TONTITOWN — The path is not always straight, and no one understands that like Chase Feltner.

As the new hire for the dean of athletics at Ozark Catholic Academy in Tontitown, Feltner feels his circuitous path has brought him to the place he needs to be. 

Most people associate the Feltner name with either running or burgers. And both would be true.

Feltner can lay claim to both, just at different times in his life.

As a high school student, Feltner ran mid-distance races and broke state and regional records, earning him the All-American title in track at Russellville High School in 2002. In 2003, he was awarded the highly regarded Gatorade Track Player of the Year. 

His success also carried over to the classroom, where he graduated with a 4.0 grade point. Combined, it was his athleticism and academics that got the attention of the legendary Coach John McDonald at the University of Arkansas, who offered Feltner and his twin brother scholarships to run.

“Being successful in the classroom was important to me,” Feltner said, “and focusing on my studies and what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to make sure I could be successful and prepare for my future.” 

The running genes were legitimate. Their father, John, was a running phenom and was inducted into the Arkansas Hall of Fame more than 20 years ago. Chase Feltner would later be inducted in 2021, an honor he holds dear as he and his dad are currently the only father-son duo.

Despite his love for running, after three semesters, he and his brother, Travis, both decided to hang up their running cleats and focus on school.

“It came down to the joy that I had experienced running, it just wasn’t there anymore,” Feltner said. “I had lived out a dream to wear the U of A jersey and everything was there, but something was missing, and that was really the first time in life that I was experiencing that emptiness, but I didn’t know what that was.” 

Running had been his life, but something was missing. 

Following graduating in 2007 with a degree in marketing management and a minor in finance and communications, Feltner moved to Los Angeles, worked in a restaurant on Sunset Strip across from the famous Mel’s Diner, often frequented by the stars. The following year, he moved to Panama City Beach, Fla., and worked as a bartender while his brother, Travis, worked as a weather reporter.

With these experiences under their belt, both brothers moved back home to Fayetteville the following year and opened the iconic “Feltner Brothers” that has been a part of the local scene for 16 years. Not veering too far off the path, one could say there were “burgers in their blood.” Their grandfather had opened the original “Feltner’s Whataburger” in Russellville in 1967. Still open today, the restaurant continues under their aunt. 

“Our restaurants were not affiliated, but we knew we could be successful with the name,” he said. “We were so young, and we didn’t want to work for anyone else,” Feltner said with a laugh of their 2009 restaurant debut in Fayetteville.

Still, the demands of keeping a flourishing business afloat took their toll on both brothers. A second location, interestingly, was opened in Tontitown in the summer of 2018 before OCA opened its doors. 

“But we had to keep an eye on what’s important,” the 40-year-old said. 

As the family grew and changed, so did their dreams for the business. Feltner and his brother took different paths, but their younger brother, Grant, stepped in as a new owner of the business. When the pandemic hit in 2020, it was a struggle to keep both establishments, so the Tontitown location closed.

“We spent time refocusing our efforts with the rebranding and refreshing of the business in Fayetteville to keep it successful,” he said. 

All the while, that still small voice had gotten louder for Feltner.

In 2023, he entered the seminary with the Diocese of Little Rock and continued discerning what a life of holiness looked like for him. That led him a year later to join the Trappist monks at St. Joseph Abbey, an old dairy farm turned monastery, in Massachusetts, where Feltner said it was isolated and the cold winters appealed to him. 

But the voice continued to call, and Feltner said it brought him back to Arkansas to be with his family. 

“The Lord was asking me to come home, and there was a peace in making the decision,” Feltner said. “I have never felt more free in making that decision.”

Feltner, who attends both Fayetteville parishes of St. Thomas Aquinas and St Joseph, reflects on how his resume has been a primer for this new position, which includes overseeing all athletic programs and coaches.

“I told the Lord, after 18 years of doing the same thing, and then from 2023-2025 bouncing around, he better have something good for me,” he said with a laugh. “When I learned that the dean of athletics position was open, I felt really fortunate.”

“I feel the Lord has prepared me in all the aspects — faith, business, sports and working with youth — to be better prepared to do this job,” Feltner said. “I find myself sitting in the chapel at OCA and see the Lord’s humor. I have to pinch myself in this moment. This school has a mission and vision to help get the kids to heaven and to help them with who God intends them to be. We get a chance to develop who they are as athletes and individuals, and I am excited to be a part of that mission.”

It wasn’t perfect, but under the circumstances, it was pretty darn close.

The Ozark Catholic Academy track and field teams were denied the state team titles for 2025, despite individual performances that broke school records and personal bests. It was the Griffins’ first year stepping up from 1A into 2A to face stiffer competition.

“We knew going into the season this year our chances of winning state would be possible, but not easy,” said Greg Cawein, OCA head track coach. “As the season progressed, Carlisle and Des Arc appeared to be our biggest threats; however, Fordyce snuck in at the last minute and was much stronger than we had anticipated.”

The challenge was compounded by weather, which rained out the original state meet date and put OCA on a long bus ride to Quitman to compete at a makeup site May 12.

