By By Shawn Wansley/EMG sports writer
May 16, 2004
ELLISVILLE Jones Junior College head football coach Parker Dykes would love to see the return of the Junior Rose Bowl football game. As president of the newly formed American Community College Football Coaches Association, he has made reinstatement of that game one of his top goals.
Another goal of the new group is to help unify the nation's football playing two-year colleges. Currently they are divided into two major associations, the National Junior College Athletic Association and the California Association of Community Colleges.
The California schools were members of the NJCAA when that organization first began. More than 25 years ago, the California schools left the NJCAA and formed their own league. The NJCAA and the CACC have approximately 75 members each.
Although the coaches of both organizations hold membership in the American Football Coaches Association, the two-year schools have been receiving little recognition because they were not well organized and were basically divided into two factions.
Since its inception a little over a year ago, the ACCFCA has selected two coaches of the year, Mike White of Reedley, Calif., College for 2002 and
Troy Morrell of Butler County, Kan., for 2003. For the first time ever, the two-year coaches were honored by the AFCA.
Dykes became ACCFCA president in January, replacing White at the group's meeting in Orlando, Fla. Grant Teaff, executive secretary of the AFCA, and President Phillip Fulmer, head coach at the University of Tennessee, spoke at the meeting and offered words of encouragement to the organization.
The ACCFCA will hold its next meeting during the first week of January, 2005, in Louisville, Ky., in conjunction with the AFCA meeting. Craig Thompson of Shasta, Calif., Community College will replace Dykes as ACCFCA president at that time.