Note to Our Readers: The following story was sourced directly and in its entirety from Mr. Glenn Parrish, Director of Communications, Booneville School District. Mr. Parrish is a RNN Sports contributor and we thank him for bringing this story to our readers.

Four games into the 2023 season the Booneville Bearcats have had feast or famine. A pair of shutout losses have been followed by a pair of blowout wins in which the Bearcats topped 20 runs.

Most recently it was a 27-0 win in Cedarville to open Conference 3A-4 play. The other feast was a 21-1 win at Lamar.

The Lamar game was originally scheduled for Booneville’s home park at the Billy Kiersey Baseball/Complex but was moved to Lamar because the Booneville boys were playing in the Class 3A state basketball tournament in Lamar the day of the game.

The losses are both in games in which the Bearcats played up, at Class 6A Fort Smith Northside (11-0) and at Class 4A Morrilton (7-0).

Through the four road games – the Bearcats were scheduled to host Paris Friday – the Bearcats are led by some familiar faces and some who may require a second look.

Among the familiar is junior Dax Goff. Goff is hitting .636 with three extra base hits – two home runs and a triple – with nine runs batted in.

Goff also picked up the win at Cedarville, allowing one hit over four innings. In two appearances he has thrown five innings without allowing a run.

Behind the plate when he’s not pitching, Goff has caught four would be stealers.

Senior Peyton Tatum is 1-1 on the mound with a win in Lamar and a loss at Morrilton. He leads a team that has already seen seven hurlers with six innings and has an earned run average of 3.50. He has also picked off one runner.

Brooks Herrera (0-1) drew the season opening assignment, has made two appearances and was slated to start on Friday in the home opener.

Dunn Daniel, another senior, had a three hit game in Cedarville to raise his average to .364. David Hicks, another senior, has driven in five.

Freshmen Rhett Nietert and Conner Lentz have also played big roles. Nietert has started every game at second base and is hitting .455 with a double and four RBI.

Lentz recorded a two hit game off the bench in Lamar, registered a hit as a DH in Morrilton, then moved to a full starting role in the Cedarville and is hitting .500 with three RBI with hits in three straight games.

The regular first baseman, junior Matt O’Bar has thrown two perfect innings and is hitting .333 with three RBI. He has also drawn a team best four walks for an on base percentage of .583.

Besides conference play head coach Arron Kimes and the Bearcats have a schedule that is loaded including Clarksville, Greenwood, Pottsville, and Alma before the district tournament at Cossatot River (Cove).

Note to Our Readers: The following story was sourced directly and in its entirety from Mr. Jonathan Gipson, Director of Media Relations, Magazine School District. Mr. Gipson is a RNN Sports contributor, and we thank him for bringing this story to our readers.

MAGAZINE – Magazine Schools band director Ashley Love knew her students had performed well during Wednesday’s Western Region (Region 8) Concert Assessment in Van Buren. 

How well? That quickly became obvious.

The Rattler Band received a First Division Superior rating at the assessment, earning the talented group of students an invitation to the State Concert Assessment at Cabot High School on April 12.

“I was stunned when the other directors started congratulating me. They walked with me to tell the band how they did just to see their reaction because they know how hard Magazine works,” Love said. 

“They know that we are really good at what we do even though we don’t always get that recognition at assessment because we are put up against all classifications, not just our own. This meant so much to me. I know it meant so much to the students, too. They always work so hard and deserve to be recognized.”

Bands are still in the process of performing at assessment. With hundreds of bands performing, Love said it takes a couple of weeks for the judges to hear everyone. Magazine and Mountainburg are the only Class 2A bands competing at the regional level, and Mountainburg has yet to attend the assessment. Love said several Class 2A bands have moved up to Class 3A.

At Concert Assessment, each band is critiqued on tone, note accuracy, articulation, rhythm, interpretation, balance, phrasing, expression and dynamics, among other things. They are graded on a rubric from 1-5 with First Division being the best.

“At assessment, we aren’t judged any differently than the 6A bands,” Love pointed out. “At the regional assessment, we performed right after Van Buren’s Freshman Academy, which brought 64 members. Charleston competed after us, and it took home a Second Division rating.”

It’s the first time for the Rattler Band to qualify for the State Assessment since 2001.

“I was in 10th grade at Magazine then and remember that trip well,” Love said. “It’s a special privilege for a small band to attend a state festival assessment. The only other year we received First Division was in 2014, but State Assessment was not available during that time, a time when the arts were fighting to survive funding cuts at the federal level.”

Once the second semester starts, Love said the band’s focus switches from their marching performance style to their concert hall performance style.

“After winter break, we change gears from marching band, which is a different style of playing than the ‘voice’ we use in a concert hall,” Love explained. “During January and February, we spend time developing a unified style, following the rubric we know we’ll be critiqued on.” 

Love said Magazine has more band members achieving recognition now than ever before with five All-Region players of the 10 members who performed at the region assessment.

Those five All-Region performers are junior Brock Gentry (trumpet), sophomores Briare Harding (clarinet), Trinidy Harding (trombone) and Nat Ervin (percussion) and freshman Isaiah Ward (clarinet). They are joined by sophomore Kalynn Downs (tenor saxophone), freshman Allie Istre (clarinet), eighth graders Aidan Schmitt (clarinet) and Kauree Bennett (alto saxophone) and seventh grader Madison Kilgore (tuba).

So, what makes this group so exceptional?

“I wish I knew what it was so that I could recreate it every year,” Love said. “I know it’s the students’ drive — their need to succeed — but I’ve seen that from other groups before. Maybe the stars just aligned for this particular group at that moment.”