Category Archives: Pittsburg State

Chuck Broyles

Oct. 12, 200912:37 a.m.
CHUCK BROYLES

CHUCK BROYLES

If you haven’t read my article yet that ran in Sunday’s paper about the current state of the Pittsburg State football program, please check it out here.

I went on the road early last week to head to southeast Kansas, first to Pittsburg to talk to several people for the article, including head coach Chuck Broyles, and then to Parsons to meet with Wayne Gilmore, who runs www.teamkong.net, a PSU fan site. You could say the whole trip was born out of PSU’s three-game losing streak to start MIAA play, but it’s bigger than that.

So … what was the impression I came away with?

Mainly, Coach Broyles is still the man. Three-game losing streak be damned, he still runs that town, although it’s not necessarily Shangri-La anymore.

Here’s how it went down:

I met with Assistant AD Dan Wilkes first, who was my de facto tour guide for the day. First was an interview with Dennis Gatewood, who is the Gorilla Club President. He’s been going to games for over 30 years, and his message was pretty clear: if you’re not with us, you’re against us. Dude doesn’t have a whole lot of patience for bandwagon-type fans. Ended with him, headed down to the weight room to talk to Kendall Fisher, a Garden Plain product and stud wideout for PSU. On the way, I passed former QB Mark Smith in the hall, who is now the QB coach for the Gorillas. That was cool. Talked to Kendall for a few minutes (pulled him out of the weight room) and I could tell the losses had worn on him. If you’re around athletes long enough you kind of get a feel for when something’s weighing on them, and I definitely felt that way after talking to him, especially when he said he’d been hearing stuff in his classes. Ouch.

Then I went to meet with PSU president Steve Scott. He straight up told me he didn’t make it a practice to talk about sports, so I guess that was his way of telling me I’m lucky to get an interview. His office … wow. It’s nice to be King, right? OH, and there was also a Lane Lord sighting in the parking lot on the way to see the prez. Think they’re happy to have him there? Lane Lord, that is.

Then it was time to meet with CCB.

Now here’s the thing about interviewing Coach Broyles … he’s Chuck Broyles. And he knows it. Here’s a snippet from the first couple of minutes we talked:

ME: So there’s things that people are saying about the program, about how it’s fallen off a bit and maybe they’ve got some questions about the direction it’s headed in.

CHUCK: Well if they’re saying it, they’re not saying it to me.

ME: Probably not.

And we went from there. He talked to me for a good 10-15, answered every question, and didn’t avoid any topic I brought up. And I respect that. I mean, we’re talking about a guy who once told me he was going to watch Smokey and the Bandit on the PSU jumbotron in the offseason. In the words of my generation … how player is that?

After my interview with CCB, I hit a sports bar (not for drinks, people) to meet with a couple of fans for lunch, then it was off to Parsons, where I met with Gilmore at his optometry office because, well, he’s an optometrist. Wayne was really insightful — no rah, rah, nothing like that, just straight talk. And he gave the story an angle it had been missing to that point.

Then it was back to the ICT and my beautiful apartment in Old Town. Just kidding, it’s not that nice.

Like I said, give my story a read if you have a chance.

Yours truly,

TA

By Tony Adame | Filed under MIAA, Pittsburg State, football | Comments (0)

Pitt State’s new Web site, and more schools join the Twitterverse

June 13, 20096:27 p.m.

I’m liking Pitt State’s new site — www.pittstategorillas.com — more for function than flash. Not to bag on the old site but … it had a real 1997-ish feel to it and it was a pain to navigate. The new site is crisp. Teams on the left. General info on the top. Click on a player’s bio and no more pop-ups that look like the online putting game you get every now and then. So props to PSU. And, lest I forget, they’re also on Twitter. So now, that I know of, that puts Butler, Emporia State and Pitt State in the Twitterverse amongst Sunflower Slate teams. I’m generally disgusted by Twitter but I think in this particular use … it’s tolerable.

-TA

By Tony Adame | Filed under Pittsburg State | Comments Off

JuCo bowl games in Pittsburg, Hutch … but not Wichita

May 17, 20095:59 p.m.

Here’s the link to the Pittsburg Sun’s story by Matthew Clark on the JuCo bowl situation in Kansas.

Here’s how it breaks down — an anonymous bowl committee set up a game, the Mid-America Bowl — that was supposed to be played at Wichita State’s Cessna Stadium on Dec. 6, 2009. The NJCAA said that the powers-that-be behind this game called them and said it wasn’t going to go off, and the national office didn’t get much more than that.

