Broncbuster fball now No. 1

Garden City, KS (westernkansasnews.com)-Following a 27-17 victory at Iowa Western on Saturday, Garden City accomplished a couple of pretty impressive feats. 

First, they became the first team ever to beat Butler, Coffeyville, Hutchinson and Iowa Western all in the same season. But that wasn’t even their most impressive accomplishment. 

That came on Monday, when Garden City moved up to No. 1 in the polls for the first time since November, 2000, the last time they played for the National Championship.

“This team continues to work,” Head Coach Jeff Sims said. “But we know we have a big one this weekend. The Dodge game is for the conference title. If we win that, it’s over. Our guys know what’s at stake.”

The Broncbusters rise to No. 1 is an unbelievable story. They were picked to finish sixth out of eight teams in their own conference coming off a 3-8 campaign in 2015. In fact, after starting last year at 1-7, the Broncbusters have won nine out of their last 10 games (only loss was to Coffeyville in the 2015 regular-season finale). 

“I keep telling everyone that it’s a process,” Sims said. “And it goes way deeper than just football. our guys are winning in the classroom.”

After jumping Arizona Western last week, the Broncbusters gained a sizable point advantage over the Matadors (206 to 200); mainly because of their strength of schedule. With their victory over the Reivers, Garden City now has five wins over teams that were ranked in the preseason top 20. 

Speaking of Arizona Western, they jumped to No. 2 after their blowout win over 13th-ranked Phoenix on Saturday. They’re followed up by East Mississippi, who scored the most impressive victory of the weekend in knocking off former No. 1 and defending national champ Northwest Mississippi, who dropped to fifth. 

Trinity Valley is fourth, while Dodge City, the Broncbusters’ next opponent, jumped eight spots from 20 to 12.