Pulaski Academy, Greenwood meet in highly anticipated 6A-West clash

By Kyle Sutherland | Photo by Braeden Botts 

GREENWOOD - Less than a week after the 2021 football season ended, the Arkansas Activities Association Board of Directors met via Zoom call to officially set the 2022-24 conference realignments in stone.

When the 2022 schedules were released this past summer, there was one fresh 6A-West matchup that attracted high school football fans across Arkansas - “October 28 Pulaski Academy at Greenwood.”

Two of the state’s top traditional powerhouses will collide Friday night for the fifth time in history and the first time in conference play. Pulaski Academy (8-0,6-0), ranked No. 4 in the SBLive Arkansas Power 25 rankings, will travel to Smith-Robinson Stadium where No. 6 Greenwood (7-1, 6-0) has won 53 straight games. The winner will take first place in the conference, which currently remains a tie between the two.

Knowing a hostile, packed house will be awaiting them once the two-and-a-half-hour trip to the River Valley is complete, Pulaski Academy head coach Anthony Lucas and his staff are just trying to keep it business as usual.

“We do understand how big this game is, especially here in the state of Arkansas,” Lucas said. “We are just going to take it like a normal week, it has been a little bit more intense in practice. But we are excited and our kids, they know what is at stake but we are going to do what we do every week and that is get them ready to play on Friday night.”

Pulaski Academy has won 38 consecutive games versus in-state opponents and is off to another undefeated start, while Greenwood’s only blemish is a 41-27 loss to Stillwater (Okla.) in Week 0, who is 8-0 and currently the top-ranked team in the Oklahoma Class 6A-II Tulsa World rankings. Greenwood head coach Chris Young acknowledged his team made some mistakes that night but learned from them.

“We turned the ball over five times that night, and if we don’t do that it is a ‘whoever has the ball last’ kind of game,” Young said. “We struggled defensively that night, but It was a good game for us because it exposed some weaknesses and showed us some areas we need to work on and that is why we play good teams in the preseason.”

Though both have been excellent at finishing games, every team always has a kink or two to work out, whether major or minor, as has been the case with these two, as well. The Bulldogs have been a second half team primarily in three of their past four contests and Young knows they must get off to a quicker start against a Bruin offense averaging 53 points per game.

“I think a fast start is huge, and I wish I could tell you why we have not gotten off to a fast start in some of those ball games,” Young said. “Especially, the defensive coaches have done a good job of making adjustments at halftime, but I think mistakes of our own have hurt us early in ball games and kept other teams around. Our kids have come out and finished games in the second half so that is a positive as well, you can look at it both ways. We are just going to follow the positive side and just talk to our kids about making sure we start off fast this week.”

Pulaski Academy has earned a national reputation for mostly onside kicking and nearly perfected it each year. However, the Bruins got off to a slow start as it was not until their fourth game against arch rival Little Rock Christian that they recovered their first one of the season. They jumped on two in the first half of that contest, and it ended up being the difference in the game.

Lucas feels the Bruins have continued to build on that and they have used multiple kickers since then, most notably star receiver John Mark Charette.

“I think we are averaging one a game (since the LRC game), we should be way ahead of that but we are undefeated so I can not complain about that,” Lucas said. “We made some changes on our onside kick team and John Mark has done exceptionally well. He has been the most consistent one and we have gotten a lot of his.”

It is no secret Young has to prepare his team to be fully prepared on every kickoff and he has done his due diligence to make sure his guys are up for the challenge.

“About eight weeks ago, we started adding three periods of onside kicks for our hands team into our schedule,” Young said. “We feel like we are ahead of the game as far as alignment and just our kids having the opportunity to see that. We know that is a key to the game, so we have tried to put ourselves in the position we had.”

Each program has claimed 10 state titles, with Pulaski Academy winning the past seven of eight in Class 5A before bumping up to 6A this year due to the Competitive Equity Factor. Greenwood has won four of the past ten championships in Class 6A and finished as the runner-up last year while dealing with an injury-riddled season.

This will be the fifth meeting between the two juggernauts with the series currently tied at 2-2. All of the previous showdowns were in the 5A playoffs four years in a row, most recently in 2009. The first meeting in 2006 was a historical finish in the 5A state championship as the Bulldogs claimed their third title escaping with a 56-55 victory and also won in 2007 in the second round 57-50, before the Bruins returned the favor in 2008 winning 54-24 in the semifinals and then edged Greenwood 21-14 in the second round in ‘09.

Both coaches are still new to leading their teams with Young currently in his third year and Lucas in his second, but they have proven the knowledge they learned from Hall of Fame mentors in Rick Jones and Kevin Kelley has paid off. Jones and Kelley were roaming their respective sidelines when the Bulldogs and Bruins squared off in the previous four matchups.

Young was hired at Greenwood in 2000 and has been a part of every Greenwood state championship, as well four runner-up teams. He took over in 2020 after Rick Jones departed to join Eli Drinkwitz’s staff at Missouri and led the Bulldogs to a 14-0 record in his first season.

“I was so fortunate to be a part of his staff for 15 years,” Young said of Jones. “Not only X’s and O’s, but the culture of a program and dealing with a staff. Rick is so organized that it just puts you in a situation to be successful because you make sure you have covered everything you need to cover. I had a front row seat to that for a long time and I have no doubt that played a huge part in the success that we continue to have here.”

Lucas, a known former star wide receiver for the Razorbacks, has been on staff at Pulaski Academy since 2012 and been a part of seven state championship teams, including his first as head coach last year, along with a runner-up finish in 2018. He had major shoes to fill last season when Kevin Kelley left to dip into the college football ranks and has done exceptionally well.

“Coach Kelley is the reason I am where I am today,” Lucas said. “Just watching him over the years just knowing what it takes, it has helped a ton.