Blue Dragons left mark before win

Hutch players urinated on Independence's Riverside Stadium wall

? It was one of those games losers just want to forget, and this time even the winners had some regrets.

Before Hutchinson Community College’s 56-14 victory at Independence CC Aug. 30, some of the Blue Dragons, upset about what they described as filthy conditions in their locker room, stopped to urinate against a concrete wall inside Riverside Stadium.

The incident took place in an area within view of some members of the crowd, the Hutchinson News reported in a story in its Wednesday edition.

Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Commissioner Bryce Roderick, who was at the game, later sent a letter of reprimand to Hutchinson coach Craig Jersild.

A month later, Hutchinson athletic officials say they’d like to move past the incident. Two Hutchinson players said they never expected such a response.

“We just had to go,” offensive lineman J.D. Bahret said.

Bahret, a freshman, said that when the Blue Dragons arrived at the stadium they encountered a foul-smelling, flooded locker room. Emil Gibson, a freshman defensive lineman from South Carolina, called the conditions “so nasty … I’ve never seen a locker room like that.”

When their coach told his players to use the bathroom before the game, Gibson, Bahret and at least eight others — not wanting to return to the locker room and unbeknownst to their coach — headed for the concrete wall.

Hutch cruised, scoring 26 points in the first quarter alone. At halftime, the team stood outside in the rain, choosing not to go back to the locker room.

Someone told Independence Community College president Judith Hansen about what the players did on the wall, and she alerted Roderick, who like her, hadn’t seen the incident.

Roderick sent an official reprimand to Jersild and left it up to the school to decide on punishment. Bahret and Gibson said there were no suspensions or benchings, but everyone on the 55-man team had to roll like a log up and down the football field two times.

The school also sent a letter of apology, and Hansen said she was “more than pleased with the resolution.”