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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
For the first time since
2005, the Hutchinson Community College football team is in the NJCAA
Preseason national poll.
The Blue Dragons open the
season No. 13 in the preseason poll released on Tuesday. Hutchinson comes
off a 2008 season where it made a run to the Region VI championship game and
finished the season ranked No. 19, the first time since the end of the 2004
season that the Blue Dragons finished a season ranked.
The Blue Dragons made a
five-win improvement in 2008, going 7-4. HCC made a late-season run that saw
the Dragons win 4 of 5, going to Fort Scott in the Region VI Semifinals and
winning 30-17 and carrying a fourth-quarter lead against Butler in the
regional championship game at Cessna Stadium before falling 29-14.
The Blue Dragons have six
starters and 11 lettermen on offense returning. Defensively, HCC returns
five starters and 11 lettermen from a defense that was second in the Jayhawk
in total defense.
The last time that
Hutchinson was ranked in the preseason poll came in 2005 when the Blue
Dragons started that season ranked No. 16.
Hutchinson is one of four
Jayhawk Conference teams ranked in the NJCAA preseason poll. Defending
national champion Butler was picked to win the 2009 national crown. Fort
Scott start the season ranked No. 15. Butler, Hutchinson and Fort Scott were
picked 1-2-3, respectively, in the 2009 Jayhawk Conference preseason coaches
poll. Garden City, who was picked fourth in the Jayhawk Conference, opens
the season at No. 22.
2009 NJCAA Preseason
Football Poll
1.
Butler 11-1
2. Mississippi Gulf
Coast 10-2
3.
Ellsworth
8-3
4. Snow
college 11-1
5. Blinn
College 9-3
6. East
Mississippi 8-2
7. Navarro
College
10-1
8. Georgia Military
9-2
9. Dean
College 10-1
10. Eastern
Arizona 8-3
11. Pearl
River 8-3
12. Trinity
Valley
6 -4
13.
Hutchinson 7-4
14. Jones
County 7-2
15. Fort
Scott 9-2
16. Rochester CTC
8-2
17.
Lackawanna 7-3
18.
Glendale
8-2
19. Northwest
Mississippi 6-4
20. Iowa
Central 8-2
21. Mesabi
Range 6-5
22. Garden
City 6-4
23. College of DuPage
6-6
24. Arizona
Western 5-5
25. Harper
College 11-1 |
