Pointers tap into renewed excitement, expect big things

Thirty Van Buren seniors have been through thick and thin. When they take the field on Friday night in the season opener at Siloam Springs, they’ll do so under the guidance of their third head coach in three years. Receiver Jude Bartholomew is one of those seniors. “Me and a lot of the seniors have stepped up and had team meetings and voted to take on a lot of leadership for the team,” Bartholomew said. “Really, the first time it was hard. The second time, too. The third time, we’ve kind of taken it on ourselves that we’re a team, we’ve played together since the seventh grade. We’re going to stick together and going to trust whoever the coach is and keep going forward.” One advantage for the Pointers, especially Bartholomew and the rest of the offense, is that new head coach Crosby Tuck was Van Buren’s offensive coordinator last season so there is that familiarity. “He was an all-conference receiver last year as a junior,” Tuck said. “He’s picked up an offer from Arkansas Tech. Hopefully, that will keep growing for him. He’s had a great summer. He had a great off-season. He put on about 30 pounds of muscle this off-season.” Bartholomew played at 170 pounds last year, but in the 7A-West where defensive backs are physical that is on the smallish side. “I’ve gained 25, 30 pounds,” Bartholomew said. “It’s really helped this spring with a lot of the contact I’ve been taking, it hasn’t really hit me as much. Getting off routes, and getting people off me it’s really helped. Every single team has at least one Division-I player in their team, so you’re going up against dudes every single Friday night. I’ve had to beef up to protect myself and better my team. It’s put me in a better position.” The best part of gaining the extra muscle is that he hasn’t lost any speed. “He’s going from being out there playing receiver at about 170 to playing at 200, and every time we have timed him in any kind of speed test he’s a little bit faster at everything from last year,” Tuck said. “So, he’s bulked up and he hasn’t slowed down. He’s had an incredible off-season, and I think that’s going to show up on Friday nights.” The 6-1 Bartholomew caught 51 passes for 821 yards and six touchdowns a year ago to lead Van Buren in all three categories. “He offers a lot as far as skill-wise,” offensive coordinator Jon Brooks said. “He’s explosive. He’s got strong hands. He runs pretty good routes, but with the ball in his hands that’s really where he needs to be the difference. We’re going to target him a lot like we did last year. We’ve got to get him to do a lot with the ball in his hands. We’re expecting a lot out of him. He’s got the skillset to help us win in this league.” Tuck brought in Brooks as the new offensive coordinator, and Brooks has already been thinking of innovative ways to get his senior playmaker more involved in the offense than just catching passes. “We’re designing ways to get him the ball in different places on the field and do things with the ball in his hands,” Brooks said. “The more touches he gets, the higher we’ll go because of what he does with the ball in his hands and the way he’s explosive, strong and fast.” Brooks knows that Bartholomew can be one of the top receivers in the 7A-West. “Absolutely,” Brooks said. “He can. Hopefully, we can get him catching the ball in traffic really well where he can get the ball, put it away and break a tackle and get yards for us. We’ve done some things schematically to get the ball in his hands and hopefully make guys miss and break tackles. That’s something that we believe he can do and will do.” The Pointers went through their third off-season in a row with a new head coach. There’s a renewed excitement this year in anticipation of the new season. “The energy has shot up through the roof,” Bartholomew said. “Everybody is excited to go to practice. It’s going to be exciting.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Van Buren High School Athletics

POINTERS TAP INTO RENEWED EXCITEMENT, EXPECT BIG THINGS

LELAND BARCLAY

Times Record | 8/30/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian D. Sanderford