Resident News Network

The Queen Of RNN Sports Announces Her Triumphant Return

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11:52 am

The Queen Of RNN Sports Announces Her Triumphant Return

On October 1st, 2021, former Resident News Networks sportswriter, Megan Hecox, put out her emotional final curtain call in the news business. Beloved by many readers, Hecox once covered seven different schools at one time in every sport imaginable. Whether it was Mansfield, Waldron, Magazine, Hackett, Lavaca, Cedarville, or other schools, readers were able to get a good in-depth article on their school athletic action multiple times a week. The job that Hecox did for Resident News Network was so good, that she was able to put the big-time newspapers and television outlets that only covered Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas big schools on notice. After her departure from the industry, Megans husband, Adam Hecox, took over the wheel. Although bound by marriage, the pair was definitely not bound by writing skills. Mr. Hecox wasn’t and still is not the sports powerhouse that Megan was. So after three years of reading her husband’s extremely subpar sports writing, Megan Hecox has decided to once again throw her hat into the sports writing arena for the Resident News Network.

Megan was the brainchild behind RNN ideas such as printing an RNN newspaper, office chair jousting, and the annual April Fools Day articles. As an intricate part of the news still today, the RNN family has welcomed her back with open arms. Hecox will not being jumping back into the sports world with both feet tough. She will be easing into her old role on April 1st, 2024 by taking over her first love in sports writing, the Waldron Bulldogs. While she dabbled in the athletic adventures of other schools, Hecox’s main focus was always on Waldron sports. Covering football, volleyball, basketball, softball, baseball, and even some non-sporting events for the Bulldogs on a weekly basis boosted the athletes and programs in Waldron by giving them the spotlight larger media outlets withheld. Even after three years of being out of the game, Megan still has a white and orange Waldron basketball jersey hanging in the Hecox households coat closet (much to the dismay of the Tigers in her family). Once she gets Waldron back on track, Hecox will likely move on to work with Magazine, Cedarville, and even reinstitute herself again as the “Keyboard of Mansfield”.

“I wouldn’t have had to do this if my husband had pulled his weight” said Hecox. “Although his effort was admirable, the final product was definitely not RNN worthy”. Former coworker to Megan and current RNN editor, Tammy Teague, also voiced her opinion on Megan’s return to the RNN ranks. “I am soooo excited to have her back again. I told Adam when he first took over Megan’s role that he’ll NEVER be Megan. It sounds harsh, but it’s true. There’s only room one office jousting champion around here and Megan is the one, the only, THE sports writing office jousting champ-i-on”. Both Hecox’s will continue to write sports articles for RNN, but once Megan gets her feet back under her, it will be inevitable that Mr. Hecox will soon be ousted by his better and prettier counterpart in the near future. So Merry Christmas, Happy Thanksgiving, and April Fools sports world, your Queen has returned.

Boyd Named VFW State High School Teacher of the Year

Featured

Tammy Teague

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11:22 am

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Boyd Named VFW State High School Teacher of the Year

On Monday, April 1, the student body at Mansfield High School were joined by family, friends, and members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars for a presentation to honor Kimberly Boyd as the VFW State High School Teacher of the Year.

The Smart/Maher VFW State Teacher of the Year award was presented by State VFW Commander, Teddy Pipkin. Speakers included Justin Weaver, Commander of VFW Post 8245 and Sherry Barnes, VFW Post 8245 Auxiliary President.

Each year, the Veterans of Foreign Wars selects elementary, middle and high school teachers to
participate in the Smart/Maher VFW National Citizenship Education Teacher program. Teachers who promote civic responsibility, flag etiquette and patriotism are prime candidates for this award.

SR Tigers Look To Wear Throwbacks For 2024 Game Versus Hackett

Adam Hecox

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5:59 am

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SR Tigers Look To Wear Throwbacks For 2024 Game Versus Hackett

It has become a common thing for sports teams at the college and professional levels to wear specialty uniforms for big rivalry games. The Miami Dolphins wear the franchise’s 1972 uniforms once a year when they play the New England Patriots. The Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans take turns wearing the crisp and clean old Houston Oilers uniforms when they play each other. In college, the Oregon Ducks wore their 1994 green and yellow uniforms when they faced off against Washington State this past season. The reason for the throwbacks is a tip of the hat to those who came before them. Miami wears its old uniforms in honor of the 1972 Dolphins who are still the only NFL team to ever go undefeated. Tennessee and Houston wear throwbacks because the former Houston Oilers have ties to both teams. Oregon wore their old school drab because of the iconic 97 yard interception for a touchdown to upset the Washington State Cougars in 1994. With the retro throwbacks being such a big hit in the professional and collegiate levels, the Mansfield Tigers decided that they’d try to bring the same kind of energy to the high school landscape.

Back in the late 90s, the Mansfield Tigers were a team that no one wanted to trifle with. The reason was not because they were the most talented team on the field in each game, but rather because they were a no nonsense hard nosed gritty program. Under former Head Coach, Larry Shuck, the Tigers made the State Playoffs for the first time in school history in 1996 and then again in 1998. The final game in each of those seasons determined who made the Playoffs that year and both years the Tigers’ final opponent was the Hackett Hornets. Although making the Playoffs for the first time in school history is a big deal, the Tigers second shot at the Playoffs at Hackett in 1998 was the game of all games. The winner of that game would fall into a three way tie with Hartford and Charleston for second place in the conference and would earn State Playoff berth while the loser would have to pack their bags for basketball season. It was a rowdy and ruckus game that came down to the final seconds on the scoreboard. With Hackett leading 42-41 and only nine seconds left in the game, Mansfield pulled a double reverse pass where Brandon Elmore pitched the ball to Tyler Hopper who handed the ball to Jacob Dickinson who then threw a laser guided pass to Daniel Martin for the game winning touchdown. The Tigers 47-42 victory over Hackett has lived in Mansfield’s wildest game history books ever since. Former players such as Danny Foote, Tyler Hopper, Jacob Dickinson, Eric Carlton, Bruce Eversole, Ryan James, current Mansfield volunteer coach, Daniel Martin, and others from the 1998 season have been names synonymous with Tiger football ever since.

With the modern day Tigers having the same type of 90s football tenacity, it seemed only fitting that they would choose to honor the old school gridiron teams by representing them with a throwback uniform in one of their games. While the current players still see Waldron as the biggest rival on their schedule, the game chosen by the 2024 Tigers will be none other than against the Hackett Hornets. The beef between these two programs hasn’t died down one bit since the late 90s. The Tigers have gone 4-2 against Hackett in the past six seasons narrowly outscoring the Hornets with a combined 168-147 points in those games. The game will likely be yet another conference slobberknocker this upcoming season. The throwbacks will consist of a white helmet with a red facemask donning a simple letter M on the sides with a red stripe down the middle. The Tigers will wear a cardinal red jersey with extra larger numbers and “Tigers” written across the chest coupled with double white stripes on the sleeves while donning plain white pants. The teams decision on the uniform change for one game is an honorable one and one that they hope will continue in future seasons in this rivalry game. The final decision on ordering and wearing the throwbacks will be made by Mansfield’s athletic director on April 1st, 2024. Who knows, maybe the Tigers can “fool” the school into making this a permanent look.

Liquor Sales To Kind Of Start In Greenwood

Ross Fujibayashi

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12:27 am

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Liquor Sales To Kind Of Start In Greenwood

Where one business failed another has stepped up to provide those in South Sebastian County a spot to buy a room temperature alcoholic beverage without driving to Fort Smith. (The attached screenshot shows where the lines from northern Sebastian County run to the parking lot close to Highway 71)

A street wise hustler or budding entrepreneur named Witaro [last name withheld to remain the Arkansas Man of Mystery] was searching on Bing one winter night and discovered a loophole. “I was looking at the plans for the new Bypass and one extensive rabbit hole journey later, I discovered that there is one single piece of property that belongs to the non-dry portion of Sebastian County.” Mr. Wutang said. The piece of property is surprisingly in the parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter. “When Walmart purchased the property they had no idea that it still belonged to that portion of the county, so that is where I will park my Maroon colored 1994 Ford Aerostar.”

The van but not the van, just use this picture for reference in your article.

While this may cause quite the stir with local residents, a local official was reached for comment. “Who are you with? Ahh! That one paper.” the official said, “That guy is doing what? I mean if the paperwork says he can then maybe. We’ll definitely be looking into it. By the way have you seen the movie Con-Air with Nicholas Cage? Should’ve won him an Oscar.”

