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Broncbusters soccer picked to win Jayhawk Conference
Published 8/20/2009 in Sports : GCCC
By MIKE KESSINGER
If the Garden City Community College men's soccer team needed any more of a target on its back, the Kansas Jayhawk Conference coaches enlarged it a little bit more.
The Region 6 and Great Plains Region champions, along with placing fourth at the NJCAA national tournament last season, the Broncbusters were ranked fourth in the NJCAA preseason poll released a week ago, and have been picked to win the Jayhawk title by the conference coaches this week. Garden City was selected ahead of defending conference regular season champion Barton County by one vote. The Busters battled Barton County to a 1-1 tie in the regular season last year, then knocked off the Cougars in a shootout for the Region 6 championship in Topeka.
"We were ahead of Barton by one vote and I'm glad it was that close," GCCC head coach Stephen Gorton said. "It gives me something to talk to the guys about to keep them focused. I'm glad it wasn't a landslide. It gives us more of a fire in our belly."
The Busters return eight starters from last season to go along with a recruiting class of 17, which includes the Minnesota High School Player of the Year forward Whitney Browne and NCAA Division I transfer Jamie Villacies. Garden City also returns the services of sophomore forward Tareq Al-Lugman, who sat out all of last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Al-Lugman was the Region and Jayhawk Conference Freshman of the Year in 2007.
Following the most successful season in GCCC soccer history, Gorton said he believes this might be the strongest the conference has been since he arrived in Garden City as an assistant coach in 2005. This season will mark Gorton's third year as the head coach. Though he has not spoken to any conference coaches recently, Gorton said he was given a little advice from former Buster defender Oscar Zelaya, who is now at Rogers State in Oklahoma.
"Oscar called me up the other night and he was telling me that Rogers State had scrimmaged Cowley College, and he told me 'Coach, look out for Cowley, they're pretty good," Gorton said. "I really think the conference is going to the best I've seen."
Cowley is picked to finish eighth in the 11-team conference.
The GCCC women's soccer team is picked to finish seventh by the coaches.
The Lady Busters are coming off a record-setting 2008 in which the team had its first winning record finishing 8-7. Johnson County is picked to win the conference title followed by Butler and Hutchinson. Two Garden City High School graduates play for Butler in sophomore Ortencia Alcantara and freshman Cindy Benitez.
Jayhawk Conference Preseason rankings
Men
1. Garden City
2. Barton County
3. Johnson County
4. Kansas City Kansas
5. Allen County
6. Cloud County
7. Neosho County
8. Cowley College
9. Coffeyville
10. Dodge City
11. Independence
Women
1. Johnson County
2. Butler
3. Hutchinson
4. Barton County
5t. Neosho County
5t. Cowley College
7. Garden City
8. Allen County
9. Coffeyville
10. Cloud County
11. Dodge City
12. Independence
On the Web:
Garden City Community College soccer: http://www.gcccks.edu/Athletics/soccer/msoccer.htm
How do you think the Busters will do this year? Talk about it at SWKTalk.com.
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