Broncbuster Football picked to finish as Jayhawk Conference runner up; Dodge City picked 5th
Image courtesy of Garden City Community College Athletics.
GARDEN CITY, Kan. (Western Kansas News) – The KJCCC released their annual pre-season projections on Sunday for Jayhawk Conference football, where the defending national champions and KJCCC co-champions in the Hutchinson Blue Dragons were selected as the pre-season favorite to take the conference title. For a second straight year under second-year head coach Kiyoshi Harris, the Broncbusters were selected as the pre-season conference runner up and the co-champion Butler Grizzlies were also slated for a second consecutive year as the pre-season 3rd place finishers. Unlike in the previous season where the Blue Dragons were given a unanimous first-place prediction receiving all seven top votes, this season, Hutchinson received six of the seven coveted nods while Garden City was awarded one first place vote.
Garden City Community College football ended the 2024-25 season with a 1-10 (1-5) record, after starting the season 6-1 (4-0) and with a #5 national ranking, before forfeiting all of the previous games on the season due to an eligibility mishap. Despite the drama from the previous season, recruiting efforts for the 2025-26 slate have remained solid under Harris and company, with Sidelines Sports Network listing GCCC Football as possessing the top non-FBS transfer class in Kansas.
The 2024 regular season KJCCC football finale saw a monster upset of Hutchinson by Butler, causing a three-way split for the conference crown between Hutchinson, Coffeyville, and Butler, all of whom finished the 2024-25 season inside of the top 15 in the NJCAA Division 1 football rankings. Defending co-champion Coffeyville was projected by the conference as the 2025 4th place finishers, while Dodge City, who saw stints inside the top 15 last season and exhibited moments of explosive offense, was projected with a 5th place finish. Rounding out the bottom two spots in the projected final placements, Independence was ranked 6th and Highland, who hired former Broncbuster head man Tom Minnick as their head coach in the off season, was ranked last in 7th place.
Garden City Community College kicks off the regular season against Navarro College in Corsicana, TX on Saturday, September 6, at 7pm. Pregame coverage begins at 6:15pm on 99.9 The Rock.
