The Mansfield Tigers have mixed up their summer schedule this season.

"I tried something different in June," Mansfield coach Tim Cothran said. "June is kind of an all-sports month for us with extended baseball and a lot of basketball. I told our guys that I'd see them twice a week to lift. We worked some speed form and running form stuff. We went light with them in June."

Cothran was pleased with what he saw in the limited time in June and then the first week after the Arkansas Activities Association's mandated two-week dead period.

"It's going well," Cothran said. "Everybody's showing up for workouts. Energy is good. Optimism is good. We have 13 seniors, so we're feeling good about our experience. A lot of these guys have played a lot the last couple of years."

Senior Fisher Willsey is a prime example of Mansfield's multi-sport athletes as a standout on the baseball team and quarterback for the football team.

"He's a big strong kid," Cothran said. "All of the kids look up to him. He's done a phenomenal job. He's a good leader and a good athlete. He's done a good job in a lot of ways."

Willsey returns at quarterback and will be a three-way threat for the Tigers in 2022.

He ran 19 times for 176 yards in a win over Lincoln last year, and had 24 carries for 181 yards and three scores against Lavaca. He also returned an interception for a touchdown last season.

Junior Tyler Turnipseed was the team's leading receiver last season. Against West Fork, he caught nine passes for 146 yards and touchdowns of 15 and 57 yards.

"He's an everything guy," Cothran said. "He's a heart and soul kind of kid."

Turnipseed plays receiver and was one of the team's leading tacklers last season as defensive back. He also returns kickoffs and punts.

Mansfield participated in a 7-on-7 camp at Waldron on Thursday and will go to a team camp at Mena on Thursday.

"We'll hit it harder in July, four days a week," Cothran said. "We'll do our camps and 7 on 7s in July. We did it backwards last year. I hoping by doing this football work in July that we can transition into August, and we're looking more crisp and sharp come the beginning of the season."

The final week of July, Mansfield will go to team camps at Mena on Tuesday, Hackett on Wednesday and then Waldron Thursday.

Waldron stayed mostly at home in June before concentrating more on competition in July.

"We did normal workouts in June and worked on us," Waldron coach Doug Powell said. "We'll put our time in and do enough to find our weaknesses and what we need to work on."

Waldron is looking at a solid roster for the fall.

"We've got a good group of kids," Powell said. "The seniors have done a pretty good job so far. The numbers are about where we've been. We don't know for sure during the summer. We should have 30 to 35."

Included in that are 12 seniors.

"Overall, we've had a lot of kids be up here and committed this summer," Powell said. "It's been a pretty good summer from that standpoint. The senior leadership has been good."

Waldron hosted a team camp/7 on 7 on Thursday and will host another next week.

Union Christian Academy has pulled the plug on football.

"We shut our program down two years ago," David Peach, Principal, and former coach and athletic director said. "When Covid shut it down, it was like the kids lost interest in it. We've not been able to start the program back up."

Union Christian Academy last competed as a member of the Arkansas Activities Association in 2015 in the 2A-4 and finished 3-5 overall and 3-4 in the conference. The Eagles earned a playoff berth and lost to England, 71-12, in the first round.

Union Christian then decided to play 8-man football and joined the Heartland Christian Athletic Association, which is mostly based with Oklahoma private schools, through the 2019 seasons before canceling seasons the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Union Christian Academy does still compete in boys and girls basketball, softball, baseball and track. All the teams compete in the HCAA.

The senior girls won the Class 4A, the largest in the Heartland Conference, state championship in volleyball last season as well as the state championship in junior high boys basketball.

Whitney Debord serves as the school's athletic director and volleyball and softball coach.

The volleyball team begins the season on Aug. 13 in a tournament in Tulsa.

Katie Schluterman was just hired as girls basketball coach.

Ben Shure is the boys basketball coach.

The Fort Smith Mayor's Breakfast will feature Fort Smith native Barry Lunney Sr. at the Fort Smith Convention Center as the guest speaker Friday.

The breakfast is sponsored by the Christian Business Men's Connection and will honor public and military officials and authorities who lead, protect and govern our community.

