The Competitive Edge

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ISSUE #23

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East Texas Executive Advisor Roger Sheppard

contents : : 24 06 On The Cover Leaving the Yard with Zach and The Professor

12 A Man Above Par Remembering Coach Jay Brewer

Coming Back For former Pleasant Grove Hawk standout Hudson Hopkins returns to Texarkana

20 Local Boy Hits it Big!

22 26 12 Bladen Reaves

by Chuck Zach

2019 Football Schedules

A Girls Dream R achel Norman becomes the new owner of Texarkana Dance Academy

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from the fieldhouse : : I was talking to my daughter the other day when she brought up the subject of her daughter and her lack of energy she had at soccer practice. I was informed that she visited the water park, swimming and playing most of the day. Another thing that she failed to do was eat. Two things were working on her performance ability at the same time. No fuel and no energy. Needless to say, her practice time was pretty much wasted. What was not wasted was the MOMENT. The moment to learn a valuable lesson on rest and nourishment. The body has many needs and the fulfillment of these needs are controlled by the brain. You must understand the importance of being rested and eating the proper energy producing foods when expecting to operate at peak performance.

I played in a golf tournament a few weeks ago and was amazed at what people did that destroyed their chances of performing well. I must admit that I am not a very good golfer, and I certainly can’t see the wisdom in doing anything that would hinder what little ability I have.

I can remember a lesson that I learned my junior year in high school in Hooks, Texas. I was one of the leaders in the high hurdle races and was expected to finish on top in the Paul Pewitt relays. The night before the meet I hung out for most of the night getting home around 2PM the morning of the relays. I had to get up around 6:30 to be at the field house to catch the bus. There was a huge crowd at the meet to watch the hurdle races because they were considered the top matchup of the evening. As I tried to warm up, I noticed that things were not right. I was dragging. My energy level was not where it needed to be and I could barely clear the hurdle. I extended my warm-up period trying desperately to correct the obvious problem. The real problem was that there was no solution. There was no magic potion to swallow or no wand to wave. I was like an airplane that had run out of fuel. I was rapidly heading for a crash.

Well to advance the story I lined up at the starting mark and listened to the gun go off. It was literally like I had on lead boots. My body would not function, and I finished fourth which was a total embarrassment. I was considered one of the top hurdlers in the state and couldn’t ever finish in the top three in a small inter-district race. What I hung around my neck after that night was “ignorance.” In looking back, I was handed a very valuable lesson. I quickly understood the relationship between healthy living and disaster. I literally impaired myself to the point of failure.

Now let’s further advance the story. There are reasons that some people will not let failure happen. I learned early to step back and make many trial runs in my mind before jumping into the shallow water. I can most often predict the outcome before it happens. Please understand that

failure is very necessary in the progress of life. Failure has a certain sting to it that quickly brings the mind to focus. It is this quick focus that is an asset in your way of thinking. That sting can be overridden by a numb conscious that can be controlled by substances or by neglect and will rob you of your value. The feeling of guilt or butterflies in the belly is placed there for a very good reason. It is God’s way of saying “no.” You see man does not simply exist, but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment. How dangerous can false reasoning prove! It is always the heart sees before the head. I feel there are two things inside me: myself and my intuition. If I go against intuition, it will slam me every time, and if I follow it, we get along quite nicely. To be faithful to your instincts and the impulses that carry you in the direction of excellence, you most desire and value hard work. Surely that is to lead the noble life. I pray your year has been as productive as mine.

Hope to see you out soon.

Roger Sheppard

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on the

cover

Tony (The Professor) Kirk More than 15 years as co-host of Texarkana’s longest running radio sports talk show “Leaving the Yard with Zach and The Professor” 15 years as color analyst for radio broadcasts of Pleasant Grove Athletics 1 season as play by play broadcaster for the Centerpoint Knights boys and girls basketball Given the nickname of the Professor due to having spent 20 plus years as both a full time and part time college professor of Political Science and History at Mountain View College in Dallas, Ozarka College in Melbourne, Arkansas, and Texarkana College. The Professor is currently a teacher at Texas High.

