Broncbusters Football Travels to Rival Independence for Jayhawk Conference Showdown

GARDEN CITY, KS. – The process of how you do anything is how you do everything. 

Football games aren’t just won on Saturday afternoons. They’re won in the practices that week, the film studies on Monday, the classroom every day. It’s something that this year’s Garden City team had to learn, painfully, the last few weeks.

The Broncbusters look to snap a two-game losing skid in conference play this Saturday, as they travel to face the Independence Pirates at Emmot Field. Both teams are searching their third wins of the season.

This season’s Broncbusters team has gone through tough trials and tribulations, for players and coaches, alike. Fifth-year head coach Tom Minnick is getting used to some of the challenges, himself.

“It’s new to me, it’s new to my staff. Most of my staff has been winners,” Minnick said. “It’s hard to win a college football game. We’re trying to have this group ready for the next week. There’s never a week where I say, ‘we can’t beat this team’. I wouldn’t go about it any other way.”

The Broncbusters (2-4, 1-2 KJCCC) have been plagued by their own mistakes. Penalties against Iowa Central and Iowa Western, turnovers against Highland and Dodge City.

This week, Garden City will have a new signal caller in conference play. Redshirt freshman Kody Kirk will earn his first KJCCC start at Independence, and his second start of his career.

In his first start, the Utah native passed for 166 yards and three touchdowns in week five’s win over Gordon’s Sports & Fine Arts Academy.

“Kody’s pretty cool under pressure, he just has to make the right reads,” Minnick said. “You have to listen to coaching, and what it’s trying to tell you.”

Kirk’s sat behind Ty Perry last season, who shined against Independence (2-3, 1-2 KJCCC) last season in a 17-7 Broncbusters win in 2022. Now, he’ll get the opportunity to rekindle Garden City’s season in 2023.

The Broncbusters have plenty to play for individually to close out the season, but it means more than that for Minnick.

“This is a special place to play,” Minnick said. “My enjoyment for kids is watching them play on Saturdays and Sundays. [Isaiah Adams] is at Illinois, he’s going to be a second-round draft pick. He’s going to make a lot of money. One of their coaches called me up and said, ‘hey, this kid is awesome’. That’s what you want to hear, the coach of a Big Ten program calling back and saying, ‘coach, this kid is unbelievable.'”

Plenty of current Broncbusters are on their way to big things in division one, but first, some business to take care of in Montgomery County.

Coverage begins at 12:30 P.M. on Saturday with the American Implement Pregame Show live from Emmot Field. Kickoff between the Broncbusters and Pirates is scheduled for 1:00. Tune into all of the action on KWKR 99.9 ‘The Rock’.