A representative for Walmart declined to comment. Customers questioned at the store seemed confused as to why a reporter in a fedora with the tag “PRESS” on the side, would be asking questions discreetly in the produce section. “Whoa buddy, I’m just here to get some, some uhh, I told my wife I wouldn’t forget. Gee thanks for nothing pal, now I have to call her.” one customer replied. “KIWI! I remembered!”

“So Con-Air is about this guy played by Nicholas Cage who comes back from serving in the military. And some stuff happens and he like ends up going to jail. They are going to transport him with these other, I guess, high-level criminals. But get this, it’s not a bus it’s a plane! Guess the name… to slow… ‘Jailbird’. Wait, we were talking about a guy and van and selling beverages right?” The officially official said

“I plan on selling what my favorites are, mainly Southern Comfort, maybe a Michelob Ginger Wheat. Those are very tasty” Witaro explained, “Truthfully, I’m hoping no one takes this article seriously. I want the readers understand that the Resident News has a creative staff that likes to have fun on April Fools. It is definitely something to look forward to with the doom and gloom from other news outlets. But, we’ll see.”

Happy April Fools! From all of us at Resident News Network

“Just Roll with It” Serving up Recipes and Humor

Food

Tammy Teague

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8:36 pm

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“Just Roll with It” Serving up Recipes and Humor

By Sheri Hopkins, Lifestyle Contributor

Hello everyone! Hope you had a wonderful Easter, hope your church was full of people! Hope all your family get togethers were a lot of fun. We are having our family get together Saturday, so I will be having some stories to tell about that, I am sure! Thinking about Easter reminds me of when my kids were little. I always had to dress Shannon up to the nines. She had matching hat, gloves, purse and shoes. That’s how we done things back then. Jacob was a horse of a different color. I remember trying to put some khaki pants on him my mom had bought. He says to me, and keep in mind he is little, “I’m not wearing those.” I said, “yes, you are!” He starts having a fit and I am not kidding, I am trying to put them pants on him, and he ends up standing on his head with me trying to wrestle him to the ground to get them on him. Chuck hears the commotion and comes in the room wanting to know what’s going on. Let’s just say Jacob wore the pants to church and was not one bit happy about it.

I remember one Easter it was raining, and we had colored the eggs and they wanted to hide them in the house. Of course, I said, yes, we can. I hid the eggs, and I can’t remember who all was there, but I had hidden them all over the house. Keep in mind, they are real boiled eggs, not plastic. We were old school. We boiled them and colored them back in the olden days. No plastic for us. We have a big egg hunt in the house and count the eggs and we think they are all accounted for. Let’s just say about two or three weeks after Easter, my husband starts smelling something on his side of the bedroom. I think he’s crazy, then I start smelling it and I think something must be dead it stunk so bad. I had to go on the hunt, in my mind, I am thinking it’s a dead mouse or something. I had a stack of blankets in the bedroom, and it seemed to be worse by those. You guessed it, I went to digging and found one of those Easter eggs hid between the blankets. It was so bad, I had to wash all the blankets and spray everything I could find. It took a while to get the smell out of our room. The moral of this story is, do not, under any circumstances, have an Easter Egg hunt in your house with real eggs.

This week’s recipe is a twist on earthquake cake. Instead of it being like a German chocolate, it is strawberry!

STRAWBERRY EARTHQUAKE CAKE
1 box strawberry cake mix, mix according to box directions
1 8 oz. cream cheese softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup diced strawberries
Cool Whip and strawberries for the topping
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 cake pan. Mix cake according to the package directions, pour the batter in the cake pan and sprinkle the white chocolate chips on the top. Mix the melted butter, cream cheese and vanilla until combined. Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Fold in the strawberries. Spoon dollops of cream cheese mixture over the cake and gently swirl with a knife. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. You can add whipped cream and strawberries to the top as you serve the sliced cake. Enjoy, have a blessed week!

Longtime Councilman Resigns

Tammy Teague

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12:31 pm

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Longtime Greenwood City Council member, Daniel McDaniel, tendered his letter of resignation on Thursday, March 28.

McDaniel who served in Ward 1, Position 1, was first elected in 2000. He ran unopposed in his current term. McDaniel also served on the water committee as an appointed member following the passing of Trey Burgess.

McDaniel’s crowning achievement while on the council was seeing the Cuthbert Bridge Project through, from start to finish.

Mayor and City Council,
We’ve probably all heard the saying, “you’re either part of solution or part of the part of the problem”. In whatever endeavor that I’m involved I’ve always tried to be part of the solution, tried to be helpful and serve a cause greater than myself.
It has never been my desire to be a politician nor seek any higher elected office, and I certainly have no desire to create enemies or be part of the problem, nor deal with the frustration and stress of wasting time trying to fix things that I’m not capable of fixing.
We all know that it’s impossible to please everyone no matter what you do, I realize that I have stepped on some toes over the years and have frustrated some folks along the way, some because of childish and selfish reasons, some because they felt threatened and became defensive and some simply for political reasons. If I have offended anyone it wasn’t intentional, and I offer my apologies.
Having said all of that, I submit my resignation from the Greenwood City Council Ward 1, Position 1 seat, effective immediately.
I wish you all the best!

A.C.A. § 14-42-103 provides that vacancies in municipal offices that are authorized by state law to be filled by appointment by the city or town governing body shall require a majority vote of the remaining members of the governing body.
A.C.A. § 14-43-411(a) provides that whenever a vacancy shall occur, for any reason, in the office of alderman in any city of the first class having a population of less than 20,000, at the first regular meeting after the occurrence of the vacancy, the city council shall proceed to elect by a majority vote of the remaining members elected to the council an alderman to serve for the unexpired term. At least a quorum of the whole number of the city council is required in order to fill the vacancy. The person elected by the council must reside in the ward where the vacancy occurs at the time of the vacancy.

**Editor’s note: It has been a tremendous pleasure to work with Alderman McDaniel. I have witnessed firsthand his commitment to the people of this community. He adhered to his convictions, even when that meant his vote would be an unpopular one. It was truly an honor to report on the project that will undoubtedly be a part of his legacy, the Cuthbert Bridge. Thank you, Daniel McDaniel, for your years of selfless service, and for your dedication to the people in the City of Greenwood.

Obituary: Willie (Shorty) Owens

Obituaries

Tammy Teague

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6:18 pm

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Willie (Shorty) Owens, 90, of Waldron, Arkansas, went to his heavenly home March 27, 2024. Shorty was born in Scott County and lived there his entire life. he worked in the timber woods from a young age and worked at Waldron Lumber Company, Big Pine Lumber Company, and Travis Lumber Company as a millwright until his retirement. He was an amazing mechanic and without any training, prior to computers, he could fix anything.

Shorty loved fishing and hunting with his sons but his favorite sport was pulling skiers behind his boat on Lake Ouachita. He was an excellent skier and taught all his kids and many of his grandkids to ski at an early age.

Shorty also enjoyed gardening with Leota, the love of his life, and together they had amazing gardens; his watermelons and her tomatoes were legendary and they loved sharing their produce with family and friends.

He was a long time member of Temple Baptist Church in Waldron.

Shorty is survived by two daughters, Gwynda Walker (Mike) of Pea Ridge, Arkansas; Brenda Hartness of Little Rock, Arkansas; three sons, Bruce Owens (Connie) of Waldron, Arkansas; Steve Owens (Nancy) of Mt. Magazine, Arkansas; and Brian Owens (Cassie) of Mansfield, Arkansas; 13 grandchildren: Justin Keener (Leigh), Amber Owens, Megan Mueller (Michael), Lindsay Owens (Christa), Whitney Reames (Bradley), Grayson Owens, Madalyn Owens, Harper Owens, Monet Owens, Giana Owens, Julie Berry, Ashley Dipley (Jerod), Lauren Faulkenberry (Stone), and 17 great grandchildren.
He is also survived by one brother, Johnnie Ray Owens of Bauxite, Arkansas.

He is preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Leota; a son, Russell Owens, and his parents Johnnie and Pauline Owens.

Shorty’s pallbearers will be: Michael Mueller, Justin Keener, Grayson Owens, Jerod Dipley, Hunter and Bradley Reames.

His celebration of life will be at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, March 30, 2024, at the Heritage Memorial Funeral Home Chapel in Waldron, Arkansas with Rev. Jackie Smith officiating. Interment will follow in the Birdsview Cemetery in Waldron, Arkansas. Arrangements are being entrusted to the Heritage Memorial Funeral Home in Waldron, Arkansas.

There will be a visitation time from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. on March 30, 2024 just prior to the service.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to a charity of your choice.

Timepiece: Backwoodsman

Lifestyle

Tammy Teague

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6:13 pm

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By Dr. Curtis Varnell

World War 11 was over and America entered a period of peace and prosperity. The baby boomer generation began, people fled the rural areas, and suburbs of the up-and-coming generations were built encircling the major cities. A chicken in the pot, a car, and a house filled with the newest electrical devices was the dream of America. Television was the rage and everyone had to have one to watch the newest westerns and programs. Live talk shows were the rage and few were as popular of Ed Sullivan or the Art Linkletter show. One of the most popular segments of Linkletter’s show was the live interview called People say the darndest things. Always looking for new and interesting people, scouts scoured the country searching for unique people and experiences. In 1958, talent scout Jack Houston visited Arkansas with the thought of finding a real hillbilly and having him introduced to modern society. Traveling down the newly paved pig trail from Fayetteville to Ozark, he noticed the many rustic cabins and home places. Stopping at Cass, he asked where he could find the oldest resident of the area. Direct to the home of 92-year old John Stephens, he found the perfect candidate.

Stephen’s was a mountain man, a hunter who lived a simple rustic life. His family had moved to the home on Black Mountain when he was eight years old. He grew up without any schooling, he worked on his father’s farm, and spent his free time hunting and fishing. Tough as nails, he knew how to track wild game, find the wild honey trees, and how to survive in the backwoods.

When first approached by Houston about being on the show, Stephen’s was reluctant to travel to Hollywood. “Them planes are dangerous and I’d rather just stay here at home, but I can walk it.” Stephens finally agreed to the trip if the program would take along Walter Harris, a 71-year old neighbor. Offered a shot of bourbon on the plane, Stephens was said to have stated “this stuff has been watered down; ain’t a bit of head in the glass.” Stephens was a known moonshiner.

Appearing on the program in overalls and hunting garb, Stephens was the hit of the show. He was unable to identify a tube of lipstick, an electric razor, or a modern camera. When asked about modern plumbing, he replied, “don’t need any of that, we got the bushes.” Mr. Houston later stated, “Old John captured them with his first remark and kept them in an uproar the entire time he was on stage.” Asked about the food he was served in Hollywood, Stephens stated, “why they served us right in our rooms but I couldn’t eat them butter and eggs. The butter wasn’t no cow butter and the eggs were cold storage eggs.” Asked how he got from place to place without a car, Stephen’s replied we walked. The nearest town was Ozark, 18 miles away. At the conclusion of the show, Linkletter allowed him to reach his hand into a bowl and extract as much money as he could grasp. Stephen’s calmly grabbed a big handful, placed it in a pile, and clipped it to his bib overalls. Tight with his money, he bought only a whittling knife, a dunking bird toy, and a pipe to take home.

A hit, he was offered an opportunity to return the next week. When offered a new suit for the show, Stephens told them he had never had a new suit. “Don’t buy me no tie, I won’t wear it.” Not only did they buy him a suit but presented him with a new shotgun, a TV set, and many more gifts to take home with him.

At home, he told neighbors that the Hollywood people were some of the nicest he had ever meet. He got to see an ocean for the first time, met Rin Tin, seen wild animals at the zoo, and plants he had never seen before. Yet he would rather be at home in the hills, wearing his overalls, and being with his family.

Many in Arkansas took exception to the story and the painting of the state as a bunch of backward hillbillies. It reinforced the ideal that people of the state were simple minded and didn’t know much. Nephew James Tucker explained that Stephens was wilier than he appeared and “acted” out the part well. Even though he didn’t drive, he often hitch-hiked to town, his house had electricity, and he was smart enough to extract a trip and hundreds of dollars from those “Yankees.”

A Little Old, A Little New: Rattlers Unveil 2024 Football Schedule

Sports

Tammy Teague

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6:07 pm

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A Little Old, A Little New: Rattlers Unveil 2024 Football Schedule

By Jonathan W. Gipson
Magazine Schools Media Relations

MAGAZINE – A little bit of old, and a little bit of new.

With the start of the Arkansas Activities Association’s new two-year cycle, the Magazine football schedule will feature just that when the Rattlers take the field this fall for the 2024 varsity season.