“The kids were really tremendous and really worked hard,” said Alesia Schaefer, assistant coach. “It’s a real mental battle to be prepared to run one day and then have it moved and a long bus ride, besides. Not to mention running against some very competitive teams. Our kids really brought their game.”

The team titles may have eluded OCA, but there were plenty of medals to go around on the individual level, especially as the most decorated athlete in the school’s short history said goodbye to the high school ranks.

Ouachita Baptist University-commit Isaac Pohlmeier finished his final Arkansas Activities Association state championships in resounding fashion, taking home wins at 800m, 1600m, 3200m and in the 4x800m relay, the third straight year he’s completed that four-fecta.

The haul brought Pohlmeier’s career individual winnings to 20 indoor, outdoor and cross-country state titles, including relays, across two competitive classifications. He’s also helped OCA hoist a first-place team trophy nine times.

The only race where Pohlmeier’s dominant streak was remotely in jeopardy came in the 800m final, where he edged out teammate and fellow OCA senior Joey Squillance by just a few strides. Squillance, who will run next season for Rockhurst University in Missouri, put a stamp on his high school running career, bringing home a silver at 800m, a bronze at 1600m and a 4th place finish at 3200m. Ben Frederick also had a strong meet, taking second at 1600m, third at 3200m and 5th at 800m.

Rounding out the long-distance runners were Noah Rush, 11th at 800m; Liam Burney, 8th at 1600m and Oscar Burney, 7th at 3200m.

“The core of our track program are our distance runners; for the boys, 80 of our 90 [team] points came from our distance,” Cawein said.

Also scoring points for the Griffins were Patrick Rocha, 9th in the 100m; Russell Clark, 10th in the 400m; and Jonothan Jacobi, 12th in the 300m hurdles. Landon Weisenfels placed 11th in the 300m hurdles and 13th in the 110m hurdles.

In the relays, Pohlmeier was joined in the 4×800 win by Squillance, Frederick and Oscar Burney. Rocha, Landen Maas, Clark, and Abe Sanchez ran both the 4x100m relay, finishing 5th, and the 4x200m relay, in which the team suffered a disqualification. Sanchez, Clark, Landon Weisenfels and Reed Stephens took third in the 4x400m relay.

In field events, Elliot Lunsford placed 14th in the triple jump; Armando Pena placed 15th in the shot put and Burney placed 12th in the discus. 

Overall, Ozark Catholic Academy was second in team scoring, behind Fordyce and ahead of Carlisle. Marshall and Caddo Hills rounded out the top five teams, respectively.

The OCA girls took a step back from last year’s state title-winning performance but still came in third in team scoring behind Quitman and Murfreesboro. Magnet Cove and Gurdon were fourth and fifth, respectively.

Clare Pohlmeier and Emma Burney were medal workhorses, scoring half the team’s points. Pohlmeier landed second place in the 3200m, third in the 1600m and 5th in a loaded 800m field, while Burney ran second in the 300m hurdles, third in the 100m hurdles and 4th in the 200m. Also scoring hardware were Mary Downar-Patterson, who took second at 400m, and Savannah Johnson, who placed third in the discus and 7th in the shot put.

Other Griffins competing were Kinley Mentuis, 7th at 200m and 8th at 100m; Jasmin Ramirez, 15th at 400m and Colbe Lipsmeyer 12th in the 300m hurdles. Keilee Hernandez placed top 10 in three events, including 9th at 800m and 1600m and 10th at 3200m.

The girls scored gold in the 4x400m relay, thanks to Burney, Ramirez, Downar-Patterson and Savannah Creed. The 4x200m relay team, comprised of Creed, Downar-Patterson, Mentuis and Olivia Harbaugh, took second and the 4x800m relay, made up of Hernandez, Ramirez, Pohlmeier and Payton Schultz, was third. Harbaugh, Mentuis, Downar-Patterson and Anjali Nangunoori came in 6th place in the 4x100m relay.

“Our runners showcased their integrity and fellowship by cheering each other on, lifting up other teams, and working and praying together,” Cawein said. “Despite the postponing of the state meet, we had a great day.”

As with many teens moving from one school to another, Sadie Meadows admits to having some apprehension about what lay ahead of her at Mount St. Mary Academy when her family moved to Arkansas from their native Alabama last summer.

“It has definitely been a very different experience for me,” the junior said. “I came from a really big public school in Alabama so it was quite a change, not only going from public to private, but also with the size change and the Catholic affiliation and it’s all girls. It’s definitely been a big change for me.

“I was really nervous going into the school year. I didn’t know if the girls were going to be kind of catty or what because it’s all girls, you know? I didn’t know if it was going to be hard to break into friend groups or anything like that.”

Meadows said her fears proved unfounded and that she was immediately embraced by the Belle community, which helped her quickly fall in love with being a “Mount Girl.”

“Everybody was very kind and it was a lot easier transition than I was expecting,” she said. “I definitely felt very welcome and very loved by everybody.”

