Har-Ber Football Expects to Compete for State Title

Har-Ber football’s lone expectation is to be playing football after Thanksgiving. If they do that it means they’re in at least the state semifinals. Last year was the first time since 2007 they did not advance to the semis. Bentonville and Fayetteville are going to get all the hype in 2012, but Har-Ber is fine with that.

“I think we’re right there with them,” said Har-Ber head coach Chris Wood. “Our resume speaks that and our guys expect those high standards of trying to go to Little Rock. So we see ourselves right up there with those two.”

It’s almost easy to forget that Har-Ber won the 7A State Championship in 2009, since Bentonville and Fayetteville have won the last two state crowns. This community takes its Har-Ber football seriously. If they don’t make it to the state championship game, something went wrong.

“It’s always been the main sport of the town and Coach Wood takes a lot of pride in it so we like to follow that up,” said senior linebacker Peyton Squires.

Har-Ber prides itself on playing physical football, non-stop, on every play. Last year was a disappointment, winning only eight games, but the Wildcats learned a lesson from that. Every player must be held accountable for his own work ethic.

“It’s one of the things we like to hang our hat on,” said Wood. “It just doesn’t come on a Friday night, you’ve got to practice that and commit yourself to that in practice. We’ve made an effort to do that. I’ve seen it with our guys. We’ve just got to continue on.”

“That’s just the way Har-Ber football is,” said senior guard Miguel Ceballos. “That’s the way the coaches have taught us and to finish through the play at the whistle and we’re just going to go until the whistle blows.”

They want that to be especially true on defense. There isn’t a conference in the entire state that will throw the ball more and score more points than the 7A West. Har-Ber thinks they have the defense to stop that.

“I’m counting on our defense to just get a three-and-out, pretty much every time,” said Ceballos. “Our defense is going to win it this year.”

“If you go back and look at who won a state title, they had one of the top two defenses in the state of Arkansas,” said Wood. “So if we’re going to be in Little Rock and have that opportunity, we’re going to do it with a championship defense.”