End of the Bench: Badgers spend July at team camps

By CHRIS BABB | Special to arkadelphian.com

The middle of July in Arkansas always means hot temperatures, lots of pool time, and maybe a trip to the nearest lake, but the local sports scene doesn’t take a break for very long.

Here are a few notes from around the Arkadelphia sports scene. 

APSD teams fill up July with team camps

With high school and junior high teams returning to their fields and courts after the two-week dead period mandated by the Arkansas Activities Association, the rest of July brings morning practices and team camps as coaches and student-athletes prepare for their upcoming seasons. 

LADY BADGER VOLLEYBALL
The Arkadelphia volleyball teams will host a team camp Tuesday, July 15, utilizing gyms at both AHS and Goza. Arkadelphia will travel to Bauxite on Thursday, July 17,and then to Malvern on Tuesday, July 22. 

Arkadelphia will host Robinson in a AAA benefit scrimmage on August 21 at 5:30 p.m. to wrap up pre-season work. The Lady Badgers will open the season the week of August 25 with three home matches in the first week of the season on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. 

FOOTBALL
The Badger football teams will also continue their summer workouts and team camps as the end of the summer approaches. 

The junior high will participate in its final 7-on-7 camps of the summer at Prescott on Tuesday, July 15. The team will return to Prescott for two final team camps on Thursday, July 17, and Thursday, July 24. 

The senior high will participate in two more team camps to wrap up the summer. Arkadelphia will participate in a team camp at Pulaski Academy on Tuesday, July 15, and will participate in its final team camp of the summer at Joe T. Robinson on Thursday, July 24. The Badgers participated in a team camp hosted by Bryant last week. 

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
Having done most of their team camp participation in June, the Lady Badgers will wrap up summer work with one camp each for junior high and senior high. The junior high will travel to Morrilton on Wednesday, July 23, and the senior high will participate in a team camp hosted by UALR on Thursday, July 24. 

BOYS’ BASKETBALL
Also having attended several camps in June, the senior high boys will participate in a team camp at Malvern on Wednesday, July 16, and will wrap up summer competition in the annual Blevins Team Camp July 21-23 along with the junior high boys’ teams. The Badgers participated in a team camp at Lakeside last week. 

Hooten’s Arkansas Football magazine hits shelves

For high school and college football fans in the state of Arkansas, the sign that football season is near since 1993 has been the release of the newest edition of Hooten’s Arkansas Football magazine. 

The 2025 edition hit the stores on July 4 and is traditionally available to purchase in Arkadelphia at Wal-Mart, Brookshire’s and Walgreens. Fans can also order the book online on the Hootens website. As has been the case for several previous years, fans can choose from one of many covers. Fans in the area might be interested in the annual cover that features a player from each of last year’s state championship teams. Representing Arkadelphia on this year’s “CHAMPS” cover is linebacker Quentavion Morris. Hooten’s also has a Ouachita cover option in 2025. 

As part of its high school coverage, the magazine polls conference coaches to compile a pre-season coaches poll for each conference and Hooten’s staff selects the pre-season top 20 for each classification. 

In this year’s 4A-7 coach’s poll, Arkadelphia was picked to win the conference. Hooten’s staff picked the Badgers second overall in class 4A behind pre-season top-ranked Dardanelle. 

The magazine also does pre-season picks for college conferences including the Great American Conference. The GAC pre-season picks from the Hooten’s staff have Ouachita picked second and Henderson State picked third behind pre-season top pick Harding. Southern Arkansas was picked fourth in the poll. 

Babe Ruth 14U World Series

Arkadelphia will be represented in early August in the Babe Ruth World Series for 14-year-olds August 7-16 in Hot Springs. 

The Arkadelphia team will be comprised of players from the local Babe Ruth league that had teams from Arkadelphia, Prescott, Bismarck and Centerpoint. 

The tournament will feature teams from several different regions around the United States and will also include international teams. According to Majestic Park, international teams expected to attend include Puerto Rico, Nigeria, New Zealand, Curacao, Mexico and the Philippines. 

Although the exact schedule has not been released yet, tournament play will begin on Friday, August 7 with the Hot Springs team facing Nigeria. Games will be held on Babe Ruth Field at Majestic Park and at Lakeside High School’s field. 

The tournament will be held in conjunction with Hot Springs Baseball Weekend which features many baseball-related activities including visits from baseball Hall of Famers including Fergie Jenkins, Al Hrabosky, Steve Garvey, Bret Saberhagen and Johnny Bench. 

Tournament ticket information can be found at the Majestic Park website here. Information on the annual Hot Springs Baseball Weekend can be found on the Hot Springs CVB website here. All activities with the Hot Springs Baseball Weekend are free.