While she may have been pleasantly surprised at how easily she fit into the ranks of the houndstooth, Meadows’ integration on the Belle softball team was all but a given. The right-handed catcher has been a perennial all-star since grade school and played on her first national traveling team as a rising eighth grader. Last fall, she was a member of California-based Firecrackers-Wallace, a top 10-ranked team in the country, and this summer, she will play for Rock Gold Manetta in Florida, a club ranked in the top three nationally.

Needless to say, she was also a two-year starter on her previous high school team and a shoo-in to start for the Belles, which couldn’t slot her fourth in the lineup fast enough.

“My public school in Alabama was very big, and there were just tons of girls on the team,” she said. “Like, a lot of those girls had never met each other before playing on the high school team together because the schools were so big. I think one thing that has really stuck out to me in Arkansas softball, at least with the teams I’m seeing, is because many of them are smaller schools, there’s a lot more sportsmanship and teammates bond a lot more because it’s a smaller group of girls and they have to work together. It’s different and it’s really, really fun.”

Still, Meadows’ success in the sport is still a little surreal, considering where she started out skill-wise.

“I was really bad when I started softball. I was the kid, when you got to coach-pitch, you would strike out, and they’d have to bring the tee out for you to hit off of. Like, I was horrible,” she said. “My best friend’s dad was the coach for our rec league team, and he taught me how to hit. I got good at hitting, and that was kind of my specialty. I didn’t have any specific softball talents, but I’ve always been tall and I’ve always been bigger than the other kids. 

“When I got into middle school ball, they told me I was going be a catcher. I was not great, but my dad started working with me and got me into lessons because I wanted to keep playing softball, and I didn’t want to have to worry about being cut from the team. Every year I had to come back to tryouts and hope that I would make the team and that nobody better who played my position would try out.”

Those days are well behind her. Having excelled at the elite level in club team play, the 16-year-old is getting a lot of attention in the softball world. Last year, she was ranked 35th at her position nationally, and this season, she’s considered the 19th best catcher in the country. 

As such, she’s already received an unofficial offer to play at Dartmouth as well as interest from Liberty University, Western Michigan, Kansas, Clemson, Oklahoma State and Mississippi State.

The question of which college to attend will, of course, be answered in due time, but for now, Meadows is buckling down to revive the Mount softball program and help lead it back to the state tournament. It is a challenge she’s more than willing to tackle.

“My dad always describes playing catcher like being the field general, the commander of the softball field,” she said. “I guess that’s why I like it, because I feel like it puts me in a leadership position. I like to direct the field and take on that role when I’m in the game.”

A young girl positions herself behind the plate, leans forward and takes a deep breath. In front of her, by a few yards, a boy with a shock of red hair rears his arm back and rolls a large red rubber ball directly at her. The girl takes a few well-timed steps before delivering a hard kick that thuds into the ball’s gut, emanating a unique rubberized ping.

The ball skims over the grass, past a slow-reacting third baseman with a blonde mullet, and comes to a stop in the outfield. The girl, who took off on impact, reaches second, standing up to the cheers of her teammates.

Welcome to Kickball Arkansas, Little Rock’s first youth kickball league. Now entering its second season, the venture is the brainchild of two former high school pals who share a love for sports and a love for young people.

“Our entire idea is based on the fact that kickball is fun; it’s a sport that everyone loves and that nearly anyone can play,” said Matthew Matchett, who founded the league with Grant Nolan. “We realized there was a niche in the sports league offering, at least in Little Rock.”

If the idea of a youth kickball league sounds like an unusual idea for a business, it is only the latest element of Matchett’s life that defies the convention of your typical 25-year-old. Entering fifth grade, he and his family left Little Rock to spend what was supposed to be a year in Mexico.

“My parents were big travelers, and they made a little pact when they got married that if they ever had kids, that they would spend some time in another country,” he said. “One year turned to three and I did fifth, sixth, and seventh grade in Mexico, then an eighth grade, bounce-back, United States culture shock year.”

Matchett next enrolled in Catholic High School in Little Rock where he met Nolan, who would eventually become class president. After graduating in 2018, Matchett headed to TCU in Fort Worth, where he majored in business with the idea of living the life of an entrepreneur. He came back home and started to suss out the details of turning that dream into reality.

“I was looking for opportunities at that point,” he said. “I’d been trying to find a business to start. I tried some AI-related things; I was making videos online and getting a lot of views on TikTok and Instagram making comedy videos. Honestly, I was kind of confused, just looking for a path. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.”

It was then that Matchett reunited with Nolan, who by that time had become a PE coach at The Anthony School in Little Rock and who’d previously organized a kickball group at work.

“He had done a club for the students at the school where about 15 of them signed up,” Matchett said. “I just thought it was such a great idea that we could turn it into a business and why not invite the whole city and turn it into a league?”

The duo joined forces and set about the details of launching the league they’d call Little Rock Kickball — games for K-8th for eight weeks and no practices. For their first season last fall, they attracted 165 registrations across four age groups. They also secured a playing spot at The Anthony School for their Sunday afternoon games and landed additional help from CHS alumni, who served as volunteer coaches and umpires for the 10-week season.

The experience taught the duo a lot about their business model and the needs and wants of their clientele, whether it’s offering scholarships to make it affordable or accommodating children with special needs, who are warmly welcomed into the fold.

