When Barry Groomes entered the office for the Hooten's Arkansas Football magazine on the morning of June 1, 2024, there was no way he could prepare for what was about to take place that day.

He and the rest of the Little Rock-based magazine's staff were already on deadline to get that year's edition completed when the phone suddenly began to ring. Then it happened again and again and again.

The phone calls came from various high school football coaches throughout the state, and the conversations that took place were almost the same. The coaches were informing the magazine that one or more players had left their respective schools to go elsewhere.

"On that day -- the first Monday in June and the first day of summer workouts for a lot of schools -- we had 30 coaches call our office with t

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