But, that leaves two bowl games left in Kansas. The Citizens Bank Bowl in Pittsburg (Dec. 9) that will be played at PSU’s Carnie Smith Stadium, and the Salt City Bowl in Hutchinson. Presumably, these are bowls set up to facilitate the local schools — Fort Scott for the game in Pittsburg and Hutchinson for the game in Hutch. Under that same presumption, I’m assuming the Wichita bowl game would have been a vehicle for Butler. And, of course, there’s a chance that one of these game could end up the national championship game featuring the Region VI champion, because hey, that’s where the champ has come from the last two years.

One thing to ponder: Who was behind the Wichita game and why did it fall apart? Were three games just too much for one state? Anyways … more on this later. But having these bowl games can only help. Gotta think Hutch’s new digs are set up perfectly for an event like this.

OUT. TA

By Tony Adame | Filed under Butler, Fort Scott C.C., Hutchinson C.C., Pittsburg State | Comments Off

Spring football (Pitt State & Emporia State)

April 18, 20097:02 p.m.
JOHN MCCOY

JOHN MCCOY

Thought a little spring football update was in order, now that Emporia State and Pitt State have both wrapped things up … but first lemme let everybody know that Sunflower Slate has gone national — our post on Phillipsburg’s Dylan Frantz got picked up on a Cornell (that’s in NY, people) basketball blog. So we’re shining on the East Coast. Gotta love Cornell … one of my all-time fave authors, Thomas Pynchon, went to school there, and so did his homeboy Richard Farina. Imagine those two, circa 1958, taking a writing class from Vladimir Nabokov? Man.

Here we go:

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By Tony Adame | Filed under Emporia State, Pittsburg State | Comments Off

Roll Call’s spring debut, a letter from Morocco and Joaquin Phoenix is still nuts

March 13, 20096:12 p.m.

Roll Call, still in its infancy, is opening its beautiful little baby eyes and looking at spring sports now, which means my little darling is going to be honoring the best of baseball, softball and track & field for the next three months or so.

So let’s get it started.

BASEBALL

TAYLOR HOUSE

TAYLOR HOUSE

Pittsburg State’s Taylor House might not be big (5-foot-9, 175 pounds), but dude packs a punch. Your MIAA hitter of the week went 9 for 14 in four games against Southwest Baptist last week, racking up a home run, two triples, seven RBIs and seven runs. Yeah … that might help his stats a little bit.

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By Tony Adame | Filed under Hutchinson C.C., Joaquin Phoenix, MIAA, Newman, Pittsburg State | Comments Off

Football signings, MIAA edition

Feb. 5, 20096:44 p.m.

So there’s a lot of small colleges in Kansas, which means a lot of football teams which means … a lot of dudes going to play college ball. Which means that hopefully I’ve got everybody here — for sake of space and not making you sift through everything I’m putting links to the school’s specific web sites and recruiting lists and in the cases where that doesn’t exist, I’ve just typed the names in. With a few thoughts of my own added, of course. Today is a breakdown of the MIAA schools, tomorrow (hopefully) we’ll take a look at the KCAC and then this weekend sometime, the Jayhawk.

Enjoy:

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By Tony Adame | Filed under Emporia State, Fort Hays State, MIAA, Pittsburg State, Washburn | Comments Off

Butler, Friends and PSU all one step closer

Sunday11:52 p.m.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always To be blest.
-Alexander Pope

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By Tony Adame | Filed under Butler, Friends, Pittsburg State | Comments (1)

UPSET SPECIALS (NEWMAN, PITT STATE)

Oct. 4, 200812:16 a.m.

There were a couple of big upsets in state college sports Friday and none bigger than the one right here in the Air Capitol by the newly-minted NCAA Division II Newman Jets, who defeated No. 7-ranked Drury University 3-2. Much props to Brian Alvarez, a fellow Wichita Northwest graduate who scored one of Newman’s three goals. He gets his picture on this blog right here, right now, because he’s a Grizzly. And he’s a pretty good soccer player. But more because he’s a Grizzly.

Brian Alvarez, Newman

Brian Alvarez, Newman

Newman SID Brian Petrotta wrote a great story on the game.

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By Tony Adame | Filed under Heartland Conference, MIAA, Newman, Pittsburg State | Comments (1)

Welcome to the Jungletron

Sept. 11, 20085:00 p.m.

This picture was sent to me by Carla Wehmyer, part of Pittsburg State’s PR department. So thanks, Carla.

And more importantly, WELCOME TO THE JUNGLETRON

I mentioned the new scoreboard at Pittsburg State in my notebook a couple of weeks ago, but for those not in the know, this $1.7 million monolith will make its debut on Saturday as the No. 7-ranked Gorillas (2-0) take on Missouri Southern (2-0) in the annual Miner’s Bowl. Pittsburg State has won two tough, close games on the road and their fans are chomping at the bit to see them and the new addition to Carney-Smith Stadium.

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By Tony Adame | Filed under MIAA, Pittsburg State | Comments Off