“A big majority of parents have sent us thank you emails, telling us how great of an idea this is because their child can’t participate in sports because of whatever situation,” he said. “We had one girl who has Down syndrome, and she can’t do things with a lot of rules, but she absolutely had a blast being the pitcher for her team in kickball last season. Some of the kids have autism, but you can’t even tell because they’re just out there having fun.”

As the duo enters its second season of play beginning March 30, Matchett, a Methodist, said the venture is serving a higher purpose than the business partners ever imagined.

“This business has taught me to put my faith in God and ask for guidance and wisdom and that is no joke,” he said. “When I got this idea, I had a sales job offer, or I could have worked for our family business and I didn’t know which route to take. I prayed for guidance and within a week, one job offer after another fell through and in front of me was the kickball idea and a very clear path on how we could start executing our business plan.

“There have been so many times where I’ve thought, ‘I am going to look like a fool. This thing is gonna fail. I have no idea which direction to take.’ All you can do is just pray and put your faith in God and he will lead the way.”

To learn more about the league and to sign up, visit kickballar.com or email Matchett at Matt@kickballar.com.

As football games go, the recent Super Bowl clash between the Philadelphia Eagles and the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs wasn’t exactly one for the record books. The triumphant Eagles jumped on the Chiefs early and often, leaving little doubt by halftime that KC’s quest for an unprecedented Super Bowl “threepeat” had come to a sudden and ignoble end.

Catholics in Arkansas, however ― students, staff and alumni of Catholic High School in particular ― will likely remember the 2025 championship as the one in which two former Rockets participated. It was a special moment in CHS history.

Arkansas Catholic caught up to the young men to learn of their experiences at this rare confluence of one of the biggest sporting events on the planet, and the legendary Little Rock high school that gave them their start in life.

Maj. Nathan Sampson

Class of 2011

Ever since he was 4 or 5 years old, Nathan Sampson has wanted to fly.

“It’s always been a dream of mine growing up ― middle school, high school age ― to follow the military option for pilots,” he said. “It seemed like the adventure that every boy kind of dreams of, you know, getting to fly some sort of cool, high-speed aircraft, trying to get out and make a difference. 

Maj. Sampson participated in Junior ROTC all four years at Catholic High, and he credits the discipline of the program and the leadership of the instructors as major formation in his life, giving him his first real introduction to the Marines. Following graduation from Catholic High, Sampson attended Christian Brothers University in Memphis while participating in ROTC at nearby University of Memphis.

Following that, he joined in the United States Marine Corps before finally arriving in Pensacola, Fla., for flight school in January 2016 and spent time in Texas and North Carolina in various stages of his training before landing in San Diego where he currently lives. He and his wife, Kayla Nehus, a graduate of Mount St. Mary Academy and a former collegiate runner, have two children.

As the operations officer for his group, Sampson was briefed on the different events the USMC was planning to support this year during the 250th birthday of the Corps, one of which was the Super Bowl.

“I thought to myself, ‘Man, that’d be really cool to do the Super Bowl flyover,” Sampson said.

After doing some preliminary legwork, he brought the idea and its feasibility to his commanding officer. What started as a longshot idea would work its way through the chain of command and logistics to put together a flyover squad of MV-22B Osprey aircraft.

“I was not the face of it by any means; it quickly snowballed beyond my control,” he said. “Late December, early January, the Marine Corps was like, ‘Well, hang on, we want six planes to come out and do the flyover.’ So, we enlisted the help of our sister squadron on the east coast.

“Then, headquarters Marine Corps Communications Directorate, which was putting together all the 250th Marine Corps stuff, all the higher-level coordination, were really the ones who were calling the shots and running the show. They briefed the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, and he said, ‘Well, why aren’t jets doing a fly?’ Which is why at the end of the day you saw two F-35s and four V-22s doing the flyover. It really turned into quite the rodeo.”

The flight itself, and all the pre- and post-flight responsibilities that came with it, were serious business and left little time to soak in where and when it was unfolding, Sampson said. With a worldwide audience that set viewership records, not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of military hardware at stake, Sampson and his fellow pilots didn’t allow themselves to take their mind off the mission.

“In the plane, you’re in what we call our flight box,” he said. “You tune the rest of the world out from the time you start planning to the time you debrief, to the time you get in the plane, all the way in, down until your plane’s turned off at the end of the day. For us, hitting a time on target is what we do.

“Every time we fly, our job is generally what is called assault support which in layman’s terms means putting people or equipment in the right place at the right time. We train to hit those times on targets, for our wheels to land within 30 seconds of when we’re supposed to be there. That was the goal for us making that flyover.”

Looking back, Sampson admitted that being part of the hoopla on the ground had its share of goosebump-inducing moments, including being introduced on the field with his fellow pilots late in the third quarter.

“It was exciting for sure, having all these different aircraft craft up there and being in such tight formation,” he said. “For me, what made it sink in was all the stuff leading up to it. The NFL has their Fan Zone experience throughout the duration of the week, and they had us up at the convention center talking to different people. I think they said the throughput at that place was like 20,000 people a day. We were out there just mixing and mingling with people from all over the country.

