sit in the same seat every time because I feel like if we won then I want to stay in the same spot. If we lose, then I want to switch. I have in the past when I coached softball, I always put rocks in my pocket and if we were winning I kept putting rocks in my pocket. If we lose, I would throw them all out and get more rocks. So I mean those are weird little quirks, but I always thought that there was some superstitious stuff that was associated with winning. I wanted all the luck that I could get when my team was on the field.

Fred Denison Sr. (13:37): About the only thing I did was we were finally given our jackets probably in the 10th, 11th grade, I was the manager. But I always made sure anytime I went to the game I wore my jacket cause that helped win. You're displaying your school.

Kyle Christopher (13:57): That's good, thanks.

Coach Stu Smith (13:58): One of my game day superstitions is that I like to take a nap in the afternoon before a ball game. Sometimes it's on the bus if we're traveling, but most of the time if we're at home even I like to get in a place where I can take about a 30 to 45 minute nap. I always think that it sort of clears my mind and it gets me ready for the game. And also I watch so much film during the week that I can shut my eyes like this during an afternoon nap and I can sort of replay those films in my mind to watch the opponents plays. And so I sort like to do that every game and I get a little bit antsy if I don't get in a situation where I can take that short power nap in the afternoon of a game.

Coach Samply (14:34): Game day superstitions, I can go back to the ninth grade. I wore the same pair of lighting bolt underwear in every football game. We went undefeated. But as a coach, definitely when we take the bus, I sit on the same seat every trip. We watch nothing but action adventure movies and spy seeker stuff and definitely try to wear the same socks, same clothes to every game as long as we're on a winning streak.

Coach Phelps (14:58): Game day superstitions, obviously I had mine as a player if we were on a streak, I continued to wear the same things. And now as a coach, kind of like coach standpoint, I sit in the same exact seat on the bus no matter what. And I try and drink the same drink whenever I get up in the morning to kind of just my normal day routine, certain hours before I do certain things. So it's one that's... And if we do get on a streak, I try and make sure I have the same pants on, the same socks. We're going to wear the same thing as coaches. So it's one of those things, it's just I try not to pay attention to it. It just kind of happens that way.

Elliot Taylor (15:37): Game day superstitions. Well, at home I always eat the same thing. I always eat a chicken sandwich from Subway. I always get here first to the gym, always make sure. It's a weird thing. I always tie my right shoe and get it on before my left. I have the same stuff that I wear under my uniform. Same socks, same spandex, same everything that I wear every game no matter what. Unless we lose and then it's time to switch it up. Of course we always look for pennies too. Lyon College, women's basketball is very notorious for searching for heads up pennies while we're on away games or right before a big game and we'll collect them and coach usually keeps those before the big game.

Kristie Jenkins (16:24): I have several game day superstitions. I had to wear entirely the exact same thing from top to bottom under the uniform and the uniform itself. I had to pack the bag the same way every time to the same song. So I had a lot.

Coach Tony Roepcke (16:40): Game day superstitions as a coach, I know baseball probably more so than other sports is a very superstitious sport by nature. And it's America's past time. It's been around for a long time. I don't have a lot of them. But one thing that I do every single game day is as soon as we take the field, we pray right before we run on the field as a unit, as a team all together. And I think that's probably the biggest superstition that I have is I think you need to pray every day. And if you're not, you can do it with me.

Whitney Reeves (17:25): My game day superstition was on our bus ride, if we didn't listen to music on our little Beats pill or if we didn't sing our cheers right before we got out there, it was going to be a bad day for all of us.

Kyle Christopher (17:38): Those programs have a direct impact on a community allowing for a common sense of pride among its citizens. Successful programs bring extra fans, additional events and bragging rights to communities of all sizes.

Coach Steve Baxter (17:50): I think sports are very important to a community. It brings people together, kind of forget about things that are going on and we all come together as one community. It helps with school spirit, with community pride. And so I think it's a great thing that to have sports in a local community,

Kerri Passmore (18:08): Sports in our community, I believe it's very important. It brings people to our school that might not otherwise come out here. It just brings everybody together. They have a good time, they laugh and I've made a lot of lifelong friendships at ballgames.

Lennie Foree (18:29): I think the main thing is just the discipline that it taught me at an early age was critical. Determination. But I think the main thing was just the friendships over the years that I've built, I'm still friends with my teammates from grade school, I'm still friends with them. Certainly friends with my buddies from college and throughout the years, just the friendship that I've developed.

