CRSD welcomes Sturluson to the class and field

By Ethan Nahté

Cossatot River School District welcomes Maria Sturluson as the new CRHS math teacher and girls soccer coach.

Sturluson was born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark. She came from overseas to the U.S. in 2014 to pursue a degree while playing collegiate soccer. Her first two years of college were spent at Lewis and Clark Community College before transferring to Missouri Southern State University where she finished her playing career and graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Health Promotion and Wellness in 2019.

During her time at UCA, she graduated with a Master’s Degree in Exercise Science in 2022.

Prior to moving to Mena, she spent three years as the graduate assistant soccer coach for the women’s team at University of Central Arkansas. During those three years, she coached several All-Conference players and helped lead the Bears to an ASUN Regular Season Championship in the fall of 2021. Furthermore, Sturluson also worked in the weight room as the volunteer strength and conditioning coach, working with both soccer, softball, volleyball, and other sports.

Sturluson spent a year as the men’s and women’s soccer assistant and strength and conditioning coach at UA Rich Mountain.

Sturluson said, “During the last year, both the men’s and women’s team qualified for the Region II tournament. The women’s team fell short in the quarter final, and the men’s team made it to the championship final.”

Besides coaching soccer at the college, Sturluson also taught several adjunct classes such as intro to exercise science, first aid, anatomy, and physiology.

Outside of the college experience, she also coached for Arkansas Rising where she had her own competitive soccer club team, the Conway 08 Boys, for several years. The boys won several out-of-state tournaments and competed in the 2022 State Cup, making it to the semifinal, the furthest the team had ever made it.

Sturluson said, “Besides teaching and coaching, I love to hang out with my fur babies, whether it’s at home or hiking in the mountains. Traveling has always been a big deal to me, and in the nine years I’ve been in the States I have travelled to 27 states and visited several national and state parks.

“Another big hobby of mine is spending time in the gym or outside being active. Since my playing career ended, I took up another competitive sport doing CrossFit. The CrossFit style workouts are so much fun in the fact that it is a good mix of cardiovascular endurance and lifting heavy things.”

“I am beyond excited to be joining the Eagles this fall!” she exclaimed. “In the years that I have been coming to the Mena area, the Cossatot River School District has always had a great reputation. I’m ecstatic to be joining a community who is organized, communicates well, and takes care and supports each other. I’m looking forward to helping all the students learn, achieve their goals, and become better than they were yesterday, both in the classroom, out on the field, and in life!”

The Cossatot River Eagles Varsity Girls Soccer finished 4-2 in conference and 6-6 overall this past season, placing second in the 3A South standings according to Scorebook Live. Two CRHS students are on the 2023 All-Star West girls soccer roster, Emily Ugarte and Kyla Ferguson. Coach Reggie Fryar of CRSD will also be the head coach for the West team. The game is scheduled to be played in Conway at UCA, 5 p.m., Friday, June 23. Fryar had intentionally planned to step back from coaching the girls after this season. He will remain the coach for the Cossatot Eagle boys for the 2023-2024 school year.

The Mena Bearcat Band took delivery of a new truck from Anthony Efird at Mena Ford on Thursday. The purchase was the culmination of eight years of fundraising by the Mena Band Boosters, a donation by the Union Bank of Mena and the help of the Mena Public Schools. The truck will be used to pull the band trailer and transport band members to and from competitions, camps and performances.

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continued from page 14 we don’t know what age they were really weaned. You’re taking the word of somebody on what age they are when you go to breed them.”

Rodney said, “Our philosophy was we knew what we had when we kept it. We took pride in that. That’s why we decided to take that route in growing our farm instead of going out, borrowing the money and buying from somebody.”

The family also waits on selling any of their herd, weaning them at six months but waiting 10 months before going to market twice a year.

“We will harvest them, vaccinate them and feed them until they get to the weight we’re after. Here lately, the market has changed. It’s not what it used to be. Now, they’re paying nearly as much for one that’s been weaned for 30 days vs. 90 days. Your money used to be at a 90day wean. If you can prove that you have vaccinated it and it’s been weaned for 30 days, that’s the optimal market right now. We’re still a 45-day weaning for us.”

With the size of their pastures and number of head, Sellers Farm uses cross fencing to maintain healthy pastures. They put six fields in themselves.