“For me that was a really cool experience because we got to see veterans come up, kids who wanted to be pilots, other people who had served in various branches and different conflicts throughout history. Everybody’s coming together for the Super Bowl, which is an iconic American event.”

Jonah Monroe

Class of 1997

They say the longest journey begins with a single step. For Jonah Monroe the march to the rank of NFL official started just that way. While attending the University of Arkansas after graduating from Catholic High, Monroe began a love affair with officiating that would lead him to the Super Bowl.

“I wanted to be a coach originally,” he said. “I started doing the intermural thing for extra money and just fell in love with officiating.”

Monroe graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, then took a job in Baltimore where he lives today. Once he landed, he immediately began looking for opportunities to officiate.

“I started with the Maryland Board of Football Officials that serviced the private league here, Catholic schools and other denominations and private schools,” he said. “Did that for three years and then started getting into small college football here.”

What started in 2003 unfolded into a journey that even Monroe could not have imagined.

“When I started officiating high school games, I just thought, ‘Oh, I’m going do Friday Night Lights forever,’ you know?’ That’s what I wanted to do,” he said. “Somebody talked me into doing small college, and small college is a lot of effort for no money. You’re doing it for the love of doing it. Fortunately for us here in Baltimore, we have a ton of small colleges scattered around so I was able to cut my teeth on some pretty good football up here.”

Monroe made key connections early on. He attended an NFL Grassroots Clinic during his second year in high school ball where he rubbed elbows with some heavy hitters in the world of officiating.

“I walk in and I’m like, I don’t think I should be here,” he said, “but I’ll listen to these guys talk. I sat in the back of the room, away from everybody, and this little guy sat right next to me. I’m listening to these stories, and I’m taking notes and he doesn’t say anything to me until the end. He’s like, ‘OK, where do you officiate?’”

The conversation led the man, Tom Beard, to invite the young Arkie to his officiating classes at Howard University, where NFL and major college officials taught every Saturday morning. The potential for his side gig expanded exponentially.

Monroe graduated from small college games to mid-major conferences, such as the Big East, Conference USA and the American Conference, which put eyes on him from people influential in officiating at the highest level. That got him invitations to work on crews and postseason contests to show what he could do.

“In 2015, I ended up working the East West Shrine Game, and they had been scouting me for a while at that point,” he said. “After that, they told me, ‘Hey, we think you’re ready to come to the NFL, we just don’t have a spot for you. Just wait it out. Keep doing what you’re doing.’

“Well, come June 1, I get the call to the NFL and what they told me was James Coleman, who was a University of Arkansas graduate, also an electrical engineer, blew out his Achilles, and they needed someone to fill his spot. So, they offered it to me.”

In his first game, a Monday Night Football tilt between the Philadelphia Eagles and the host Atlanta Falcons, he didn’t have to wait long to get ushered into the fraternity.

“Of course, I have the very first flag of the game, offensive pass interference,” he said. “The coaches all jumped on me, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing, rookie! How can you call this crap!’ blah, blah, blah, but it ended up being correct call. My referee, Terry McAulay, gave me big kudos for getting my first call correct.”

Ten years and many playoff games later, things would come full circle when Monroe, at backjudge, got the nod for his first Super Bowl crew, again featuring the Eagles

He said sharing the moment with his family hit hardest, including his wife, Heather, whom he first dated in eighth grade at St. Patrick School in North Little Rock. Heather is currently a Division I football official in the Missouri Valley Conference and for the record, there’s never been a husband-wife officiating duo in the NFL, giving the couple something to shoot for. It’s a long shot, but then so was Jonah making it to the ultimate game.

“The Super Bowl is obviously special. That’s part of history standing on that field,” he said. “I had my family in the stands, and it was emotional to me. I’ve had a lot of support; officials are gone a lot, so families take the hit because we miss birthdays and funerals, which is tough. To be able to celebrate this with them, that accomplishment, was special.”

Like many members of the student body, Tatum Smith is filled with spirit when it comes to her high school, Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock. Even though the junior from Sherwood is not Catholic and didn’t come up through the parochial school system, ever since she donned the houndstooth she’s felt at home and a spark enters her voice as she discusses her friends and school involvement.

“I’ve done a lot of fun things at the Mount. Like, we do this thing every year, it’s a lip sync thing for seventh-grade preview day, and we get a big group of girls together and we all perform together. That’s really fun and I get to bond with other girls at Mount,” she said.

“I have made so many friends, and I just love it here. It’s one of the best sisterhoods I’ve ever had, especially since I don’t have actual sisters.”

While Smith’s assessment of what it means to be a Mount girl can be echoed by many, there is one expression of her school spirit that is hers and hers alone. Starting this fall she’s become the symbol for the Mount, quite literally, as Betty Belle, MSM’s new costumed mascot. 

“I tried out for cheer in the past. I didn’t make it, but I still really wanted to be a part of all the hype around our sports and all of the events that we have,” she said. “I just wanted to do something that would be fun and that would get everybody super excited. When they revealed the mascot last Christmas (2023) I got super excited and I immediately went to the athletic director.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know what the process is for becoming the mascot, but I would love to be her. Like, that just sounds so exciting and I would love to be a part of that.’”

