Tabor picked fourth among KCAC football teams
BY RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
When was the last time Tabor was projected to finish among the top four teams in the always-exciting KCAC?
If that happens at Tabor, it must mean that basketball season is rapidly approaching — right?
But it's only August and it's football season that comes first.
Until last year, there was a span of 23 years before the Bluejays finished a season with a winning record.
Once labeled as a perennial punching bag for opponents, Tabor shocked both fans and teams last year with its best finish in 23 years at 5-5.
That must have had something to do with the reason the Bluejays were picked fourth in both the coaches and media polls at the KCAC Media Luncheon held Aug. 9 at the Salina Country Club.
In the media poll, Tabor's 99 points left them 13 in back of third-place Ottawa with both teams each picking up a sole vote for first place.
The coaches poll had Tabor picking up 68 points, 13 points behind last year's KCAC co-champion Kansas Wesleyan.
And Bluejay head coach Tim McCarty, entering his fourth year, and his team is excited about what 2002 could have in store for Tabor.
"The teeter-totter is balanced," McCarty said. "It's not definitely up or down. We've managed to throw a few weights on it to get it up to where it can go up or down.
"We still feel we're a year away. We're real excited about our numbers. We're going to have somewhere between 75 and 85, which is what we want to have.
"Our kids come in on the 28th, and we're trying to get better each and every day."
The Bluejays' season begins Sept. 14 when they host SW Assemblies of God at Hillsboro.
In both polls, Bethany was the unanimous choice to win the conference outright.
The winningest active head coach in NAIA football at 208-50-1 overall, Dr. Ted Kessinger's Swedes finished in a two-way tie for first place with Kansas Wesleyan in 2001.
Going 8-1 a year ago with their only loss coming against the Coyotes, the Swedes will once again be led by the KCAC's 2001 Offensive Player of the Year, quarterback Mike Strack.
Despite the loss of the KCAC's top rusher Matt Leonard, the Coyotes' 130 points in the media poll were only eclipsed by the Swedes' 147.
Bethany's 97 points in the coaches' poll was 12 better than projected-runner-up Ottawa.
Rounding out fifth through tenth in the coaches' poll were Southwestern, Friends, Bethel, Sterling, McPherson and St. Mary, respectively.
Southwestern and Friends appear to have locks on the fifth and sixth spots in both polls while Sterling and Bethel flip-flopped for seventh and eighth place by the media.
McPherson and St. Mary are projected ninth and tenth, respectively, in both polls.
