The Butler Grizzlies look to begin another successful season under head coach Adam Hunter as they will look to repeat as Conference and Region VI champions and head to the national tournament for the third straight year.
The Grizzlies defeated the Cowley Tigers in an epic penalty shootout in the Region VI final at Stryker Sports Complex last November. The Grizzlies traveled to Daytona, Florida, for their ninth trip to the national tournament since 2011, defeating Iowa Western in pool play before seeing their season end against Salt Lake.
The Grizzlies will be defending conference champions, winning the Jayhawk East for their 12th time since 2003. The Grizzlies return eight starters from last season, including 20 goal scorer Kim McAlpine who returns as a super sophomore after leading the conference in goals last season. Brooklyn Hunter, who was named a freshman NJCAA All-American is back as well as All-KJCCC returners Joy Ngibuini, Korryn Hackney, Kyrah Klumpp, and Madeline Bowman.
"I feel pretty good about the players we have coming back," said Grizzlies Head Coach Adam Hunter now entering his 16th season at the helm. "We have a large number of returning starters, in addition to a number of players who came off the bench and played significant minutes. Then, you couple that with the players we've added, that we've been able to recruit locally and internationally, I think we have the potential to be as strong as we've ever been through the first week of practice."
The Grizzlies add 16 newcomers to the 2022 roster, including several freshmen from the Wichita area, such as midfielders Emma Kolbe from Mulvane, KS and Brekkyn Pierce, who comes to El Dorado from Maize.
"We've got kids from around the area, multiple kids from Maize, kids from the surrounding area, and a lot of those players have some sort of comfortability with me," mentioned Hunter.
"With our returning players, players like Meghann Wingsutton and Morgan Fischer will look to get a starting role or play increased minutes."
The Grizzlies will look to replace several starters on the backline, including replacing last year's all conference and KJCCC Defensive Player of the Year center back Ellie MacDonald, as well as Iyanla Bailey Williams and Natalie Amaya.
"We lost our everyday starters with Bailey and Ellie," said Hunter.
MacDonald is a big important player, and a big personality to replace. We're not going to replace her personality or be able to replace her vocal leadership. Williams is a big one to replace as well but we're happy on the defending side."
The Grizzlies return plenty of goal scoring threats, including Joy Ngibuini and Kenzee Goodwin who both scored 10 goals, and McAlpine who, in addition to finding the net 20 times, also contributed 46 points. She'll continue to be an aerial threat for Hunter's side, scoring many goals with her head including the opening goal against Cowley, heading in a corner.
"It's going to be harder for Kim because everyone has seen her and is game planning for her. But, a player like Kim, who can do what she can do with her head, it's hard to game plan against," Hunter commented. "If we can get balls into the box, Kim is going to score goals. We've also got Joy and Kenzee back, so we returned 40 goals from last season. Any time you can do that in junior college, you're in a good starting position."
The Grizzlies are picked to win the Jayhawk East conference again this year, and they will repeat as conference champions in addition to a talented non-conference slate that features several teams from last year's national tournament, including a rematch against Iowa Western.
"You've got to be really happy with the tests we're going to get in non-conference," said Hunter. "We've got Monroe, who we've played several times in national tournaments, and Iowa Western and Rose State, who were also national tournament teams."
Our league in the past couple of years has been able to get two to five teams in the top twenty at different parts of the season. I imagine Cowley will be right there with us, they deserve it and they did a lot of good things last season. Johnson County is always strong, and Coffeyville is always at everyone's heels."
Ultimately, the target for the Grizzlies is a return to the national tournament, this year in Evans, Georgia.
"You're there with the best teams in the country, and the margin for error is really thin. Our first goal is to put ourselves in a position to win the Region Tournament," Hunter mentioned. "You've got to be talented, which I believe we are. Then you have to be healthy, and you've got to be a little bit fortunate. You need to have bounces go your way."
"We have kids who played in the Cowley game last year and know what it takes to win those games, and we need those kinds of things to happen for us in the National Tournament as well."
The Grizzlies start the season on August 18th in Rochester, New York against Monroe College. The home opener at BG Products Veterans Sports Complex will be on August 28th against Hill College at 11:00am.
