Hutchinson CC Sports Information
Former Hutchinson Community College football coach and player and Liberal native Rion Rhoades has been selected to be inducted into the NJCAA Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the national office announced on Friday.
Rhoades and former Iowa Western quarterback Jake Waters make up the induction class of 2025. Both Rhoades and Waters will be honored at the 2025 NJCAA Division I Football championship game on December 17 in Canyon, Texas.
Rhoades was a Blue Dragon linebacker in 1993 and 1994. He then returned to Gowans Stadium as the Blue Dragon head coach, where he started a tremendous turnaround with the Blue Dragon program.
In Rhoades’ 13 years as head coach, Hutchinson made 10 postseason appearances and reached its first NJCAA No. 1 ranking in team history in 2019.
Rhoades was 99-50 with the Blue Dragons – he ranks No. 2 in victories on the Blue Dragons’ all-time coaches list – and his overall 14-year coaching record was 106-55 (.658 winning percentage). Rhoades is the fifth winningest coach in Jayhawk Conference football history.
Under Rhoades, Hutchinson had 200 All-Conference selections including 62 first-team selections, 26 NJCAA All-America honorees, including 11 first-team All-Americans and the 2008 NJCAA Defensive Player of the Year in Eugene Kinlaw.
Rhoades had 239 student-athletes go to a four-year program and 16 student-athletes selected in the NFL Draft or signed as an undrafted free agent.
Rhoades also coached Alvin Kamara, a three-time Pro Bowler and former Rookie of the Year for the New Orleans Saints and Cordarrelle Patterson, who was the first Hutchinson player to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.
Rhoades was apart of Sam Pittman’s 1993 recruiting class. The 5-foot-11, 220-pound linebacker from Liberal jumped into the starting lineup right away and tallied 138 tackles in his freshman season. He helped the Blue Dragons finish 6-5 overall, place third in the Jayhawk Conference and clinch a home Jayhawk Conference playoff game for the first time in school history. The Dragons advanced all the way to the Jayhawk semifinals, which clinched the team’s first bowl berth since 1971 with a spot in the 1993 Valley of the Sun Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.
Rhoades was an All-Jayhawk Conference honorable mention selection in 1993.
The fortunes of the Blue Dragon program continued to improve in 1994 and Rhoades was right in the middle of the success. Selected as one of five team captains for the 1994 season, Rhoades proved to be a perfect leader for new head coach Andy Hill, leading the defense with 130 total tackles, 64 unassisted. He was third in tackles for loss with 12 and again earned honorable mention all-league honors.
The 1994 Blue Dragons finished 15th in the final NJCAA poll and finished with an 8-4 record, the program’s third-straight winning season. The eight wins were the most since 1972 and HCC again qualified for a bowl game, the 1994 Valley of the Sun Bowl against Mesa, Arizona.
Rhoades is the third Blue Dragon player, coach or supporter to be named into the NJCAA Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Patterson and Dr. Jack Mull were both inducted in 2019.
