HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A career as a player, coach and athletic director that spanned 23 years will come to an end after this athletic season as Hutchinson Community College Director of Athletics Randy Stange announced his resignation on Friday. Stange will remain with the Blue Dragons through June 30.
Stange will become the Athletic Director for the Springfield, Missouri Public School system, the largest school system in the state of Missouri, where he’ll oversee all Springfield public school athletic departments. He will start that position July 1.
Just the fourth athletic director in the 85-year history of the athletic program at Hutchinson Community College, Stange was named to the position on July 1, 1997.
During his 18-year tenure at Hutchinson, Blue Dragon athletics won 27 Jayhawk Conference championships and 28 Region VI championships in all sports.
“I’m very pleased with how this department progressed,” Stange said. “I wanted all of our sports to be successful. Everybody works together here and I like the fact that we have a real family atmosphere here. It’s not the most important thing, but it was important to me.”
Hutchinson Community College president Dr. Carter File said a broad-based search committee would be formed soon and a nationwide search will take place to find the best candidate to take over the Blue Dragon Athletic Department.
“Randy Stange has been a long, loyal and faithful employee of Hutchinson Community College,” Dr. File said. “For Randy, this is a great professional and personal opportunity for him and his family. He has roots in Springfield, Mo.
“Everybody at Hutchinson Community College wishes nothing but great professional success for Randy Stange.”
The body of work that Randy Stange put together at Hutchinson is immense. That success also translated into leadership at the regional and NJCAA level.
Stange was named the 2013 National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics’ Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year for NJCAA Division I.
That was Stange’s second major award of the 2012-13 athletic season. He also received an NJCAA Service Award.
In addition to his work with the Blue Dragon Athletic Department, Stange is also heavily involved in the NJCAA.
Stange also serves as the Region VI men’s director, a position he has held since 2008. He is the chair of the Division I men’s basketball tournament and has served on the track and field and men’s golf committees. Now Stange is a member of the NJCAA Executive Committee.
The leader of the Blue Dragons has also been championship director of the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013 NJCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, as well as the 2015 championships which will be at Gowans Stadium in May.
Stange has actually been around Blue Dragon athletics his entire life. His father, Herb, was an All-American for the Blue Dragons in 1961.
After a stellar high school career at Nickerson, Stange became a Blue Dragon under head coach Gary Bargen. While an HCC player – Stange also played tennis for the Blue Dragons – the Blue Dragons were 46-15, including an incredible 30-3 record at the Sports Arena. Stange scored 560 points in his career with a top single-game effort of 22 points.
After graduating from Hutchinson, Stange went on to have a stellar career at Southwest Missouri State, where he was inducted into the SMS Hall of Fame in February of 2001.
Once his playing days were over, Stange jumped into the coaching profession, which eventually brought him back to Hutchinson. Hired shortly before the 1994-95 season, Stange spent three seasons on the Blue Dragon bench. Stange posted an 85-20 record. His 1997 team won Region VI and qualified for the NJCAA Tournament.
Before coming to Hutchinson, Stange served as an assistant coach at Kansas State University under Lon Kruger for the 1985-86 season. He then joined the staff at Southwest Missouri State and St. Louis University under his old college coach, Charlie Spoonhour, before the 1986-87 season. When Spoonhour went to St. Louis University before the 1992-93 season, Stange followed and spent two seasons at SLU before returning home.
The 1993-94 St. Louis University basketball team that Stange was part of went into the Billiken Hall of Fame in 2005.