Construction sounds and bus rides across town have made for an abnormal start to football practice at Pine Bluff High School, but the Zebras said it isn’t distracting them from preparing for the season.
“I thought it was going to be weird, but being from Pine Bluff, it’s not unusual seeing something unusual,” senior defensive lineman Danny Ray Johnson Jr. said. “So, it’s kind of normal to most of us.”
The Zebras, like most other teams in Arkansas, usually start practice before the first day of school, giving them time to focus on just football before adding classes to their workload. That changed this year with the district introducing a new calendar with school starting last Wednesday.
Head coach Micheal Williams, entering his third season with the team, said it feels weird to already be in school.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I’m so used to doing morning practice, doing a fall camp, doing meetings and everything, and you go home,” Williams said. “Now, it’s like, we’re in school already. It’s kind of mind-boggling, but it’s a good thing, though. It’s a good thing, because it guarantees we get all our kids, because they’ve got to be at school, anyway.”
Perhaps the biggest change, though, is the construction.
Demolition of the PBHS campus began over the summer. Buildings next to Jordan Stadium have already been reduced to piles of rubble. If a field goal kicker hits the ball too hard, it could easily land in a construction zone. The road between the field house and the stadium is normally a one-way street, but it’s now a dead end with only one way in or out. The main parking lot next to the stadium is fenced off.
Due to the reconstruction of the campus, high school students are instead attending classes at the former Jack Robey Junior High School campus 2.4 miles away. Players who drive park their cars by the field house in the morning, then take a bus to Jack Robey. They then bus back to the stadium after school.
Williams said the bus drivers have ensured traveling between the school and Jack Robey hasn’t been an issue, but the construction can cause some minor inconveniences.
“Some of the kids walk home, and they want to go that way home instead of walking all the way around the block, so that’s kind of nerve-wracking for some of the kids,” Williams said. “And then something else with the construction is you hear all the banging all the time. But other than that, we got our own little secluded area, so it doesn’t really bother us.”
The Zebras, like most schools in Arkansas, began fall practice on Monday. They were originally scheduled to practice before school, but issues that arose during construction near the stadium forced Williams to move practice to after school.
Pine Bluff is coming off a 5A-Central Conference championship and state semifinalist season. Senior linebacker Marshon Jordan said he and his teammates are excited for fall camp as they try to replicate last season’s success.
“This is all we’ve been talking about,” Jordan said. “Ready to get back on the field with each other, get ready and bond as a team. Get ready and prepare for the upcoming season.”