Elliot Taylor (18:54): Team sports are so important to the community. I feel like it's a way to bring everyone together. Doesn't matter your background or where you're from or how much money you make or what education level, Everyone can come together and support a team for one common goal. It's not complicated, it's not economics, it's not politics, it's just something that everyone understands and everyone can get behind and support in the same direction.

Whitney Crutcher (19:23): I think here it's... A lot of places when you're from somewhere really small, probably the biggest gatherings of people that you see would be at ball games or at football games and basketball games. I don't know, it's the epicenter, not so much financially, but it's almost like a big family reunion. Every time there's a ball game you're going to see the same people and you're going to bump into, whether it be the mayor or city councilmen or school board members, you're going to bump in to the pillars of the community at a ballgame. And for state games, you see the cliche of businesses being closed because they're going to a state game. I think it's the heart and soul of a community, a sports team is.

Wanda Wilson (20:19): Actually for the small town of Newark and Charlotte and Oil Trough also, sports is their hub. Sports is where everybody comes together in the same place with the same goals. And so I think that has brought communities closer.

Malory Bice (20:42): For our community. I think sports means just coming together, having someone to support whether you know the players or not, just that local businesses can really come together and support someone because everyone wants to support someone. So I think it gives us a good reason to.

Tyler Fields (21:00): Absolutely. Sports serve as a rallying point for the community, around the school as a whole. I know that everyone is always super supportive of the school, especially in this community. They do a lot for us here, everybody, all the businesses, individuals. And it's probably the most easily visible way to support a team, to support the school. It's kind of hard to get... You can't really get into a classroom and say, "Yeah, go Johnny, you get that A on your math test." But it's a whole lot easier to say, "Go out to the sporting events and cheer on the athletes there, to sponsor a team, to sponsor some to organization on campus." It's just a great way to bring the community together and to really allow outside support for our school.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (21:45): Sporting events bring communities together. Across Arkansas, we see this and I know and at South Side over the years, watching athletes over each and every year go out and play, whether it was basketball or tennis or baseball or now football. It always brings people in together. They watch their families grow up, they cheer for one another. My mother taught elementary special ed at South Side for 34 years. She remembers all of her students, but she also remembers all of those student athletes too that she cheered on every single year that she taught at South Side and even after that.

Dave King (22:18): What I love about sports as a whole, especially in football, is it crosses all lines. It crosses religious lines, racial lines, where you're in the community as far as your class, if you're upper middle class, if you're down poverty level, it doesn't matter. Everybody's the same in athletics. And I think that's one of the great things about it as far as bringing a town together and community. You have kids from all different phases of life coming together for a common goal. And I think when kids buy into that, it can be a beautiful thing and it really is something that I think can bring a community together. I've seen many times a good team, whether it be football, basketball, baseball or whatever, bring lots of people in the community together, lots of people in the school district together. So I think it's something that bonds the community and makes us stronger.

Novella Humphrey (23:13): I think with each community we identify with our local sports teams, with our high school, with our junior high, with our Mighty might teams, with our little league teams, it gives us a sense of belonging. It gives us something to root for, something greater than we are individually, but how we're unified together as a community to support our young athletes, to support our families and just to come together as a community as a whole to support success.

Jake Butler (23:39): Sports is important to this community because we're in a very small rural town and there's not a lot of things to do. So the community really takes pride in our football program and our other sports programs haven't been that great. So football's really started to excel the past couple years. Our game turnouts have been much better and the community's really starting to get behind us.

Gary Ford (24:05): Why do I think sports are important to the community? I would say it's just a rallying point. A place for pride in a community. It's someone's grandmother, it's someone's grandfather, aunt, uncle, mom, dad that's in the stands playing. And they all belong to a local community. And by playing for your team, you're playing for your local community and all those people are there and they're cheering you on and they're proud to see your hard work and just going out and putting a good product on the field. I know that sounds cliche, but the amount of work that goes into it allows the fans and the parents to be able to see the hard work of those student athletes.

Kyle Christopher (24:53): Rivalries create a special atmosphere for both the athlete and the community. The wins are sweeter, but the losses cut deeper. Regardless of the outcome, the chance of beating your biggest rival is worth all the extra effort. Hometowns go all out to show their support during rivalry weeks.

