Cool weather is sweeping across the Natural State, and that can only mean one thing: Friday Night Lights are back and fully underway. Our hometown Heber Springs Panthers are nearly halfway through the 2020 season. There’s something special about high school football this year, given that most fans weren’t sure there would be a season. Hopefully, that excitement can be transferred into the stands on Friday nights as Heartland Ford joins the community to cheer on the Panthers.
The Panthers have had a bit of a rough start in their first year under Todd Webb’s leadership after losing their first two non-conference games to Newport and Harding Academy. However, things are possibly turning around after a big non-conference win over Dover and a solid display against a good Lonoke team to begin the conference season. Heber Springs certainly has the potential to knock off a few of the teams in their conference and even play their way into a playoff position. Out of the remaining opponents on the team’s schedule, only Stuttgart and CAC rank in the top half of Hooten’s AR Football Class 4A rankings. Mills and Clinton, in particular, could prove to be winnable games for the Panthers as they have only won one game between the two of them.
Anytime a football team gets a new coach, it takes time for them to gel and for the players to learn a new way to play the game. For Heber Springs, the quinks are being worked out, and the Panthers are moving towards an exciting future under their new boss. This season, the team needs the whole community to get behind it and support it as it does its best to make us all proud. We hope you’ll join the Heartland Ford crew as we come to support the Panthers through the rest of the season. If we all work together, it could very well be a season to remember.