Gooch Appreciates Fans, Students, Who Came to Gowans This Season

By Kaleb Moore
Staff writer
IG: kalebmoore05

The Hutchinson Community College football team has had a great season, sitting at 9-1 going into the postseason the first weekend of December.

The players and coaches receive most of the credit for this great season, but some of their success can be attributed to their loyal supporters.

In the midst of a national championship campaign, fans have been coming to Gowans Stadium on Saturdays. Great seats are tough to come by unless you show up early enough, in which you would have the chance to stop by the Blue Dragon booster’s tailgate before the game to get amped up for gameday.

The community has noticed the chances at a national championship because the attendance numbers are looking great. The average attendance of each home game has been 859, with the highest number coming in at 1259. The community has done an excellent job showing up and showing out this year, and that is thanks to the efforts taken by the school to pack the house.

Every week, there is something new to participate in at a Blue Dragon football game. Josh Gooch, the athletic director at HutchCC, talked about the efforts taken by the college to push tickets out. 

“We have themed games to recognize educators and first responders with free admission,” Gooch said. Every local grade school student has an MVP card that allows free admission to all home games. We have corporate sponsors who receive complimentary tickets for all of their employees.”

Student support has also been solid this year.

“We have had as many as 224 students to a low of 28 attend this year. We average 92 per game,” Gooch said. 

Students seem to be enjoying the fruits of victory that the football team has worked for. 

Jose Martinez, a freshman majoring in business accounting from Syracuse, Kansas, holds that sentiment. 

“I go when I am in town. I missed a few home games because I went home that same weekend,” Martinez said.

The numbers are great, but they could be higher. Due to the games being played when they are, HutchCC has to compete with Kansas and Kansas State for priority among viewers and stadium goers. 

“There is a constant battle for people’s time and they have to choose how to spend it,” Gooch said. 

Being a local community college, HutchCC may not get the top vote from people as to how they are going to spend their Saturday sports watching. However, the numbers have been great and there seems to be no reason for any sort of regression in the numbers.

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