Danny Brustrom (25:11): Here at Cedar Ridge, we do not have any quote, "major rivalries" because of our change in conferences. The last six years, we've changed conferences three times and not built that rivalry. However, we do have to prep for each individual team as we go along the way in our conferences.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (25:33): Our rivalries differed each year. Sometimes in elementary school it may have been Sulfur Rock and basketball sometimes it would be the Batesville Pioneers, Cave City Cavemen or Mountain View. So depending on the years and how good we were and how good the other schools were, the rivalry's different. But we always enjoyed playing Batesville. It was always fun. I have so many friends that played, that were Batesville Pioneers.

Tracy Lagne (25:58): School, I think it was probably Bradford. Jud Sonia. Loved playing against Natalie Martin. Loved playing against Terry Conder and they were just really, really hard to guard. And so I got excited to play them but in particular that night, hopefully I got excited every night. But in college it was Arkansas Tech and UCA loved playing the Sugar Bears, loved playing Golden Suns. And those two young ladies that I mentioned, were playing for UCA. So not only did I have rivalries and get excited about playing against them in high school, I was also playing against them in college.

Tracy Lagne (26:37): At Harding, I played against one of my best friends and that was hard because they weren't as strong as they are today in their women's program. And I didn't enjoy beating one of my close friends. But the old AIC days, it was fun to only have to travel 45 minutes or an hour and a half or two hours and play against great competition. So it was always, you had known about them. If you didn't play them in high school, you played them in college and it was a lot of fun to get to hook up with them on the weekends and through the week.

Gary Ford (27:11): I don't think that Cedar Ridge really has a rivalry just yet, still being a fairly new program. But I do see type games, close games, well played games, not a lot of penalties. Both sides playing well, not just our team but the team we're playing. Those are the games you like to play. Preparation wise, when we have an opponent that we know is going to be really hard, I think there's a lot more focus to detail and that challenge is given to our athletes to really pay attention to the small details instead of just the picture of the game as a whole.

Doc Freeman (27:47): My memory of sports is very competitive and we want to be just a little bit better than the next man or the next team. So we are competitive in that way.

Joe Franks (27:59): Oh, rivalries were huge in every place I've been. In Batesville, back in the day it was Newport and our game prep didn't change. We tried to approach every game as being important but you just can't hide that. I helped with football for just two or three years there and you just can't hide that emotion the kids feel. They want to win because people in the community are looking at that. And girls basketball there at Batesville's Greene County Tech and we played in front of the student body. The boys would come to Batesville and play. We'd go to tech and play then vice versa. And you talk about a rivalry as those kids get in there and they're hyped up on soda pop and Kool-Aid. It was a tough atmosphere play. It was a lot of fun and it was kind of funny. The coach over there was a really good friend of mine and so we really had some battles here at South Side, I remember the games with Cave City. The year that they went deep into the state tournament. We had them beat here at our gym and it was the best atmosphere that I can ever remember, the basketball game. Well maybe state tournament was a little better sometimes, but it was a great atmosphere. They made a play at the end of the game and beat us. But I remember those games very intensely and you just couldn't hide the fact that we wanted to beat them. They wanted to beat us.

Whitney Crutcher (29:19): How do I display my school spirit? Now that I'm older, I tried to tone it down quite a bit. When I was younger I drove an orange and blue truck, I had a blue truck. It was a Chevrolet. All the decals were orange, it had orange seats like I had them professionally replaced, had orange seats and I had the orange Chevy bow tie in the front. And instead of running a Razorbacks plate, I ran a Texas orange plate upside down because I wanted everything to be orange and blue.

Wanda Wilson (29:51): I tried to do that all the time by having Cedar Ridge posters and stickers on my vehicle. I also wear colors of on game day, our school colors, and have a Cedar Ridge blanket even that I carry to the football games with me. So I do all I can to support our school athletes.

Elliot Taylor (30:25): Playing a team sport has impacted my life on multiple levels. I started playing when I was in kindergarten and just being around girls and having to wake up and go to practice and having to work out and being accountable to all those different players, it's really impacted me on a level that I can't explain. Here at Lyon College, we're very spiritually based on my basketball team and I'm so very blessed about that. And so between the spiritual level and the personal level and then getting to connect it with other teammates who are doing the same thing as you, it's something that will influence me the rest of my life.

Kristie Jenkins (31:09): I think back to the rivalries in college. I played for Lyon College and the conferences are much different today as they were then. We played in a conference called the AIC and it was actually all the local Arkansas colleges, UCA, UAM and such. And so our big rivalry was UCA. Their facility was large, they were a larger school than us. We had great crowds. A lot of times in college, the women's game had more people attending than the men's game.

