15 minute read
Matthew Folkerts
Staying Together While Being Apart
How local youth groups are staying strong during these hard times.
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Being forced to leave friends and go home in the middle of the semester was hard for a lot of students but it was the reality that hit campus in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students at Hutchinson Community College come from all over the United States, some even travel all the way from around the world. So this kind of change can be difficult. Some of the youth groups in Hutchinson found different ways to stay connected to students.
Kailey Waybright, Hutchinson, started Catholic Dragons also called Catholic Dragz, at the beginning of the school year.
“Father Michael, Father Aaron and I really wanted to get college kids involved at church because college can be hard for students coming from outside areas,” said Waybright.
She wanted to bring together students that may not have had a church in Hutchinson to call home. To reach out to students, Waybright put up fliers around the campus, posted on social media and had the priests of the churches in town to preach about it.
In 2013, Josh Goertzen started a Bible study in his parents’ living room that eventually expanded to Grace Bible Church into a group called CORE, where many HutchCC students attend every week.
“The young adults in our church got together and decided to start a Bible study. We had a desire to see young people come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and for those who already knew Him, to grow in their faith,” said Goertzen.
During the school year, Catholic Dragons meet every Monday night for about two hours.
“Catholic Dragons does a variety of things. First we start out with a meal provided by parishioners, then a 10-15 minute Bible study, then game night, trivia, or once a month we will have Mass and Adoration. I leave group activities completely up to what they want to do. I’m always open for new and fun games or activities,” said Waybright.
The group always finds something fun and exciting to do. Every Wednesday night for hours CORE meets at Grace Bible Church for teachings, worship and small groups.
“We have various girls and guys Bible studies throughout the week. We’re all close friends so we’re always spending time with each other throughout the week as well,” said Goertzen.
This pandemic has had a very big impact on the world, not only negatively but in some positive ways as well. People have been finding more ways to stay in contact with family and friends they cannot see during the stay-at-home orders put in place by the Kansas governor.
CORE has also been doing games, video calls, and they have a big group text where they talk to each other daily.
“I think it’s caused people to push pause on their busy lives and spend time with the Lord. I also think it’s created a large desire to be with each other in person. I think negatively, Christians are created to live in community with each other so that part is challenging during this time,” said Goertzen.
Catholic Dragz has occasionally held Zoom meetings where they talk, catch up with each other and play online games like Pictionary.
“Since the pandemic started, Catholic Dragons did have to end it’s year because the diocese of Wichita cancelled all activities. Of course it had affected us negatively because of the bonds and friendships we’ve made,” Waybright said. “We were not ready for those to come to an end, especially with those who will be transferring to universities. But affecting us in a positive way by keeping us all safe.”
► Josh Goertzen preaches to the CORE group at a Wednesday night class. CORE started in 2013 as a small Bible study in Goertzen’s home.
Photo provided by Josh Goertzen
▼ Catholic Dragons members pose for a picture after a night of Bible study, snacks and kickball. The group was started by a freshman at Hutchinson Community College in Sept. 2019.
Photo provided by Kailey Waybright
▼ Part of the students involved in CORE talk to each other on Zoom for their weekly Bible study. The online meeting provided a place for the women’s group to stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo provided by Ashlyn Foster
An inside look at the new track and field head coach’s first year at HutchCC.
Many things have happened this semester at Hutchinson Community College and the track and field season wasn’t one of them. The Dragon’s Tale magazine ‘tracked’ down Track and Field Head Coach Robert Spies to find out about his coaching career at HutchCC and how he’s staying connected with his athletes during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Coach Spies was hired as the head coach in May 2019. The following fall was the start of his first year at the college after the previous coach, Pat Becher, retired in May 2019.
“Mrs. Coach Spies and I came over to see HutchCC prior to applying and we really liked the campus and the community,” Spies said about his wife and one of the assistant coaches, Ermelinda Spies.
Spies shared a story of a conversation he had with Athletic Director Josh Gooch.
“Mr. Gooch had lunch with me last semester and he asked, ‘How has your first year been so far?’ My mid-to-late first semester reply back was, ‘It is going ok,’ which for me is very good considering the first year, first semester ins and outs of job adjustment for
▲ Track and Field Head Coach Robert Spies speaks to a group during the May 2019 press conference announcement of the new track and field coach. Coach Spies celebrated his first year at the college in May 2020.
