Wynne continues rebuild on and off the football field

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

The community of Wynne continues its healing from a devastating tornado back on March 31, 2023 with the football program also continuing its rebuilding.

The tradition-rich Yellowjackets, now in their third season under legendary former Rison head coach Clay Totty, are doing their best to put smiles back on the faces of their fans.

“After the tornado, everybody swarms in and then they go back to normal,” Totty said earlier this week at Big Miller High School football Media Days in Little Rock. “It was not normal for us. We dealt with it every day.

“These guys stayed, these guys are proud to be Wynne Yellowjackets, they are proud of their school and they are proud of their town. And they love each other. There is not enough of that left in the world.”

Wynne went 6-5 last season and appears on the verge of a breakthrough this campaign with the most experience – 5 returning starters on both offense and defense – Totty has had to work with since his arrival.

“I’m very proud of these kids,” Totty said. “When the tornado happened two years ago, we had 64 eighth and ninth graders – that would be our juniors and seniors now. 
“We have 19 of those 64 left. We started 9 guys that are now seniors as sophomores and we have picked up a few.

“…These kids are special to me. In a world today where we talk about the ones that leave, we talk about they ones that are stars, we should talk about the ones that are loyal to their school and have got some grit.

“They have stuck together and are a bunch of fighters. They are my kind of people, I love them and I appreciate them.”

It’s clear his players like offensive lineman Wesley Fuller echo that sentiment.

“With Coach Totty, the team feels more like a family than most of there teams I have ever played on,” Fuller said. “After the tornado, we lost almost everybody I grew up with due to moving schools or whatever.

“But with him around, it just brings us all together. It makes us feel more like a family and that makes us play better, practice better, keep ourselves more disciplined.”

Wynne offensive/defensive lineman Wesley Archer was at the Media Days along with fellow veterans Fuller, tight end/defensive end Anthony Smith and defensive end Case Hicks.

“Playing for Coach Totty, you definitely have to be a fighter,” Archer said. “You better be able to fight for four quarters in every game you play.

“The starts in practice and Coach Totty gets us in condition and gets us ready for those hot games at the beginning of the year….We have made progress and definitely have more progress to make.”

Totty became the winningest coach in Rison history in a 25-year run at the helm of the Wildcats before taking over at Wynne on Jan. 3, 2023.

The program was returning just two starters on both sides of the football and the Yellowjackets got off to a rocky start, losing their first two games by a combined score of 62-14.

But Wynne rebounded to win 5 of its last 8 regular season contests in 2023 and made the Class 5A playoffs before losing to to Little Rock Mills 35-21.

That record improved last season despite still not having the number of normal players out for a Class 5A school and finishing with just 34 healthy players.

 “The numbers still are (low), but we are making progress,” Totty said. “We only have 19 juniors and seniors that have stayed with us the whole time through, so we are still having to rely own a lot of sophomores.

“We have 46 total (players), 24 juniors and seniors so we have picked up five with those juniors and seniors…So we are still not where we need to be.

“When you get your program like you want it, you are playing sophomores because you want to, not because you have to.”

Wynne fell to eventual Class 5A Little Rock Parkview 42-10 in the first round of last season’s state playoffs.

“We had a great offseason,” Totty said. “I guess we had access to 32 of our 46 in the offseason and of those 32, we had 26 of those guys power clean 200 pounds and then some of those baseball guys we got in the summer, we got three of those up.

“So our strength is a lot better. The first year after the tornado, we were down to only 8 to 10 that could do that. We are a lot stronger.

“Like I said earlier, we have nine guys that will be starting for three years so we have more experience, but from the depth standpoint we are still relying n a lot of young guys.

“These guys were having to double up and play a lot of positions.”

Wynne will host Searcy in a scrimmage on August 19 before opening the season at Class 6A Marion on August 29.

Marion downed Wynne 27-7 in the 2023 season opener and 34-28 to kick off 2024.

“Playing Marion makes you better,” Totty said. “If you are a competitor, and we talk about that every day – how many days to Marion…we think that (increased strength) is going to give us a chance to beast Marion.

“They are very talented and very well-coached. We like that, getting to face them, and we will run all 46 kids out there and they will run out 90.

“We’ll be playing kids both ways and we like the challenge of that. And we know it would be a great accomplishment for us to beat them.”

Photo courtesy of Big Miller Media Days