Regular-season champion McNeese State leads all teams with five of the 11 selections to the all-academic squad. Texas State was the only other school with multiple selections as two Bobcats are named.

By giving him a purple and gray helmet he hasn’t worn since 1975, president Lu Hardin symbolically handed over the reins of the athletic department to UCA alumnus John Thompson at a Wednesday morning news conference.

Thompson was introduced as UCA’s new Athletic Director at the conference in Wingo Hall. A Bear defensive back for two years and a 1978 graduate of the university, Thompson follows former AD Vance Strange who abruptly resigned last Friday.

The UCA Board of Trustees accepted the resignation of Athletic Director Vance Strange at its meeting on Friday.

"When I became president, we needed some serious work to bring good will to the community," president Lu Hardin said. "I believe Vance did a great job in the community and the state. I am grateful for the work he has done for the past three years."

It was quite apparent sophomore Tim Winston wasn’t your run-of-the-mill sports fan when he showed up for his interview with The Echo wearing a shirt that prominently boasted about an event that most every other sports fan disapproved.

The shirt, complete with an illustration of the infamous container, proclaimed “I threw the cup at Ron Artest,” referring to the brawl-inspiring cup of beer that hit NBA player Artest last season. Artest went after the fan who threw the cup and the rest is history. Winston, although he really didn’t throw the cup, is trying to make a little history at UCA along with sophomore Tim Daulong.

UCA got the signature of one of the state's best distance runners on Thursday when Justin Smith of Heber Springs inked with the Bears.

Smith, an all-conference and all-state selection in track and cross country since his freshman year, joins coach Richard Martin's team as the program begins its resurrection after a hiatus dating back to the early 90s.

Echo Sports founders Kai Caddy and Josh Goff combined for 15 awards at Friday's Arkansas College Media Association awards banquet.


Goff, the editor of The Echo, won nine awards. Caddy, sports editor of The Echo, came away with six.

Goff's awards include: First place in Sports Feature Writing, First place in Sports Column Writing, Third place in Sports Story Writing, Honorable Mention in Sports Feature Writing, Honorable Mention in Sports Photography, Second place in General Column Writing, Secondplace in Editorial Writing, Second place in Feature writing and Third place in Editorial Writing.

It might not've been pretty – but it's still a win.

Despite a handful of miscues and a rare earned run given up by closer Brian Blankenship, the UCA Bears (27-13) were able to stage a three-run, 9th-inning rally to defeat the Bisons of Harding University in a non-conference game Tuesday at UCA Field.

"We weren't ready to play," UCA coach Doug Clark said. "Let's call a spade a spade. We were not ready to play – the coaches, the players. I guess we just thought we'd throw on our gloves and hats and go out there and win."

After Blankenship – who entered the game with a miniscule 0.44 ERA – allowed Harding's Ben Wimberly to score in the top of the 9th, UCA entered the home half trailing 5-3.

by Kai Caddy

UCA football coach Clint Conque's office redecoration is now complete, just like his team's first spring as a Division I-AA squad.

The Bears wrapped up spring practice last Friday night before an estimated 500 fans at Estes Stadium in the annual spring game, in which the projected first string showed why they're in that position as the first offense and first defense dominated their counterparts on the second string.

The first-string offense put on a show for the fans early and often. After the first defense held the second offense to a three and out, the first offense didn't waste much time before getting in the end zone.

Dennis correctly guessed 37 of 63 (58.7 percent) games and was one of only three contestants to even guess a Final Four team right.

UCA's first major scrimmage as a Division IAA program on Saturday in front of a crowd of about 200 in Estes Stadium provided plenty of positives heading into the Bears' final week of spring drills.

The 75-play scrimmage was one of a situational nature. The Bears worked first string vs. first string and second string vs. second string for most of the session, but at the end the first strings proved why there were first stringers as they took on the second string.

Running back Ross Brown showed a little bit of extra speed that he accumulated sometime between the end of last season and this spring. He went 60 yards untouched after bouncing a run out to the left sideline then all the way to paydirt for the first touchdown of the scrimmage during some third down situational work.

The Final Four is set and Matt Page was the only contestant to correctly guess two of the four teams. But Page can't win. Due to his struggles in earlier rounds he finishes the contest with 70 points.

In fact, there are only three contests left that can win this bad boy of a contest. The current leader, Nathaniel Broadway can hang on to the lead, while David Dennis and Tyler Cox can still jump into the winner's circle if things go their way on Saturday.

Broadway, who picked Florida to go to the Final Four and lose, will only win if both the Gators and UCLA fall in Saturday's seminfinals.

Montevallo, from the East, got to the championship after handily dispossing of Arkansas-Monticello, 80-71.

The Falcons had four players score in double figures. They were led by James Hall's 21 points. Marcus Kennedy had 20 points.

The West Division No. 1 seed Lady Reddies (25-3) trailed 33-28 at halftime. That was after allowing a six-minute 15-0 run by the Braves (19-9) in the middle of the first half.

They didn't get it. The Lady Argos (22-6) were able to force overtime with Delta State in Saturday's GSC semifinal, but the Lady Statesmen (27-2) proved to be to much in the extra period and pulled away to a 63-54 win to advance to Sunday's championship game.

With 30 seconds remaining in regulation UWF's Melissa Nafzger stepped up and drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the circle to tie the game at 50.

In overtime built a five-point advantage before the Lady Argos were able to score. UWF scored just one more time in the period and shot 20 percent. DSU scored all but two of its points from the free-throw line in overtime, going 11-of-16 from the line.