Located in Centerton, Arkansas, Bentonville West High School is a public high school that was founded in 2016 and is home to the Wolverines. The school has had an interesting history within the football program with a total of 7 playoff appearances since 2016 and a record of 8-4 last year. The team is being led by head Coach Bryan Pratt who has led the Wolverines to a 46-34 record within the last 7 years, was named Hooten’s Coach of the Year Finalist, made 2 Semi-Final appearances out of all the playoffs made within the 5 years of existence, and has had 15+ players receive scholarships. Aiding Coach Pratt in the operations of the team is Defensive Coordinator John Thompson and Offensive Coordinator DJ Jones. Coach Thompson has had an amazing career previously before working with the Wolverines. He used to be the Linebackers coach for Euless Trinity High School and brought the team 2 state championships and runner-up the next season before moving to Bentonville West. Coach Thompson also has a son by the name of John “Tre” Thompson III who plays quarterback for the Wolverines and has had an outstanding season as a freshman with 2,175 passing yards and 24 passing TD’s. On the Offensive side of the ball, OC DJ Jones was an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Bryant High School and helped his teams win 4 conference championships in 5 years and was named 7A Central Offensive Coordinator of the Year before moving to Bentonville West in 2016 where he led the teams to back to back semifinal appearances in 2018 and 2019.
I had the chance to interview OC DJ Jones on the program and what players to look out for.
What have y’all learn from how last season ended?
We had a really fun year this past season and was able to advance to the quarter finals and actually be able to over-achieve our goals and had a really good season that set the bar very high for us.
What are y’all focus on going into this season?
Some things we are going into with this season is replacing players that we lost and trying to compete on a good level to where we can make conference and have a bye week in 7A state championship.
What is y’all team motto?
FAST, which stands for Fundamentals, Attitude, Selflessness, and Toughness and we use this motto to teach the guys how to handle themselves bot on and off the field.
After our interview, I asked Coach what are some players to look out for and these were some of the players:
OL – Kaleb Chandler
RB – Braden Nash
ATH – Harris Vinson