Smith’s name was added to the list of other girls who had come forward for the honor and was soon taking her turn prowling the sidelines of volleyball games and at pep rallies providing the hijinks to rev up the fans. It wasn’t long before the spirit writing was on the wall.

“We started off doing that together and over time I started to love it so much that when I was talking to the other girls they were like, ‘Yeah, you do such a good job at being the mascot, we think you should do it full time,’” Smith said. “I was like, ‘I would love to do that. That sounds so amazing.’”

Smith has been an instant hit, and the school has found ways to work her into MSM’s branding that go beyond the athletic program. She’s slated to host the school’s Easter egg hunt this spring and has also appeared at MSM fundraisers.

“We hosted a dinner at one of the other students’ houses for all the donors to come over, just basically us saying thank you,” Smith said. ‘Betty was one of the door greeters and basically welcomed everyone in. They were all so excited. They were happy to see that we finally got a mascot.”

Becoming Betty Belle may have felt like a natural thing to Smith, but the job presents its share of challenges. The size and bulk of the costume make transporting it a chore, and the structure of the outfit limits Smith in what she can physically do. Yet she embraces the challenge of connecting with the audience without words or visible facial expressions.

“Betty’s basically just a big dome over me. The only movement I have is really my legs and my hands,” she said. “I did cheer all through middle school so I knew a few moves from that, and I was a gymnast in elementary school. Most of my moves are just fun little short dances I’ve seen the cheerleaders or dancers do.

“I’m usually just bouncing around all happy, I twirl around a little bit, I wave at everybody, jazz hands. It’s all about the body language and how you present yourself when they can’t see you.”

Smith also picked up some mascot performance tips at cheer camp over the summer. Once again, her pure joy in her job as a spirit ambassador for her school was noticed by others, resulting in a unique honor.

“At cheer camp there was a section for mascots. It basically all gave us all a chance to learn and grow and it also gave us the opportunity to try out to be an All-American,” she said. “I was nominated to try out for All American, and I did and my audition went amazing. All the girls were cheering, even when my music stopped, they couldn’t stop singing along with it and dancing with me. The next day they called us all out and gave us our awards and they told me I made All American.”

The accolade brought with it the right to appear at the Citrus Bowl college football game in December in Orlando, Fla. Betty Belle was one of 42 All-American mascots to appear.

“It was super cool,” Smith said. “In the halftime show, they introduced us, the music started and we were all on top of the logo in the middle of the field. We had a routine, just a little dance and having fun being your mascot self.”

With that history-making experience under her belt, it appears Smith has a stranglehold on the gig until she decides to turn it over to someone else, which doesn’t look likely before she graduates Mount next year. In fact, she’s already plotting how to extend her mascot career to the next level.

“I want to be a teacher someday, teaching family and consumer science,” she said. “My main school choice right now is the University of Central Arkansas (in Conway) because it’s one of the lead teaching schools in Arkansas and it’s close to home. They also have a work-study program for mascots that I would love to be a part of. Hopefully when I go to college, I get to continue being a mascot. I’ve just loved doing it so far.”

Isaac Pohlmeier, senior running phenom for the Ozark Catholic Academy Griffins, is rarely stumped in interviews. Being one of the more heralded athletes to come out of middle school in run-crazy northwest Arkansas, he’s fielded questions since his days of dominating the competition at St. Joseph School in Fayetteville.

But in the closing moments of this interview a question flew at him that caused him to stop and take serious stock of his running career.

Just how many high school state golds has he won, anyway?

“Umm, well, I’ve won three individual state cross country titles and part of four team titles,” he began. “We won one track team title and then, let’s see, I’ve won the mile my first three years, so that’s three, and then the two-mile twice, so that’s five, and then I’ve won the 800 twice, so that’s seven.”

He pauses, then adds quickly, “I don’t know if these count, but I’ve been on the state championship four-by-1800-meter relay twice as well.”

The fact that Pohlmeier has to stop and think about being a 17-time state champ says it all about the senior who, along with the two graduating classes ahead of him and his fellow senior mates, have laid the groundwork for a running dynasty at small, close-knit OCA. At the head of that column has been the slight but powerful strider Pohlmeier who has set the pace literally and figuratively for the past four years.

“We were confident going in that, even though we’ve got the target on our back, and we were the team that everyone was trying to beat, if we just ran our own race and ran the way we knew we could run it’d all work itself out,” he said. “We just wanted to win as big as possible.”

As final acts go, the 2024 2A state meet, held Nov. 7-8 at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, was a humdinger. The Griffins were running in a new classification for the first time, having decimated the competition in 1A as threepeat state cross-country champions. The move was supposed to level the playing field by pushing OCA up against larger schools and, theoretically, stiffer competition.

Thing is, theories don’t always hold up, especially in athletics where the human spirit and drive can lay the best-placed logic to waste, much like the Griffins did this year. In addition to Pohlmeier smoking the state field, finishing nearly a full minute ahead of teammate Joey Squillance in second place, the Griffins all clustered in the top 11 placements.