Chuck Zach Chuck was born and raised in Wisconsin (yes he’s a Cheesehead) and has been in radio since 1984.

Chuck has done sports talk radio in Texarkana since the late 1990s and teamed with Tony Kirk on “Leaving the Yard with Zach and the Professor” a combination that has been together since 2002. He is currently the longest tenured sports talk show host in Texarkana.

Chuck was the play by play announcer for Pleasant Grove High School from 2001-2019, calling four State Title games in baseball and two State Title games in football. He also called the State championship run for Robert Cochran’s Liberty Eylau Lady Leopards basketball team.

Chuck has been a teacher for 25 years, 11 at PG and 14 at Texas High and is currently the Social Studies Department Chair at Texas High School.

All three of Chuck’s kids are graduates of Pleasant Grove and all three attended the University of Arkansas.

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bladen

reaves Anyone who proclaims to be a football fan has seen the movie “Rudy.” “Rudy” is the true story of Rudy Ruettiger, the son of a steel mill worker who wants to play football at the University of Notre Dame. Unfortunately Rudy is not big enough, or fast enough to qualify for a football scholarship. After several attempts, Rudy finally lands a spot on the Notre Dame scout team and eventually gets on the field for three plays at the end of his final game in college. It was an incredible story that had a made-for Hollywood ending.

Former Pleasant Grove Hawk Bladen Reaves’ story might rival Rudy’s - and there is still a lot of his story left to be told.

Bladen was raised in Bryan-College Station, Texas, which is of course the home of the Texas A&M Aggies.

Growing up, Bladen participated in several Aggieland triathlons that ended on the old track around Kyle Field. His father Kevin, was a coach at Rudder High School in Bryan. Bladen played outside linebacker during his junior year in 2017 for the Rudder Rangers, a team that finished with a record of 2-8. In fact Rudder, which is classified as a 5A high school, has never had a winning football season since the school opened in 2008.

by Chuck Zach After the 2017 season, learning that Rudder’s head coach was looking to leave after the next year, Kevin began considering a move to another job. That’s where fate stepped in and started a series of unlikely moves that changed Bladen’s path.

Jonathan Reid, Bladen’s former wrestling coach from Rudder had recently taken a job at Frisco high school where his boss happened to be Vance Gibson. Gibson’s oldest son is Josh Gibson, the head football coach at Pleasant Grove, who happened to be looking for a coach to add to his staff. Coach Reid suggested Kevin Reaves to Josh Gibson, and Kevin was invited for an interview.

After a visit to Pleasant Grove, and a meeting with Josh Gibson, Kevin was offered the job and he and his wife Keely made the decision to transplant their family to Texarkana.

Bladen, who was an established starter for Rudder, would have to prove himself to a new group of coaches, fit in with teammates who had just won the school’s first football State Championship, and ultimately move to a new position - inside linebacker. To top it

Now came the hard part of the story for Bladen Reaves.

At 6’0 tall and less than 200 pounds, he was considered undersized to continue to play linebacker in college. He sent out tapes to smaller schools, but National Signing Day in February came and went without receiving much interest.

After Signing Day, Bladen became his own advocate and reached out to every college in Texas that had a football team. He received only one offer - from U-T Permian

However fate was not done with Bladen Reaves. On May 10, one day after signing a letter of intent to attend Henderson State University, Bladen and Kevin drove down to Austin to attend the Texas State Track Meet and support Kevin Kindt, a junior that Kevin Reaves coached at Rudder high school, who would compete in the shot put. Highly recruited sophomore defensive ends Landon Jackson and Marcus Burris made the trip down to Austin with the Reaves, and the boys were invited by the University of Texas football coaches to dress out in Longhorn gear and pose for some photos.

The PR folks at UT posted those pictures to their social media accounts, which were also followed by the football coaches at Texas A&M. The Aggie coaches reached out to Kevin Reaves, who was taking the boys to Bryan to see some of his family, and invited him to drive the boys over to the campus for a visit before heading back to Texarkana.