Lunney played for Northside, and was the head coach at Southside and Bentonville, winning a combined 248 games and eight state championships.

Lunney retired after the 2014 season and currently serves as the Northwest Arkansas Fellowship of Christian Athletes Multi-Area Director.

Spring and summer workouts are usually designed to help players mesh together as a team, but Prairie Grove coach Danny Abshier has spent the offseason making sure his revamped coaching staff becomes a solid unit.

"The focus has been making sure who's doing what and getting the new hires on," Abshier said. "We're making sure everybody is on the right page."

Abshier promoted Mason Pinkney and Nic Paroubek to offensive and defensive coordinators, respectively, while Matt Chandler, Matthew Stelting and John Madding join the Tigers' staff.

Chandler is a former Prairie Grove player who was at Cedarville last year, while Stelting is a former Gravette player who was an assistant at Mayflower. Madding, meanwhile, is originally from Siloam Springs and coached last year at Gentry.

What helps with the transition of the coaching staff is the Tigers have plenty of experience returning. Abshier said his team played a lot of juniors last year, and that experience will help as Prairie Grove makes the move to the 5A-West this fall.

"We're almost all seniors on offense and defense," Abshier said. "We do have a few juniors mixed up, and we have a couple of sophomores that have shown up. But right now, we have those guys that did well last year back.

"There's Ryder Orr and Ethan Miller, and we have our quarterback back. There's Camden Patterson who's back and James Moss, who's back on offense and defense. Joe Sims is a junior who has jumped up and will play at wingback and looks pretty good. Coner Whetsell is getting faster and thicker all the time, and he's our fullback."

One of the first things Rodney Selph did when he became West Fork's football coach again was bring back the same offensive scheme the Tigers used the first time under him.

Selph, who took over West Fork's football program in April, will put in an offense that utilizes a mixture of the wing-T and the Spread formations.

"I don't know anything about the Flexbone," Selph said in reference to the offense the Tigers ran the past three seasons. "It was the same things we did the first time I was here. But it won't be a huge difference. The biggest adjustment will come in the offensive line.

"We have a lot of kids coming back, but the philosophy in how you block in the Flexbone and how you block in wing-T and spread is different. With the Flexbone, you're scooping and getting under people and almost getting in their way. Now we're pulling a lot of guys and have more angle blocks and drive blocks. We're trying to get people out of there."

Selph said his team is experiencing better numbers than the Tigers have had in recent years. West Fork had 44 participate in spring drills, whereas the Tigers had only 23-25 players in uniform last year.

That has made the transition easier for both Selph and his players.

"The adjustment has gone really well," Selph said. "Our kids have really stepped up and bought in to what we are doing. They're working really hard, and things are going well.

"I'm pleased with the effort they have put forth in the weight room and in spring workouts. There's a big learning curve, and we still have a long way to go, but things are going well."

Greenland coach Lee Larkan said he wants to have a balanced offensive attack, but he prefers having his team run the ball a little more than throw it.

It's something the Pirates struggled with last season, and Larkan said his team must do a better job running the ball this fall. In order to do that, improvement in the offensive line is a must.

"Last year, we just couldn't run the football at all," Larkan said. "We just didn't do a good job up front. Our linemen were not committed, and we had some injuries and players who couldn't play last year. But I feel better about our linemen as a group this year.

"Our skill people are good. We have about as much speed as we've ever had. I think we'll be able to score a lot of points if our linemen can help us."

Larkan has been pleased with Greenland's offseason workouts with good attendance, even though he said a few players have been slow in returning after the 2-week athletic "dead period." He expects to have the usual 25-30 players in uniform when the season begins.

Those numbers are good for a school whose attendance has dwindled some over the past few years.

"We've had some small classes," Larkan said. "I hear that some schools aren't playing football, and I think that's hogwash. The kids that want to play football still play football. As far as the numbers we have compared to our numbers of students, I think our numbers are pretty good.

"I think there have been issues throughout everywhere, such as COVID and stuff. I think if our classes were still in the 70s like there, we would have close to 40 players. But we have some classes with 40-45 kids. Our eighth-grade class has just 22 kids, and that's just one class."

Print Headline: Mansfield adapts to new pace

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