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Green Forest and Eureka Springs’ soccer teams face an exciting week at Arkansas high school soccer’s 3A State Championship tournament, hosted by Bergman at Harrison’s Anstaff Soccer Complex.
What are the chances of any Carroll County teams bring home the gold? Could the Tigers snag their fourth and fifth state soccer championships? Could Eureka Springs win their first state soccer title?
According to the national high school sports website Max-Preps.com, the odds for two of the squads are overwhelming — and excellent for the other team.
The website ranks the Lady Tigers as the unquestioned top girls 3A team in the state — as does the website ScoreBoardLive. com. MaxPreps has its own proprietary rating system that gives the Green Forest girls a score of 7.08 out of 15.
Compare that to the state’s second-place team, Little Rock’s prestigious Episcopal Collegiate prep school. It scores significantly lower at 3.99. In third place, Life Way Christian Academy is rated 3.6. The Green Forest girls’ perennial nemesis, powerhouse Central Arkansas Christian Academy, is rated fourth statewide at 3.5.
What about the Green Forest boys? The gap between first and second in the state is breathtaking. Green Forest’s boys are rated an amazing 14.43 out of 15.
The Tigers’ most formidable annual opponent in the state, Central Arkansas Christian, is rated onethird of that – 4.81.
At 4 p.m. Thursday at Harrison’s Anstaff Soccer Complex on Highway 7 just down from the old junior high school, Eureka Springs is scheduled to kick off against the 3A South champs, Cossatot River. The Highlanders are rated by MaxPreps at 4.67 – and ranked the thirdbest team in the tournament.
At 5 p.m., the Lady Tigers — the top-seeded girls team in the tournament and the 3A West conference champions — play the fourth-ranked team from the 3A South, Harmony Grove, which had a miserable 0-5-0 season, not winning a single game, compared to Green Forest girls’ 10-1-1.
At 7 p.m. the Tigers — the top-seeded boys team in the tournament, the 3A West boys champions and 2023 3A state champs – face 3A South’s fourthplace team, Subiaco Academy, which posted an anemic 2-win, 4-loss season.
How does Max-Preps come up with its ratings?
“MaxPreps does not poll coaches, sportswriters or fans. Nor does our staff make any judgments on the merits of any individual team,” explains the website. “Generally, the more a team wins, the higher the ranking. However, the system takes into account quality wins (against other highly ranked opponents) and strength of schedule.
“For example, a team’s ranking is hurt more by losing to a team that is ranked below them than a team ranked ahead.”
That explains Green Forest’s stratospheric rating — because of Tigers coaches strategy each year of pairing off the 3A team against 4A, 5A and 6A schools — just to give the Tigers game experience as well as an awareness that there are some astonishing opponents out there.
In the opinion of Green Forest coach Adam Richter and assistant coach Fernando Fuentes, it never hurts a team to face reality — or to give Green Forest’s highly competitive boys increasing motivation to improve themselves and constantly strive for excellence.
The team to watch, however, will be Eureka Springs. They might seem a dark horse for the state title, but MaxPreps doesn’t think so — ranking them third in the state, well above all the annual favorites, such as CAC, Episcopal and Searcy Riverside.
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