Four days after he joined the football team at Butler County Community College in El Dorado, Grady Fowler was called upon to win the first game of the season for the Grizzlies.
In the season-opener against Kilgore (Texas), Butler County had just tied the score at 28 with a touchdown, with the extra point still to come. Fowler, a 2006 graduate of Chase County High School in Cottonwood Falls, already had kicked two field goals in the game, and with just minutes remaining, he trotted onto the field with a chance to put his team ahead.
“It was the first game, I had just shown up, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I better make this or these guys are going to hate me,’” Fowler said. “I got here four days before the first game, and then played in the first game. It was hard throwing on a different uniform and going out there with guys I didn’t even know and playing. I was pretty nervous.”
Fowler’s kick was true, and the Grizzlies held on to win, 29-28.
“It felt good,” Fowler said. “It took some pressure off me.”
Not only did Butler defeat Kilgore that day, but the Grizzlies proceeded to win each of their next 10 games, and now, they find themselves in the National Junior College Athletic Association national championship game, which will be played Saturday in Salt Lake City.
Fowler, along with 2007 Emporia High graduate Dillon Cox, will make the trip to Salt Lake City when No. 2 Butler (11-0) takes on No. 1-ranked Snow (Utah) College (11-0) for the national title.
Both Fowler and Cox have played crucial roles for the undefeated Grizzlies in both players’ first season at the school.
Since he transferred from Emporia State just before the start of the season, Fowler, a sophomore, has had an instant effect for Butler.
He made 8 of 12 field goal attempts and 45 of 47 extra-point attempts and was sixth in scoring in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference with 6.3 points per game this season.
He was a first-team All-Conference, All-Region VI selection at kicker as well.
“This season has been pretty exciting,” Fowler said. “I’ve never really been on a winning team, let alone a championship team, so it’s a new thing for me.”
Fowler said the decision to leave ESU and attend Butler was all about bettering his situation in the future.
“It was the chance for me to be on a national championship type of team, which I’ve never been on,” Fowler said, “plus, I could get the chance to advance on to the (Division I) level — the highest level of football — after I’m done here.”
Fowler said he was receiving recruiting attention from some Division-I schools, adding that if he didn’t get an offer from a D-I program this year, he could opt to stay another season at Butler.
But, he said, his only focus now was the national championship game against Snow.
“Snow, obviously they’re No. 1, so they’re a very good team,” Fowler said. “We’ve had some tough games. We overcame those and played some good teams. I think we’ll respond well.”
As for Cox, after his All-State season as a senior at Emporia High in 2006, he enrolled at Butler and immediately made a push for playing time at linebacker and on special teams, but an ankle injury forced him to miss the first two games of the season.
He finally suited up in the third game and played on special teams. Then, in the middle of the season, when the player in front of him at linebacker went down with an injury, Cox was pressed into the starting role.
He said his first start was tough because of the increase in athleticism from the high school level to the junior college level.
“At first, it took me a while to get used to everything because it’s a lot faster paced,” Cox said. “But once I got it, it was just playing football.”
The player Cox replaced in the starting lineup eventually returned, and Cox went back to special teams and occasional mop-up duty.
Still, playing for an undefeated team that will be playing for a title has been a thrilling experience, Cox said.
“My first year being here and we’re going to the national championship, that’s pretty crazy,” he said. “We just have to win one more game and we’re national champions.”
Butler will take on Snow for the national title at 1 p.m. Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. The game will be shown live in Kansas on Cox Communications Channel 22, or on the Internet at www.kake.com.
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dillon (anonymous) says...
Just wondering if anybody knows the reason why these guys left esu?
November 30, 2007 at 2:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gregorymed (anonymous) says...
I have heard they did not want to play for this current ESU coaching staff as they were Dave Weimers recruits.
December 3, 2007 at 2:38 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )