The 479 High School Sports Magazine kicks off the high school football and volleyball seasons by spotlighting the Heritage War Eagles, who are determined to end their 19-game losing streak. Coach Eric Munoz emphasizes the team's commitment to building a competitive culture, leaning on strong senior leaders like Evan Gordon and Jake Stout, and navigating ongoing quarterback battles with promising sophomores and juniors. Meanwhile, on the volleyball court, Shiloh Christian Saints' Coach Nathan Bodenstein reflects on the challenges of replacing ten graduated seniors following their state championship run, while key player Chloe Blessing aims for personal milestones. Both coaches express excitement for their respective seasons, highlighting notable upcoming matchups and the evolving landscape of high school sports in the region. This episode not only previews the intense competition ahead but also takes a nostalgic look back at local sports history.

Takeaways:

• Heritage War Eagles coach Eric Munoz emphasizes the importance of competition and culture change to end a 19-game losing streak.
• Coach Munoz highlights key senior leaders Evan Gordon and Jake Stout as pivotal to the team's development this season.
• The Shiloh Christian Saints face a challenge with 10 graduated seniors but return star player Chloe Blessing aiming for major milestones.
• Coach Nathan Bodenstein plans to leverage a balanced offense with a mix of experienced seniors and promising freshmen for the new volleyball season.
• The 7A West Conference is described as a gauntlet, with Coach Munoz stressing the need for consistent improvement and execution.
• The upcoming football and volleyball seasons promise exciting matchups, with local teams gearing up for competitive play against strong opponents.

Welcome to the 479 high school sports Magazine where we spotlight the teams, coaches and athletes who represent the best in their communities.

I'm Dave Schoen.

And coming up on this episode, we get ready for the high school football season which kicks off the weekend of August 29th.

And we visit with Heritage War Eagles coach Eric Munoz.

The high school volleyball season also starts this week and we'll speak with Shiloh Christian Saints coach Nathan Bodenstein.

We'll also take you back to some of the top high school sports news in our region with our 479 high school sports time machine.

All of that is next on the 479 High School Sports magazine.

We're back on the 479 High School Sports magazine.

I our head coach Eric Munoz said the team's been working all summer to change the culture and the results.

Yeah, I mean, the kids have been working really hard.

You know, they've been buying into our standard.

You know, we talk about the three pillars competing and that's the main one is they're competing everything they do and you know, if it's in the weight room or if it's in the classroom or on the field, they're competing in everything they do.

And then, you know, those are things that we really lay our hat on and these kids have really been bought into, you know, the competition of things and competition breeds success.

And I think that's something that we really feel good about right now.

Well, and talk about what you have coming in a lot of sophomores, but as you mentioned, you have a lot of size this year.

Yeah, you know, we are a sophomore, junior heavy team right now.

Don't have a lot of seniors.

I will tell you this, the seniors we have, they're great leaders and they work extremely hard and get the kids to, you know, follow them and what we do and what we believe in.

But, you know, it's good to have size.

You know, I've been, I've been seeing these sophomores, you know, when they were in middle school and the big bodies that we had that we haven't been blessed with as of late.

And it's, it's good that we've, we finally got some bigger bodies in that are going to help us and we're going to be, you know, we're going to have two sophomore tackles starting for us and they're big bodies, you know, 63 and 64 respectively.

And those are things that, you know, you can't, you can't just hand pick them.

You know, you got what you got, but you know, it's nice to have some size.

And these kids are really good football players and I'm excited to see them grow throughout the year and then, and then move on into their junior senior years.

Now, who are the players that are going to be leading you this year?

You know, I'll start with one of our senior leaders, Evan Gordon.

He's a guy that does everything right on the field, off the field, in the community.

He's going to play running back for us as well as linebacker.

We're going to ask a lot of him and he's up to the task.

He's a guy that, he's never going to back down to competition or adversity and he's going to attack it head, head on.

And that's something that we really love about Evan.

And then another senior we've got is Jake Stout.

He plays receiver, db.

He's been with us since I've been here and he's, he's developed into a great football player and another great human being.

The kid, you know, again, does everything right in the classroom, does everything right over here in the football field and then in the community.

You know, those two guys, I'd say, you know, really look, looking for them being the team leaders.

And you know, I really rely on these seniors to be, to be big leaders for us as well.

But those two guys are definitely guys to be on the lookout for.

Now you mentioned the sophomores that you're going to have starting on the line.

Talk about who's going to be starting on the line, including those sophomores.

You know, you look at our left tackle, Wesley Wybert, he's, he's about 6 4, almost 6 5, about 240.

And he's, he's got a chance to be a very special player.

He's, he's, I mean he's, he's well polished for sophomore.

He's very smart, understands the game.

He's a guy that kind of a no brainer for us to have a left tackle.

And you know, we feel really good about him.

And then Dante Carrillo is our other tackle on the right side.

He's about six three, a little bit heavier, about 255, 260.

And he's a great kid as well.

And he's come along all spring and all summer and God is feeling really confident about his ability and the things he knows and he's doing, which is really good.

And then right now, interior wise, going into our benefit scrimmage, you know, we're trying to, we're trying to figure out who's going to be those three guys in the interior.

You know, we've got a senior, Dylan Lackey, who's pretty much solidified a spot at one of the guard positions.

And then after that, you know, Connor Kit cares.

We played for us last year.

We don't know if he's gonna play center guard.

Keel errors, Mindy, we don't know if he's gonna place or guard.

And then we got some other young guys that might be stepping in.

Nate Tellis, he's going to be a junior for us.

He started force left tackle.

He might, he's gonna be in there for, you know, one of those guard positions.

And then another soft one of our big bodied kids again, Alex Moreno, he's going to be a role player in there as well.

And then, you know, Sonny, Sonny, he's a guy that is going to be a junior and Sonny Barraza and I think he's got a chance to, you know, be a role player or take over that starting position.

So we've got a nice little battle in the interior.

We know we've solidified our edges, the interior.

We're still trying to figure out we're going to mix and match some things in the, in the scrimmage and then, you know, we'll have a great group ready to go once we get to Solemn Springs.

Now, who's going to be playing quarterback for you this year?

You know, this is one thing that I hadn't had a chance to have and that's a quarterback battle.

We've had two guys that have been battling out since the spring and they're still battling out.

Braden Carroll Jr. And Jack Presley is a junior as well.

Those two guys have compete, been competing for the starting job and we haven't made a decision on who that guy's going to be yet.

They're getting equal reps in practice and, you know, it's, it's one of those things we're gonna see when we get to the scrimmage is who performs and who has a great week of practice leading up to Slime Springs.

And it'll be, you know, it might be the day of the game decision or, you know, game time decision on who we're gonna go with.

And, you know, it might be a deal where, you know, one of the guys starts and maybe, maybe we're not as hot as we want when we throw the other guy in, see if we can get a spark.

So, you know, it's good, it's good to have two guys that you feel really good about that can run the offense, you know, and have that competition battle, because like I said, competition breeds success.

And it's always good to be pushed by somebody else to keep getting better.

We've talked about the offense.

What's it going to look like on the defensive side of the ball?

You know, I think you go back to saying we got some bigger bodies.

It's nice to know that we're going to have bigger bodies up front that can help us stop the run game.

We've got some good linebackers, experienced guys, you know, like I said, Evan, Gordon, Connor, Otran, Santiago, Cortez, guys like that.

We got a younger kid, Gibson, Ricketts, who's going to be a heck of a ball player.

All linebackers.

But what's good is we've got some of those big boys up front.

They're going to help suck up some blocks and keep, keep some of them.

I'm getting onto the second level, guys and allow our better player, our linebacker play to, gonna make some tackles for us.

So, you know, defensively, we feel really good about our front seven.

We're, we're new in the back end a little bit.

You know, Jake Stout's been back there, Sam Klein's been back there a little bit.

But you know, corners will be new at corner.

And we got Diego Juarez, his senior, he's a transfer in here.

And then Robert Pickard at the other corner.

He, he hadn't played any varsity snatch horse yet either.

So pretty, pretty new in the back end, but those guys have been doing a really good job.

And you know, the motto is stop the run.

And I feel like we've got some of the puzzle pieces up front to, to do that.

And, you know, you want to talk about some of the guys up front.

Willstone, Deanne and Elijah won.

Smith, the end, William Aguilera, you know, in the interior, Alex Moreno, Sonny Braza, Sloan Hollis.

We've got a plethora of guys up there.

Brian Granados, we've got a lot of guys that we feel good that we can roll in and out and be pretty deep, you know, at least three or four deep up front.

Now, you mentioned the schedule.

Siloam is going to be your first opponent, the 29th and talk about your non conference schedule.

Yeah, this will be Siloam on 29th.

First game will be at Siloam and then we will go to Carl Junction the next week.

Carl Junction, Missouri will play up there and then we will hit our bye week after that game and then Little Rock Central comes here for our first home game on the 19th and then we'll get in a conference play after that.

So, you know, we're going to concentrate on Solomon Springs right now, get through our scrimmage healthy, get some good reps and then have a great week of practice next week and then be ready to go for Solemn Springs.

Well, and you know, next week you got to concentrate on that.

