Sports

In coach’s final meet, Fillies look to bring home title

By Jay Lupo/Of The Commercial Staff
Thursday, May 15, 2008 9:58 AM CDT

It’s been a good season for the Pine Bluff Fillies.

Regardless of what happens today at the 7A state track and field meet in Fayetteville on the campus of the University of Arkansas, Crystal Scott’s bunch has gone above and beyond the call of duty 2008.

“This is a team that everybody kind of wrote off this year,” said Scott, the eighth-year coach of the Fillies. “Including myself a little bit. We had some unexpected things happen, like a few kids leaving our program for various reasons. That kind of thing.

“These kids have far exceeded my expectations, no matter what happens in Fayetteville. I’m very happy we’re where we’re at right now.”

Where the Fillies are at going into today’s meet is a on short list of state championship contenders. Pine Bluff, for the second consecutive season, won the 7A-Central conference, this time by a whopping 44-point margin over another title contender in North Little Rock. Pine Bluff, along with Bentonville, Fort Smith Northside and the Lady Charging Wildcats, are the favorites to win today’s overall championship.

Kanesha Hicks, Pine Bluff’s Arkansas State-bound sprinter, is also on a short list of individuals expected to compete for today’s high-point mark.

“Win, lose or draw, I’m already proud of this group,” Scott said. “I’m pleasantly surprised by us winning the conference again and having the type of team that is capable of winning a state championship.

“So I can’t really say what I’m expecting — what I’d be happy with — [today] in Fayetteville. I just want us to keep riding this wave a little bit longer and go wherever it takes us.”

Scott credits her assistant coaches — Josh Keith (jumpers), Andre Woods (sprint coach) and John Proctor (hurdles) — with the team’s unexpected success on a state-wide level again.

“I’ve got the best assistants in the world,” she said. “I’m not that proud of a person. If I don’t know something, I’ll go to somebody who does and ask.

“These guys have been through it all with this team, and I just feel like they deserve a lot of credit, too. I don’t think we’d be where we are right now without all of them.”

Scott said she always expects her team’s “best” at a state meet like the one they’ll compete in today. Adding to the Fillies’ motivation, however, is the fact that today’s meet will be the last one Scott, who won state championships in 2001 and 2002, will ever coach for Pine Bluff.

“I’m leaving at the end of the year,” said Scott, whose teams have captured conference titles in four of her eight seasons as coach. “So I expect our kids to give me their best.

“But the bottom line is this: If you’ve got trouble getting up for a state meet, then you’ve got a problem. This is what our girls have worked for all season long.”

On the boys’ side, Laydell Jordan’s Zebras will be attempting to dethrone defending champion Rogers. The Zebras, a senior-laden team that’s capable of making noise today, aren’t exactly a favorite to contend for the overall title, but do have a more than solid chance of being one of the day’s top teams.

Jordan said last month that his group was focused on three meets in 2008 — the Butler Relays (Pine Bluff’s annual home meet), the 7A-Central Conference meet and the 7A state meet. His team ran away with the Butler Relays championship in an ultra-impressive showing and finished third in the conference meet last week.

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