FSCC football team seeking sponsors for bowl trip

Going to a bowl game at the junior college level isn't cheap.

In order to cover expenses and meet ticket sales requirements for the C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl, Fort Scott Community College's football team is seeking 75 sponsors. The sponsorships, which are $150 each, are tax deductible.

To inquire about becoming a sponsor, contact FSCC head football coach Rion Rhoades at (620) 223-2700, ext. 745.

The Greyhounds, 7-4 this season, will be going to the Heart of Texas Bowl December 2. The game is in Copperas Cove, which is about 30 miles west of Temple, Texas.

In that game, the No. 11-ranked Greyhounds will take on No. 17 Kilgore, which is only 5-6 on the season but defeated two ranked teams on its way to the Southwest Junior College Football Conference championship game, where it lost to No. 1 Blinn last Saturday in overtime.

Jack Welch, FSCC's head coach from 1987-1992, is the game's director. He is also the head coach for the Copperas Cove High School football team. He founded the bowl game, held for the first time in 2001.

"It gives us an opportunity to showcase our town and our school," Welch said. "I think anytime you can draw people into Copperas Cove and show them the good things here, it just adds that much more to our community."

C.H.A.M.P.S. stands for Communities Helping Americans Mature, Progress and Succeed, a program that seeks to reward all students who take a stand against the illicit use of drugs and alcohol. C.H.A.M.P.S. provides education about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, promotes community service works and social interactions between all groups.

Tickets for the game are $8 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under. All military personnel with an ID card will be admitted free.

A banquet, open to the public, will be held the night before the game, December 1, in the Copperas Cove High School cafeteria. Tri-City recording artist Neal Sharpe and Phazes will provide entertainment. Tickets are $10 each but only a limited number are expected to available at the door.

The Jayhawk Conference has sent teams to this bowl three of the previous five seasons. Coffeyville was in the first Heart of Texas Bowl in 2001. Hutchinson played here in 2004 and Dodge City lost to Cisco in last year's edition, 47-28.

This will be the ninth bowl appearance for FSCC football, according to Tribune records. The first was in the 1968 Sterling Silver Bowl. The only bowl win for Fort Scott came in the 1970 Shrine Bowl, which gave FSCC its only national championship.

Fort Scott also appeared in the Shrine Bowl in 1971. Other appearances were in the 1972 Sunkist El Toro Bowl, the 1973 Wool Bowl, the 1990 R.C. Cola Bowl, the 1991 McKinnon Travel Midwest Bowl, the 1992 Valley of the Sun Bowl and the 1999 Mineral Water Bowl.

FSCC Director of Public Relations Melanie McGee and Heart of Texas Bowl Media Coordinator Sherry Hoffpauir each provided information for this story.