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Monday, February 11, 2008
Football On The Brain
Western Arkansas, AR
By: Mike Capshaw
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Photo(s) By: submitted
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It's difficult to get Pea Ridge three-sporter Josh Simmons to talk about anything other than football.
Josh Simmons is a standout post player on the Pea Ridge Blackhawks basketball team and made state last year as a 100- and 200-meter sprinter in track.
Even while he’s competing in those sports, he’s got football on the brain. He’s on yearbook staff and in other school activities, but when asked about what he does besides football, his answer is solemn.
“Nothing interesting besides football,” Simmons said.
Simmons hopes to play in college and has interest from Missouri Southern and Arkansas Tech as a defensive back, where he had eight interceptions this season. The 6-4, 185-pounder also had 980 yards and eight touchdowns at receiver and another score running the ball while taking direct snaps out of the Blackhawks’ Eagle formation, which mimics Arkansas’ Darren McFadden and the WildHog formation.
“We always joked around a called it the ‘Wild Hawk,’” Simmons said. “In the huddle we called it ‘Eagle’ to keep it simple. We had about eight or nine plays out of that formation. We only threw a couple of times out of it, but I had one completion for like 25 yards.”
Simmons’ career began as a quarterback in Denton, Texas, before switching to running back in the eight grade when the starter was injured. When he was 14-years-old, he moved to the rural Missouri town of Portersville, in the boot hills near Cape Gerardo.
“I was there for a year playing QB and after that was when I moved here and went to Oakdale for a couple of months,” Simmons said. “I played in their blue and white game, but I lived so far out in a little town called Gateway (that borders Missouri) then that I ended up coming to Pea Ridge.”
The difference between the three towns where Simmons has gone to school is vast.
“Missouri was mainly like fields and Texas was like a huge city with tons of places to go,” Simmons said. “There was nothing really in Missouri but a McDonald’s and Pea Ridge is small, but there’s other places like Rogers or Bentonville that you can go.”
After school, Simmons likes to play Guitar Heros on Xbox and other video games. He said he tries to hang out with his friends as often as possible before going off to college.
“The coach (at Missouri Southern) has sent me stuff about defensive back, so that may be where I end up,” Simmons said. “I just want to play football.”
Once football is over, Simmons said he could end up back in Texas because he’s a “huge Dallas Cowboys fan.”Appropriately, Texas-based Varsity Blues is Simmons’ favorite movie and his favorite TV shows really don’t exist unless there’s a backdrop of bleachers surrounding turf or grass.
“If it ain’t some kind of football, there’s not really much to watch on TV,” Simmons said. “Does SportsCenter count?”
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