Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

8/23/2010 at 12:00am

Image by Amy Glover Bryant

CAC’s Jaylon Jones looks to lead the Mustangs back to the 5A playoffs after missing out last season. CAC begins that quest Aug. 30 in War Memorial Stadium against old rival Pulaski Academy.

Central Arkansas Christian Academy football began humbly enough in the early ’70s, but recent years of success since then have all but made that a fleeting memory.

Yet for years the Mustangs were perennial whipping boys, not going out easy but going out nonetheless in the old 5A-Central (that’s DISTRICT 5 of Class A; not the current numerology of Class 5A, indicating much higher enrollment). That old league included the likes of traditional rival Pulaski Academy, former and current state power Harding Academy, Pine Bluff’s gone-but-not-forgotten Jefferson Prep (the Class A state champ in 1981), Mayflower, Hazen and DeValls Bluff (which dropped football in the ’90s, and eventually classes altogether thanks to state-legislated consolidation).

CAC languished in the shadow of its bigger metro private-school cousin, Pulaski Academy. Back then, PA and CAC represented the entirety of the still-emerging Little Rock private-school market. (Of course, Catholic High and Mount St. Mary, longstanding local institutions, greatly predate the high tide of private high schools that washed ashore in Little Rock over the last quarter of the last century.) And CAC rented home fields across the city before settling for a while on the Little Rock School District’s midtown Scott Field.

These days, private high schools in greater Little Rock almost outnumber the public ones. And CAC is among the largest and most athletically prominent, boasting a cozy home-field advantage in the river bottoms just off the I-430/Maumelle Boulevard exchange under what has been dubbed Mustang Mountain.

The Mustangs almost brought a state championship banner back to the Mountain in 2006. State titles have come in other sports, most notably girls’ basketball and baseball, but CAC reached the pinnacle of Arkansas high school football in ’06, only to fall to Nashville in the Class 4A state title game.

The program has produced such notable college stars as Joe Adams and D.J. Williams, both starting for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

The Mustangs return to War Memorial Stadium on Monday, Aug. 30, to face none other than old-time rival PA, with whom they have maintained an annual rivalry. For the first time ever, CAC will be looking down at the school against whom it used to measure not only its success but its growth. The Mustangs remained in Class 5A for the 2010-12 reclassification cycle, while PA dropped to Class 4A.

Will that matter when the two old rivals take the field? Not likely. Rather, the Mustangs will be more concerned about righting a ship that slipped to 5-5 a year ago and hoping to revisit the playoffs. That latter possibility should be a little more manageable in the 5A-Southwest than it was in the SEC-like 5A-West of last year, with the likes of PA, Pulaski Robinson, Camden Fairview and Little Rock Christian. Despite the tough conference slate, 2009 by contemporary standards was a down year on Mustang Mountain.

One highlight was opening the season with a win over Dollarway in the inaugural Kickoff Classic at War Memorial Stadium. So several Mustangs should know their way around in a return in year two.

Several sophomores were forced to grow up quickly on the field last season and are back to run Coach Tommy Shoemaker’s vaunted Spread offense, led by all-conference performers in junior quarterback Jay Bona and junior running back Eric Richardson. Also back are senior receiver/defensive back Jaylon Jones and senior wide receiver John Edwards, junior lineman Logan Wright and junior wideout Dillon Richardson.

“We look to be much improved over last season,” Shoemaker said. “We should have more quality depth and experience.”

Tagged: 2010 Arkansas High School Kickoff Classic, D.J. Williams, Pulaski Academy Bruins, Central Arkansas Christian Mustangs, Dillon Richardson, Logan Wright, John Edwards, Jaylon Jones, Eric Richardson, Jay Bona, Tommy Shoemaker, Joe Adams, Mustang Mountain