FARMINGTON -- Farmington hosted a successful Class 4A state basketball tournament and placed its two teams in the state finals fulfilling its goal in bidding to host.
Both the girls team coached by Brad Johnson, which defeated Nashville, 69-35, and the boys team coached by Johnny Taylor, winning 70-53 over Mills, advanced through the tournament bracket and will play in Thursday's state championship games, the girls tipoff at 6 p.m. versus Morrilton, followed by the boys taking on Little Rock Christian at 7:45 p.m. at Bank OZK Arena in downtown Hot Springs.
Superintendent Jon Paul Laffoon was clearly still enjoying himself at the end of a long week. In the aftermath of the final tournament game, Little Rock Christian's 53-43 win over Brookland to set Thursday's state boys finals, a Little Rock fan complimented him on a well-run tournament and inquired," Do you know anyone in Arkadelphia?"
"I know J.R. Eldridge, he coached at Arkadelphia," Laffoon said, referring to the Cardinals' head football coach.
Laffoon reflected on what it takes to manage an event of the magnitude of a state tournament which ran five days last week. The first games started on Tuesday, Feb. 27 and the state semifinals concluded with an evening session on Saturday.
"We had tons of community support, teachers, staff, faculty working, the administrators. We had great support from the Farmington Police Dept. and it's a lot of work but it's worth it because our kids had that home court advantage today and both of those teams we're really proud that they advanced to the state championship," Laffon said.
Among the security measures implemented, a screening unit at the gate scanned people's bags coming in. Laffoon said it's important to have that level of security.
"We've got people coming in from all over the state. We wanted to keep everybody safe, our student athletes, our fans, the other schools and their fans. We were very grateful to Evolve to bring in those units for us to do that this week," Laffoon said.
For Saturday's early session involving both the Farmington girls and boys teams which began at noon fans packed out Cardinal Arena, and parking at the high school complex seemed near capacity with a few cars parking on the grass. It didn't become an issue because the complex is well situated with multiple parking lots clustered around Cardinal Arena, Farmington High School and the sports complex.
"We have a lot of parking and we even talked about Saturday's early games, maybe using the parking by the fieldhouse if we needed it, but we had plenty of parking. On our Thursday night games, we scanned almost 2,000 people in through the screening system so we had great crowds, especially for Farmington and it was just a great tournament all the way around," Laffoon said.
Athletic director Beau Thompson was constantly on the go, keeping all the logistics flowing smoothly. He expressed gratitude for the privilege of hosting.
"Obviously, we want to thank our administration and our school board for allowing us this opportunity, thank our two ladies in the hospitality room, Paige Thompson and Kristen Bates. We had the best hospitality room in the state," Thompson said.
The hospitality room provided beverages and meals for referees, coaches and tournament personnel. On Tuesday, Feb. 27, Tom Pagnozzi, Kelley Sharp and Blake Ketchum provided barbeque. On Wednesday, Feb. 28, Razor Bugs Cajun Catering, Tots Landing Daycare and Mabry Makings were on hand. Bobby Wilson and the Mabry family cooked 100 pounds of shrimp, producing what Thompson described as "an unbelievable meal."
On Thursday, Feb. 29, Nathan Smith and Arvest Bank provided hamburgers and other food.
"We had over 200 volunteers this week and it was just a phenomenal week for our community, for our kids and for our school to get to showcase our place here and get both teams a chance to go to the finals Thursday, first time in school history. This is definitely a [milestone]. I don't know if it's the best day in Cardinal history, but it's one of them -- no doubt," Thompson said.
One of the neatest moments from the tournament came in the aftermath of Farmington's boys 70-53 win over Mills when special needs students, Evan Lee and Victor Pacheco, came out to receive the banner on behalf of the boys basketball team, denoting their appearance in Thursday's state finals.
"Classy as always by our kids. We've got phenomenal kids here at Farmington and they treat every student with class and dignity and we're proud of them win or lose," Thompson said.
Each Cardinal team has one more game left in the 2023-2024 basketball season and neither goes to Hot Springs with any intention other than winning it all. It's one last chance to reward their school and community for overwhelming levels of support that have placed them on the threshold of fulfilling a lifelong dream.