A fourth Jefferson County football program for secondary schools will kick off its inaugural season Friday evening.
Nearly three months of offseason workouts and preseason camp have led the Friendship Aspire Academy Southeast Panthers into their inaugural football season, which kicks off at Augusta. The junior high game is set for 5:30 p.m., with the high school game to kick off at 7.
“I tell them that they’re a part of history. I keep emphasizing that with them,” said Friendship-Southeast Coach Timothy Bell Jr. “They’re the first team to start football — and to win, too, that would be a dual.”
It didn’t take long for Friendship-Southeast to drum up support for junior high and high school football. The addition of 8-man football in Arkansas in recent years has allowed some of the state’s smallest schools — some of them with championship pedigree — to get their students in the game.
“Over the years, just surveying the students and figuring out what sports they want, football was one of the (top) sports all the students were asking about,” sixth-year Principal Anitra Rogers said. “It also helps us with our student retention rate, being able to offer competitive sports all the other surrounding schools have.”
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Rogers said she constantly put in the ear of Friendship Aspire Academy Arkansas CEO Joe Harris the idea of a football program, and Harris gave the green light by the end of the past school year.
Friendship-Southeast competed in flag football for boys and girls against other charter schools in recent years.
But preparing to put on the pads was not an easy thing.
“The recruitment was a challenge due to the fact that most kids are still playing AAU football and other youth football,” Bell said. “My philosophy in coaching is, I like to build up a player. It’s easy to get a polished player and just run the city into that, but it’s actually better if you build up a player from A to Z, as far as mechanics-wise, getting them in the right position. I came from AAU football also; I coached there, too.”
Bell sent out fliers to interested players in June, but many thought it was just to draw some more support for flag football. The second flier came a week later and at that time, Bell said, the number of players recruited from within the campus tripled.
“When we started actually wearing equipment during workout, even more came,” he said. “People started seeing that because we start practicing at 4 o’clock.”
Bell said he couldn’t have recruited without the support of administrators Anitra Rogers and Michael Anthony, and school communications director Kevin Young. Trey Austin, the junior high coach, assists Bell on the high school team along with track coach Wade Gardner and DeShawn Bryant, both of whom organize strength and conditioning.
The high school Panthers (grades 9-11) will suit up 14 to 15 players, Bell said, while the junior high team (grades 7-8) numbers 22. Under Friendship-Southeast’s slow-growth model, the next senior class won’t be established until the 2026-27 school year.
The numbers for the entire program, Bell cautioned, are still growing.
“How I saw this program grow is when I saw our high school players recruit their buddies, many of them with AAU experience,” Bell said.
Sophomore running back Cody Lucas found himself getting his classmates to join.
“I love the fun of the game,” Lucas said. “When Mr. Bell was telling us he was making a football team, it just lit me up because I just love to play football. Our teamwork, I’m pretty sure, is just the best.”
Without a stadium of its own, Friendship-Southeast has to play all of its games on the road. Dermott (Sept. 12), Marvell-Elaine (Sept. 26), Brinkley (Oct. 10), Rector (Oct. 17) and Marshall (Oct. 24) will host the Panthers in the coming weeks.
“The next biggest thing will be getting a home field to play on,” Rogers said.