There'll be plenty to report from the Coffeyville Community College Red Ravens, as two teams start their season and two more continue onto their next few games.

On Wednesday, the CCC volleyball team takes on Allen County in Iola at 6:30 pm. Meanwhile, both the men's and women's soccer teams will play host to the Johnson County Cavaliers. Women kick off at 5:00 pm, while the men follow at 7:00 pm.

The men's and women's cross country teams will start their season Friday, competing at the Terry Masterson Classic in Hutchinson. The baseball team will also participate in its fall scrimmage at Seminole State.

The soccer teams will be back in action on Saturday, traveling to Great Bend for a matchup with Barton. Finally, Saturday also brings the start of the college football season, with the Red Ravens hosting the defending national champion Hutchinson Blue Dragons. Kick-off will be at 7 pm, with the game being broadcasted on US98.1, KUSN.

The West Elk Patriots were just one game away from going above .500 in 2020, something that the team will look to improve upon this year.

The Patriots, led by head coach Chris Haag, made the playoffs following an exciting 54-50 win over Yates Center, but were defeated by eventual state semi-finalist Madison in the first round. Haag said like always, success starts up front.

A tough league schedule awaits the Patriots, playing teams such as Sedan and Oswego that have had success in recent years. Haag said you can't ignore those games, but the team must pay attention to what is in front of it first.

West Elk begin its 2021 season against Udall. The Patriots will make two appearances on our Game of the Week schedule,  September 24th against Sedan and October 22nd against Yates Center. Both those games can be heard on 690AM, KGGF.

Field Kindley is coming off a 2-6 season in which they were 1-3 in one-score games. Coming into the 2021 season, Head Coach Deonta Wade says there are several new faces that will need to step up this season.

Coach Wade says one of the biggest question marks this season is the quarterback position.  The Nado start the season at home against Augusta and then have a tough stretch of four straight away games at Columbus, Valley Center, Independence and Mulvane.

Oswego will look to build off an impressive season in 2020. The Indians went 8-2 and made it to the second round of the playoffs. Matt Fowler returns for his fourth season as head coach. The Indians will lean on there three seniors they have coming into the season.

Coach Fowler says limiting turnovers will give them better outcomes in most cases.

Along with the senior leadership, the Indians bring back an experienced junior class that has seen playing time due to injury's last year. Oswego gets their season kicked off on September 3^rd at home against Chetopa.

The Neodesha Bluestreaks look to make improvements going into year three under head coach David Gillett. The Bluestreaks went 2-7 last year losing seven straight games in the middle of the season. Going into this season the Bluestreaks are going to have to replace some key contributes on offense.

Coach Gillet also talked about some goals that the coaching staff and the kids had set for the season.

Neodesha's offense might look a little younger this year as they will have some underclassmen filling major rules. Coach Gillet also said that they have made some tweaks offensively to get the young kids adjusted to the game. The Bluestreaks open their season on September 3^rd at home against Eureka.

It'll be a tough task for Sedan football to surpass the level of success it reached in 2020, but the Blue Devils will have plenty of things to look forward to when it hits the field next week.

The team finished the regular season at 8-0 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs before being defeated by Chase County. Head coach Mick Holt said returning players from that 2020 team should anchor the squad through the first few weeks.

Several other players, such as Caney transfer Brec Williams and sophomore running back Jeremiah Prince, are also expected to make an impact this season.

In addition, Holt said the team must also remain healthy if it wants to make another run.

Sedan opens its season at home against St. Paul. The Blue Devils will be broadcast twice this season as part of our Game of the Week coverage on 690AM, KGGF. The first broadcast can be heard September 24th against West Elk with the second being October 15th against Cedar Vale-Dexter.

The Independence High School football team is coming off a season where they saw the majority of their games cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19. Head Football Coach John Black says he's hoping the new guidelines put in place will help keep kids out of quarantine.

As far as the team looks this year, Coach Black says they don't have a lot of depth at any position.  Independence has a tough start to the season as they take on El Dorado week one at home and then travel to Wichita North for a week two matchup.

Cherryvale finished the 2020 season with a disappointing 2-7 record with their only wins coming against Leon-Bluestem and Baxter Springs.

Robert Henderson will look to turn the Chargers around for the 2021 season. Henderson, a northwest Arkansas native, has been a coordinator at the high school and college level but this will be his first head coach position. Henderson said he is here for the long haul and was ready to go as soon as he got hired.

Henderson said a core group of players were there for summer weights and workouts and two players caught his eye.

The Chargers will start the season on the road as they head to Neosho County to take on the Erie Red Devils on September 3^rd. The game can be heard on the Mighty 690 KGGF with Connor Harbit on the call. Pregame will start at 6:30 pm and kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 pm.

