NO PAIN. NO GAIN Where athletes train on campus Dylan Shah

Dylan Shah,

Reporter & Designer

Photo by Dylan Shah

Trey Pettway, sophomore wide receiver lifts in preperation of the upcoming season. Pettway is committed to go play at UMASS this up-coming fall.

When athletes are used to competing in the fall and it’s pushed to spring schedule, many teams are faced with a lot of off time. Along with the Blue Dragons, many athletes all across the country have been forced to go through this same situation. With this given time, many coaches are creating schedules to best prepare their players for the upcoming season. Many teams across campus were given a 60 day period of fall practice. After speaking to head coaches Steve Eck (Men’s Basketball) and Jamie Rose (Softball), they both said that not much has changed. The biggest differences for Men’s Basketball was that they transitioned to 1.5 hour practices instead of 2 hour practices. And for softball, the biggest difference was that they unfortunately were never able to get any scrimmages in against an opponent. Even though the fall season has been put to a pause, teams are looking to get better and better each day.

When it comes to developing into a stronger and faster athlete, many coaches say the weight room is where to start. For the Blue Dragons, the weight room is almost an everyday thing. From football to softball, HutchCC athletes are in the weight room putting in the work they need to excel themselves in their sport. The weight room is easily one of the most used facilities for the 12 Blue Dragon Athletic teams across campus. That is why Football Head Coach Drew Dallas has tried to utilize the turf at Gowans Stadium as much as possible during workouts and practices. Dallas and his team have also been able to utilize the Jack Mull Family Football Complex in small groups and make modifications to weight lifting schedules. The Jack Mull Family Football Complex houses the football offices, the Dragon Den Players Lounge and the Bob and Lou Peel Weight Training Center.

The football complex borders Gowans Stadium, home of Blue Dragon football and Track and Field since it opened in 1930. It features a 5,500-seat venue with a new press box, Field-Turf surface, polyurethane nine-lane track, and a Dragonvision video board. Gowans Stadium has also become home to the Kansas State High School Class 3A state football championship game. Gowans Stadium also has been the home of the NJCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships of 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017.

Along with Gowans stadium in serving big NJCAA events, the Hutchinson Sports Arena became the host venue for the NJCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament since 1952 and remains so today. The sports arena is home to Blue Dragon Men’s & Women’s basketball, volleyball and houses the Athletic Office. In 2015, a $29.5 million renovation to the Arena was approved. The sports arena now has an improved infrastructure, three new practice gyms, a re-done Sports Medicine office, weight room, locker rooms, NJCAA Office and Blue Dragon Athletic office. The Sports Arena is a great multi-use facility, while Volleyball, Women’s Basketball and Men’s Basketball all can practice comfortablbly with the use of the main arena and the two practice gyms while teams rotate gyms each day. Not only are the gym’s multi-use, the weight room located in the Sports Arena is used widely across all sports besides football. Men’s Basketball uses the weight room for cardio and strength lifting 5 days a week. Men’s basketball are not the only ones to utiltize the weight room either. After the so-called “fall practice”, Head Coach Jaime Rose has been using the remainder of the semester to do small group training on skills and weights/conditioning.

Along with using the weight room, Head softball coach; Jaime Rose has been using the Fun Valley complex. Fun Valley is a seven-field complex that has hosted numerous state, regional, national and world baseball and softball tournaments, including the NJCAA Division I Softball Championships in the mid-1990s. Blue Dragon softball plays on Field 3, which has been converted into a true fastpitch softball field which gives Blue Dragon softball a home-field advantage. Fun Valley Complex has also been home to Blue Dragon Cross Country since before the 2016 season. Fun Valley’s cross country course is very different from the standard cross country course. The complex creates a unique one-mile loop around the complex with a path that consists of a mix of grass and dirt that winds down service roads and crossings that make the home meet one of the best early season college runs in the region.