Fall Sports Recap

Soccer Seeks 10th Straight Appearance in NCAA Tournament

In just 11 years, the Fort Hays State Men’s Soccer program has built quite a resume in a relatively short time compared to other sports at FHSU. The Tigers have enjoyeda winning season every year and currently hold the nation’s longest active streak of consecutive appearances in the NCAA Division II National Tournament.

The Tigers have produced 11 or more wins every year except for the COVID-19 shortened spring season during the 2020- 21 academic year, in which the team only played a total of seven matches. Putting up at least 11 wins every year is not an easy feat considering teams can only play a maximum of 18 regular season games. The run of national tournament appearances began in the program’s second year (2012). The Tigers are looking to put together a strong enough resume again in the fall of 2022 for a 10th-straight appearance.

The Tigers have already made quite a bit of history in the string of national tournament appearances, making it to the national semifinals once (2018) and the national quarterfinals four times (2014, 2015, 2016, 2021). Eleven individuals have garnered All-America honors, including one national player of the year, and eight have earned conference offensive or defensive player of the year honors. The men’s program holds an overall record of 132-54-23 heading into the 2022 season.

Football

Football entered its 11th season under head coach Chris Brown in 2022. Brown has established a strong 71-43 record since taking over the program in 2011. The Tigers made appearances in postseason games for four straight years from 2015 to 2018, playing in two bowl games before a pair of NCAA Playoff appearances in 2017 and 2018. The Tigers have won two MIAA titles under Brown’s guidance. The Tigers returned nine All-MIAA selections to this year’s team, including 2021 All-America First Team tight end selection Hunter Budke. Quarterback Chance Fuller is on the cusp of breaking the career passing yards record at FHSU while already holding the single-season and career passing touchdown records.

Volleyball

Tiger Volleyball entered its fifth year under head coach Jessica Wood-Atkins in 2022. The Tigers won 13 matches in 2021, their most under Wood-Atkins' guidance. All-MIAA performers from 2021 returning to this year’s squad included Morgan Christiansen, Riley Tinder, and Claire Olson. Christiansen, Olson, and Tinder were all MIAA Scholar-Athlete Award recipients, while Olson, Tinder, and returner Emily Ellis were MIAA Academic Excellence Award recipients with perfect 4.0 GPAs.

Women’s Soccer

Women’s Soccer will enter its first year under head coach Tyson John in 2022. The Tigers went 8-8-3 in 2021. The program has qualified for the MIAA Tournament seven straight seasons, with two appearances in the NCAA Tournament during its 11-year history. Emily Hutchings and Reilly Madden are All-MIAA performers returning to the team this year. Both were MIAA Scholar-Athlete Award recipients last year, each with 3.9 cumulative GPAs.

New Leadership for Two Sports

The Fort Hays State Women’s Soccer and Baseball programs saw head coaching changes prior to the start of the 2022-23 academic year. Tyson John is the new head coach of the women’s soccer program, while Justin Wichert takes over the baseball head coach position.

TYSON JOHN John brought 13 years of head coaching experience at the four-year college level to FHSU. Most recently, he was at NCAA Division I member University of South Carolina Upstate, where he coached for six years from 2016 to 2021. While there, he took a struggling program that had never won more than four matches in a season to six wins his first season, and a program-record 11 wins a few years later.

Before his six years at USC Upstate, John was head coach for five years at Martin Methodist College in Tennessee from 2011 to 2015, and the program had at least 14 wins all five seasons. He coached Martin Methodist to a pair of NAIA National Quarterfinal appearances. John started his head coaching career at Lyon College in Arkansas, where he coached for two seasons from 2009 to 2010, and the team won at least 10 matches each season. John replaces Blake Reynolds, who coached the FHSU program from 2017 to 2021 and won 39 matches over the four seasons.

JUSTIN WICHERT Wichert comes to FHSU from Trinidad State College in Colorado, where he was head coach for four years, from 2019 to 2022. He led the program to 112 wins over four seasons, including two trips to the postseason. Wichert had previous experience at the NCAA Division II level as an assistant coach at both University of Arkansas-Fort Smith and Pittsburg State University. He also spent time as an assistant at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. As a student-athlete, Wichert pitched at both Cowley College and William Jewell College and was drafted by the San Diego Padres.