FARMINGTON -- With the new classification numbers, Farmington is in a sense being told by the Arkansas Activities Association to "Go west," -- that is into the 5A West Conference.
In a literal sense the Cardinals, young in their first season at the 5A Classification, can't go very far west without traveling out of state. Only two schools, their U.S. 62 rivals, Prairie Grove and Lincoln; stand between them and the Oklahoma state line 18 miles away. But the Arkansas Activities Association may say the move, which began at the end of the 2013-14 school year, is not about a geographical direction.
According to the Arkansas Activities Association the move is all about Farmington's increased enrollment projected at 501 in April, 2013, making Farmington the 60th most populated high school in Arkansas. Huntsville, No. 66 on the AAA list which was in 5A, moves down to 4A with a projected enrollment of 484.
Also moving up and joining Farmington in the 5A West is Maumelle, 48th on the AAA list with 669 students.
In week three, Farmington will take on 7A Van Buren, enrollment 1,349 and the 14th largest school in Arkansas, in a non-conference matchup resembling one of Hooten's Football Kickoff Classic confrontations between various classifications. Despite the numbers difference, Farmington prefers not to have an open date on the calendar. Most football coaches subscribe to the philosophy of you can't improve if you don't have a game, a point well-illustrated by baseball and softball non-conference competition in recent years.
Twice in the last three baseball seasons Huntsville has traveled to Farmington to play unscheduled games.
During the 2012 season, senior night at Farmington was rained out and the scheduled opponent chose not to play the game leaving Cardinal baseball coach Jay Harper with a dilemma. Seventeen phone calls later the issue was resolved when then Huntsville head baseball coach Brian Garrett agreed to bring his squad to Farmington for a non-conference contest in the last week of the regular season.
This year an April 8 non-conference baseball game was originally scheduled to be played at Huntsville but Eagles' coach Zach Wiggins decided to move the contest to Farmington and get the competition even when that meant surrendering home-field advantage.
"It's real important in a spring like this where it's probably going to be really wet to try to get a game in any way that you can," Wiggins said. "If our field's too wet and we can go play somewhere else that's what we need to do."
Wiggins said the Eagles were looking forward to rejoining the 4A-1 Conference.
"We're excited about it. The biggest reason is we're not going to have to take 3-hour bus rides anymore to places like Greenbrier and Vilonia and being able to get back with coaches we're familiar with. Being here local and close that's going to be the biggest part of it, so, we're excited."
On the opposite side of that coin is Farmington trading conferences with Huntsville.
Randy Osnes, Farmington softball coach, talked about the transition into the 5A West after the spring season. According to Osnes, 5A has all the tools mentioning Greenbrier that's been in the state championship the last couple of years. Farmington played both Greenbrier and Vilonia this year and Osnes noted those two schools ended up playing for a conference title.
Osnes recalled the Lady Cardinals were successful against Vilonia (6-5) and competed against Greenbrier winning 3-2 in the Farmington/Fayetteville tournament at home in a rain-shortened contest.
"Three innings in the tournament play really doesn't make much. Seven inning games are what counts just like summer ball. God bless summer ball but you normally get about three innings in so seven inning games are what counts," Osnes said.
"The travel will be a lot different. We figured it up with our basketball situation and it could be the same thing with spring sports if we have to play a home and home then that would be almost 1,500 additional miles that we drive next year compared to what we drove this year."
Still, despite differences in school enrollment and extended travel Osnes believes mastering fundamentals and executing on the field are keys to success.
"This sport, whether you're 7A or whether you're 2A, if you got a dynamite kid in the circle you can compete. If you have nine kids that can go out there on a daily basis and work hard and get better defensively then you can make up for some misgivings in the circle but you got to have kids that can hit. You got to have kids that can run and you got to have kids that understand the game and be able to play in tough situations."
MARK HUMPHREY IS A SPORTS WRITER FOR THE ENTERPRISE-LEADER.
Sports on 08/06/2014