In a sport where low score wins, the meet was a laugher with the Griffins finishing 69 points ahead of second-place Caddo Hills. And all this, mind you, under gray, rainy skies that turned the course into a boggy mud slick.

“Super muddy, a bunch of puddles and water and mud all over the course. It was mostly just a fight to get your legs to warm up because it was so cold,” Pohlmeier said. “It was a fight to get through that mud, because every time you would step you would sink into the ground instead of bouncing off the grass like usual.

“A lot of it was just strength, being confident in your leg strength and knowing that once you stepped into it, you could push yourself up thanks to the constant training you did for months to get your legs stronger.”

Pohlmeier was quick to credit the efforts of the team from top to bottom but saved special praise for his senior teammate Squillance.

“I knew we had a good shot to win big again this year and (Squillance) and I just kept pushing each other in practice,” he said. “We kept each other accountable on weekends, we’d go on long runs and push each other. We wanted to go out with the first (2A state title) in OCA history.”

The teammates have one last hurrah at the high school level ― looking to avenge last year’s narrow upset loss in track and field team scoring ― before stepping into the next chapter. For Pohlmeier, that means running for Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia next season while studying kinesiology. He and Squillance leave OCA knowing the program is in very good hands.

In addition to juniors, particularly Ben Frederick and Liam Burney, “I have an eighth-grade brother who runs cross country; he’ll go to OCA next year,” Pohlmeier said. He described the oncoming Dominic Pohlmeier as “pretty good” before his competitive streak kicked in.

“I mean, he’s slower than what I was running as an eighth grader, but only by about 30 or 40 seconds,” he said with a big brother grin. “He’s pretty quick. Just not as quick as I was.”

As coaching debuts go, Coach Richard Cochran saw a lot to like in his first season as skipper of the Little Rock Catholic High School football program. The Rockets posted a 9-2 record, including opening the season with seven straight wins and with only one regular-season loss.

For Cochran, the first Catholic High alum to lead his alma mater’s football program, the accomplishments of the season were many.

“There’s a calmness to this team, the confidence that, ‘Hey, we can get this drive,’” Cochran said. “There’s been two or three games where we needed to ice the game in the fourth quarter to win because the other team was getting momentum, and they were catching up and our guys just took it. They never showed any panic mode, you know, it’s just a gritty group.”

In the regular season, Catholic outscored their opponents by nearly nine points per game and that’s counting the 42-0 drubbing at the hands of perennial state power Benton. More than half of CHS’ wins were by double digits, and three were by 20 points or more, including an early win in Texas at the annual Catholic Bowl that Cochran said set the team’s confident mindset for the year.

The second loss of the year, unfortunately, came in the state 6A playoffs, where Catholic enjoyed a first-round bye, which Cochran said was sorely needed for the team to get healthy in preparation for a title run. One week didn’t prove to be enough, however, as CHS ran into a well-oiled squad from Mountain Home on their home War Memorial Stadium field Nov. 22.
Fresh off a first-round 57-50 shootout with Sheridan the week before, the Bombers picked up where they left off, bouncing the favored Rockets from the 6A playoffs for the second straight year 42-14. Turnovers and mistakes doomed the home team, as did the potent running attack of the visitors, which sent Mountain Home to its first state semi-final in nearly two decades.

True to its nature, Catholic hung tough, cutting the lead to 21-14 in the third quarter, only to have the ensuing kickoff returned 92 yards, a gut punch from which CHS would not recover. Cochran’s remarks after the disappointing outcome showed consummate sportsmanship, praising the victors and complimenting his team’s efforts and looking ahead to the future.

“I think the offensive line was probably our biggest surprise this season,” he told Arkansas Catholic. “I thought we were going to struggle early because we had some newer players and guys who hadn’t seen a lot of Friday night experience. We had our three-year starter Sam Paladino at center, and he pretty much had the monopoly on experience. Everybody else was trying to figure it out as they went. They were really green and yet they were able to hold their own early on in the season and from there they were able to take control of games even if we were falling behind.”

Cochran was particularly impressed with the way the team rallied in the face of myriad injuries up and down the roster.

“We had to play defense by committee a lot,” he said. “We lost four starting seniors due to ACL injury this year, for the season. He had a player crack his vertebrae. We really had to rely on that gritty teamwork, that brotherhood guys felt where one guy gets hurt, the next guy steps up. We’ve been rotating defensive backs and linebackers and everybody’s getting a chance to play and just try to figure something out, and trying to find who can anchor those spots.”

Having completed three seasons in 6A, it is clear Catholic High is in the correct classification after suffering for decades in 7A with school several times its size. Over that period, the Rockets are 27-7, counting playoffs — including the 2022 season where it posted the first undefeated regular season record in school history — and have made the post season each year. Cochran said while there are clearly power schools at this level, he’s confident the Rockets are poised for future success as they continue to chase their first state football title since the 1980s.

“We got kind of plagued with some injuries throughout the season, but we’re not going to make an excuse,” he said. “The way guys stepped in as backups and held their own pretty well, that’s a bright light for the future. One thing you can’t take away from them is that brotherhood, you know? They’ve busted it all year and with the exception of the Benton game where the boys were not happy with what they did, they always showed the grit to hang in there and fight. I’m so proud of them.”

