For the fourth time in the last five seasons, the Arkadelphia Badger football team is practicing over the Thanksgiving holiday in preparation for a 4A State Quarterfinal game.
This Friday the Badgers will host one of their fellow 4A-7 conference foes in the Ashdown Panthers, with kickoff set for 7:00 p.m. on AllCare Field at Badger Stadium. The winner of Friday’s game will travel to either Booneville or Pea Ridge for a 4A State Semifinal game on Friday, December 1.
Tickets for this Friday’s game will be $6 for school-aged children and above. Children birth through pre-school will not need to have a ticket to get into the game. Important to note is that since the event is an Arkansas Activities Association event, no local passes can be accepted. This includes the following:
- 2017-18 APSD Athletics All-Sports Passes
- 4A-7 Conference passes
- Arkadelphia Badger Foundation Passes
- APSD Employee Passes
- APSD Lifetime Passes
- 2017-18 Jr. Badger Passes
Tickets will be on sale Friday from 11:30 – 1:30 in the main ticket window of AllCare Field at Badger Stadium and then again beginning at 5:00 p.m. Friday at the stadium when gates will open.
As has been the tradition when the Badgers practice over the Thanksgiving week, Badger head coach J.R. Eldridge would like to invite any former Badgers who have practiced over the Thanksgiving break or any former Badgers who were on teams that went far into the playoffs whether the playoffs went all the way to Thanksgiving or not to the AHS Fieldhouse to fellowship with the Badgers Thursday morning.
Before the Badgers go through their Thursday walk-through, former Badgers are invited to join the 2017 Badgers in Badger Fieldhouse Thursday morning at 8:30.
John Duncan Farmer’s Insurance Agency of Arkadelphia is providing donuts for those who attend Thursday morning.
“We hope that we’ll have several former Badgers join us Thursday morning,” said Eldridge. “We hope that our current players can hear their stories and be inspired by what they have to say. Dating back to the 1970 team (the first team of the modern era to reach a state championship game), to the 1976, ’79 and ’87 teams all the way to the teams we’ve had during our tenure, we’ve had many teams go far in the playoffs and we hope those who live here or those who might be in town visiting family will take advantage of this special opportunity to visit with other former Badgers and meet our current team.”
This is the 30th anniversary of the 1987 state championship team and Arkadelphia Athletics would like to especially invite members of the 1987 team – as well as the 1979 state championship team – along with those from teams mentioned above to join the current Badgers Thursday and Friday. Any former Badgers who attend the fellowship Thursday morning or the game Friday will be invited to come to the sideline to be honorary captains for the coin toss and welcome this year’s Badgers onto AllCare Field from the Badger Winning Walk just prior to kickoff.