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Bladen flourished in his new role and fit right in with the Hawks, who saw him not as an outsider, but as another weapon to help them return to the State Championship.

He led the Hawks with 145 tackles and nine quarterback sacks. He was named Academic All State Honoree and was selected as a 4A 1st Team All State LB. He also played halfback on offense, where he scored three touchdowns and was a devastating blocker. The Hawks finished with a 14-2 record and did indeed return to the State Championship game, where they were beaten by the Cuero Gobblers.

Basin in March. A month later, Henderson State offered Bladen a chance to walk-on and play fullback. It looked like that would be the end of the story and that Bladen would play football for the Reddies.

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off, he would be filling the position of Caleb Porchia, who broke the school single season record for tackles in 2017 and was named the Defensive MVP of the State Championship win over West Orange Stark in his final game before graduating and accepting a scholarship to Ouachita Baptist University.

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and in April, he became the first 12th Man ever to be selected in the NFL draft when he was picked by the Houston Texans in the 7th Round.

Bladen Reaves graduated from Pleasant Grove on Friday May 24th. On Saturday May 25th he was in College Station going through enrollment for the signed recruits and the other walk-ons. On Sunday May 26th, GigEm 24/7, an Aggies internet fan page, featured Bladen as a prime candidate to become the next 12th Man.

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Reaves, Jackson and Burris posed for pictures at A&M and Bladen had a chance to sit down and visit with coach Terry Price and meet head coach Jimbo Fisher. On the way out to the car, Coach Price said to Bladen, “Hey man, if you ever decide that you want to go to school here, give me a call.”

After the group left, Coach Price watched some of Bladen’s film and then showed it to a group of other Aggie coaches. The next day he called Bladen asking, “Would you want to play on offense or defense for us? You knock the mess out of guys on both sides of the ball and we could use a dude like you.” Bladen said, “I will play wherever the team needs me.”

Coach Price told him that the Aggies fullback had just graduated and that they needed a new fullback. The graduating fullback was Cullen Gillaspia, who arrived in College Station in 2014 as a walk on linebacker from Katy. Gillaspia redshirted that year, but in 2015 was given the coveted uniform #12 signifying his role as the Aggies 12th Man, a tradition that started in 1922 when E. King Gill was called out of the stands to suit up in case Coach Dana X. Bible’s team wouldn’t have enough players to finish the Dixie Classic game against topped ranked Centre College. Gillaspia eventually played 38 straight games as the 12th Man, scored a touchdown on his final offensive play in college

Everything is falling into place for Bladen Reaves.

His father is a military veteran and Bladen’s tuition will be paid by the Hazlewood Act. The Reaves never sold their house in Bryan after their move from Rudder to Texarkana and Bladen will be able to move back into his old house and live with his grandmother. In August, his older brother Jacob will be ending his second tour of duty with the Marines in Kuwait and will be moving back to Bryan and attend Blinn College. He will also get to spend his Saturdays at Kyle Field watching his little brother live out his dream.

Kevin Reaves said of his son’s journey, “It’s one of those incredible, crazy, amazing things. Of all the D-I schools in the country, he’s ending up back in his hometown and on the field where he grew up.

It is a wild story and those kind of things never happen. But it would sure make a cool movie.”

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A&M-Texarkana Athletics Has Four Teams Designated as NAIA Scholar Teams TEXARKANA, Texas – The National Association of Intercol- A&M-Texarkana posted an overall athletic department GPA of

legiate Athletics (NAIA) has announced that four of Texas A&M University-Texarkana’s six Eagle athletic teams have been designated as NAIA Scholar Teams for the 2018-2019 academic year.

A&M-Texarkana’s softball, women’s soccer, women’s tennis, and men’s tennis teams were honored by the NAIA for their academic achievement during the previous year.