Mike King (31:43): Batesville was no doubt our major rival when I was coaching. They were non-conference game three miles apart. We always had a huge crowd and huge gate and just a great atmosphere. Cause most all of our kids know Batesville kids. And then Batesville dropped us and all sports a few years back. So I'd say probably Cave City now is probably our biggest rival. We play them when they're in our conference, when they're not in our conference. But ever since I've been here in night since 1978, Cave City has been on our schedule. And again, it's a really big game to our kids cause we know one another so well.

Susan Dempsey (32:26): When there's a big rivalry, I think you can sense the tension in the gymnasium. There are more people show up and stay for the entire game whether we're ahead or behind and it's just a different feeling. And we have a couple of schools that are huge rivals of Lyon College right now in basketball. So the attendance is always larger then. And you just notice that the feeling in the room in the gym.

John Dempsey (32:55): When we play a real rival, everybody's more vocal. They get into the game so much more. And I agree with Susan, there's probably three teams that we play now that we are more up for than any other game. So I look forward to those games and I think players do too.

Lennie Foree (33:15): Biggest rival, that's a kind of two part question for me. I think when we were younger it was definitely Rodney Griffin in Newark Kangaroos. We always had a real heated, heated rivalry there. But as we got older, I think it was Highland and Jason Rhodes, we seemed to always meet over here at the Lyon College tournament and always had some really good, tough games. Always enjoyed those.

Coach Samply (33:39): I would say with our rivals, for us, there's no change. We practice every day hopefully the same way, with the same level of intensity. And whether we're playing the number four rated team in the country or the 285th rated team in the country, we want to go out onto the field and approach it the same way. And as long as we do that, we feel like we'll be more consistent and more successful. Having said that, there's a few teams out there that we play that I do enjoy beating more than some, but I definitely like beating all of them.

Kyle Christopher (34:10): Athlete, fan and coach has his or her own favorite sports memory. Some come from a favorite game, others from a special bond with a particular coach, player or fan. Together, these memories create a common language for sports enthusiasts, both young and old.

Doc Freeman (34:27): Sports, it means a lot to everyone in one way or the other. And to pick out one over the other, it'd be pretty hard to do.

Gary Ford (34:41): What is my favorite moment of my coaching career? I'm always proud of all my players, especially when they strive to do better and they play well. But when you have that one student or athlete who doesn't really get as much playing time, but they're still working hard in the weight room or they're still working hard in practice and then they get that opportunity to get into a game and they shine. That's probably the highlight of my career.

Joe Franks (35:10): Well, I could tell a whole lot of stories about my favorite memories in coaching. There's all kinds of different things here. Working with Terry Watson, Malcolm Long, and some of the guys here. Great memories, we had a good rapport. But my favorite memory involves a game at the finals of the state championships. And my girls from Batesville were playing at Win in the finals of state. And we'd been addressing all the hype with the kids and trying to keep them contained and not overly fired up. And they introduced the teams before the game and they said, now introducing the Batesville Lady Pioneers and the crowd from Batesville was huge. And all the fans stood up and were just going crazy.

Joe Franks  (36:00): And as I always did before games, I looked into the crowd and to pick out my wife and I looked and saw June standing there and she's jumping up and down, waving and screaming. My mom and dad are there, and they're both standing up clapping and I look and my two little preschool kids or very early elementary kids are sitting on the front row of the bleachers with a coloring book and colors and they're coloring. They didn't care what dad's team did, they just wanted to be kids. And so that was a very humbling experience and it helped me always put in perspective the importance of those games.

Whitney Crutcher (36:35): My favorite sporting memory ever was in 2013 when the Cedar Ridge Boys won State. To me that is the ultimate moment and every bit of it is frozen in time. We were down and I thought it was over. And we come back and I'm so emotionally attached to that moment when the game ended and K Crabtree gets the free throws. And I remember jumping off of my chair and grabbing my best friend and just boohooing. And I'm not a crier whatsoever, but that moment was awesome. That moment was everything to me.

Wanda Wilson (37:13): My favorite sporting memory was when my oldest son was a senior. He was playing football and he fractured his neck when he went down for a touchdown. Little did we know how serious his injury was because he finished out the night and played the game. Later that night I decided to take him to ER and it was confirmed that he got a fracture, therefore he was put in a neck brace, out for the rest of the season. But more than that, it took him out for his basketball and that was his truly loved sport. And I guess the most wonderful time was after the first semester, he got to enter the basketball court once again and was a high scorer that night. It made me just feel so happy that he had went through the trauma but had come out great.

