By SHERYL KRUG
Russell High School Alumna

RUSSELL–Scoring the game-winning touchdown with 30 seconds left in Saturday’s NJCAA Football Championship Game, No. 1 Garden City (Kan.) defeated No. 2 Arizona Western 25-22 to clinch its first national title. On Monday, the polls confirmed what everyone already knew.

The Broncbusters garnered nine first-place votes en route to a runaway No. 1 ranking in the final regular season poll release by the NJCAA on Monday.

Garden City’s journey to the championship began with a victory over Ellsworth (Iowa) which resulted in a 14th place national ranking for the Broncbusters. Over the next several weeks, they climbed through the ranks and grabbed the No. 1 spot on October 17. They never relinquished the top spot, closing as the top team for the final six weeks of the season.

With the victory in Yuma, Garden City snapped Arizona Western’s 13-game winning streak and completed their first ever perfect season. The Broncbusters are the lone NJCAA team to finish the 2016 season undefeated.

Kiefer Craig, a 2015 Russell High School graduate, has been on the GCCC team for two seasons as a wide receiver and on special teams. In an interview with KRSL Russell Radio before the championship game, Craig reviewed Coach Jeff Sims’ philosophy of ‘Graduate, Championship, Scholarship.’ “He wants us to graduate, he wants us to be the best college football player we can be and he wants us to get a scholarship out of here. That’s his main goal. He doesn’t care if we win or lose, he just wants us to move on to a Division I, Division II or NAIA school.”

Craig has not made any final decisions regarding his plans after GCCC. He has embraced another of Coach Sims’ mottos, ‘Right Now.’ “We want to focus on the present moment, not worry about the past or future.”