Editor’s note: This is the first of three stories on the Rotary Club of West Pine Bluff’s 10th annual Hooten’s Arkansas Football kickoff luncheon, held Thursday at the Pine Bluff Country Club.
Messages of hope and faith penetrate within the Pine Bluff High School football program daily.
Senior linebacker Kevin Pope shared “faith” as his word of the day, and fourth-year Coach Micheal Williams shared a scripture from Isaiah that ends with: “… by His stripes we are healed,” a fitting message for the Zebras who, like players and coaches from other southeast Arkansas high school and college teams, congregated inside the Pine Bluff Country Club ballroom Thursday. The luncheon featured Hooten’s writer Barry Groomes, who offered insight into the state of football in Arkansas.
Coming off a rebuilding 2024 season in which Pine Bluff went 4-6, Williams has plenty of faith the 2025 Zebras can replicate, if not exceed, the success of the 2023 5A state semifinal team led by current University of Arkansas wide receiver Courtney Crutchfield. Among the reasons for Williams’ hopes are the three players he brought to the banquet — defensive lineman Emmanuel Hudson, linebacker Kevin Pope and safety Braylon Stigger.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“This senior class was my freshman class when I took over,” Williams said, remembering their classmate Kendall Burton, who was one of the sophomore leaders on the team before he was shot to death in January 2024.
Williams likened this year’s Zebras to his first team in 2022, when Burton’s teammates were freshmen. Williams felt that 5-4 team, which fell in a three-way tie for fourth in the 5A-Central and missed the playoffs, was better than the 2023 semifinalists that also included Missouri signee and current Bowling Green (Ohio) receiver Austyn Dendy.
“That team was better than Courtney’s team, I think,” Williams said. “I took over late. They had a D-line, defensive backs and they had the pieces. This year, we have seven young pieces who will start as sophomores.”
Well, Williams is certain six of them — receivers Rayshon Reed and Dedrick Dunn (a multi-position athlete), quarterback Jamar Morrow, slot receiver Kyren Culclager, cornerback/safety Tony Bradley and linebacker Kaden Poole — will start in Pine Bluff’s Aug. 29 season opener at Grenada, Miss. Two other sophomores — defensive lineman Christopher Buckhanan and safety Christopher Lockett — are still in the hunt for starting roles.
As freshmen, they helped Pine Bluff Junior High win the Dual City Conference championship.
Williams is also counting on the growth of returning standouts like senior tight end Quintin Roy, who has received 11 college offers including Arkansas State, Appalachian State, Cincinnati, Coastal Carolina and Tulsa.
The 2024 team was about rebuilding after the Zebras graduated a talented class of Division I signees. Williams said he learned prioritizing building a program over building players.
“In building a program, you can have a culture full of guys doing the right things and working hard, and your down years won’t look like a down year,” Williams said. “Greenwood, year in and year out, is always contending for the state championship, and they don’t always have the most talented kids. They build a program and a structure in which everyone can thrive and win.”
Bulldogs harp on small stuff
The “small stuff,” as White Hall senior quarterback Wyatt Golden termed, will help the Bulldogs excel in their second season under Daryl Patton, which begins Aug. 29 at home against Sheridan in the Highway 270 Classic.
“In practice, we always talk about the small stuff that wins championships,” Golden said. “Really, we’ve been worried about the small stuff and not so much with the big stuff. The big stuff will come with the small stuff as it adds up.”
Seeking its first playoff appearance since a 2021 5A state runner-up finish, White Hall’s average margin of defeat last season was 22.7 points. White Hall lost its season finale against Pine Bluff, 24-16.
For Golden, focusing on the small stuff means putting his “best self,” not just his foot, forward.
“Whether its offense or defense this year, because I’m playing a little more defense this year, and obviously special teams but on offense, we’re just trying to move the ball, and if I’ve got to punt it away, punt it away,” he said.
Much of the small stuff, Golden said, will come in improving the running game, keyed by fullback Braylen Gaston and running back Xavier Wallace, both seniors.
“We’re trying to get more balance this year (in running and passing) and hopefully make a playoff run,” said Golden, an All-Arkansas Preps punter who, as a passer, completed 50.5% of his passes for 1,772 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Even Wallace stressed the small things in elevating the backfield. He said Patton has taught him to run downhill more to gain more years, rather than run side to side.
Gaston will be right there to give Wallace the lead blocks.
“I’m running way more in front of him, helping keep the linebackers off of him so he can get great holes and score more touchdowns,” Gaston said. Wallace averaged 43.1 yards per game rushing, second to now-graduated Kylon Davis (65.2) on the team.
The offensive line led by senior Elijah Yates is charged with giving the playmakers all the room necessary.
“I think our offensive line is way better than it was last year,” Yates said. “For one, we were all juniors, and now we are all seniors. We’re all older, stronger, better, got more techniques under our sleeves, and we’re all more prepared.”
Gaston, who’s also a defensive tackle, said three starters have returned to the Bulldogs’ defensive line.
Assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Cody Forga, who also coaches the offensive line, attended the luncheon in Patton’s place.
“We’re excited about this coming new year and the kids who’ve been out (for practice),” Forga said. “The kids are getting better every day and the expectations and culture, the kids are upholding it.”
Wildcats go through full offseason with Heard
Watson Chapel is wrapping up a full offseason, something the Wildcats did not get to do after Steven Heard’s hiring as head coach in May 2024.
“We just had to hit the weights hard,” Heard said. “With our conditioning, I focus more on the weights in the beginning. It doesn’t take long to get conditioned with these young guys. They kind of be on the backburner until the summertime. From January up until the end of the school year, we’re just trying to get stronger and improve our flexibility and our explosion, just being a complete football player.”
Despite Heard’s late arrival, the Wildcats ended a 20-game losing streak with a Week 1 win at Crossett and ended the season with a 19-14 home win over Jacksonville to cap a 2-7 season. Senior quarterback Rayford said the Wildcats took steps forward as a program getting back into the win column.
“Definitely,” he said. “I would say, coming together as a team, playing together and building team chemistry.”
The Wildcats’ defeats all came in blowout fashion, losing by average of 35.7 points. Their first game under heard was a 42-18 home loss to Helena-West Helena Central, and the Wildcats will look to avenge that in the return trip to visit the Cougars on Aug. 29.
Amid the losses, they found ways to stay motivated through the tough stretches, a quality that was missing in their two previous seasons.
“We had a lot of bad plays against Jacksonville, but we persevered and we kept going,” Rayford said.
Rayford’s favorite target is wideout Jaylen Wilkerson. The two are “brothers,” Wilkerson said, and see their connection on the field carry over from it.
“I just feel like, you know, we’ve got a good little chemistry as a quarterback and a receiver,” said Wilkerson, donning a necklace with his late mother Latoya pictured on the pendant.
Heard notices their bond away from the field, adding that’s what he loves about them.
Senior Keiran Smith and junior Demontae Lawrence will lead the Wildcats’ defense charges from the edges, and Smith expects the defense to be much stronger in the physical 5A-Central. Smith has noticed a big change in his body, gaining 30 pounds to 230.
“With Demontae Lawrence, we have a lot of experience from last year,” Smith said. “We’ll definitely build on that and we’ll come together as a team, as one, and we’ll get the job done.”
Saturday: Southeast Arkansas teams building off playoff runs.
An earlier version of this story omitted a sophomore who is set to start for Pine Bluff this season.