The 10-game schedule will feature three new nonconference opponents and two new conference teams, and six of the 10 games will be played at Diamondback Stadium, including four of the seven conference games.

“Our nonconference schedule is pretty standard. There’s nothing special about it,” Magazine Coach Ryan Chambers said. “I like the way our conference schedule is set up. There’s a good mix of who we play at home compared to away. We have our must-win games at home, and I really like that.”

Class 3A state semifinalist Mansfield and nearby rival Danville, who were both longtime nonconference opponents for Magazine, are no longer on the schedule, and Berryville, a last-minute addition to the nonconference slate last season to help avoid another open date, is no longer on the schedule as well.

In an effort to keep the longtime rivalry alive with Danville, Magazine will play Danville, who is now under the direction of its former head coach D.J. Crane, in a preseason benefit game instead of playing recent preseason opponent Paris.

“Mansfield is just on a different level than we are currently. It wasn’t really going to benefit either one of us playing each other again right now, so we both decided to explore different options,” Chambers explained. “We tried to get Danville back on the schedule, but we just couldn’t get it worked out with them date-wise, so we picked them up for the benefit game instead.”

The three former nonconference opponents have been replaced with Class 3A Cedarville in Week 0 on Aug. 30 at Diamondback Stadium, Class 4A Lamar’s junior varsity in Week 1 on Sept. 6 at Diamondback Stadium and Class 3A Two Rivers in Week 2 on Sept. 13 at Ola.

Those three opponents, Chambers said, are a better fit at the moment for the Rattlers, who are looking to improve upon last year’s 1-8 overall finish and 0-5 mark in the tough 2A-1 Conference, which produced Class 2A state champion Bigelow.

“These are games that will be very competitive and good for us going into the conference slate,” Chambers said. “We really needed one more game, and I had trouble finding one that we didn’t have to travel across the state for. I called Coach (Josh) Jones over at Lamar and got something worked out playing their JV team. We’ve played their JV team multiple times over the years, and they always are very competitive, being one of the upper echelon teams in 4A.”

Following an open date in Week 3 on Sept. 20, Magazine will begin conference play and will do so with a full slate of seven conference games for the first time in recent history. Former conference member Decatur, which had struggled to field a team at both the 11-man and 8-man levels the past few seasons and created untimely open dates as a result, has dropped its football program, but two new teams join the conference – Mount Ida and Mountain Pine.

Mountain Pine returns to 11-man football after competing at the 8-man level last fall, while Mount Ida moves into the conference after playing in the 2A-3 Conference last season. They will join returning conference members Magazine, Bigelow, Mountainburg, Johnson County Westside, Conway Christian and Hector.

“We had some really tradition-rich teams added to our conference. Mount Ida and Mountain Pine have both been solid teams in 2A, especially Mount Ida. It’s nice to know we won’t have a week break in between conference games,” Chambers said. “Sometimes it is nice (to have a bye week) if you have some injuries and things like that, but overall, it normally hurts. You come out sluggish after a week off. It’s tough to replicate game reps in practice.”

Magazine will play Bigelow in Week 4 on Sept. 27 at Diamondback Stadium and Mountainburg in Week 5 on Oct. 4 at Diamondback Stadium. The Rattlers will play at Mount Ida in Week 6 on Oct. 11 and will host Johnson County Westside in Week 7 on Oct. 18 at Diamondback Stadium.

The Rattlers will make consecutive road trips to Conway Christian in Week 8 on Oct. 25 and Mountain Pine in Week 9 on Nov. 1. Magazine will close the regular season against Hector in Week 10 on Nov. 8 at Diamondback Stadium.

During this first year of the two-year cycle, Magazine will play six home games, and Chambers said that is a big benefit for the Rattlers, especially with defending state champion Bigelow having to visit Diamondback Stadium to begin conference play.

“We get the defending state champions at home for our first conference game. That’s nice for the fans to see us be able to go up against the team who just won a state championship and finished off four conference championships in a row,” Chambers said. “Hopefully, we can come out with a good game plan and compete in that game in front of the home crowd. It’s always better playing at home than on the road. We have some big must-win home games on the slate this year, and I’m very happy we get them at our place with an opportunity to get the program headed back in the right direction.”

