It’s the best time of year for Greenwood folks who follow football and their hometown Bulldogs, the two-time defending state champions. The season opener is upon us and it’s at home on the familiar turf of Smith-Robinson Stadium this coming Friday night at 7:00 p.m. As a bonus, the hot summer weather has subsided, at least temporarily, and temperatures are supposed to be in the 70s this week.
The Bulldogs have won 26 consecutive games after back-to-back unbeaten seasons and also have an impressive 70-game winning streak at home, and even a good Class 7A Bentonville-West team is not likely to break either streak for the Bulldogs, the consensus #1 pick once again to win it all in Class 6A. Greenwood’s next two games will be on the road at Fort Smith Northside and Springdale Har-Ber before an open date on September 19th.
They will open 6A West conference play on October 26th at home against Shiloh Christian, one of the few schools in Class 6A that can threaten the Bulldogs. The same two teams met in the state championship game last December. Greenwood prevailed in both of their 2024 meetings and defeated Bentonville-West last season, 70-35. GHS Head Coach Chris Young expects a similar result on Friday night.
The Bulldogs have been to the title game in five consecutive years and own more state crowns than any other school in Arkansas since the modern playoff era began in the 1970s. Greenwood has 12 state championships to date while playing in five other title games. They fully intend to return to Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium again this coming December for a possible three-peat. Reclassification will then bump Greenwood down a level to Class 5A for the 2026 season.
The Bulldogs scrimmaged Fayetteville last Tuesday (August 19th) in their annual pre-season get together, with Greenwood earning a 21-19 victory in the first half with both teams using their top players. Each squad scored three touchdowns, but the visiting Purple Dogs missed on two extra point tries. Fayetteville did score the only touchdown of the second half with both teams sitting their starters, allowing their backups and reserves to play. Of course, the quarterbacks were protected, so Greenwood’s elusive Kane Archer was severely limited in his ability to scramble and make plays with his feet.
Coach Young was asked about his impressions of the scrimmage and he was generally pleased with what he saw, though there’s always room for improvement. “He began by giving the Fayetteville Purple Dogs their just due. “They are a really talented team,” he began. “They’ve got a quarterback that’s been offered by everybody in the country. I think Stanford and Michigan offered him last week. They are talented, and have had a lot of success, so we knew it was going to be a challenge slowing them down offensively. On defense, they also have three division one kids. They have a corner that’s going to Arkansas, a safety going to Cincinnati, and an outside linebacker who is really talented. It was a great first test for us. I don’t think we’ll see talent like that defensively the rest of the season.”
Asked about the scrimmage format that protected the quarterbacks, Young agreed that Kane Archer was severely limited in his ability to run and make plays with his legs, a major part of his game. “He is talented and he was still really good, but some of the best things he does is when the play breaks down, he can escape pressure, scramble, and make plays.”
The head coach also talked about his #2 QB, Cruz Coatney, in his first season at Greenwood. He only got a few series in the second half, but had a long gain on a keeper, showing off his ability to run. We’re really happy with his development,” said Young. “He’s really starting to pick up the offense. He’s had a great last couple of weeks. He gets better every day. He’s not having to think about the plays now, he’s just reacting, so we feel really good about him. And it allows us to do more stuff with Kane because we know we have a really good quarterback [behind him].
Dabin Gains is the same way, our third quarterback. For a sophomore he’s doing really well. He can run our offense, so we feel really good about all three of those guys and the job Coach Hogan is doing with them.” Hogan is the team’s longtime offensive coordinator since the 2020 season.
“Running is a big part of Kane’s game, and you’ll see him run on Friday night,” predicted Young. “They won’t necessarily be called runs, because early in the season we want to limit that. But when stuff breaks down, he’s so talented with his legs. He can extend plays and make things happen.”
