How Kansas native Drew Dallas led Hutchinson to NJCAA football title game in Year One
When his peers were just learning how to write in sentences, Drew Dallas was already drawing up football plays when he was in the first grade.
When his father, the head football coach at Kansas Wesleyan at the time, came home from practice and had his 7-year-old son walk him through the play, that’s when Dave Dallas knew that his son was going to be a head football coach just like his father.
“He literally had an entire play drawn up with the right amount of people and blocking schemes and everything,” Dave Dallas said. “He had the defense on the other side of the field and the thing was, the play made sense. I knew what he was talking about. I’ve never seen a kid at that age think that way, but I think Drew has thought that way his whole life.”
The little boy whose childhood was spent on the practice fields in Salina watching his father coach has now grown up to become the first-year head coach who has led Hutchinson Community College to its first NJCAA football national championship game.
No. 1 Hutchinson (7-0) plays No. 2 Snow College (8-0) at 4 p.m. Saturday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas with the game broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
“I grew up around the game my whole life, so to be able to have the success we’ve had here at Hutchinson in my home state is pretty special,” Drew Dallas said. “I think the biggest thing was just spending every day after school on the practice fields watching college football. I think by spending so much time around the game that helped my understanding of it.”
Nothing could have prepared Dallas for as bizarre of a season as this has been for junior college football with a spring season culminating with the national title game being played in June.
“I didn’t do as much barbecuing or golfing over Memorial Day weekend this year,” Dallas joked. “But I wouldn’t trade this for anything else. Our guys have waited a long time for this game, whether it’s in June or in December. It doesn’t matter to us. We’re looking forward to going down there and finishing some unfinished business.”
For much of the last decade, Rion Rhoades seemed to have Hutchinson the brink of a national title. The long-time coach led the Blue Dragons to a No. 3 ranking to end the 2019 season before leaving to join the Arkansas staff as linebackers coach.
So how did Dallas, a head coach for the first time in his career, finally push Hutchinson over the top for the first time in its proud 89-year history, all while replacing a legendary coach?
“This program was in such a great place when I took over, so really all I tried to do was just build on what the great coaches and players did that came before us,” Dallas said. “Anytime you take over a program, of course you’re going to put your own little touch on things here or there. But more than anything, we’re just continuing the tradition that coach Rhoades built here at Hutchinson.”
Rhoades hired Dallas as his offensive coordinator for that 2019 season, which Dallas says helped ease the transition of power. In fact, Dallas said Rhoades still has been an integral part of Hutchinson’s undefeated season this spring.
“I got to learn from one of the best coaches in junior college football history in Rion Rhoades,” Dallas said. “I learned so much from him in a short amount of time, just how he prepared a program and how he did things at this level. He’s been a great support system for me and him and I have stayed in contact weekly. We communicate quite a bit and that’s helped the transition for me on a personal level. He’s a life-long Blue Dragon. He’s a big part of our success and he’s been extremely supportive along the way.”
Another coach who Dallas has been able to lean on throughout the challenges of this season has been his father, Dave, who coached for eight years at Ottawa and then for 17 more at Kansas Wesleyan.
Dallas ended up playing and coaching for his father at KWU following a standout prep career, where he helped lead Salina Central to back-to-back state championships in 2001 and 2002 as the team’s quarterback. The same qualities that made him a good quarterback have made him a good coach, according to his father.
After 25 years of coaching college football and never reaching a national title, Dave is well aware of how difficult it is to play in one of these games. Now a high school coach at Grandview in Missouri, Dave said it’s been surreal to watch his son lead a team to the national championship game in his first season at the age of 35.
“It’s awesome to see him do that, but I always knew he had the ability to do something like this ever since he was a young kid,” Dave Dallas said. “I don’t know if I thought it would happen in his first year, but he stepped in a good situation and he’s surrounded by great coaches and great players and it’s been a perfect storm for him to have this opportunity.”
After his play-calling led Hutchinson to the top-ranked offense in 2019, Dallas hasn’t missed a beat this season as the head coach for the Blue Dragons. Hutchinson’s offense is still just as potent, averaging 47.7 points per game after outscoring opponents 334-80 this season. In Hutchinson’s three games in May alone, the Blue Dragons racked up a total of 189 points.
Running back Tye Edwards has been a workhorse for the offense, while freshman quarterback Dylan Laible has emerged late in the season with his favorite target at tight end in Ivan Thomas, who leads the team in receiving yards (323) and touchdowns (6). The dominant defense has been led by freshman linebacker Tre Pinkney, who leads the team in tackles (45), sacks (8.5) and tackles for loss (13.5).
“This is an exciting reward for our players after all of the hard work they’ve put in and after how much they’ve overcome in the last year-plus,” Dallas said. “We’re in a good situation right now because of the people who have come before us and the foundation that they’ve laid down. Now it’s our job to build on it.”
Whether Saturday ends with a Blue Dragon win or loss, Dave Dallas will be watching from the stands in Little Rock with his chest puffed out.
It’s been a dream come true for the family to watch Drew grow up and follow in his father’s footsteps. Now he’ll try to do something his father never did accomplish — and try to do it in his first season.
“I glow every day because I’m just so proud of him,” Dave Dallas said. “I’m so excited for my son and this opportunity that they have. I’m glowing with pride every day.”
This story was originally published June 4, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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