Barnard cautiously optimistic about Shiloh Christian’s ascension to Class 6A
By DUDLEY E. DAWSON
Back when Tucker Barnard was an assistant football coach at Shiloh Christian from 2004-2011, the Saints were a powerhouse Class 3A and 4A program.
When he enters his second year as Shiloh’s head coach in 2024, the Saints will have elevated all the way to playing in Class 6A – their third classification in four years.
It’s a meteoric rise for the school, who has moved up because of the Saints success in the lower classes and the Arkansas Activities Association’s competitive equity rule.
Barnard finished up a 12-year run at Broken Arrow with an Class Class 6A-II state title in 2022 and was 55-6 in his last five seasons at the school.
He led Shiloh to a 11-3 mark and a Class 5A championship game appearance this past season and welcomes the challenge but does note it has come a little quicker than expected.
“I don’t think I am naive about the challenge and I know it is going to be tough,” Barnard said. “I mean 5A was tough and 5A was good. So moving up again is going to be another tough challenge.There is no doubt about that.”
Shiloh, which has won eight state titles in its history, has finished runner-up the past three seasons while losing to Little Rock Parkview in the past two Class 5A title games and to Joe T. Robinson in the 2021 Class 4A championship.
The Saints won their seventh state title in 2010 before notching the eighth in 2020 – both while competing in Class 4A.
Shiloh – which has 254 students in its high school – will now be in a 6A-West conference with much larger schools Fort Smith Southside (1,485), Van Buren (1,264), Russellville (1,239), Siloam Springs (1,058), Lake Hamilton (985), Mountain Home (976) and defending Class 6A state champ Greenwood (901).
“I have seen the conference now and I kind of know what we are up against,” Barnard said. “I cautiously say I am excited about it.
“When I came from Stillwater and came back over here, I knew that competitive equity rule was in place, but I came anyway with the assumption we would be 6A at some point, but at that time it was every four years. So in my mind we had at least three years to prepare for that and try to get our program ready to do that.
“So they moved up the timeline on us, but I think it is still going to a lot of fun.”
But Barnard reiterates that the other seven schools in the new 6A West will obviously have a size advantage.
“I am worried about just the grind of the season,” Barnard said. “I think we have 254 kids in high school and we had 50 something kids on the roster – about 55 on the roster this year.
“If we are playing longer, I mean if we are just really honest about it, we have had a lot of mercy rule games over the years and so our kids come out and maybe play one series in the second half and then the starters are out and you are playing a bunch of JV guys.
“So I just worry about the season and the fatigue. We have a bunch of guys that play both ways. Everybody has guys that play both ways, but we have a bunch.
“The grind of that, the injuries that can mount up on you. Everybody is dealing with it, but we just have a significant smaller roster that we have to try to deal and work through that.
“I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for us. That is not why I say all that. I just say that I don’t think I am naive to the challenges.”
Barnard thinks Shiloh’s culture and support, which have been part of 64 wins in the past five seasons, will lead to success in Class 6A just as it has in the other classifications.
“I absolutely believe that,” Barnard said. “I would like to say that winning is a natural result of how we operate, the expectations that our kids and our families have and just the way we go about things.
“It’s going to be even harder now, but again I expect our kids and our coaches and our families will rise to the occasion and do what we need to do.
“I mean you can’t just always work harder. I don’t want to sound silly just saying ‘we will work harder.’ I don’t know that that is always a valid answer, but we do and we will continue to put in a lot of time and energy into being successful and trying to figure out how to do whatever it takes to be good on that next level.
“I trust that our vision and our expectation won’t change a lot of times people will rise to that occasion, rise tot have level of what is expected of them.”
Photo by John D. James
