After a grueling battle with Booneville last Friday for the conference championship in 3A-4, the Paris Eagles now move on to close out the regular season at Danville with the conference’s second seed in the state playoffs at stake. With their victory over Paris, the Booneville Bearcats have won the conference no matter the outcome of their game this week versus Perryville. The Bearcats will be the top seed from the 3A-4 conference in the state playoffs.
The state playoff brackets are still undecided as of the publication date of this story. In a memo obtained by Resident Press, the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) has notified schools that: “1) Regardless of the reason (COVID, injuries, poor record), opting out is required if you cannot participate. The deadline is 8:00 a.m. Saturday, November 7. This is necessary to ensure we begin with the best possible bracket, 2) Standings are the order of finish in the conference. Playoff seedings are the adjusted standings after it is determined which teams are participating in the playoffs. For example, for seeding purposes, if a 3rd place team in the standings opts out (COVID), the 4th place team moves to 3rd, 5th moves to 4th, etc., 3) We are averaging 16 cancelled games per week. Things are going to happen throughout the bracket so it is imperative that we start with the best possible bracket, 4) Teams that do not qualify for the bracket and opt-in will be the visiting team in the play-in game, and 5) Do not be tempted to manipulate the standings by using COVID. Please understand that any declaration of COVID issues that prevent a team from playing week 10 may also be considered as “opting out” of the playoffs due to a 14-day quarantine period.”
The memo from the AAA may indicate that there in fact has been some “gaming” of the COVID policy allowances that has allowed teams to cancel or avoid playing games. This may or may not be the case, but it has apparently risen to a high enough level of concern of the AAA that some schools may have attempted to cancel in week 10. In this scenario, the 14 day required quarantine period would not allow players to play in week one of the state playoffs on November 13. As a reporter, I have been reporting on this concern in both the sports of volleyball and football, and this is the first written acknowledgement that this could have happened, or, it is just a concern that it could happen in week ten. Either way, it is a shame that a virus that has the potential to kill people may have been used by some schools across the state to manipulate their standings or seedings by using the excuse to manipulate their schedules.
But moving forward with Paris’s game this week with Danville, the Eagles must take a “business trip” to Danville to take care of the Little Johns and secure the second seed. A loss at Danville could put the second seed in jeopardy and could lower the Eagles to a three seed in the playoffs. A win at Danville this Friday could mean that the Eagles will possibly host the Salem Wolverines at Eagles Stadium in week one of the high school playoffs. Resident Press hopes to obtain a copy of the final playoff bracket this weekend after the superintendents’ deadline has passed and the AAA publishes a final playoff schedule. As of publication time of this story, it is still uncertain as to if the Eagles first playoff game will be on November 13, or November 20. That depends on the total number of teams across the state that decide to opt-in to the playoffs. Stay tuned.
After Paris head coach Tyler Clark and his staff had a chance to review Friday’s film of the Booneville game, he and the rest of the coaches expressed pride in their team’s performance. Coach Clark commented, “The big takeaways from that game were the facts that Booneville is a really good football team, and we are too. We shot ourselves in the foot a few times, but then I thought we had some errors that Booneville forced. We leaned on our defense all night; they played well. We had two turnovers that we converted into touchdowns, and that is always big. It was just a tough game. But when you look at all of it…matter of fact, my coaches and I were just talking about this, our kids got put in some situations that they have not been put in (in games) and I think we got some valuable experience that will help us down the road. Everyone out of that group (defense) played their tails off. Offensively, there were a few times we got some things going, had a little bit of momentum, and then all of the sudden we would get a hold and it would be third and 17. Things like that, you can’t do things like that against a good team like Booneville.”
One of the unsung heroes of this year’s Eagles football team has been sophomore kicker James Yang. Yang took over the kickoff and placekicking duties early in season and has been remarkably consistent with point-after-touchdown attempts. According to Max Preps (data may be incomplete) Yang has attempted 14 extra points on the year and has made 11. In addition to the scoring of extra points, Yang’s dependability has enabled the Eagles to stay away from attempting two-point conversions after touchdowns. In high school football, a place kicker who can consistently make extra-points is worth gold, and Yang has been golden this season for the Eagles. Ironically, it was a blocked Yang extra point late in the game that kept the Eagles from tying the game late. An issue with blocking a corner from going inside and blocking the kick was the difference. Yang will continue to be an important part of the Eagles success as the team enters the playoffs.
As conference teams enter the last week of the regular season, the standings in the 3A-4 conference are (according to Max Preps):
Booneville 4-0
Paris 4-1
Atkins 4-2
Perryville 4-2
Mayflower 2-2
Danville 1-3
Baptist Prep 0-4
Two Rivers 0-4
Games played around the conference in week ten are:
Paris at Danville
Perryville at Booneville
Atkins at Mayflower
Two Rivers at Baptist Prep
For Paris, a loss at Danville coupled with an Atkins win will drop the Eagles to third place and Atkins would take over the two seed due to the Red Devils having played all of their games. That is one scenario; perhaps the conference would keep Paris as the two seed due to the manner in which Paris defeated Atkins. But for sure in this uncertain year, the Eagles just need to take care of their business Friday night so none of this comes into play for the Eagles. This is potentially the same situation the Paris volleyball team found themselves in at the end of their season. Loss games played ended up costing the Lady Eagles the district championship, and in football, the lost game with Two Rivers could cost the Eagles the number two seed in the football playoffs.
So the stage is set for the topsy-turvy football regular season to come to an end this Friday night. The Eagles need their fan base to make the 52 minutes trip to Danville to support Paris in this important conference game. The 2020 edition of the Paris Eagles is a football team of high character and knows how to win. I believe they will take care of business early and give the coaches a chance to rest starters for the upcoming playoffs. But the Eagles must respect Danville and show up and give 100% effort against the Little Johns. If they do, we may see the Eagles hosting the Wolverines on November 13 at Eagles Stadium in the first round of the state playoffs.
See you in Danville, Eagles fans!
