WARREN, Ark. 5‑14‑25 — A block south of the railroad tracks, at the corner of North Bradley and Pennington streets, sits a yard shaded by towering oaks and a scattering of pines. To most passers‑by, the lot appears simply well kept, but to a few generations who grew up playing baseball in Warren, it is sacred ground. For nearly a century, the address behind the red‑brick house at 104 North Bradley was a laboratory of sorts for a number of local boys with dreams of playing big-time baseball, and it is where the story of the 2005 Warren Lumberjacks state‑championship baseball team first took root.
By Rob Reep, Saline River News
Days after I was born in June 1988, my parents brought me home to 409 North Walnut. Next door lived John and “Gingy” Cuthbertson, whose kindness made them a second mother and father to me.
When my interest in baseball blossomed, John’s garage became my first clubhouse; that’s where I tried on a catcher’s mask for the very first time. I spent hours skipping tennis balls off the brick steps of our Walnut Street house to practice grounders, and John would wander over to offer pointers. He was working with me and my dad on my pitching technique one afternoon when I uncorked a wild one that shattered my parents’ shed window. Around age five, I was invited to play one summer afternoon at John and Gingy’s yard; their nephew Dennen — my age — was there, and we’ve been best friends ever since. In a twist of providence, Dennen’s father and John’s younger brother, Robert Cuthbertson, would later become my Babe Ruth–league coach and, eventually, my high‑school skipper.
John, once a Deno Nichols Award–winning track and football star for the Lumberjacks, had transformed his parents’ sprawling side yard on North Bradley into a makeshift ballpark complete with a batting cage, a scraped‑out infield, and a bullpen nestled beneath the largest oak. In truth, the transformation into a baseball HQ was part of a larger plan for Little Leaguers decades earlier by John’s older brother, the late Jimmy Cuthbertson — a character in his own right, another storied legend in Lumberjack sports. There, under branches now stretching over the roofline, I learned how to strap on a catcher’s mask and block a curve in the dirt.
Friendships formed as naturally as grounders hopped. Kyle Wagnon — the hardest thrower I ever worked with — fired pitch after pitch into my mitt. We’d been on the field together since T-ball. Aaron Rowell, Ricardo Kemp, John William Durman, Jared Davis, Joey Roper, Matthew Wade, Kendall Rawls, Kevin Hensley, Orlando Gonzalez, Michael Green, and my friend Dennen (John’s nephew and my classmate) all sharpened their games beneath those trees. Dennen’s father, Robert Cuthbertson, grew up in the same house and yard, learning the game from his own brothers John and Jimmy, and from Robert (Bob) Laster, another local star baseball player who made it to the collegiate level, whose Little League teams ruled Bradley County in the 1970s.
Robert took over the Warren High program I would later enter into in 1998, and by 2000 he had the Lumberjacks knocking on the door of history with state semifinal runs in 2000 and 2002. My sophomore season in 2004, we came painfully close again, losing 1‑0 to CAC after Wagnon broke his collarbone. Senior pitcher Trey Brown — one of the most tireless workers and mood‑lifters I have known — carried us to the brink, but the title slipped away. Even now, I believe Trey deserved a ring more than I did; Coach Cuthbertson maintains that with both Trey and a healthy Kyle, “we probably would have won the thing.” That heartbreak, though, convinced a deep junior class that destiny could be rewritten.
The 2005 Lumberjacks opened by winning the district crown and then split a grueling three‑day regional in Ashdown: blowout victories over Mena, a close win over Nashville, followed by an exhausting 25‑4 loss to Ashdown in the final. “When we got on the bus,” Robert recalls, “I wondered if we could come back from it. They hit everything we threw.” But a week later, in the state tournament, hosted by Little Rock Mills, Warren throttled Glen Rose 16‑3 and blanked Pocahontas 12‑0.