The Fredonia Yellowjackets are looking to build off last year's successful campaign that was cut short due to the team being quarantined and forced to forfeit their second-round playoff game against Osage City.

Even though the Yellowjackets lost a large number of seniors, Head Coach Marc Svaty thinks this team can build upon last year. One of the players he is looking to is Colton Dinkle.

The Yellowjackets will be losing the services of three-year starter John Dutton due to graduation this season but a familiar face will step in his shoes.

The Yellowjackets will begin their season on September 3^rd as they travel to Caney Valley. Kick-off is scheduled for 7 pm and you can listen to the game on 98.1 KUSN. Kyle Hey and K.C. Meiners will be on the call.

Coming off a 6-3 season, the Caney Valley Bullpups are looking to improve this season. Caney Valley head coach Criss Davis says the key to this class is the large senior class returning for this season.

One of the questions for this season could be at quarterback with last year's quarterback duo of Brec Williams and DaRon Davis moving out of the district. Coach Davis said they have been looking at two players to take the reins.

Caney will host a jamboree this Friday with Field Kindley and Independence. The Bullpups will kick off the regular season on Sept. 3^rd when they host the Fredonia Yellowjackets. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 pm.

We are under two weeks away from the start of high school football in Kansas. Coming up this Friday, as teams prepare for the start of the 2021 season they will compete in jamborees. These are scrimmages against other local high schools with normally two other schools present. Schools took the year off from these last year due to COVID-19.

Field Kindley will head to Caney on Friday night to take part in their jamboree with Caney Valley High School and Independence High School. Both the Golden Tornado and Bullpups have questions at the quarterback position and hope to make things more clear Friday night. Fans are allowed to attend and the cost of admittance is either Gatorade or water.

The Nado starts their season on September 3^rd against Augusta, the Bullpups open up against Fredonia and Independence starts their season with El Dorado.

With summer nearly at its end, the offical first day of practice is upon us for many fall sports.

Those that may begin their long journey toward state include football, volleyball, boys soccer, girls golf and tennis, gymnastics, cross country, debate, and scholars bowl.

Don't forget that you can listen to Field Kinley, Caney, and Game of the Week football on our family of stations starting September 3rd. Additionally, make sure to tune in to our Coaches Breakfast program on Saturday, August 21st. Several area coaches will be interviewed, previewing the upcoming season.

Photo courtesy: KSHSAA

Independence Community College hires Melissa Anderson as the new volleyball coach. Anderson has head coaching experience at the Juco and NCAA Division II ranks. She coached at Otero Junior College accumulating 177 wins over eight seasons. Anderson also coached at East Central University. ICC Athletic Director Eric Figurski says Coach Anderson has all the qualities that we sought for this position.

While at Otero Junior College 17 players went on to play volleyball after their Junior College careers. Coach Anderson says she is excited for the upcoming season to watch their sophomores grow as players and lead the freshman on and off the court. Coach Anderson and the pirates kick off the season on August 25 at Highland Community College.  

The Kansas State High School Activities Association has announced for the 2021-2022 school year that any participant whether it be a player, coach, or spectator who is ejected for making contact with an official or who is ejected for unsporting behavior directed toward an official, shall be subject to a non-appealable suspension from the next contest until the suspension has been served. Players, coaches, or spectators could also have additional sanctions given by local school officials.

All ejected students are also required to complete the National Federation of State High School Association Sportsmanship course. All ejected coaches are required to complete the NFHS Teaching and Modeling Behavior course before being reinstated.

With the fall football season less than a month away, 690 AM KGGF will once again be bringing you the best of the area each and every week.

The 2021 Game of the Week schedule has officially been set with a mix of 11-man and 8-and football to be broadcast on KGGF.  Teams such as Cherryvale, Fredonia, Neodesha, Sedan and West Elk make up this year's schedule, which can be found here. The playoffs schedule will be announced at a later date.

After winning a bronze medal a few days ago, a former Red Raven sprinter has captured Olympic gold.

Canadian Andre De Grasse posted a time of 19.62 seconds, beating his personal record and winning his first-ever Olympic gold medal. He is also the first Canadian to win the gold in the 200m since 1928.

De Grasse attended CCC in 2013 and 2014 before moving on to USC. Two Americans also finished on the podium; Kenneth Bednarek won silver with a time of 19.68 seconds, while Noah Lyles won bronze with a time of 19.74 seconds.

A former member of the Coffeyville Red Raven track team has earned himself an Olympic medal.

Andre De Grasse, who competed for the Ravens in 2013 and 2014, won the bronze medal for Canada in the 100 meter sprint. He finished with a time of 9.89 seconds.

Lamont Michael Jacobs of Italy won the gold, while the USA's Fred Kerley won the silver medal.