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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Central Bank has been named
the title sponsor for the inaugural Salt City Bowl, which will be hosted by
Hutchinson Community College and will be played Saturday, Dec. 5 at Gowans
Stadium.
At the recent spring
meetings in Providence RI, , the NJCAA awarded Hutchinson a junior college
football bowl game, one of two in the state of Kansas (the other will be
played at Pittsburg State on Dec. 6). There will be eight NJCAA bowl games
slated for 2009.
HCC head coach Rion Rhoades
made the announcement that the game will be known as “The Central Bank Salt
City Bowl” on Wednesday at a news conference at the HCC Football Complex.
“We weren’t going to do this
if we couldn’t do this first class,” Rhoades said in his opening remarks.
“Central Bank is our title sponsor. They have had a long history with HCC
and this gives us an opportunity to put in a first-class event.”
Also in attendance were Cody
Heitschmidt, chairman of the Central Bank Salt City Bowl and Central Bank
President Earl McVicker. Other members of the bowl committee not in
attendance at the news conference were Allen Fee, Dick Strano and LeAnn Cox.
“This is an exciting
opportunity to work with HCC,” McVicker said. “We have been a long-time
supporter of HCC both with athletics and academics. We see this as a chance
to help with (Rhoades’) initiative. Coach Rhoades does things the right way.
We think this game will be great for HCC and for the community.”
Added Heitschmidt: “Having
Central Bank as the title sponsor gives this game legitimacy. With their
help, I think we can knock this out of the park.”
With the addition of the
Central Bank Salt City Bowl, Gowans Stadium will be the site of two national
events. Gowans also played host to the NJCAA National Outdoor Track and
Field Championships this past May and will be the host again in 2010 and
2011.
“For our stadium to host two
great national events like this is a great tribute to our community and our
school,” HCC athletic director Randy Stange said. “This bowl game will be
another exciting event our community will have an opportunity to enjoy.”
NJCAA football teams need
six victories (regular season and league playoffs combined) to be bowl
eligible. Once bids can be released in mid-November, Rhoades said that the
bowl committee will look for the best match-up possible. |