3.10 for the 2018-2019 academic year, good enough for second place in the Red River Athletic Conference behind only Wiley College’s 3.14. The Red River Athletic Conference is made up of 11 colleges and universities, and the NAIA is comprised of 250 schools and 65,000 student-athletes.

To be considered an NAIA Scholar Team the team GPA for all eligible varsity student-athletes must be higher than a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. “We are very proud of the accomplishments these student-athletes have made both in the classroom and on the playing field. It takes a great deal of effort to excel in both areas,” said TAMUT Athletic Director Michael Galvan. “This recognition is also the culmination of a great deal of assistance from TAMUT’s amazing faculty, our Athletics Academic Advisor Amber Galvan, and the entire academic support staff. We greatly appreciate their efforts to hold our student-athletes accountable and guide them towards academic success.”

Texas A&M University-Texarkana competes as a member of the NAIA’s Red River Athletic Conference. With the addition of men’s and women’s basketball teams in the fall of 2019 the university will field teams in 8 intercollegiate sports including men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis, baseball, and softball.

About Texas A&M University-Texarkana:

As a member of The Texas A&M University System, Texas A&M University-Texarkana is a comprehensive regional university that provides students with academically challenging, engaging and rewarding educational experiences through quality teaching, scholarship, student support services, co-curricular programming, research and service.

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a man above par

BY CHUCK ZACH

On June 5, 2019, Texas High School Art Romero - Golf pro at golf coach Jay Brewer passed away Texarkana Country Club at the age of 51. Jay had been the Tigers golf coach since 2007 and also established the Classic at Texarkana Country Club, an annual fall event which attracted some of the best golf teams from across Texas and helped to elevate the stature of the Texas High golf program.

Here are the memories of Jay Brewer as told by some of his players, colleagues and friends.

“I hired Jay in 1991 to be one of my assistants right after he graduated from Henderson State. Jay grew up on the course and already had a great rapport with the members, many of whom recommended him when I was hired. He had a great sense of humor and was an outstanding player. Jay was with me for 16 years and had been teaching golf here at the Country Club. He was ready to make a change when the job opened up at Texas High.

The Country Club was hosting the Conference USA golf tournament back then and when Texas High hired Jay, he and Barry Norton had a great plan to create a tournament that would attract the best high school teams in the four states area. Each state has different rules, and the tournament eventually just became a showcase for the better schools in Texas. Jay had connections with coaches across Texas and because of the quality of players that would play from across the state, it was an easy decision for the Club to host this tournament.

Jay was here at Texarkana Country Club regularly for 30 year as a player, an assistant and a coach. We are gonna miss his humor, his wit and his sarcastic wisdom.“

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Paul Norton TISD Superintendent

We wondered how would Jay get along with middle schoolers but as soon as you put him in front of kids, they lit up and so did he. I got a chance to see it first hand with my daughter Julia when she was in his golf class in 6th grade. Watching him work with the kids and teach them how to swing was just something that he enjoyed.

Thinking back on the decision to hire a full time golf coach; that’s a hard sell for the Superintendent, the school board, even the Athletic Director. An AD might typically want a football position coach who transitions to golf in the spring. But that’s not what we needed. We needed somebody to come in and build the golf program and make it unique for our kids for our community and Jay did that.

Jay did exactly what we had hoped. Just a few years after he arrived, we took the boys team to Austin and they finished 2nd in the State. The girls finished in the top seven that year as well. It wasn’t a golf team, it was a golf PROGRAM The golf tournament, oh my gosh, that was his baby. To take it from year one and create one of the best golf tournaments in the state of Texas (which is actually held in the state of Arkan-

13 sas) is just a testament to him. In turn, our kids have been invited to some amazing golf tournaments in Arizona or Houston or wherever it may be. Jay was not worried about getting credit, he was worried about our kids getting more exposure and more opportunities.”

Just to see the folks who have called this week interested in the job, what their resumes are and where they’ve been, it just speaks to what Jay Brewer built. We want to continue and grow the things that he created.