Malory Bice (38:17): My favorite sporting memory would be this year, whenever South Side made it to the playoffs. It was just fun to go to all the playoff games, see all the support and everybody come to the games. It was just a good time to bring everybody together and watch those games.

Tyler Fields (38:33): Being an alumni of South Side, I've got a lot of opportunity to draw back on. There's been many a game where, I remember back in high school there was the Boys squad, there was a couple games that would be really, really close and you would come down right down to the buzzer. But I think maybe my favorite memory was for a time, and this is another thing that sports has is just the rivalry aspect, but there was a time when, and it was such a big deal for our football team because there was one point in the season where we had started off three and oh, had a really rocking start to the season. And it was just funny because ironically enough, Batesville did not have such a good start. And I think they were oh and two or oh and three, something like that. And it was for that brief moment, it was something to brag about and really, really, really dig in and have some fun with. So that's one of my favorite memories.

Doc Freeman (39:19): My memory of sports is very competitive and we want to be just a little bit better than the next man or the next team. So we are competitive in that way.

Coach Phelps (39:30): Favorite memory during my coaching career is having my first group of seniors that was this year. That was Mike Bowles, Cody Deval and Jacob Loveless. All three of those guys were very good and very instrumental in the progress and the building of our program. Obviously Michael Bowles, coaching him for a year was pretty special. And watching him go over 1500 yards his senior year and be in the top five in the country as far as leading rushers in the NAI was pretty special for me.

Coach Samply (40:05): I've got several memories I guess that I fall back to when it comes to favorite parts of my coaching career from coaching and World Series national championship games, coaching my own son growing up was every day a wonderful memory. But if I more recently pick one, I would say the first day of practice two and a half years ago when I stepped out onto the field after coaching men for 23 years and go to coaching, fast pitch softball and coaching young adult women was, and looking out after practice and seeing 18 young women with sweat from head to toe and dirt everywhere and realizing that this is how you play the game and this is the type of effort. And if you do this every day, you're going to be successful.

Coach Tony Roepcke (40:53): Favorite play, favorite memory from my coaching career, there would probably be a couple of them. Obviously a couple years ago we were at the conference tournament and we won the ball game that we needed to win to go to the national tournament. And that was a great memory. But I remember we got on the bus and we were going to eat something pretty much right after the ball game. And I was in a good mood. We're in the national tournament, I'm pumped. I know my players are, I'm driving on the bus and I know my players behind me are pumped. And so one of the players who's notorious for doing out of place things comes up and says he wants to play a song on the radio. And I said, "Oh, he's probably going to do something to make me mad. Don't make me mad right now. I'm so happy." And he ended up playing, he wanted to play the song that we always play after every victory that we have. And the whole bus was singing and dancing. And that was a great memory.

Coach Tony Roepcke (42:05): Another great memory that I have and just the type of coach that I am. Coincidentally the same conference tournament, I had a young man who was playing third base and took a bad hop right off his face and I went out and checked on him and he's just a tough, hard-nosed kid and no way he was coming out of the game. And so two innings later, another hard ground ball was hit at him, another bad hop came up, hit him in a collarbone and you could just feel the whole place, the breath come out of everybody because that young man not only was willing to take a ball in the face, but then when the next one came, he just stood there and took it as well. And that takes a lot of self discipline and just having those kind of ball players is an amazing thing. So many days, I'm so proud of my guys.

Whitney Reeves (43:07): ... Memory from my sports career, when we won state in 2014. Honestly I didn't think we're going to win that game by the way the stats looked for the other team. And when we got to that seventh inning and Emily caught the pop up, it was the best thing I think I could ever... It was the best feeling I've ever had.

Kyle Christopher (43:26): The reason the athlete plays a game will always be a personal decision, but the benefits from being part of a team will last a lifetime. In one way or another, our small hometown teams have created an impact on our community and on each of us.


Asset ID: 2021.11.01
Themes: Sports, athletes, heroes, hometown, sports, community, superstitions, competition, memories, high school, coaching, life lessons, football, basketball, rivalries
Date recorded: 2017
Length of recording: 44:10 m
File Type: Video, .mp4
Related traveling exhibition: Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America
Sponsor or affiliated organization: EAST programs from Batesville, Cedar Ridge, Midland, and Southside schools, in collaboration with Old Independence Regional Museum, Batesville, Arkansas
More informationhttps://arkansashumanitiescouncil.org/hometown-teams-exhibit/