Photo by HutchCC Sports Information
a new position; things went pretty smooth,” Spies said. “Now as I approach the backside of this semester with the current status of the Coronavirus pandemic, I find that in a time of difficulty you discover what an institution and its people are all about.”
Some challenges can come with being a track and field coach.
“Seems like I am in two places at once type of situations, coaching multiple events at different locations in town or trying to be two places at once at a track and field meet,” Spies said.
Being a coach is a very important job and it has many ups and downs.
“I decided to coach because it is a way to help develop individuals in providing ways to give a better direction, to assist with life’s struggles, to be there when and if ever
needed,” Spies said. “Coaching is a very difficult profession as it is not just about the X’s and O’s it’s about the individuals you work with and where they go in life. You carry that responsibility as a coach.”
Spies enjoys coaching because he enjoys interacting with the athletes.
“The day-to-day interactions with the student-athletes,” he said. “Hearing about their day, what is going on in their lives, how their courses are going etc., of course I enjoy coaching too.”
There’s a lot of work that goes into sports on the coach’s and the athlete’s side. Spies wants his athletes to be “ready for life” after he has coached them.
“I like for our student-athletes to be ‘ready for life.’ Life comes to everyone no matter if we want it or not. My job above all else is to make sure that when the athletics are done there is a good person awaiting a better tomorrow and each has been given the tools to be successful in the next steps after HutchCC,” Spies said.
Each coach has a specific coaching style that works for them and their athletes.
“I have a mixed style of coaching. I don’t think in today’s society of young adults that it can be one way. Whether it be autocratic, democratic or holistic style of coaching there are situations that come up which require one or the other or possibly a combination. I can say this though, I listen a lot to our student-athletes, even when they think I am not,” Spies said. “Our office is always open and our coaching staff is here to help as we develop a family perspective. This family-driven program gives individuals the support to work toward being their best in all facets of their lives.”
Spies is already planning for next season.
“We are in the process of keeping track of our current team as they are completing coursework online so that somewhat of a goal for next year in having the returners back with good academics. Another goal for next year is to have recruited to our college student-athletes who are ready to be good students and also willing to work hard with their track and field endeavors starting the first day in the fall 2020,” Spies said. “If we can continue to improve each day we are one step up the ladder to having personal best performances, regional champions, broken school records and having additional national champions and All-Americans. A big goal for HutchCC track and field, as I want it to be every year, is to have a program our campus and community can be proud of supporting.”
In spite of the COVID-19 situation, everyone is trying to find their new normal. Spies has worked hard to continue to recruit even without being present on campus during this time.
“The coaching staff and myself are always working and even though it is not physically on the track right now we have shifted gears to keeping in touch with our current studentathletes,” he said. “We have taken on a social distance recruiting approach which has lead us to improvising so future recruits can see our campus and get a feel for who we are as a college.”
Even though his first season at HutchCC didn’t go as planned, Spies has made the most of it.
“In light of everything that has transpired, I am proud to be a Blue Dragon and work for Hutchinson Community College. We have great people who work hard to assist one another and in times like we have now this is more important than ever.”
Coach Spies’ Achievements
4time NCAA Divison II
All-American
12
time conference champion in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Ranked 14 th in the world in the 60 meters, clocking a time of
6.57 seconds during his senior year at
Fort Hays State University
14 years coaching experience
1st year as a Blue Dragon Coach
Players and coaches spend 2020 season away from the ball field
▲ Official roster photo of Head Coach Ryan Schmidt Photo provided by HutchCC Sports Information
A team is made up of many components including players, coaches, managers and more. A coach is where it all begins though.
Originally from Valley Center, Ryan Schmidt has been coaching at the collegiate level for 18 years - 13 years as a head coach and five as an assistant coach. Before coaching, Schmidt played baseball for two years at Barton Community College and two years at the University of Kansas.
He started his collegiate coaching career at Fort Hays State and then went on to Barton. Schmidt first took a head coaching position at Pratt Community College and has been at HutchCC since 2013.
Schmidt is a strict believer in fundamentals. He works very hard to teach baseball fundamentals to his players.
“Honestly, it has drastically changed my everyday routine. I am used to office time, class, weights and practice or games in some type of order. We haven’t had that,” Schmidt said about how he was handling COVID-19. “I have a big family and they have been limited in their activities. I work from home most of the time and spend a lot of unplanned time with my family, which has been awesome. The weather has been great so we have spent a lot of time outside.”