Emma Edwards Texas High grad 2015 Played golf for the University of New Mexico and is now attempting to play golf professionally.

“If I was struggling during a round, Coach Brewer always knew what to say to get me back on my feet and get me to refocus and calm down. That’s one of the things that I admired about him.

He always knew what to say to me. Every person is different, but for me, he was constantly reminding me that golf is just a game and don’t put too much pressure on myself. He would tell me to just stay on par and not try to do anything crazy. I had a tendency to get anxious and get quick during a round, looking at

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“In the summer of 2007 our previous golf coach Charles Carozza retired from Texas High. Charles was a classroom teacher who coached golf after school. So we had a chance to think about who we would hire next and how we wanted to grow the program. Swimming and tennis were both great programs at Texas High and while our golf program was good, we wanted it to be great also. So (former Athletic Director) Barry Norton and I started asking each other what were we missing to make it great. We hit on the idea that we wanted to expand the golf program down to the middle school and get more kids involved in golf. We talked about building a driving range, which we built behind the baseball field. We even talked about building a three hole practice course on the high school property east of the softball field. Then we needed to find the right person to dream this with us and make some of it happen. Jay was just the obvious choice for us. The relationships that he had at Texarkana Country Club and in the golfing community were just phenomenal.

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the hazards on a hole or just not playing good that day and he just knew how to get me calmed down and to play simple golf. He had a very calming demeanor and always had a smile. He knew how to talk to each one of us according to our personalities.”

“He made me realize that golf is just a game and that there is more to life than just golf. That brought me down to earth and made me more humble about the game and enjoy it more.”

Dustin Holly Former Texas High Girls Soccer coach Currently the Boys Soccer coach at Wichita Falls Rider High School.

“Jay was probably one of my first friends when I came to Texarkana. Being new to Texarkana, he was just so welcoming and

Autumn Parrott Texas High Golfer Class of 2020 “Coach Brewer was my coach from 6th through 11th grade. Golf can be really isolating and heavy and gets all in your head, always thinking about this one movement. You can get hard on yourself really easily. He always tried to make the game super light, making jokes, trying to get our minds off the game so that we could actually get our swing working.

I started playing golf in elementary school when my parents signed me up for the First Tee program. Funding for the First Tee fell off and they couldn’t afford to replace my clubs and so I had was using the clubs that they loaned my since the beginning of my freshman year. They weren’t the best quality clubs and Coach Brewer wanted me to have a new set of clubs. New clubs are so expensive and my family didn’t really have the money for that, so Coach Brewer managed to get some clubs from TCC that had been in the lost and found for awhile. He took the clubs to Golf USA and cut them down to my size and had them regripped for me and brought them to practice one day. He was super excited to give them to me. This past summer he got me some hybrids and a wood and a driver and told me that he loved hard working kids and wished that every kid had my work ethic. He promised he would find me a place to play golf in college. He knew that I didn’t have a membership to a country club or my own clubs and so he was gonna help me make up the difference so I could still be competitive. I didn’t really have anyone in my family that could talk to me about college golf and so he was ready to work with me on that kind of stuff but... I don’t know who else is gonna do that now.”

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“I thought I got nervous before coaching a game, but before golf tournaments Jay was always so hyped up. He was always talking about how his team could be doing better, even if they were up by nine strokes and the other teams have given up. But when it was over, he would celebrate with them and he was proud of them. Jay was just made to coach.

Kids just loved him when he walked in the room. Even when he was mad at the kids, they were still with him.”

Road trips with Coach Brewer were a blast. He had so many stories to tell. He played weird country music and took us to eat either burgers or Mexican food.

That’s all he would eat.

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funny. We had a thing at the TMS called “Coaches Corner” and it’s the reason that I was early to school everyday. Jay, myself, Jim Mallett, Scott Minnie and coach Stone all met in the gym for about 15 minutes before school and we all were cracking jokes and telling stories about what had happened the previous day in our classes or our sports. It was probably the best part of my day.”