But of course when you talk about the conference, the 7A West.

No, no matter how much you've improved, the way that conference is, it's going to be a tough slog once you get to the end of September.

Yeah, I mean it's a gauntlet.

I mean I think everybody knows in the 7A West I mean there's great coaches, great players and you got to be on your A game.

And you know, for us we're going to worry about one day at a time, one practice at a time and then when we get to game day, we'll be ready for game day.

But it's a tough conference.

But I tell you what, anybody can beat anybody in any given night if you go and play your cards right and execute.

And I believe that, you know, I feel really good about where we're at right now as a team.

There's been a lot of progress that I've seen from the spring to now.

Now we just have to go out and execute.

All of the teams in the 7A West Conference will see action this weekend with Bentonville visiting Tulsa Union and Harbor hosting Broken Arrow in games from Oklahoma and Arkansas contests.

Events to 78 Central include Cabot @ Fayetteville, North Little Rock at Rogers and Springdale at Little Rock Central.

Elsewhere, Bentonville west is at Greenwood and Northside faces Southside in the Battle of Rogers Avenue in Fort Smith.

Other area games involving out of state competition feature Farmington hosting Edmond North, Elkins entertaining Miami and Gentry welcoming Stilwell.

Meanwhile, Greenland's at Lincoln while Huntsville hosts Lamar close to the 479 footprint.

In Missouri, McDonald county visits Lamar in Big Eight football while Cassidy will entertain Seneca and Neosha hosts Glendale in central Ozarks conference play.

Rounding out the schedule in Oklahoma, Westville hosts Kansas in the annual rivalry game while Colcord welcomes Oklahoma Union.

Jay entertains eight Air and Oaks Mission takes on Quinton in eight man action.

Ice cream.

Volleyball season also begins this week and we visit with Shiloh Christian coach Nathan bodenstein when the 479 High School Sports magazine continues.

Welcome back to the 479 High School Sports magazine.

In addition to the football season, the high school volleyball season opens this week with the Shiloh Christian Saints coming off a state championship in Class 5A.

For coach Nathan Bodenstein, it was a pinnacle for a program that had been building over the past three seasons.

Well, like most people would expect.

I think it was a really special group that they had been in the state finals two years before that as well.

So it was their third trip to the finals in a row.

In that group of seniors that I graduated 10 of and they this when we made it to the finals, this is the year we are not leaving without a ring.

So it was, it was amazing.

It was really great to see them.

Finish.

On the top and finish their goals.

You know that was, it was, it was great to see to be a part of.

Well, with 10 players, you know, reaching the finals at their senior season, I would imagine that means a lot of inexperience, a lot of opportunities for players moving up.

Do you have anybody coming back from this past year?

Okay, so we have, we're returning three seniors that have some experience.

I have five seniors all together and the biggest name probably is Chloe Blessing.

She's our sixth row outside that she's been all state as a sophomore and a junior Democrat Gazette newcomer of the year, Arkansas all preps newcomer.

So she's had a great career so far.

She's on pace to hit a thousand kills and a thousand digs this season, which would be a pretty cool honor for her.

She works really hard.

The other attorney is Mary Carolyn Reese and she is one of the caller kind of the glue for our team.

She's not real flashy but she just gets the job done and she's our vocal leader.

She is kind of the accountability in our, in our gym most days and has high expectations for herself but also for a team.

But we're, you know, we're excited.

We like you said, we do have a lot of inexperience coming in but I think we're going to be really talented.

It's just going to be a matter of out varsity quickly and they don't have a really easy schedule to try that out on.

But it'll be kind of trial by fire.

I think when you, when you get ready for the season.

What do you feel the team's biggest strengths are this year?

I think one of our biggest strengths is we are pretty balanced in our offense.

We've got two really good middles, we've got some really great pin hitters.

We've got, we're running a 6:2 for the first time in five years, you know, so I've got some really good setters.

But we're, we're blessed with hitters this year that we're going to utilize as many hitters as we can and I think that the just the experience of club has helped, you know, a lot of these girls get ready.

I've got three freshmen that are in the starting rotation and three sophomores at the moment.

So I think that, you know, our biggest strength, like I said, is probably just going to be the balance of our offense.

Among the players that are going to be new to the rotation this year, who are, who do you feel right now is could be the players to watch out for?

One name will be Caroline Stahlbaumer.

She's a sophomore and she is explosive.

It's just really fun to watch.

She jumps really well.

Then Bristol Bonanno is one of my freshmen.

She's going to be our libero.

She's replacing her sister Bella Bonanno who is a four time all stater who's now about to play for ole miss.

