John Ontjes and Hutchinson women’s team come through busy offseason

As a storm swirled around Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball coach John Ontjes, he held fast to the things he knew to be true.

He still loved where he was at. He still loved what he was doing. He still had one, big, ultimate goal.

“We have built a great program,” Ontjes said. “My plans are to hopefully be here a long time and continue to build and hopefully, one year, win a national championship.”

A national championship has been all that has eluded Ontjes and the Blue Dragons in his first eight seasons. Hutchinson has finished as the NJCAA runner-up three of the last four years, the latest being a 54-46 loss to Chipola in the national championship game on March 22.

But for a program and a coach so defined by winning at an incredible clip – Hutchinson was 143-5 over the last four seasons – it was an NJCAA investigation and its fallout that kept the Blue Dragons in the headlines throughout the offseason.

After confirming it was investigating the Hutchinson women’s program for possible violations in May, the NJCAA announced in July that its investigation determined Hutchinson gave two players excess benefits outside of their scholarships for the 2014-15 school year and stripped the Blue Dragons of six scholarships over the next two seasons — from 15 to 11 in 2015-16 and 15 to 13 in 2016-17.

Jayhawk Conference commissioner Bryce Roderick, citing Hutchinson’s violation of conference bylaws, added more penalties after the NJCAA: Hutchinson would forfeit all of its 2014-15 victories, the Jayhawk West and Region VI championships. He also placed Hutchinson on probation and made them ineligible for postseason play in 2015-16.

Hutchinson appealed the Jayhawk’s penalty and, while the victories remained forfeited and last season goes in the books as 0-37 instead of 36-1, Hutchinson was allowed to keep its Region VI title, national runner-up finish and will be eligible for a conference title and postseason play this season.

The NJCAA penalties were upheld.

“My job is to try and do the best I can to make sure we follow all the rules,” said Ontjes, a Nickerson native. “I wasn’t frustrated by what happened, or anything like that. It just is what it is. (Roderick) did what he felt he had to do, and now we’re just moving forward. (Hutchinson president) Dr. (Carter) File was unbelievably supportive throughout the whole process, and I’m grateful for that.

“I’m just happy that our new kids coming into the program have something to play for. We’re trying to compete for another championship, so everything’s good.”

If Hutchinson is to keep winning — they’ve won four straight Region VI titles — it will be with an almost entirely new team. Only one player, reserve forward Mandy Madden, returns off last year’s team. The Blue Dragons opened the season with two wins at the Quarterback Classic in Hutchinson with nine active players.

The national confidence in the team hasn’t waned — Hutchinson was ranked No. 3 in the NJCAA Division I preseason Top 25.

“I’m loving the challenge,” Ontjes said. “I’m just looking forward to making our team better ... we’ve been the best team in the league the last five years, and my goal is to get this team, this year, to that point.”

Ontjes will lean heavily on a pair of guards this season — 5-foot-10 sophomore guard/forward and College of Southern Idaho transfer Ralena Phillips and 5-9 freshman guard Lakin Preisner, an Americus native who Ontjes plucked out of tiny Northern Heights High.

Preisner set the national high-school record with 120 consecutive made free throws at Northern Heights.

“I’m really high on (Preisner), I think she has a chance to be a great college basketball player,” Ontjes said. “She has a high basketball IQ and a great worth ethic. I think this year is going to be different for everyone, and we’re ready for that.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 5:02 AM with the headline "John Ontjes and Hutchinson women’s team come through busy offseason."