Sports
RISON - Rison Coach Clay Totty will be looking to see how his 2022 Wildcats respond to live game situations this Tues‐day when they host the Class 4A Monticello Billies in a scrim‐mage game scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 16, at George Walker Field of Champions.
Class 4A Dumas has been a regular preseason scrimmage opponent for Rison the past few years, but this season the Wild‐cats will open against the Bob‐cats on Aug. 26 at Dumas.
Totty said Tuesday’s scrim‐mage game will played basically like a junior high game with eight-minute quarters and live kicks. He said there will be an overtime period as well.
Totty said he likes to schedule larger classification schools for scrimmage games since they usually have more depth, and that gives him a better gauge as to how his ‘Cats stack up as far as speed and ability are con‐cerned.
While seeing how individual players and various segments of the offense and defense perform will be one of the things he is looking at, Totty said just as im‐portant is how the team executes live game situations - getting on and off the field, being aware of the play clock, and understand‐ing down-and-distance situa‐tions.
Monticello returns four starters on both offense and de‐fense from a team that finished 5-6 overall after losing to Stutt‐gart, 42-7, in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs. The Bil‐lies finished fifth in the 8-4A conference last year, and they are picked to finish fifth again this year based on a poll of the coaches published by Hooten’s Arkansas Football.
Monticello Coach Randy Har‐vey told Arkansas Football that this year’s team will be built around 13 seniors and a group of sophomores moving up from a junior high team that finished second in the conference.
Among ths year’s returning starters for Monticello is junior quarterback Brooks Bowman. He started in the final seven games for the Billies, passing for more than 700 yards and seven touchdowns.
One of the seniors coming back is speedy running back Jontavion Lambert, who Harvey said runs the 40 in the 4.6 range. The 5-9, 165-pound Lambert, who will be Monticello’s pri‐mary running back this year, rushed for more than 100 yards in victories over Fordyce and Hamburg last year.
The Billies will also present some challenges with the pass‐ing game as Lambert will have 6-4, 175 lbs. receiver/tight end Jemar Matthews to throw to as well as junior receiver Evan Baeler, who possesses 4.6 speed, and 6-0, 180 lbs senior Zavarious Johnson, who Harvey said was the most improved player on the team last year.
Monticello uses multiple for‐mations on offense.
Defensively, the Billies are not overly large up front, sporting a couple of guys weighing in the 220-pound range. Harvey said Johnson has the potential to emerge as a college football prospect if he continues to im‐prove at safety. Monticello will be relying on some sophomore at some of the defensive posi‐tions.