They're 10 days away from opening their college season and we've, we've got Harper Davey and Micah Unger, our two other freshmen and Riley Bodenstein and Kennedy Brown are a couple of the other sophomores that you're probably going to be hearing about.

Talking about the youth and talking about Ole Miss and the fact that right now Arkansas volleyball team is doing extremely well and has really shown a lot of growth and pretty much a lot of volleyball in the SEC has shown a lot of growth over the years.

Do you feel that has really helped to develop your team in particular and the sport pretty much around the region?

If you talk to any volleyball coach, especially in Northwest Arkansas, it has morphed so much in probably the last five to six years and you know, you hit it on the head with like the sport is just taking off, it's exploding.

It's the fastest growing sport, you know, in the country from what I've been told at our latest ABCA Convention.

And, you know, it's.

We're kind of.

We're finally catching up with the east as well.

You know, used to be in Arkansas.

Northeast was the only teams really that were winning a whole lot of state championships.

Jonesboro, Valley View, you know, west side.

And we're, we're glad that it's moved over to northwest Arkansas as well.

And I think you're just going to continue to see the game just change.

The speed is faster.

I think the girls are in the weight room more though, as well and just working really hard on jumping and footwork.

And we're excited to see all the changes, you know, that are already happening and just trying to keep up with it.

Now back to this season.

You talked about a very tough schedule.

You're in a tough conference.

Who are some of the teams out of the 5A west you're going to have to worry about the most?

Oh, Farmington right off the bat.

They are super talented, very well coached.

They've got just a lot of experience returning.

They are going to be really good.

It could be some really good games.

Salem Springs, I think, is also one of the programs to watch.

They've got all of their experience back.

They've got a phenomenal setter, a great libero, two really good outsides.

And so I think they're going to be a team to watch as well.

And then I haven't seen Van Buren, but Van Buren has been at the top, you know, here lately and then always Greenwood.

Jennifer golden always has a phenomenal program that you can't ever count out, ever.

And I would imagine that you mentioned the fact you're going to have a tough schedule and the way competitive balance works of the Triple A, eventually you might be moved up into that 6A conference and you, you've had to play a few six, eight teams in your schedule as well.

Well, we actually will.

If we go.

500 in conference this year, then we will be moved up to 6A next year.

So that's one of the ways I scheduled, you know, or put together my schedule was we will actually be playing Harbor, Rogers, Heritage, north side, south side, Bentonville, Bentonville West.

So I thought I might have to get them ready to play, you know, next year in conference.

So as long as, you know, everything goes well for us this year.

And so, you know, that was kind of my thought going into this year of scheduling is I'm just going to go try to play as many 6A schools as I can and hopefully we just keep up with them.

The Lady Saints will open play at Rogers Aug. 27 and head to Bentonville for an Early Bird tournament.

Conference play starts September 10th at Van Buren.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Farmington Lady Cardinals open their season Aug. 25 against Huntsville, followed by Harbor Aug. 26.

They'll also play at Van Buren to open conference play on September 11th.

Looking at Class 6A the Bentonville Lady Tigers will try to finish a state championship run that ended last year against Conway in the finals, hosting Rodgers Aug. 28.

The Fayetteville Lady Bulldogs hope to return to the pinnacle.

They'll start with a couple of non conference matches at Greenwood and Nixa this week before opening their conference play at Bentonville West September 2nd.

The Harbor Lady Wildcats host Fort Smith Southside August 29th.

After non conference matches against Farmington and at Greenwood, Bentonville west travels to Van Buren Aug. 25.

They'll open conference play at Heritage Aug. 28 in Class 4A.

One of the region's premier matchups starts early as Gravett visits Prairie Grove August 26th.

In just a moment, we'll step into the 479 Time Machine as the 479 High School Sports Magazine continue.

Welcome back to the 479 High School Sports Magazine.

In our news segment, we'll take a look back at some of the top sports stories from the past with our Time machine.

Ten years ago this month, the Springdale school district became the first among the larger schools to start seventh grade sports programs, adding football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and spirit to their four middle schools Helen Tyson, Helstern, J O Kelly and Sonora.

During that first season, the Springdale schools would face each other along with districts such as Shiloh Christian and Siloam Springs that offered sports in the seventh grade.

Rogers, Bentonville and Fayetteville would eventually add seventh grade athletics later.

The school was established 25 years ago and its girls soccer team would capture its first state championship, winning the 3A title over little Rock's Baptist Prep last May.

Join us next week as we recap the opening week of the high school football, football and volleyball seasons and preview the upcoming cross country season on the 479 High School Sports Magazine, presented by the 479 Media Group.

I'm Dave Schoen and we thank you for tuning in.