Indy picked to win KJCCC; ’Hounds voted last

WICHITA — Defending champion Independence, a/k/a “Last Chance U”, was picked to win the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference football championship again in a vote of coaches revealed here on Friday. Fort Scott, which finished tied for fifth in Kale Pick’s first season at the helm last year (2-5 KJCCC, 4-6 overall), was chosen to bring up the rear of the eight-team circuit.

The order of finish between Indy, which won its first conference title since 1987, and Fort Scott has Garden City in second place, Butler third, then Hutchinson, Dodge City, Highland and Coffeyville.

The poll was conducted before it was known that Michigan running back Kareem Walker was going to transfer to Fort Scott. Walker was a top-50 recruit for the 2016 high-school class, according to ESPN.com. His signing was announced by Pick during his remarks to the media here and by the FSCC football Twitter account.

Ironically, while Pick said he didn’t like to list “impact players” because “every one of them is important to our success and our culture,” he — and Butler head coach Tin Schaffner — were the only ones who listed any. In addition to Walker, he also spoke about transfer quarterback Justin Agner from Kent State, who is expected to start, Amir Mitchell, a transfer receiver from Michigan, Dez Noel, a transfer from Ohio, and Stephen Smothers, who comes from from defending national runner-up Arizona Western. On defense, he named Rodshawd Stewart, a transfer from Cincinnati, Raven Saunders, who comes over from North Carolina State, and Derion Hitchens from Bowling Green. Pick also praised his Shrine Bowl player, Alonzo Hokes from Bonner Springs, saying “He gets up at 6 a.m. and he’s out on the practice field doing his backpedals by himself before the sun comes up.”

This is the second season since the elimination of limits on out-of-state players in the Jayhawk Conference and the first year full-ride scholarships will be allowed. Pick said that “For different reasons, Fort Scott, in 2017, only had 40 out-of-state scholarships to work with and our administration has done an incredible job this year, this off-season, to make us competitive and give us 85 scholarships like most of the conference.”

Like the other coaches, Pick feels that the KJCCC will be more competitive than it has been in years, if not in its entire history. Last year, he said, most everyone found great talent. Now, the teams are able to also add depth at nearly every position.

“Anybody can win any week,” Pick noted. “If you don’t bring your ‘A’ game, you’re going to get embarrassed and you’ll probably lose your chances at the conference title. It’ll be a battle and a grind each week.”

Even Independence head coach Jason Brown, whose team will be followed by Netflix cameras for another season of “Last Chance U,” said that “There’s not much difference from us to Fort Scott.”

Fort Scott’s season begins Aug. 25 at Highland. The Greyhounds’ first home game will be the following week versus Coffeyville.