Fort Smith Patriots

My grandchildren attend a home school co-op in Fort Smith. The total enrollment is about 150. The only competitive sport they have is basketball, where they compete with similar home school groups around the area. And there is actually a national home school tournament each year, which is now drawing college scouts regularly.

It is usually difficult to measure a player or team without some sort of benchmark. The senior boys team plays well, but I had wondered how they would do against real, live public school competition. The Arkansas Activities Association this year approved public schools playing home school groups, but it happened late enough that there was little chance to schedule games. However, the Patriots were able to get a game with Arkoma, a small school immediately across the Oklahoma line  from Fort Smith. I assume they would  be the equivalent of an 1A or 2A school in Arkansas. (They play 8-man football.) I noticed on the plaque on the wall that Arkoma had won their district championship four of the last seven years, so they obviously are a successful program at their level, and it found out later that they do have a winning record so far this year.

The Patriots senior girls won over a very tall Arkoma team by about ten points. The real shocker, however, was in the senior boys game. The Patriots have a 6-4, 250# center who shoots well and has excellent footwork in the paint. Their power forward is about 6-3 and athletic. Arkoma did not have anyone much over six feet that I saw, so I assumed they would fast break a lot. The Patriots hit 3s the first three trips down the court - bing! 9-0 about a minute into the game. Arkoma calls time out, and then the Patriots started getting the ball into the big guys, and there was little Arkoma could do. The Patriots were up by 21 points after the first quarter. I left at the end of the third quarter when they were up by 30. They put in the reserves for the fourth quarter who pushed the final margin up to 50.

So, it looks like the Patriots are good enough to compete in that particular conference, whatever level it is. A representative from the website Arklahoma Preps was at the game. He said the Patriot boys would be very competitive at the 5A level in Arkansas. I don't know about that, but I have seen teams this year up to the 3A level in Arkansas, and they would be right in the mix with them.