Young even agreed that Archer has yet to approach his full potential, partly because he usually only plays about half of every game, since most of Greenwood’s contests are blowouts shortened by the mercy rule and the unwillingness to run up the score on the opposition. “He’s just so talented and has such an im-depth understanding of our offense right now. He’s even suggesting stuff on the weekends when we’re developing our game plan, and Coach Hogan listens to him and values his opinion and understands that we’ve got someone special back there. He’s a great athlete, but his understanding of our offense and his intelligence – moving him up as a ninth grader has really paid off because it gave him an extra year with Coach Hogan and our offense. We’re seeing him do things that high school quarterbacks don’t do.”
Asked about his long and deep bench of receivers, Young was also pleased with their performance against Fayetteville. “I thought they were really good catching the ball and with ball security. That’s always something we’re concerned about early in the season. Obviously, it starts with Champ Davis and Cooper Bland, but then we have Ben Hossley and Cooper Webb – he had some big catches. Then Braxton Canada is a sophomore that’s going to be really good.
“Those are our five starters. But then we have Brayden Brewer who we moved to wide receiver, and he’s had a good camp. Brayden Renick has had a good camp. Those seven guys right now are rotating with our varsity.” Young even allowed that former QB turned safety, Cooper Goodwin, along with fellow defensive back Lawyer Thornsberry, both seniors, could see some snaps at receiver on offense.
In the offensive backfield, junior Mario Dunbar and senior Wesley Raggio will alternate at running back. “Dunbar and Raggio have really improved since last year and have a chance to have good seasons. They got a lot of varsity minutes last year, and they’re bigger and more physical this year. I think they will provide better pass protection and be more physical runners, and they will be able to rest each other. If one of them is better than the other, then he will win the job. Until then we will continue to play both, and at some point we will use Champ Davis back there getting some carries.”
The one area where Young was somewhat disappointed was the play of the offensive line that boasts three returning starters. “We’ve got a lot of experience back and I thought we would be more physical,” said the coach. “We’ve got Cody Taylor at tackle, a four-year starter, and he’s a guy we have high expectations for, but he needs to pick it up a little bit. He needs to be more physical and more consistent.
“At left guard is Alex Vanderwatt, an up-and-coming junior who is physical and is going to be a good lineman for us. [Senior] Akira Fujibayashi is back at center. His snaps have been great, but he’s got to be more physical as well. We want to see him get movement up front. At right guard is [junior] Hal Davis, and we need to see him pick it up a notch. He’s got a lot of experience. Sometimes those guys get a little bit comfortable. There hasn’t been a lot of competition because there are a lot of young guys behind them. If they’re not careful they can get complacent, and that’s a group that needs to improve.
“At right tackle we have Jaxen Cepeda, a sophomore who has really done well. He’s probably our most physical guy right now. He’s a good athlete with great size and length. Then pretty soon [senior] Landon Billy is going to be back. He was injured during the state championship game, and he should get cleared any day now, so that’s going to create some competition. He’s going to be fighting for one of those spots. Ethan Kelly is a senior who could rotate in at both tackle spots, and Ethan Shumate is our backup center who has worked really hard.” The starting o-line averages 6’3” and over 270 pounds each.”
Turning to the defensive side of the ball, Coach Young said, “Not only did we lose a lot of starters from last year, but a lot of their backups were seniors as well, so a lot of these guys don’t have any Friday night experience. But I thought, playing Fayetteville, probably as talented a team as we’re going to see all year, I was pleased with some of the things our secondary [did]. They’ve gotten better, but we’re still trying to figure out just who [the starters] are going to be.
“At corner D.J. Dobbins and Blaze McDaniel are our #1s, but Williams Rye and Malaki Willis are our #2s, and there’s not a lot of difference between those four. At safety, Lawyer Thornsberry is back. He’s the leader of our secondary. Cooper Goodwin is playing well. We held Drew Dickinson out [against Fayetteville], but he’s a sophomore that will start Friday night at safety. But they have competition from Bailey Thibodeau and Thomas Newcity, and [senior] Travir Shelton will be a starter for us. We’re going to play four safeties in the game Friday night, just because of what Bentonville-West does.”
