Rhoades introduced as Hutch's new coach; FSCC search underway

Fort Scott Community College Athletic Director Bob Marshall told the Tribune late Thursday morning that the search for Rion Rhoades' successor as head coach of the Greyhound football program is already underway.

"We're just advertising now for new candidates," Marshall said. "We're very optimistic and hope to start interviewing by the middle of next week. We have lots of names who are good candidates. We've been deluged with applications from very qualified people in the past."

Whomever takes the job will be stepping into a much better situation than what Rhoades inherited after he took the job last December. The Greyhounds at that time had finished their second consecutive winless season.

This year, after losses in their first two games extended a school-record losing streak to 24 games, the Greyhounds won four straight before losing to then-No. 1 ranked Butler in overtime. They then defeated ranked teams in consecutive weeks before falling to Butler again in the Region VI Championship Game.

Even though Fort Scott lost to Kilgore, Texas, in the Heart of Texas Bowl, its 7-5 record was its first winning season since 1992.

It's ideal for the college to hire to hire the best coach it can find as quickly as it can, so that the program doesn't fall too far behind in recruiting.

"We're already behind," Marshall noted. "Hopefully, we'll get this done before Christmas."

Most of Rhoades' staff is going with him to Hutchinson. Due to this, Marshall said there was no one who was here last season showing interest in the position.

Rhoades, the Jayhawk Conference Coach of the Year, was introduced at a media conference Thursday afternoon in Hutchinson, where he will once again take over a program that failed to win a game the season before he took over. The Blue Dragons were 0-9 last season, which was the first winless season in the history of the school.

Hutchinson also lost its last two games of the 2005 season and now has the Jayhawk Conference's longest current losing streak.

"Sometimes, you have to hit rock bottom before you reach new heights," Rhoades said when he was introduced at Hutchinson's remodeled Gowans Stadium. "I don't have any doubt we'll be able to turn this football program around."

Rhoades is the second coach Hutchinson has hired away from Fort Scott in recent years. Nathan Daume went there in 2002 after leading the Greyhounds to the Region VI Tournament quarterfinals for the second consecutive season.

"It's very difficult," Rhoades said when asked about leaving Fort Scott. "This is a people business. It's a business where you cannot help but invest yourself into lives of young men and the life of the people around you. The faculty, members and staff at Fort Scott Community College were very good to me, my staff, my family....it was very difficult to leave."

Hutchinson News writer Brad Hallier contributed to this report.