Rhett Lashlee was the last speaker of the year for the Arkadelphia Football Club when it met at the Arkadelphia Recreation Center on Tuesday. Lashlee is currently the market director for Vype magazine. He also was quarterback at Shiloh Christian from 1999-2001. He led them to two state championships in 1991 and 2001.

Vype is a fairly new magazine in Arkansas. It is a free monthly magazine that covers high school sports around the state. In June, the issue covering all 208 high school football teams came out giving a preview for each team. This fall there was an issue with end of the season predictions for football and basketball previews. In March, there will be a state wide recruiting issue that covers all instate colleges. Those three issues are the only ones not free. “We try to do things that will promote high school sports and show them in a positive light,” Lashlee said.

Lashlee talked about each classification and his predictions for the class. In 7A he said that 7A West has typically been the strong of the two conferences, but 7A Central has had “phenomenal defenses” this year with Cabot and Russellville. Lashlee said that he thought Springdale- Harber was the best team out of the 7A this year. “They had the best defense and a balanced offense,” Lashlee said. He added that sometimes the best teams don’t make the finals.

The 7A finals will be between Bentonville and Fort Smith Southside. Lashlee predicted that Bentonville will win the championship. “They will win it 14-7 in another squeaker,” he said. He said to look for Cabot in 2009. “They have a lot of returners, a great running back returning.”

In the 6A, Lashlee talked about Lake Hamilton. “They had a lot of injuries at the beginning of the season. Their defense is strong. Phillip Butterfield is a great quarterback,” he said. Lake Hamilton will face El Dorado in the finals. Lashlee predicted that Lake Hamilton would pull away with the win.

“The 5A has been an interesting classification. It has been the most competitive class this year. Anybody can beat anybody on any Friday night,” Lashlee said. He said that Pulaski Academy is “probably the best team.” They will face West Helena Central in the finals.

In 4A, he said that Nashville has been the team to beat and he predicted that they would go all the way. Nashville was upset Friday by Dollarway. “Shiloh Christian is now the team to beat, but if Dollarway beat Nashville, they could beat Shiloh,” he said. He said that next year would be Shiloh’s year. “They are talented up front,” he said. Shiloh Christian will play Osceola and Newport will play Dollarway in the semifinal round.

He talked about Prescott and Fountain Lake being the standout teams in 3A and Junction City in 2A.

Lashlee talked about the 7 -on-7 competitions that teams participate in. “It has changed high school sports,” he said. “In the last 10 years, it has changed the offense and made the defenses better. The 7-on-7 in Arkansas is as good as anywhere else.”

Lashlee talked about the importance of the high school football coach. He said that last year the Democrat Gazette had a controversial article on high school football coaches’ salaries. “In my opinion I don’t think you can ever put a value on a high school coach,” he said. He talked about their influences on the players’ lives and the time spent with the coach. “You learn so many real life scenarios with any sport or extracurricular activity.”

Lashlee also talked about how the wildcat formation originated at Arkansas. Lashlee played two years at Arkansas and then spent the last two years of college helping Gus Malzahn at Springdale High School when Mitch Mustain was the quarterback. He said that they had a formation that they called a wildcat that was a way to get Damien Williams the ball. It started as a short yardage play. They also had a formation at Arkansas that was called the wildcat. Once Malzahn went to Arkansas, they changed the play some still calling it the wildcat. The wildcat formation kept developing to what it became at Arkansas with Darren McFadden taking the direct snap.

The Arkadelphia Football Club discussed at the end of the meeting what to do with the money collected throughout the year. The decision was made to give the money to the Badger football program.
Officers for the next year will be: Chris Babb, president; Roger Wingfield, vice president; Todd Turner, secretary; and Eric Davis, treasurer.