By STEVE CARPENTER
Blue Dragons Sports Information
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — This week was once circled on the calendar with big red ink for new Hutchinson Community College head coaches Delice Downing and Drew Dallas.
Thursday, Aug. 20, was supposed to be the night that Dallas called his first play as head coach of the Blue Dragon Football Team in the 2020 season opener at Garden City. The Blue Dragon Volleyball Team would also have been boarding a bus headed for Las Cruces, New Mexico, for Downing's debut as that program's head coach on Friday and Saturday.
"Since all this went down, there's been too much going on. I haven't even thought about what I would call for that first play," said Dallas, referring to the coronavirus pandemic that wiped out the 2020 spring season and forced the moving of the 2020 fall season – with the exception of cross country – to spring of 2021.
Now, the Blue Dragons' two newest head coaches must wait, practice, wait, recruit, maybe scrimmage some this fall, practice some more, recruit some more and wait some more until the new Opening Day/Night this spring. For Downing's volleyball team, that is now tentatively scheduled for Jan. 29. Dallas and the football team must wait all the way until March 22 to call that first play.
"This is the weirdest preseason I've ever had," Downing said. "I told the girls yesterday that we should be loading up the bus right now and head to our first tournament. We are just doing individual things right now. It's absolutely weird and it's the new norm. We are just trying to adjust to it."
Dallas was named Blue Dragon Football's 18th head coach on Dec. 31, 2019. After what started as a seemingly normal transition – hiring of a staff, recruiting and preparation for spring football – that all changed in mid-March when COVID-19 put a stranglehold on the world.
Since then, there has hardly been a normal day for Dallas and his staff, which includes being displaced for around 100 days to the Gowans Stadium press box while the Mull Family Football Complex offices and locker room were going through a major renovation.
"It's a unique situation and a unique feeling," said Dallas, from his newly completed office. "I try not to dwell on the what-ifs because those can eat you up. I look at what kind of opportunity are we presented with today and what does tomorrow look like when I get through today."
"Everything is so fluid within the schedule and a plan because of the situation we are in. You have to make the most of every opportunity you get. We are focused on today because we are in a world right now that you can't look too far ahead."
Downing took the reins of the Blue Dragon volleyball program on July 1, becoming the 13th head coach in Hutchinson history. The NJCAA announced 13 days later that all fall sports, with the exception of cross country, would be moved to spring 2021.
Despite that sudden derailing of the 2020 fall season, Downing sees some hidden advantages for her in delaying this season to the spring.
"It would be really tough if I were here and more prepared for the season, but the fact that we will get to play in the second semester and we get a semester to train and I get to know (the players) personally, it's not that bad," she said. "It's bitter because you want to see them in action and get going, but it's nice to know I have time to train them and get them under the teachings I like to give and get to know them personally."
Both Downing and Dallas come to Hutchinson as new head coaches, but their coaching paths to HutchCC are vastly different.
Downing has 15 years of head coaching experience at Coffeyville Community College. Downing is ranked No. 3 in the Jayhawk Conference in coaching wins with 432 and her teams won back-to-back national championships in 2017 and 2018.
Dallas has actually been at Hutchinson one season as the Blue Dragon Offensive Coordinator under previous head coach Rion Rhoades in 2019. Dallas guided the No. 3-ranked scoring offense in the nation. Before Hutch, Dallas served as an assistant coach and offensive coordinator at Angelo State and Kansas Wesleyan.
With no coaches' playbook during a pandemic in existence, HutchCC's two newest head coaches have leaned on each other to help navigate what has happened and what might come next.
"I'd like to sit down with her more than I have," Dallas said of Downing. "She's bringing in national championship hardware and I'd love to pick her brain on team building and things she was able to do in building a program. It's cool that we are coming in at the same time to a new program and going through unique circumstances together."
"Drew has been really great because he's helped me get to know people outside of HutchCC," Downing said of Dallas. "We've talked about our programs and that expectations are really high here. It's nice to have someone that I can bounce ideas off of and he's really been a big help."