Schmidt is third on the Blue Dragon coaching wins list. With 12 seasons as a junior college head coach, Schmidt, is 374-316.
Schmidt is 267-145 in seven seasons at Hutchinson, which includes three Jayhawk West championships, two Jayhawk West Coach of the Year awards, five NJCAA All-Americans, four conference MVPs and two Pitchers of the Year and two players who earned National Player or Pitcher of the Year awards.
“For the most part, the players have handled it extremely well. It isn’t easy to have your season taken away a third of the way through it. In the grand scheme of things, it is a small sacrifice compared to
what others on the frontlines of the fight have had to endure. The NJCAA made a great decision to grant the players a year of eligibility back, which makes it a little easier to take,” Schmidt said about how his players were handling COVID-19.
The HutchCC Blue Dragon baseball team players are doing their best to stay in shape. They are finding creative ways to train because everything is shut down. They are preparing for summer ball in hopes that they will be able to play.
“We are taking this one day at a time,” Schmidt said about how COVID-19 would affect the fall baseball season. “We hope they can play this summer and come in ready to go for the fall. If they can’t play this summer, then we hope to play as much as we can in the fall. We will adapt and do whatever the situation calls for to prepare ourselves for a successful 2021 campaign.”
Putting through Pandemics The season comes to an abrupt end for the HutchCC golf team.
As the COVID-19 pandemic plays out, all students have experienced a hard time trying to process through the drastic changes - professors being forced to change their teaching methods, students made to leave campus and switch to online education, and our sports teams facing the sad end to their seasons. With a heavy heart, those involved with Hutchinson Community College patiently await the day they will be allowed to return to campus.
While many students lost jobs and have been left no choice but to return home for the school year, HutchCC’s athletes have also experienced a great loss. Seasons ended, games cancelled, practices altered, their passion cut short due to social distancing and the stay-at-home order.
It can be hard to go through all of this and adapt to a new normality, but the best way any student will get through it is to try and stay positive with a strong mindset of the end goal.
Many athletes are still doing their best to squeeze in their own practices, luckily, golf is an easy one
to practice while also staying safe. With plenty of space and fresh air, golf team player Tradgon McCrae, Plainville, keeps working on his skills.
“It has changed everything that I had been doing on a day-to-day basis. I was at college having a set schedule, going to class and then golf practice everyday and now I am at home sleeping
in and doing homework,” McCrae said. “I am practicing social distancing everyday.”
Some students are taking this time to practice new hobbies or enhance other skills. One must stay productive in such a state of global shut down. With sport fields, courts and arenas being somewhat difficult to get into, this gives athletes a moment to do other things they enjoy.
“I practice on my own two to three times a week but courses have been closed so it is hard to get out on them. My self isolation is going fishing,” said Tyler Trudo, Wichita.
The coaches are also struggling to get with the new setup. While the professors on campus can switch to online education, the coaches’ whole curriculum is put to a halt.
“The golf team’s season is over and COVID19 has put all of us on hold until further notice. In the future, I think things will return to normal and we will be able to play golf again,” said Golf Coach Chris Young.
With the chaos and fear of getting sick being high on everyone’s minds, it is important to stay healthy and take precautions in public. Whether one chooses to wear a mask and cover up, or simply wash their hands more often, everyone is at risk and it is vital that we keep others in our thoughts.
Coach Young and his family have been practicing social distancing as well. He has two kids in college that have had to return home due to the virus.
“Personally, I am practicing social distancing, no going to gatherings of more than ten people and I wear a mask in public,” said Young.
This pandemic may be life altering to many, as college plans may have to change, and sports seasons not playing out, students have much to consider as they look further into their futures.
“We have three players returning including myself for next year. We are losing two guys on
our team from this year and it sucked seeing our season come to end without getting the chance to finish,” said McCrae.
Students may miss their friends, their teachers, and likely, most importantly, their old way of life.
“We can no longer golf together everyday. Our season was shut down earlier than we expected it to. I will no longer be able to see my teammates or compete with them. I only talk to them now on social media,” said McCrae.
With high hopes, all of this will one day come to and end. The halls of HutchCC will flood with students once more, with students practicing in the theater, painting in the studios, and playing on the field. The Coronavirus may have taken a lot from students, but it will not take our team spirit.
STAY SAFE
▼ Tradgon McCrae, Plainville, competes at a HutchCC golf tournament in Monkey Island, Okla. He chipped to get up and down from par.
Photo provided by Tradgon McCrae
