Meet The Champs

    Two days.
    The countdown to the Dodge City Community College Conquistadors football team's home season opener against Trinity Valley continues, and the turf over at Memorial Stadium will be new to the numerous fresh faces for the Conqs this season, including first-year offensive line coach Brandon McCray.
    McCray, who earned battle scars as a lineman at Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wis. before stints as both an assistant and head coach in Illinois and Missouri, takes over a Conqs offensive line that allowed the most sacks of any team in the Jayhawk Conference in 2008.
    But McCray said though there's still a lot of work to put in, this season is going to be different.

    Seven days.
    That's all that separates the Dodge City Community College Conquistadors football team from its 2009 season opener against Trinity Valley Aug. 29 at Memorial Stadium.
    And as head coach Bob Majeski and his coaching staff continue to shape their 55-man roster, one question still looms — Who will be the Conqs' starting quarterback?
    With the race now down to two — first-year quarterbacks Lane Kendall and Justin Heard, Majeski and Dodge offensive coordinator Michael Garrison have a lot of particulars to evaluate before the start of the new season.

When the Boot Hill Casino opens in December, Dodge City Community College's first hospitality management students will already have a semester of classes under their belts.
    These particular Conquistadors will know more about the ins and outs of the industry than the rest of us will ever know — and they'll be taught by a hometown girl who is happy to be back in Dodge.

If the nation ever needs to send a small force of college presidents on a top-secret reconnaissance mission to an undisclosed location,or puts out an emergency call for retail shoe experts, the U.S. government already has a man in Ford County.
    Right now, Richard Burke, Ph.D., is busy running Dodge City Community College, and he's got his hands full. But President Burke could be ready to do either of the above jobs at the drop of a hat.

    The word "student" in the phrase "student-athlete" often gets lost in many collegiate athletic programs around the country.
    But that is not the case with the Dodge City Community College men's golf program and coach Casey Malek.
    For the third year in a row, the DCCC men's golf team, after accumulating a 3.56 grade point average, has earned the title of the National Junior College Athletic Association's Spring Academic Team of the Year in men's golf.

   The two newest additions to the Dodge City Community College Conquistador women's basketball roster have more appeal to coach Steve High than just their shooting touch.
    Though Cimarron's Yomaira Rosas and Brooke Boyd, who played for Spearville High School, both showed range and craftiness with the ball in their respective senior seasons, High was also excited to bring two players from the immediate area to his team, as he continues to expand the roster and grow the program.

   The Dodge City Community College Conquistador women's golf team palced 11th in a rain-shortened NJCAA National Championship Tournament Thursday at Davenport, Fla.'s Prividence Golf Club.

   The Dodge City Community College Conquistador men’s golf team finished the 2009 NJCAA National Championship Tournament Friday in 19th place after shooting 317 as a team in the final round of the stroke play event at Huntsville, Ala.’s Robert Trent Jones Trail Course.

   Mitchell Goedeken is used to being the biggest kid on the team.
    And with the Dodge City Community College Conquistador men's basketball team trying to skew more athletic for the 2009-2010 season, the 6-foot, 7-inch Goedeken could have up to two more seasons of banging inside on the low blocks.

   Once again, the Dodge City Community College women's golf team is championship bound.
    For the ninth consecutive year, the Conquistadors qualified for the NJCAA national championship and will shoot for the title May 18-21 at the LPGA International Golf Course in Daytona Beach, Fla.
    DCCC coach Ed Bethea has guided Dodge to a national championship appearance in each of his nine seasons at the helm.