The season schedule for the Junior Rattlers is very similar to that of the varsity teams. Magazine will play at Cedarville in Week 0 (Aug. 29) and host Lamar junior varsity in Week 1 (Sept. 6) and Two Rivers in Week 2 (Sept. 12). The Rattlers will play at Hector in Week 3 (Sept. 19), Bigelow in Week 4 (Sept. 26) and Mountainburg in Week 5 (Oct. 3).

The Junior Rattlers will host Mount Ida in Week 6 (Oct. 10) and play at Johnson County Westside in Week 7 (Oct. 17). They will host Conway Christian in Week 8 (Oct. 24) and Mountain Pine in Week 9 (Oct. 31) to end the season.

Bear hunters eclipse harvest record

Outdoors

Tammy Teague

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6:04 pm

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By Randy Zellers

PARIS — Arkansas bear hunters harvested 765 bears during the 2023 hunting season, topping the record by a margin of 100 bears, according to a presentation given by Myron Means at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s March 21 meeting at the Lodge at Mount Magazine State Park.

Means, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Large Carnivore Program coordinator, said hunters took 665 black bears during archery, muzzleloader and modern gun seasons in 2020, and harvest remained in the high 400s the next two years.

Last year’s record is likely attributed to an earlier opening day of the bear archery season in Bear Zones 1 and 2. Recent seasons opened on the third week in September to be concurrent with deer archery season, but bear hunters in 2023 were able to get out on Sept. 13, a week and a half earlier.

“You see a lot more bears at bait stations before the acorns drop, then the bears will go to the woods and then start denning,” Means said. “Quite frankly, we’re getting bear harvest in the state about where we need bear harvest in the state.”

Means says the early season does come with one caveat: an increased chance of harvesting a female bear before they begin their fall denning cycle.

“We saw an increase in female bear harvest, but it’s not something that I’m going to say the sky is falling over,” Means said. “We do need to pay some attention to it because the females are the future of our bear population. Two years of high female harvest in a row may trigger a need to look at changes in season structure.”

AGFC Director Austin Booth pointed out that harvest appeared to favor male bears heavily during the first few days of the bear season opener. This, according to Means, may indicate that hunters who were baiting and preparing their hunting sites seemed to be selecting for males at first, but became much less choosy as the quota neared.

“I think our bear hunters are trying to educate themselves about how they can take a bear and help the population by selecting for males,” Means said. “We worked with Clay Newcomb to produce a video on how to differentiate between males and females, and I’ve done some bear hunting seminars for the last two years where identifying a bear’s sex is a component of the presentation. This is the number one way a hunter can help protect the future of their sport.”

In keeping with the bear season since its reestablishment in Arkansas, archers accounted for more than 80 percent of the harvest. Six hundred and forty-three of the 765 bears taken in 2023 came by way of bow-and-arrow.

“This has really been the case since baiting was allowed on private land for bears in 2001,” Means said. Ninety percent of the Bear Zone 1 harvest was by archery, and the 400-bear quota was met within seven days up there.”

Muzzleloader hunters harvested 36 bears (5 percent), and bear hunters using modern guns took 86 bears (11 percent). The bear harvest in Zones 4, 5 and 5A all came by way of modern gun.

For the second year, hunters in Bear Zones 3 and 4 were able to take bears during a brief quota hunt during December. Although technical difficulties forced the AGFC to close the season before the quota was completely met, Means is confident that remaining conservative in the harvest in this newly opened portion of the state was beneficial to the population.

“We had 19 bears harvested within a few days,” Means said. “And the female portion of the harvest was only 37 percent, which bodes well for the future of bear season down there.”

Bear Zone 5 in southeast Arkansas reported a harvest of nine bears, and Bear Zone 5A along the White River in southeast Arkansas had two bears harvested within its borders.

Means also had time to talk about some of the reproductive surveys that took place in March, following up with population trends and the AGFC’s monitoring program.

“It’s been a good spring and a lot of our females had at least two cubs with them,” Means said. “In Zone 4, we saw a lot of triplets as well. That population has a lot of food and a lot of room to grow. We just need to keep vigilant and protect as many female bears as we can.”

Visit Helpful Tips for Bear Identification on YouTube for a breakdown on how to tell male and female bears apart during hunting season.

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RESIDENT NEWS NETWORK