Clarksville Cheerleaders 1977 through 1979

Of course we loved the cheerleaders. I will never forget the dedication of these ladies to bring us water during 2 a day football practices! Or was there other motivation? What I love about these pictures is that great, late 1970's fashion!

CHS girls win State championships. Dated March 12th, March 19th and April 6th 1980

We just have just passed the 29th anniversary of the Clarksville senior girls winning the State AA championship and overall State title.
A significant historical note to this achievement. 1980 was the first time girls basketball went to 5 on 5 rules.
Try and explain to your kids today how the girls game in Arkansas was played 6 on 6, which was actually 3 on 3 half court, with 3 players devoted to offense and 3 devoted to defense on each end and you could not cross the mid court stripe.
Clarksville not made the adjustment to win the lower classification AA title, but beat LR McClellen in the overall title the next week. Arkansas discontinued overall state tournaments several years ago, but even by todays standards it would be unusual for a school the size of Clarksville to defeat a school the size of LR McClellen for a championship. A remarkable group of girls.
I didn't realize this until I cut out these articles, that Rita Yates was only in her 5th or 6th year out of college as Clarksville's coach (don't know why it seemed she had been there longer) Through the 1980 championships she had an overall record of 135 and 36 in 4 years, of course 3 of those years with this group of girls.
In my opinion, Dinah Dickerson remains the greatest female athlete of all time at Clarksville. Notice the old school news paper article of her as a sophmore and how she played on the guys teams in the 5th grade AND started! In her senior year, Dinah AVERAGED a triple, double, 22 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists per game. I believe her number is retired at Clarksville and she went on to play for the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks. I look forward to hearing about their 30th reunion next year!