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father'sday

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The Sheppard Family

The Boston Family

The Zach Family

The Pilgreen Family

The Graham Family

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Kevin Dobbs

Wall comes to lead the inaugural A&M-Texarkana men's basketball team having completed 5 years as the head coach at fellow Red River Athletic Conference institution Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. His career record as a head coach stands at 109-42 and includes a Sweet 16 finish and 2 trips to the Elite Eight in the NAIA National Basketball Tournament.

He has recruited and coached 4 All-American players including the NAIA national leading scorer, Player of the Year, and All-Star Game Participant (Xavier Roberson) and NAIA national leader in steals and assists, Defensive Player of the Year (Marcus Thompson). He has also coached 8 All-Conference players in his 5 years as a head coach.

Kevin Dobbs enters his 12th season as a college women’s head coach and 4th season as a head coach in the Red River conference, most recently having completed three seasons at the helm at the University of the Southwest from 2011-2014. Prior to USW, he was the head coach at NCAA II Pfeiffer University (NC) for two seasons, Peru State (NE) for one season, and at Black Hills State (SD) for 5 seasons.

He also has 3 years of assistant coaching experience at the NCAA II on both the men’s and women’s side.

Prior to his head coaching experience Wall worked as the assistant men's basketball coach at Our Lady of the Lake and Ranger College (NTJCAC) after being a graduate assistant with the University of Southern Alabama men's basketball team.

After a successful high school playing career in Coppell, Texas, Wall played college basketball for two years at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque before finishing his collegiate career as a stand-out point guard for Texas Christian University. While at TCU Wall led the team in both steals and free throw percentage.

Wall earned a bachelor's degree in Communications and holds a master's degree in Education Administration from TCU. He and his wife Krysti have been married for 5 years and have two daughters, Kendall and Rylee.

His Black Hills State teams won the DAC-10 Conference championship and qualified for two NAIA National tournament berths achieving a national rating as high as #2 in the country. His players have accumulated various post-season rewards including: *1st Team All American - 1 *Honorable Mention All-American – 1 *1st team all-conference - 6 *2nd team all-conference – 6 *3rd team all-conference - 5

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Ryan Wall

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local boy

hits it big 2o15 Texas High Alumni, Garrett May celebrates taking home a national title with the win of the Northeast Amateur Golf Tournament at Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, RI. In August, he was honored with a certificate from Mayor Bob Bruggerman at Redbone Magic Brewing.

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2019 Football Liberty Eylau Date 8/30 9/6 9/13 9/20 9/27 10/4 10/18 10/25 11/1 11/8

Opponent Arkansas High Carthage Texas High Atlanta Argyle LaVega Spring Hill Pleasant Grove Pittsburg Gilmer

Place Home Away Away Away Home Home Away Home Away Home

Time 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM

Fouke Date 9/6 9/13 9/20 9/27 10/4 10/11 10/18 10/25 11/1 11/7

Opponent Gurdon Mineral Springs Glen Rose Prescott Centerpoint Bismark Smackover Harmony Grove Genoa Central Horatio

Place Home Away Home Away Home Away Home Away Away Home

Time 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM

Genoa Central Date 8/31 9/7 9/14 9/21 9/28 10/5 10/12 10/19 10/26 11/1

Opponent Gurdon Lafayette County Spring Hill Horatio Camden H.G. Centerpoint Prescott Smackover Fouke Bismark

Place Away Away Home Home Away Home Away Home Away Away

Time 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM 7PM

Opponent Portland State Ole Miss Colorado State San Jose State Texas A&M Univerity of Kentucky Auburn Alabama Mississippi State Western Kentucky LSU Missouri

Place Fayettville, AR Oxford, MS Fayettville, AR Fayettville, AR Arlington, TX Lexington, KY Fayettville, AR Tuscaloosa, AL Fayettville, AR Fayettville, AR Baton Rouge, LA Little Rock, AR

Time 3PM 6:30PM 3PM TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA 1:30PM

HOME OF YOUR RAZORBACK WATCHING PARTY

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Date 8/31 9/7 9/14 9/21 9/28 10/12 10/19 10/26 11/2 11/9 11/23 11/29

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University of Arkansas Razorbacks

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coming back For former Pleasant Grove Hawk standout Hudson Hopkins, the summer of 2019 will be remembered as the summer he got to come home to play baseball.

