What is Anna Ferguson’s favorite sport? Well, that depends a good deal on the calendar. So right now, it would be basketball.
“It usually depends on what I’m in. That’s my favorite,” said Ferguson, the daughter of LeAnne Gonyea and Kyle Ferguson. “I really enjoy basketball.”
Ferguson, a sophomore, took part in last week’s Purple-White scrimmage at the Boys & Girls Club for Booneville Elementary School students and will be in her purple uniform Tuesday in Havana.
Although Halloween was just last week, basketball marks Ferguson’s fourth sport of the school year.
“It’s hard, but as long as I’m committed to working hard, I can do it,” said Ferguson.
Basketball may not be the first love on all 365 days of the year, but it was definitely the point guard’s first love.
“I’ve played it longer than any other sport,” said Ferguson. “I think since I was 6 I did camps and stuff.”
As a sophomore Ferguson is also making a move to high school basketball with the same coach she had in junior high in Katelyn Holub, who takes over for Tim Goers.
More than that, she has a teammate she is pretty close to on the roster with her.
“I get to play with my sister too,” a smiling Ferguson said of Emma, who is a junior. “I’m excited.”
They have played together for as long as Anna can remember though Emma was a student at Mena until they were reunited with both in the Bearcat purple which Anna has worn since arriving in the eighth grade.
“I love it here, way more,” Ferguson said.
Mena is on the schedule this year and Ferguson says she still has friends in red and black, they just are not able to see each other much, in person anyway.
She is thankful to have Emma beside her for the ride now.
Ferguson actually considered playing tennis because Emma did, but there are only so many hours in a day.
“It was a thought. I just didn’t have time,” said Ferguson.
Ferguson and the Lady Bearcats come into the year after consecutive conference titles – an outright one two years ago and a shared one last year – and she understands the pressure that comes with that.
“Anna is a coach’s favorite kind of player. She comes in the gym every day and takes care of business without complaint. She is just one of those kids you can always count on to work hard no matter what it is that you’re asking her to do.
“She’s also a good kid. You never have to worry about her getting into trouble.”
“She gets it done in the classroom,” golf coach Jake Fennell echoes. “She takes care of business and you never have to worry about whether or not she is doing the right thing.”
Ferguson began the year making the transition from junior high to senior high volleyball, but at the same time she added Fennell’s golf team to her sports resume.
“I actually love golf,” said Ferguson. “I was pretty good at it when I tried with my stepdad, Jeff, when he plays.”
Ferguson and her teammates qualified for the Class 3A state golf tournament by finishing runner up as a team.
“Anna is the type of kid you want in your program. She’s a hard worker and always looking to improve,” said Fennell. “There are very few athletes in the area that work as hard as she does. She’s definitely one of the good ones.
“I’ve been able to coach her in both volleyball and golf and to watch her prepare for tack season.”
Like Fennell, head volleyball coach Bailey Stringer raves about Ferguson.
“Anna is one of a kind. Since Anna has moved here she has been an asset to Booneville female sports,” said Stringer, who like Ferguson came here from Mena, though through college first. “You will never hear her complain or see her slack off. She always has her head down working.”
Stringer emphasized the word “never.”
Volleyball and golf overlapped, and all the while Ferguson was looking toward basketball.
“It’s hard because I can feel it’s wearing down my body. I may have to start narrowing it down,” she said. “When I go from volleyball to basketball I don’t have has much time to get prepared.”
Ferguson has played volleyball since seventh grade and would not dream of spending the summer preparing for anything else.
“It was just a sport everyone tries. I got into it and enjoyed it,” said Ferguson.
Cross country took some coercion.
Seniors Lexi Franklin and JJ Keatts wanted to run in the district meet, but they wanted to be able to win hardware as a team, which takes five runners. That made Ferguson a target.
“I guess because they know I run a lot, and I could place, probably,” Ferguson said of her cross country venture.
She finished in fifth place.
There is no formal qualification for running in the state cross country meet but that was held Friday afternoon and the girls team, with all members involved in multiple activities, though maybe not to the extent of Ferguson, declined to make the trip.
Talking Ferguson into running was not difficult because her top sport, at least in terms of awards, has long been track and field. But the distance involved did require some convincing.
That is because she is a sprinter rather than a distance runner, and hers is the name most often called for the female high point award at meets.
“I have a whole wall full of them,” she says almost sheepishly detailing the points coming from the sprints, long jump, triple jump, and pole vault.
At BHS Ferguson is also on the member list – roster if you will – of FCCLA, Beta, and Student Council.
“I’m in a lot of stuff,” she said.
Away from school she can be found hunting or fishing. Obviously sports are never far from thought.
“I used to do gymnastics. I kind of want to get back into it,” she said.
