RIVER VALLEY- Once again, there were many great sports moments in 2023, and RNN Sports had the privilege of bringing you those stories throughout the year. As we look forward to a great year ahead in 2024, RNN Sports will take our annual look back at the year that is about to end.
As your source of local sports in the River Valley, RNN Sports continued to expand its coverage of both local high school sports, as well as Razorbacks athletics. Our college coverage expanded in 2023 to include the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, UCA, Arkansas State, and UAM sports. Last summer, we also announced coverage of St. Louis Cardinals baseball, as well as bringing you announcements of the addition of professional soccer that is set to begin in Northwest Arkansas in 2025.
But as you know, RNN Sports is dedicated to LOCAL sports coverage, and what a great year it has been for River Valley High School sports! And as sports director, I will say to all of you that our coverage would not be possible without the many contributors that bring you the stories and the pictures from around our region of the state. We have so many dedicated and enthusiastic photojournalists who love sports and love to bring you the stories that you want to read.
In the Mansfield area of our company’s footprint, Adam Hecox brings you all of the action for Tigers sports and the surrounding area. In Greenwood, sports photojournalists Ross Fujibayashi and Peggy Barger bring you Greenwood Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs action, as well as Razorbacks athletics. In Charleston, our sports photographer, Ronni Tate Young, brings you Charleston Tigers action as well as Razorbacks athletics. In northwest Arkansas, contributing photographer John D. James brings you almost year-round Razorbacks sports coverage. In Booneville, it has been a year that saw the Bearcats bring home state championships in band, softball, and football. And Glenn Parrish has brought you the stories and photos from the Bearcats banner season. With the addition of UAFS Lions sports coverage, Greyson Baggett is bringing coverage of UAFS sports to our readers, expanding our coverage area to include the greater Fort Smith area. Last, but certainly not least, Celia Looney of the County Line School district, along with Jonathan Gipson of the Magazine Schools, contribute to our coverage of River Valley sports from their local school districts, and we thank all of them for their great work in bringing local stories of interest to our readers.
Without all of these great photojournalists and contributing writers, along with our managing editor, Tammy Teague, and our visionary owner and founder, Jason Baggett, our coverage at RNN Sports would not be possible. They are not only great at what they do, but we are all family at RNN, and they make my job much easier. It takes all of us to bring you expanded coverage of both local high school sports, collegiate sports, and special events such as the Junior PGA Championships that were held in Hot Springs last summer.
RNN Sports began 2023 with coverage of local high school basketball and Lady Razorbacks basketball. We were there all season to bring you coverage of conference play, as well as state tournament play. Several area teams qualified for the state tournament in February. But perhaps none other as dramatic as the County Line Indians who finished the season undefeated at 41-0 and then proceeded to win three straight state playoff games to enter the state finals undefeated at 44-0. Against a determined and talented Marked Tree team, the Indians defeated Marked Tree with three seconds remaining in the game to give County Line the Class 1A state championship and a perfect 45-0 season.
The Booneville Bearcats athletics and band program brought home multiple state championships in 2023. In November, it was the marching Bearcats band bringing home the Class 3A state title from their performance at War Memorial Stadium. In the spring, the Lady Bearcats won the 3A state softball title. Capping off 2023 was the Booneville Bearcats football team winning the Class 3A state championship in a thriller over Prescott. The 2023 Booneville programs added state titles in band, softball, and in football to their already extensive list of state titles. Quite a year for the Logan County high school.
In Paris, the Marching Eagles band had their best finish ever at the 2023 state marching championship. Paris finished as the 3A state runner-up, edging out Centerpoint and finishing second to nearby Booneville for the state title.
The Paris school district added the sport of wrestling in 2023 to their list of sports offered at Paris High School. The wrestling program participated in their first wresting tournament in program history in November.
The “feel good” story of the year was the state playoffs run of the Mansfield Tigers football team under the direction of first year Tigers coach, Whit Overton. Overton, a MHS graduate, returned to his alma mater after having coached at Booneville as junior high football coach, to lead the Tigers to a third-place conference finish and a #3 seed in the state playoffs. The Tigers hosted and defeated Centerpoint in the first round of the state playoffs. The Tigers then took long road trips in the second round and in the state quarterfinals to Hoxie and Salem on the way to the state semifinals. Mansfield’s Cinderella season ended in Prescott but capped a tremendous season for the Tigers. The Mansfield Tigers will be heavily favored to win the 3A-1 conference in 2024 with much of their team returning next year.
The Greenwood Bulldogs’ tradition of state football championships continued in 2023. In doing so, Greenwood won its 11th state championship in 17 state finals appearances. The win tied fellow Class 6A member school Little Rock Pulaski Academy for the most state football championships in the modern era. Highly recruited sophomore quarterback Kane Archer won the state finals MVP Award and senior Ryan Shortes won the Burlsworth Award. The Bulldogs’ dominance in football continued in 2023, and most observers believe they will continue their dominance in 2024.
RNN Sports brought you Razorbacks coverage in 2023 in the sports of baseball, softball, football, and basketball. Arkansas hosted the 2023 SEC Softball conference tournament, and our photojournalists were there all week to bring you the action in pictures from each day of the tournament. Photographer John James brought you coverage of Razorbacks baseball, spring football, summer football practice, and 2023 Razorbacks football. RNN Sports brought you special coverage of the Razorbacks men’s basketball exhibition win in overtime over Purdue in November.
The summer of 2023 marked a special event where the Jr. PGA golf association held its annual championship tournament in Arkansas. This year, the tournament was played at the Hot Springs Country Club. We were there in the blazing summer heat to bring you coverage of the event all week that highlighted future PGA golfers who will make headlines in the coming years. Next year’s event will be held in Virginia near Washington, DC. This was an opportunity to cover an event that is normally played outside of Arkansas. Winners in both boys and girls divisions were named to the PGA’s Junior Ryder Cup team that played in Rome, Italy. This special event was brought to you exclusively by RNN Sports.
2023 Jr. PGA Championships, Hot Springs (RNN Sports File Photo / Jim Best)
The summer also saw RNN Sports bring you announcements of the addition of St. Louis Cardinals baseball. In 2024, we will bring you updates on the Cardinals as they move from spring training to opening day and on through the season.
So, as you can see, 2023 was packed with great sports moments, and these are just a few that we have highlighted that RNN Sports brought to our readers. Our coverage of these events was brought to our subscribers in our three print newspaper publications in the Mansfield area, Greenwood, and in the Logan / Franklin County Edition. We also continued to bring you coverage on our website at residentnewsnetwork.com, and on several social media platforms.
It has been our pleasure to bring you the most complete and comprehensive local sports coverage, accented by collegiate and professional coverage, as well. We love what we do, and we love sports.
On behalf of our dedicated family of photojournalists and contributors, thank you for your support and subscribership, and we promise that we will continue to work hard at always looking for ways to improve our product for you, our valued readers. Our sports coverage in 2023 included events from as far west as Mansfield and Waldron, to northwest Arkansas, the Fort Smith area, Logan and Franklin counties, and as far east as Conway. In fact, we brought you stories last summer from Jonesboro in northeast Arkansas as part of our coverage of ASU Red Wolves sports. And we had a blast bringing it to you!
Congratulations to all of the student athletes and their schools for a great 2023, and we look forward to seeing you at an event near you in 2024!
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM RNN SPORTS!
