Arkansas Sports 360.com - July 2008 - (Page 58) HigH scHool Nashville Nashville Has Scrapped With the State’s Best The Reasons for Success Run Deeper Than Talent Level at Howard County 4A Football Power by tom deblack Editor’s Note: ArkansasSports360.com wanted to know why Nashville’s football program is so successful – the Scrappers have won the last three 4A state titles – so we encouraged Nashville native Tom DeBlack, a history professor at Arkansas Tech and the school’s faculty representative to the Gulf South Conference, to give us a little insight as to why: Late In the hIGh sChooL football season of 1967, the nashville scrappers had completed pregame warmups and were sitting in the bleachers of the hope high school gymnasium that also served as the visitors’ dressing room. the nashville-hope game was one of the state’s most storied rivalries, stretching back to the early years of the 20th century. nashville’s record stood at 8-1 with two games remaining. there were no playoffs in 1967, but victories in the final two contests might persuade the Arkansas Gazette’s panel of sportswriters and coaches to name the scrappers as the top team in their classification, the 1960s equivalent of a state championship. First-year head coach Joe Goodrum was searching for a rousing pregame speech. Goodrum was a former scrapper player and assistant to former head coach Dwight Jones, whose teams had six 10-win seasons and a couple of state championships between 1954 and 1966. standing before his team, Goodrum gestured toward the stadium. “If you look out there, you’ll see that there are more people from nashville in the stands than there are from hope.” as he was about to continue, the strains of the nashville alma mater drifted across the field and into the gym. Goodrum paused and turned toward the music, and he and 45 normally rowdy high school boys listened in silence, as if they were listening to a hymn or a national anthem. When it was over, the silence continued for a brief moment. then the coach turned back to the team and said in a firm voice, “I don’t know about you, but that just does something to me. Let’s go.” the team roared from the dressing room and beat Bobcats 27-13. the following week they defeated hot springs Lakeside 37-18 to finish 10-1. as expected, the Gazette declared them state champions. Goodrum’s brief but effective speech, given long before the current group of scrapper players were born, laid out some essential reasons why the nashville 58 ArkansasSports360.com nASHViLLe LeADer glorY: The nashville Scrappers pose after winning the 2007 4A state title, their third consecutive win. scrappers have become and remained one another state championship until Billy of the state’s premier football programs. Laird’s 1996 squad posted a perfect 15-0 Intense community support and tradition season. Chris Wood succeeded Laird have been integral parts of the team’s in 2004 and took the team to the state success. Long-time residents of the town semifinals before departing for springdale recall that nashville’s excellence on the har-Ber the following year. Billy Dawson, gridiron dates to the 1920s and 1930s, himself a former scrapper, took over in when the scrappers routinely played 2005 after successful stints at several schools in arkansas and Louisiana. and often defeated squads from Fittingly, Dawson began his larger towns like texarkana, hot career as the scrappers’s springs and Jonesboro. head coach against the Gifted athletes have hope Bobcats. the results been a major part of were not pleasing to scrapper the team’s success, but other fans. hope won 22-13. It was an factors have played a role. inauspicious beginning to one nashville remains a vibrant of the greatest runs in nashville community in a region of by the history. Following that opening the state where many towns are stagnant or in decline. the nuMbers defeat, Dawson’s teams ran off program has also benefited from 3 Consecutive 33 consecutive victories and state titles being one of the largest schools won 42 of its next 43 games, in its classification (though 400 School capturing three straight state population the team won a conference cochampionships in the process. championship and advanced 5 Total state some preseason publications titles to the state semifinals under have picked the 2008 scrappers Gary segrest in 1983 during a 33 Consecutive to win a fourth straight title. victories for two-year cycle when it played as Dawson insists that there Nashville from one of the smallest schools in is no “secret” to his success at 2005-2007 a higher classification). But the nashville. he attributes it to factors that Goodrum’s speech factors that have long been part highlighted are what many consider to be of the nashville tradition: Good players, the crucial elements of the team’s success. an excellent assistant coaching staff, successful seasons followed the 1967 and strong support from the school’s campaign, but the program did not win administration and the community. “they expect you to win here,” he says, “but a lot of places expect that. the difference here is that they expect it and they support it. many of the teachers here grew up in the nashville schools, and they teach that scrapper spirit from the first day the kids are in school until the day they graduate. People who move into this community are initially shocked by the enthusiasm and support for scrapper football, but in a short time they are right in the middle of it, just like they had been here all their lives.” nashville superintendent Doug Graham points out that scrapper football involves more than just the 75-80 players on the field. another 75 students are actively involved as members of the marching band and cheerleading squad. this out of a high school population of approximately 400. It all comes together in the fall when residents of this southwest arkansas community, from all walks and stations of life, unite in a common cause for 2 ½ hours on a Friday night. In these divisive times, that helps make the nashville scrappers truly a force to be reckoned with. m Tom DeBlack, a professor of history at Arkansas Tech University, is a former Scrapper player and coach. He thinks that the community has largely forgiven him for his team’s winning “only” seven games in his senior season in 1968. July 2008 http://ArkansasSports360.com http://ArkansasSports360.com
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