Facing Nashville again in the state semifinals, Robert gathered the team in foul territory for a pre-game talk. “We’ve been here before,” he said softly, “knocking on the door. Knock the damn door down.” Even‑keeled by nature, he rarely raised his voice; the command electrified us. In what I’ll argue is the greatest game in Warren baseball history, we won 12‑9 in nine innings. Matt Pace went 3‑for‑4 with two homers and four RBIs. Robert, grinning during our chat, dubbed Pace “the savior.” Behind the plate, Durman’s steady hand guided Wagnon, Davis, and the bullpen through every high‑stress pitch.
On May 14, 2005, the team boarded a silent bus outside a Northwest Arkansas hotel for the 20‑mile ride to Baum Stadium. “You could hear a pin drop,” Robert remembers. “I felt like we were ready. I didn’t have to say a word.”
DeQueen scratched across a first‑inning run, but Warren answered with four in the bottom half. Kemp singled and stole second; Wesley Cogdill’s RBI single tied it, and Pace’s single to right put us ahead. Three more runs in the third made it 7‑1, two in the fourth stretched it to 9‑1, and in the fifth Kemp walked, stole second, and danced home on an errant throw as Wesley Cogdill took second. Cogdill took full advantage of the mishandled throw to second, rounding third on the same play, sliding across the plate and ending it by mercy rule, 11‑1. I remember sprinting from the dugout as Cogdill crossed home, the roar from the Warren crowd echoing beneath the grandstand roof — the dream born many summers earlier in the yard on North Bradley finally realized.
Tears welled in Robert’s eyes when he spoke later about his assistants, the late Don Whittemore and the late Bob Laster. Whittemore, a beloved junior‑high coach, “was just a good guy and such a help in so many ways,” Robert said. Laster took vacation days from work to serve as pitching coach every afternoon of the 2005 season. “He made a huge sacrifice,” Robert said. “He didn’t want to do it if he couldn’t be there every day.”
As a catcher, I spent countless bullpen sessions beside Coach Laster, learning as much about life as about baseball. He was, to me, a brother in Christ and a friend. He passed away in 2022 but will forever be a big figure in my high school years. Both Laster and Whittemore are members of the Lumberjack Sports Hall of Fame — Laster being inducted in 2015, Whittemore just entering into those ranks this past Monday evening.
The 2005 squad finished 22‑8, Warren’s only baseball state champion to date. Robert’s teams compiled a 15‑4 state‑tournament record, never losing to a public‑school opponent, and he credits the vibrant YMCA and youth‑league structure of the 1990s and early 2000s for laying the foundation.
Coach Cuthbertson went on that year to lead the East All-Star team, while Wagnon was selected to play for the East All-Stars. He would be named the Most Outstanding Player for the East in that game.
Both Cuthbertson brothers (John and Robert) — Deno Nichols Award winners, college athletes, and Hall of Famers — left a lasting legacy that culminated that May 14 in 2005.
Asked what message he would send the 2005 team two decades later, Robert’s voice caught. “I love them all,” he said. “I remember them all.”
Right back at you, Coach!
Now, 20 years to the day, I look back with nothing but good memories. From riding to little league practices in the back of John’s old green Jeep Comanche to storming the field at Baum, we lived a great journey. It was a childhood I would choose to live again 100 times. To my fellow teammates on the 2005 team, I’m so proud of what we put together two decades ago. I know it won’t be the last in Warren’s baseball history. Give ‘em the axe, Jacks!
Full Roster of the 2005 Warren Lumberjack Baseball Team
- Kyle Wagnon
- John William Durmon
- Ricardo Kemp
- Jared Davis
- Kendall Rawls
- Aaron Rowell
- Kevin Hensley
- Wesley Cogdill
- Michael Green
- A.J. Avery
- Matt Pace
- Joey Roper
- Orlando Gonzalez
- Matthew Wade
- Jeremy Briant
- Alex Herring
- Ryan May
- Rob Reep
- Dennen Cuthbertson
- Dusty Hardin
- Randy Burt
- Matt Young
- Daniel Robinson
- Johnny Roper
- Head Coach Robert Cuthbertson
- Assistant Coach Bob Laster
- Assistant Coach Don Whittemore
- Assistant Coach Randy Phillips
