Future Of Lincoln Football

WOLVES SWITCH LEAGUES FOR 2020

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Lincoln junior quarterback Noe Avellaneda drops back to pass while a Prairie Grove defender tries to get past the Wolves' protection. The Wolves lost at Prairie Grove, 34-14, Friday to close out their season and finish Lincoln's tenure as a member of the 4A-1 Conference in football. Next season, Lincoln reverts to the 3A-1 while Prairie Grove remains in the 4A-1 and Farmington in the 5A West marking perhaps the first time all three west Washington County schools belong to different classifications.
MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Lincoln junior quarterback Noe Avellaneda drops back to pass while a Prairie Grove defender tries to get past the Wolves' protection. The Wolves lost at Prairie Grove, 34-14, Friday to close out their season and finish Lincoln's tenure as a member of the 4A-1 Conference in football. Next season, Lincoln reverts to the 3A-1 while Prairie Grove remains in the 4A-1 and Farmington in the 5A West marking perhaps the first time all three west Washington County schools belong to different classifications.

LINCOLN -- For the first time maybe ever, three neighboring western Washington County schools, Farmington, Prairie Grove and Lincoln, will each compete in separate football conferences in 2020.

Checking conference affiliations all the way back to 1970 Lincoln has either been in a conference with Farmington or Prairie Grove; or else Farmington and Prairie Grove have shared a conference every year -- until now with the Wolves bowing out of the 4A-1 at the conclusion of the 2019 regular season.

2020-2021 Football Conferences

CLASS 5A

5A WEST

School^Enrollment^2019 Record^Conf

Greenbrier^826^5-5^3-4 5A West

Alma^785^4-6^4-3 5A West

Vilonia^758^7-3^6-1 5A West

Clarksville^608^4-6^1-6 5A West

Harrison^601^10-0^7-0 5A West

Farmington^582^6-4^3-4 5A West

Pea Ridge^528^6-4^6-1 4A-1*

Morrilton^514^6-4^4-3 5A West

*Changes conferences after 2019

CLASS 4A

4A-1

School^Enrollment^2019 Record^Conf

Huntsville 476^1-9^0-7 5A West*

Gravette^460^4-6^3-4 4A-1

Prairie Grove^459^4-6^4-3 4A-1

Berryville^441^3-7^1-6 4A-1

Gentry^348^7-3^5-2 4A-1

Elkins 320^5-5^3-4 4A-4*

Green Forest 300^2-8^0-7 4A-1

Shiloh Christian^232^10-0^7-0 4A-1

*Changes conferences after 2019

CLASS 3A

3A-1

School^Enrollment^2019 Record^Conf

Lincoln^287^5-5^2-5 4A-1*

West Fork^245^0-10^0-7 3A-1

Charleston^220^4-6^4-3 4A-1

Hackett^208^8-2^4-1 2A-4*

Greenland^200^6-4^4-3 3A-1

Cedarville^199^6-4^3-4 3A-1

Mansfield^191^7-3^4-3 3A-1

Lavaca^188^1-8^1-5 2A-4*

*Changes conferences after 2019

All three were members of the 2A-1 from 1987 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1994. From 1995-2003 all three schools were in the same 3A-1 conference. They were reunited in the 4A-1 from 2012-2013.

Fifteen years have gone by since Farmington came out of the 3A-4, a blended conference comprised of Farmington, Elkins, West Fork and River Valley schools: Booneville, Ozark and Paris plus Waldron and Mansfield for 2004-2005. At the same time Prairie Grove belonged to the 3A-1 along with Berryville, Gentry, Gravette, Green Forest, Lincoln, Pea Ridge and Shiloh Christian.

The 4A-1 was formed for 2006 with Farmington and Prairie Grove among its members.

Lincoln and Prairie Grove have been conference foes in the 4A-1 since 2012, a league Farmington belonged to until jumping to 5A in 2014. That changes next season with the Wolves' departure and return to the 3A-1, which they were a member of from 2006 until 2011, the second season the school achieved a playoff berth.