As a member of the Texarkana Twins, Hudson got to compete in a summer college baseball league in his hometown.

It will also be remembered as the summer he started his personal comeback from two years of battling injuries at the collegiate level. Hudson left PG to play ball at Seminole College in Oklahoma.

He would later be offered an opportunity to continue his career at Louisiana Tech. Hopkins had offers from baseball powerhouses like Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Hudson chose to play ball for Tech because they sweetened the offer with a combination athletic / academic scholarship to cover his costs. Few college baseball players are fortunate enough to get all their school paid for due to limited scholarships for baseball. Hudson’s

by Tony Kirk

hard work in the classroom paid off for him with the offer from Tech.

With his right ankle and herniated L5 disk mended, the summer gave Hudson the opportunity to play in front of friends and family while bulking up on home cooking. Hopkins who still aspires to make it to the MLB has come a long way from playing for the Gizmos in the Wake Village T-Ball league as a youngster.

The wooden bat league gave pro scouts a chance to see what he could do with the equipment the pros use at the next level.

It also game him a chance to work out all summer with his brother Seth who will be following in his footsteps to Seminole in the fall.

The center fielder is known as a multi tool player in centerfield. His speed al-

lowed him to excel at other sports when he was young, but by the time he reached his sophomore year in high school, he knew baseball was his passion. A state championship ring at PGHS as a freshman, and an all-state selection as a senior made that decision a good one.

This summer was supposed to be about getting his timing back, and working on his swing. Years from now, Hudson will probably remember it as one last opportunity to be with family and play before the home folks one last time.

Pleasant Grove

FLORIST 903-838-0800

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Many a young girl dreams of being a dancer. The new owner of Texarkana Dance Academy, Rachel Norman, grew up with the same dream. Her love of dance has now blossomed into a career helping the next generation of dancers chase their dreams.

Norman has been teaching dance since she was 15 years old. She has traveled to Vancouver, Los Angeles, New York, and Austin to study with professional choreographers, dancers, and instructors. She is also the only dance teacher in Texarkana who is a Certified Instructor in Progressing Ballet Technique.

She sees her role as more far-reaching than teaching her dancers the skills.

“Being a dance teacher is more than teaching the technique of dance. My goal is to instill self-confidence and life knowledge in each of my dancers. I want them to leave my studio as young women who are healthy, strong, and love themselves.”

Norman also embraces the opportunity to continue growing as a dancer as she exhibits this trait to her students. “It is

BY JASON BOSTON

important to me that my dancers see me not only as their dance teacher, but as a role model and a lifelong learner. We must all continue to learn and grow as individuals and artists.”

the captain of the company for two years.

She performed in the musical, “Oklahoma” and at the Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival in the musical, “Guys and Dolls.”

Rachel Norman is excited about her newest opportunity in the world of dance as a new business owner in Wake Village.

“Texarkana Dance Academy strives to provide a family-friendly, safe environment for dancers of all ages to explore their artistry through dance. Our instructors provide age-appropriate dance technique, music, and costuming for all of our dancers. We focus on the foundational skills of each style of dance while encouraging dancers to be individuals.”

Norman holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theater Management/Promotions with a Minor in Dance from Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Ms. Norman began dancing at the age of 2. She studied classical ballet, tap, clogging, jazz, lyrical, and hip-hop. She was a member of her high school dance team in Durant, Oklahoma for three years, including one year as captain.

Her dance career continued into college where she was a charter member of the Sparks Dance Company at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Norman was

27 THE COMPETITIVE EDGE MAGAZINE

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RACHEL NORMAN BECOMES THE NEW OWNER OF TEXARKANA DANCE ACADEMY

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