LITTLE ROCK – Well-decorated Sheridan High School softball and track athlete Skylar Sterritt picked up more hardware Saturday night at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s All-Arkansas Preps Banquet, and so did her best friend Cooper Terry.
The newspaper heralded Sterritt, a rising senior, its Female Athlete of the Year for the 2024-25 school year, after she and Terry helped the Lady Jackets return to the 5A state championship game last month.
Terry, who just graduated, received the girls’ CHI St. Vincent Health Award for overcoming injury or illness.
They were honored along with about 400 other athletes at the Statehouse Convention Center.
“It’s actually indescribable,” Sterritt said.
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“It’s a big blessing, and hard work is what got me here, being able to stick through it.”
Sterritt hammered 9 home runs and batted .518 for the Lady Jackets, who finished 23-7 and went into the 5A final against Benton as the defending champions. Benton won the title match.
Despite her and Terry’s close friendship, Terry refused to pitch against her in practice.
“I was pitching and she was hitting, and she hit it right back at me and hit me in the head,” Terry said, describing a concussion she received. “That was in 10th grade, and I haven’t thrown to her since. Coach (Scott) Hoffman gets mad, but I’m not doing it.”
Good thing Terry was on Sterritt’s team, Terry reiterated.
The 6-foot Sterritt has committed to the University of Arkansas for softball but is also an 11-time state track champion in addition to her exploits as a volleyball outside hitter.
At the indoor state meet in February, Sterritt won the 60-meter dash and took third place in the 200-meter dash, high jump and long jump.
In May’s 5A outdoor finals, Sterritt was second in the 100 meters and placed in three other events.
She won gold in the 100, 200 and long jump in the 2024 5A outdoors, gold in the 60, 200 and high jump in the 2024 indoors, gold in the 100 and 200 and silver in the high jump in the 2023 5A outdoors, and gold in the 60 and 200 and silver in the high jump in the 2023 indoors.
For all of her track excellence, softball is Sterritt’s favorite.
She believes Sheridan has the pieces to run back another path to the school’s sixth state championship, all since 2016.
“Definitely the coaches that we have that push us to our best,” Sterritt said. “They want us to do our best and keep pushing us. The environment we have, the Sheridan culture, we’re all just a big family.”
Terry was a proven leader in the Lady Jacket family. She guided the softball team from the pitching circle and had allowed just four runs going into the title game as a senior.
Not only that, Terry also dealt with a torn labrum, or cartilage attached to the shoulder socket, in her left arm, which kept her from batting this season.
Terry was a three-sport standout until she found out at age 11 she was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
“I was struggling for a minute when I played all three,” said Terry, whose parents Amber and Matt were basketball point guards at Drew Central in the early 2000s.
“I really liked basketball. Basketball was one of my favorites, but I decided I needed to hang it up going into my freshman year.”
Terry said she overcame her arthritis through medicine and lots of prayers. (“The Lord helped me through all of this,” she pointed out.)
“Having this disease has knocked me down a lot, but it’s helped me grow because it helped me dig deep and find out who I really am and work as hard as I can for what I truly want,” she said.
Terry’s next stop is at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, where she will major in nursing.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Fordyce’s Anthony Hammonds was named All-Arkansas Boys Track and Field Coach of the Year after leading the Redbugs to the 2A state championship in May.
“It’s hard to put that into words,” Hammonds said.
“First, I thank God for putting me in a situation to be where I’m at. I want to thank the administration and everyone who’s put their faith in me in restoring the program and to go out there and work and take a program that was dormant four years ago and each year consistently go better, and finally we won a state title.”
Hammonds also thanked his wife for giving him the support to live out his dream.
Track and field has a history of being the quintessential activity during the football offseason. In football-happy Fordyce, where the Redbugs finished 13-1 and state semifinalists on the gridiron, nearly all of Hammonds’ track and field athletes are football players.
“When I first got there, they didn’t even know what track and field was, and I had to let the kids know: One, I’ll get out of school; two, I’ll feed you; and three, there are going to be girls there you can talk to,” said Hammonds, also the boys basketball coach.
“When I told them that, they were eighth-graders in the junior high program, they were all bought in from that point out. The foundation was pretty much laid.”
Fordyce claimed the track championship by winning medals in the relay races.
The Redbugs won gold in the 4×100 and 4×200 and took silver in the 4×400 and 4×800.
Two athletes finished in the top three in the 100 meters: gold medalist Jamarcus Cranford and bronze medalist Keilan Ellison.
SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS HONOREES
Hammonds and Sterritt weren’t the only big winners from the southeast Arkansas Timberlands.
Warren’s Aria Hunt, who swept the 100-, 200-, 400- and 800-meter championships in 4A; Hamburg’s Anescia Martin, the 4A shot put champion and Meet of Champions winner; and Rison’s Christian Reeves, the 3A high jump champion, were named All-Arkansas Preps.
Warren’s Antonio Jordan, an Arkansas signee, made the first team in football after scoring 12 touchdowns and gaining 1,075 yards on 51 receptions as a senior. Joining Jordan on the first-team list are White Hall rising senior Wyatt Golden, who finished the 2024 season with 1,025 yards on 26 punts (39.4 yards per punt) with 12 inside the opponents’ 20-yard line, and recent Hamburg graduate Peyton Sellers, who finished the 2024 season with 102 solo tackles (140 total) and 2 sacks.
Fellow Lumberjack Rhett Clanton qualified as an All-Arkansas Prep after winning the 4A championship.
Woodlawn’s Lillie-Faye McWhorter, the Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year in softball, also made the first team in that sport.
The soon-to-be Razorback went 22-1 in the circle, threw five no-hitters and belted 6 homers with a .483 batting average in leading the Lady Bears to the 2A state semifinals.
Other honorees from southeast Arkansas:
Volleyball second team: Journey Peppers, middle blocker, White Hall.
Football (second team): Brendon Simmons, linebacker, Fordyce.
Football (underclassmen): Isaiah Stephens, running back, Sheridan; Joseph Accelus, running back, Monticello; Jamartez Stroud, wide receiver/free safety, Fordyce; Eythan Cowden, offensive guard/tackle, Sheridan; Micah Gamble, linebacker/running back, Fordyce.
Boys basketball (underclassmen): Brian Cal Jr., point guard, White Hall (transferring to Benton); Xavier Cox, combo guard DeWitt.
Baseball second team: Tate Hall, shortstop/pitcher, Woodlawn.
Baseball (underclassmen): Noah Matheson, pitcher, Rison.
Softball second team: Alaina Lyle, pitcher/first base, Monticello.
Softball (underclassmen): Paisleigh Martin, pitcher, Star City.
Statistics from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette were used in this article.
This version is updated with two athletes who were previously, inadvertently omitted.