Lincoln qualified for the playoffs in 1995, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2018 and looked like they might this season, but ended the year with a long list of very athletic guys in street clothes including: Tyler Brewer, Eli Rich and Levi Wright.

Revamped 5A West

Lincoln is not the only school leaving the 4A-1. Pea Ridge (6-4, 6-1) moves up a classification to join Farmington in the 5A West while Huntsville returns to the 4A-1. The 5A West retains its six other football schools from 2019: Harrison, Vilonia, Morrilton, Alma, Greenbrier and Clarksville.

4A-1 Outlook

While Lincoln and Pea Ridge leave the 4A-1, Huntsville (1-9, 0-7) returns. The conference loses two major rivalries between Prairie Grove (4-6, 4-3) and Pea Ridge as well as Shiloh Christian (10-0, 7-0) versus Pea Ridge, a week 10 matchup which decided the conference championship the last two seasons.

Elkins (5-5, 3-4), enrollment 320, slides over from the 4A-4 no longer the lone northwest Arkansas team in a River Valley conference. Playoff teams Gentry (7-3, 5-2) and Gravette (4-6, 3-4), plus Berryville (3-7, 1-6) and Green Forest (2-8, 0-7) round out the 4A-1 for 2020.

"We're moving to a different conference and we've been playing on the backburner the last couple of years. We've been playing pretty much handicapped because we don't have nearly as many kids as Prairie Grove does. We don't have nearly as many kids as Pea Ridge does," said Lincoln coach Don Harrison. "We've been battling that for years, and hopefully next year that's going to help to be able to play those kind of teams that are our size, not a team like this that has a graduating class twice as big as ours. That just puts you behind the 8-ball a little bit, and it makes it an unfair advantage."

New Look 3A-1

The 3A-1 football conference undergoes wholesale changes from 2019 to 2020. Booneville (8-2, 7-0), which won the 2019 league championship leaves as does Lamar (8-2, 5-2) and Paris (3-7, 1-6).

Besides Lincoln, new to the league for 2020 are a pair of former 2A-4 schools, Hackett (8-2, 4-1), enrollment 208, and Lavaca (1-8, 1-5), enrollment 188. Lincoln last met Lavaca on the football field on Oct. 9, 2009 with the Golden Arrows winning 28-21 on their home field.

When the Wolves last competed in the 3A-1, West Fork was league champion, one of three conference losses (28-14) on Nov. 4, 2011 Lincoln sustained under former coach Brad Harris during a 7-4, 4-3 playoff season in 2011. The Wolves other league losses were to Elkins (31-28) on Oct. 7, 2011, at the old Lincoln football field and at Greenland (35-31) on Oct. 28, 2011. Lincoln has not played any of those schools since at the varsity level in football.

Elkins is gone, now a 4A school; while Greenland (6-4, 4-3) and West Fork (0-10, 0-7) remain in the league. Greenland has continued to field competitive gridiron teams under Lee Larkan but West Fork's program has fallen on hard times. Charleston (4-6, 4-3) hasn't been as strong as years past, but should be a conference favorite while former Prairie Grove standout, Max Washausen, has Cedarville (6-4, 3-4) on the rise.

Lincoln last played Charleston on Oct. 23, 2009, suffering a 35-14 road loss.

Lincoln and Mansfield competed in the nonconference schedule as recently as 2016 and 2017. Lincoln won 51-24 in a game interrupted by lightning on Sept. 16, 2016, at Mansfield; and lost 39-36 on Sept. 15, 2017, at home.

The Wolves and Cedarville also played nonconference games from 2014 to 2015 with Lincoln winning twice, 45-22, at Cedarville on Sept. 19, 2014, and 61-14 on Sept. 18, 2015, at Wolfpack Stadium.

Sports on 11/13/2019