Historic year: Ozark Catholic Academy’s volleyball team made history by advancing to the semifinal round of the 2A state volleyball tournament in Hackett. The Griffins beat Cutter-Morning Star 3-1 Oct. 29, then topped Marshall the next day, 3-2. The ride ended Oct. 31, 3-0, at the hands of England. Sophie McClelland and Meghan Estes were each named all-state tourney, and Estes was also named all-state. 

Lady Bulldogs: St. Joseph High School in Conway’s volleyball team won its first match in the 2A state volleyball tournament. The squad handled Izard County Oct. 29, 3-1, then fell to host Hackett 3-0 the following day. St. Joseph players receiving individual accolades included Anna Nabholz, who was named to the all-state tourney team. Nabholz and teammates Hollie Morgan and Kate Nabholz all received all-state honors.
Belles win, lose: It was a short 5A state volleyball tourney for the Belles of Mount St. Mary Academy. The squad beat Sheridan 3-0 Oct. 29, then fell 3-0 to Shiloh Christian the following day. The tournament was played in Van Buren. Hannah and Taylor Wherry were each named to the all-state team while Hannah also took home all-state tourney honors.

As Father Daniel Velasco, pastor of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock, stands on the spongey court of the Rebsamen Tennis Center Oct. 10, he adjusts his hat to block the sun, tapping his clipboard as eight boys gather around. 

Father Velasco tells the students, in sixth through eighth grades, who is playing against who and on which court. 

Father Velasco started the Holy Souls School tennis team in August. And while the tennis team and league are not regulated by the Arkansas Activities Association, the team has given students an opportunity to try their hand at a new sport and make friends with students from other schools.

“We started this year, thanks to some volunteers who helped me coordinate and talk to the other coaches,” he said. “…I’m in charge of the lineups. There’s a lot of coordination that takes place behind the scenes. We have some parents who step up and that’s the reason we’re able to do it.”

Father Velasco said the Holy Souls team will play informally against Pulaski County private schools, including Anthony School, Pulaski Academy and Episcopal Collegiate School. 

On Oct. 10, the Holy Souls team, in their white tennis uniforms, squared off against St. Anthony School in bright red, spanning four adjoining courts for their matches. 

“This is our third match,” Father Velasco said. “We played against Anthony School last week, then we played against Little Rock Christian Academy last Tuesday. This is our third match and we’re playing against Anthony again. I think we’re going to have about six matches total.”

For Father Velasco, tennis is much more than a hobby. 

“It is definitely a lot of fun,” he said. “Because, as some people may know, I played college tennis.”

Originally from Puebla, Mexico, Father Velasco’s tennis skills brought him to the United States in 1993 when the tennis coach of Harding University in Searcy was impressed with his skills during a recruiting trip and offered him a scholarship. He played with the Harding tennis team for four years until he graduated in 1997. Since his ordination in 2020, Father Velasco has encouraged students and parishioners to take up tennis. 

In 2021 and 2022, Father Velasco, who was then chaplain at Trinity School in Fort Smith, helped coach the middle school’s coed tennis team of 15 players to win the championship. 

His talents as a coach were reflected Oct. 10, as several teams showcased impressive volleys and even rallied from behind to win their matches. 

Doubles partners sixth-grader Tucker Norton and eighth-grader Cade Cosse were losing to Anthony School 4-2 when the two came back and won their match in a 7-point tiebreak. The tiebreak offered the Holy Souls players a learning opportunity, as parents and Father Velasco taught the students the rules of the tiebreak as they played since the students had never played one before.

“I just really like the sport; it’s fun to play,” Norton told Arkansas Catholic after winning his match. “I think I did OK, but I could have done better.”

Norton’s mother, Barrett, who plays tennis, helped teach students on both teams how to play the 7-point tiebreak. She said Holy Souls played well, noting that the atmosphere isn’t about winning but about having fun. 

“They have that camaraderie with teammates and get along and talk,” Barrett Norton said.

Norton’s teammate, Cosse, analyzed Norton’s and his performance after the match.

“I feel like we could have done better, we definitely could have swung for the ball more,” he said. “Overall, we played really well, and I told (Norton), ‘Don’t give up,’ because they were beating us, and I was like, ‘We’re going to beat them,’ and we did. We just had to stick to it.”

Cosse, who has been playing tennis for four years, said the sport as a whole is about mental endurance just as much as physical endurance. 

“Listen to your coach,” he advised new players. “It’s a very frustrating sport. It’s very mental. It will get to your head. You have to stay cool, be strong.”

Father Velasco said the tennis matches have provided a great opportunity for players to make friends and build their skills. 

“We are playing against other schools that have some kids playing tennis, and we’re in agreement to play each other and have fun,” he said. “There’s no trophy, but I like to keep the score in my notes. It’s given me an opportunity to interact with the kids in a different environment. Of course, I’m still their pastor, but at the tennis court, I’m their coach, and they listen, and they are good kids.”