“It allows you to rotate grazing. It’s better for the ground and grass,” Rodney said. “It’s better for the animal. If you keep an animal eating grass that’s not down in the dirt, you’re going to have a better end product. The animal won’t be starved.

“We spray each pasture as we rotate it around so it is just grass. There’s no broadleaf weeds. There’s nothing but something edible for the animals. No kudzu.

“That business just kind of took off in the past year. I baled hay for the public when I was 16 with my grandpa,” Rodney said. “I enjoyed it because I was a kid getting to hang out with grandpa all day. What better life could you ask for? When he passed, we all kind of got out of the business and just did our own.

“A few years ago, a man come to us and asked if we would be interested in doing his hay. We went and looked at it, made a deal, and we started getting our feet wet again. Then one day my father calls me about a guy wanting us to do his hay.

“Once you do hay for somebody, it snowballs, and it’ll get bigger and bigger. It’s a hard market to be in and to be fair in. The price of hay right now is the most expensive thing you can feed an animal. You have to be fair because farmers can’t afford to pay. I know because I am a farmer and I’m feeding it and I know what I’ve got in it.

“It started with one guy calling my father and I started doing his hay. The next year, we added three, and then the next year, his best friend who did hay for the public, went out of business. We inherited all of his clients. We’re up to seven people. A good year, we can do 2,800 to 3,000 bales. A bad year, like last year, we can do just as minimal as 2,000 per year.

Rodney and Samantha have three children, 9-year-old fraternal twin daughters Audrey and Gwen, and 7-year-old son Kye.

In addition to helping about the farm, the children are also active in sports. But the Cossatot River area did not have any steady baseball, softball or soccer organizations. The school district itself had nothing at that time.

Samantha said, “We developed the Cossatot River Youth Athletics, and that allowed the Cossatot River students to able to play with their own team and go enter into a De Queen league or a Mena league they could play with.”

The Sellers have passed the torch, more or less. When Samantha comes to Louise Durham, the children will also be transitioning to Mena schools.

Both parents played sports in their youth and continue to stay active. “If we’re not farming, we’re playing baseball or basketball,” Rodney said.

“Being someone who grew up in a really rural area,” Samantha said, “kids have to have a purpose. They have to have an activity they look forward to. One of the things that is missing now is the ability to work cooperatively within a group and come together for a common goal. Sports is a way for them to come together with a common goal, regardless of their differences in their past and to be able to achieve something.

“Whether or not they made it to that goal, we always tell our kids and the kids that we coach it’s always about progress, not perfection. As long as they can celebrate that progress, they’re going to be successful. It helps set them up for success later in life.” Rodney said, “We teach all kids that winning is relevant. You may not win the game, but as long as you learn something from that game, you won. That’s the most important thing in life, to us, in growing up. As long as you take something away from whatever you were doing, that’s a win.

“That’s how the award came from the Farm Family and the Cobb. We took every day, and as long as we learned some- thing from that day, it was a win for us. You have to learn something every day. If you can entice a kid to learn a game and still learn life lesson, it’s a double win.”

“We like to compete,” he said. “We’re competitive. When we found out about the [Cobb] Award. It became our goal,” Rodney said, “and we just need to achieve it. We’ve been very blessed.”

“Once Mitch Sikes with Farm Bureau contacted us, several years ago to get our very first health insurance and told us about the [Farm Family] award, he said, ‘You know what, this is something I could really see y’all doing.’”

The family is also active with the Cove Revival Center Church.

“We’re not very musically inclined,” Samantha said with a laugh. Rodney’s sister and family are very talented musically. “We like to go support.

“Any time we can do some volunteering, we try to do that, and any activities for the kids. Just supporting them and being a presence there.”

Although the Sellers were chosen as the 2023 Polk County Farm Family of the Year, the next step for the Western District winner went to the Tucker Family of H&D Tucker Farms in Conway, Faulkner County.

The Sellers were positive and happy with being chosen for their region, whether they won district or not. “It was a win,” Rodney said.

Samantha agreed, “It has been a big honor for us. It’s one of our goals we’ve had for a long time and we’ve achieved that goal. We’re very, very humbled. We look around and we feel there were several other people more deserving than us, who are more established. It’s an honor to be recognized as an aspiring family coming up.”

For more of the Sellers’ story, check out MyPulseNews.com