Have you been paying attention to the Sports section of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette recently?
Our local sports guys have been very busy with the "Best of the West" series, profiling the best athletes in individual sports from Northwest Arkansas.
So far, a couple of former Siloam Springs standouts have made the list along with a Siloam Springs transplant via Rogers.
SSHS assistant softball coach Haylee Zimmerman Hall was the first to be featured for her career playing with the Rogers High Lady Mounties earlier in the decade.
Last week, soccer standout Gustavo Peraza was included in the all-time men's soccer team.
And featured this week is former volleyball star Hannah Allison Asafo-Adjei. A wonderful story, written by our guy Paul Boyd, is included in today's Siloam Sunday.
It's wonderful to see representation from Siloam Springs in any list, especially like those the NWADG sports guys are doing.
I can promise you that all three that have been revealed so far are very worth of inclusion.
More to come? I would imagine we will see some more as the series continues this summer. Stay tuned.
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I got a lot of good feedback from the series I did looking back at some of my favorite games and moments from Siloam Springs football, volleyball, boys and girls soccer, baseball and softball.
Still to come, hopefully, are similar pieces on track and field, cross country, golf, tennis and last, but certainly not least, boys and girls basketball.
The research on these articles can be quite time-consuming. With sports starting to crank back up, time has become a little more scarce but it is my intention to finish these at some point.
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Also included in today's Sports section of Siloam Sunday is a piece detailing the return of Johnny Taylor to Northwest Arkansas.
Taylor, as many here remember, coached the boys basketball team at Siloam Springs for two seasons, including the 2010-11 season as the scoring punch of Kyle Teague and Payton Henson led the Panthers to a 24-7 record and an appearance in the Class 5A state semifinals.
Taylor resigned after that season to go to Highland, his alma mater, and has bounced around a few places since then, including Valley Springs, Pangburn, Caddo Hills and Star City. He's been successful everywhere he goes, winning state titles at Weiner and Rose Bud before coming to Siloam Springs.
Taylor is now the head boys coach at Farmington, a team Siloam Springs has played frequently in recent years. It would be exciting to see him back on the opposing sideline going against his former team.
-- Graham Thomas is the managing editor for the Herald-Leader. He can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.