Hutch first, 'Hounds 7th in coaches' poll

WICHITA -- Coming off its first Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference football championship since 1995, Hutchinson is the coaches' pick to repeat at a pre-season media conference held here Friday.

It's the first time since 2002 that Butler is not the favorite to win the conference title.

The Blue Dragons (7-0 KJCCC, 11-1 overall), led by former Fort Scott Community College head coach Rion Rhoades, broke Butler's four-year reign. The Grizzlies (5-2, 8-3), who did not get selected for a bowl game last season, will have a new coach this season as Troy Morrill resigned after 15 seasons in which his teams compiled a record of 154-22, the highest winning percentage of any coach in NJCAA history. During his time, Butler won three national championships and a combined 20 KJCCC and Region VI playoff titles. Tim Schaffner will take over as head coach at Butler this season.

Coffeyville (6-1, 9-3), second last season, was picked to finish there again followed by Butler, Dodge City (2-5, 3-8), Garden City (2-5, 4-6) and Highland (3-4, 6-5) tied for fifth, Fort Scott (3-4, 4-6) and Independence (0-7, 0-10). Independence enters the season on losing streaks of 13 games in conference (14 games if a 2013 forfeit over Garden City is not included) and 17 overall.

Fort Scott, entering its fifth season under head coach Curtis Horton, tied for fourth place with Highland last season.

Rhoades will be one of two former FSCC head coaches coaching in the Jayhawk Conference this season. Rhoades coached the Greyhounds in 2006, when a 24-game losing streak was broken in the third contest of that season. Fort Scott went on to finish the season 7-5 and qualify for the Heart of Texas Bowl. The winning season was FSCC's first since 2001 and the bowl bid was its first since the 1999 Mineral Water Bowl.

Jeff Sims succeeded Rhoads in 2007, after the latter moved on to Hutch. He led the Greyhounds to the 2009 NJCAA National Championship game, the Citizens Bank Bowl in Pittsburg, where they fell to Blinn. Sims will be in his first season as Garden City's head coach this year.

The coaches who spoke agreed that although Fort Scott is a low pick, the Greyhounds have a great deal of talent returning, including running back Devin Taylor, who led the KJCCC with 1,524 yards last season, scoring 12 touchdowns.

"Fort Scott has three of the best defensive linemen in the country right now, and they were picked to finish seventh," Dodge City third-year head coach Gary Thomas told the media. "Their running back is coming back and he rushed for (over 1,500) yards last year. I promise you, I didn't vote for them seventh."

Fort Scott's season begins August 29 with a road trip to Iowa Central as the KJCCC enters the second year of a scheduling alliance with the three Iowa football-playing jucos. FSCC will play all three Iowa opponents on the road this season, the only KJCCC school which has to do to.

Fort Scott's first home game will be September 5 at 7 p.m. at Frary Field against Hutchinson. It will be the Greyhounds' first home night game since the 2011 season opener versus Blinn, which was played on a Thursday. FSCC hasn't played a home game on a Saturday night since October of 2006 but will play three such games in September.

Some information for this article was provided by the Garden City Telegram.