Jayhawk Conference football shining in the polls

By Kaleb Moore
Staff writer
IG: @kalebmoore05

Conference play is a gauntlet in sports. Teams in division will see each other more often than any other team ever will, driving the level of competitiveness through the roof.

In the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference, that level is shifted into a new gear in football.

This season has started as well as Hutchinson Community College could have ever wanted. As it stands on Friday, Hutchinson Community College sits at 6-0 with wins over the defending national champs Iowa Western on the road and a home blowout win over New Mexico Military. However, despite the great start, the Blue Dragons sit in second place in their own conference.

Garden City has also begun this season with great showings. After losing their home opener to Navarro, Texas, they have rattled off five straight wins, including three over conference opponents.

Following close behind, Butler has also gone unbeaten in conference play, and currently possesses a winning overall record.

As a matter of fact, six of the seven teams in the Jayhawk Conference have records above .500. It is unlikely to see that many teams in one group have records that good, but there’s a secret to it all – they are simply better than almost everyone else.

Teams in the KJCCC have a record of 17-7 against non-conference foes, with two of those losses coming to Iowa Western.

To be frank, the Jayhawk Conference is the premier conference in all of NJCAA football. They will get their wins from the outside and fight their toughest battles within the confines of the Kansas border.

All seven coaches were asked to comment on the level of strength among their peers, with two responding. First was Nick Dobler, Coffeyville’s coach. His Red Ravens host Hutchinson on Saturday.

“Coaching and the players make (the Jayhawk Conference) strong,” Dobler said. “When you can recruit nationwide, it helps add more talent to more teams. Local area talent can not spread across all of the Kansas jucos. It would be top heavy and the lower teams can’t compete.”

Hutchinson coach Drew Dallas also responded.

Given the aforementioned prompt, he said “I think the support from the communities that our schools are located in is one of the main reasons why there are so many successful junior college programs in the state of Kansas.  There are great players on every team across the league and our national recruiting footprint, along with some of the best talent out of the Kansas High Schools, allows us to build very talented football teams that can compete at a high level nationally.”

Roster turnover and fluctuations in the sport will assuredly occur across the conference, but for the foreseeable future, the KJCCC is cruising past the pack and asserting itself as the top group in NJCAA football.

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