On the defensive line there is plenty of talent and competition, according to Young. “We’ve got some depth, and they are battling [for playing time] as well. We have [senior] Cody Johnson back at one defensive end with [junior] Brock Shepard and [junior] Jacob Berry competing at the other end. Gunnar Flanary is a sophomore that’s going to play some end and linebacker. He’s a great athlete, maybe one of the fastest guys on our team, really strong and physical. At the tackle spot inside is Deandre Stephens and Charlie Hudnall, they are competing and rotating right now at noseguard.
“At linebacker we’ve got three guys,” the coach continued. “Jayden Foster is our mike inside. Bryer Hackler and Jin Sayadeth are also at linebacker. Robert Wirth will also see some time.” Foster is a senior move-in, Sayadeth is a senior, while Hackler and Wirth are both sophomores.
“I was pleased,” the coach reiterated concerning the scrimmage. “Fayetteville is really good, and they scored three times, but we had a big goal line stop. Blaze McDaniel ran a kid down and made a tackle, allowing the defense to make a big stop. That was good to see. We also got a stop on a two-point conversion try.
“They’re just young, and they’re going to make some mistakes early, but we feel like by the time we get to the meat of our schedule those guys will be ready to go. Overall, I thought our safeties came down and tackled well. I thought our defensive linemen – their effort was good. We’ve got a lot of guys fighting for a few spots, and that’s going to benefit us,” said Young.
The GHS head coach expects Bentonville-West to be a stiff challenge for his Bulldogs. “They got after Tulsa Union the other night. I think they scored a touchdown every possession their varsity was in, led by their quarterback, who is really good. They’ve got two good running backs and some good wide receivers. It will be two good offenses on the field together. It should be a fun game.
Trips to Fort Smith Northside and Springdale Har-Ber will follow in weeks two and three before an open date prior to the start of conference play at home against Shiloh Christian. Not usually a fan of open dates during the season, Coach Young has warmed to the idea of an extra week of preparation before league play begins, especially against Greenwood’s main conference foe, the Shiloh Saints.
“I like the set up of playing three games then getting an extra week to prepare for Shiloh and maybe rest up if we get some guys banged up early. It’s a positive for us. Shiloh has a lot of guys back from last year and will be as talented and well-coached as anybody in 6A, and it will be a challenge. We didn’t see their quarterback last year. He was hurt both times we played them, and they have a great running back, and all their secondary is back.”
Asked about team health coming out of the scrimmage, the coach said, “We’ve been healthy, knock on wood. We’ve got some guys with sore ankles or sore wrists. Landon Billy will return soon, and we’ve got Drew Dickinson back and he’ll start on Friday night.” Senior Caleb Cox was lost to a season-ending knee injury in spring practice, as reported last May. He was expected to start at linebacker.
“We’re just excited to get started and to have our staff all back,” said the coach. “That’s a huge benefit, being able to keep our staff the same the last few years has been huge. Those guys do such a good job. We don’t have to start over every year when our whole staff is back, and I think that’s big.”
Young did convery one bit of information concerning the athletic staff. Coach B.J. Ross, the boys varsity basketball head coach, is also now an assistant athletic director, taking over for Tyler Woods, who returned to lead the GHS golf program. He also coaches boys soccer. “Tyler is doing a great job with both our soccer and golf programs, but this allows B.J. to help with some admirative stuff.” That administrative help will be big for the next 14 weeks covering the length of the 2025 gridiron season for the Bulldogs and their head coach, who doubles as the school’s athletic director. Young, his exemplary staff, and their players are eager for the season to start, and it will this Friday night at 7 p.m. at Greenwood’s Smith-Robinson Stadium. So, come out and support the Bulldogs in their quest for a 13th state championship.