C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl will have a new home.

The C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl which made Copperas Cove its home for the last 17 years is moving.  Known locally as the HOT Bowl, it has produced one national junior college champion team, while hosting 17 junior college games and 5 NCAA Division II games.  On May 14, the HOT Bowl received word stating Bulldawg Stadium was no longer available to host the Hot Bowl because of expectations of post season high school playoff games.  
The bowl is considering offers from other Texas cities.  Offers and inquiries have been made by Killeen, Austin, Ft. Worth, Waco, The Woodlands, Mt. Pleasant (formerly the home of the Pilgrim’s Pride Bowl) and Athens.  
Bowl games are coveted events.  The bowl committee has been a little overwhelmed by the many opportunities but ultimately the selection will be based upon a central location and ability to provide banquet and athletic facilities, as well as hotel capacity. The Hot Bowl has standing commitments with national television coverage of the games and the Southwest Junior College and Lone Star Conferences. 
The intangible benefits of the bowl are difficult to measure. The Hot Bowl casts a warm light on the host city and its schools. It offers high school student athletes incomparable exposure to college coaches, engages local volunteers and engenders a spirit of service and pride in community. The Hot Bowl donates tickets to military families, the disabled and community members who might not otherwise ever have the opportunity to attend a nationally televised bowl game. 
The Hot Bowl is an awesome sporting event to bring national media attention to a community. In addition to national television coverage, the days long bowl game event brings in hundreds of players and thousands of football fans.  The Hot Bowl employs over 30 part-time local people on an annual basis. It affords local advertisers an opportunity to gain national attention. In addition to the participating colleges and universities, the Hot Bowl attracts college coaches and scouts from approximately 40 NCAA and NAIA football programs.  
The Hot Bowl is a powerful college recruiting tool helping place numerous high school athletes in collegiate programs.  Area high school coaches send their senior college football hopefuls to be introduced to the visiting college scouts watching the junior college matchup.  Local players receive the opportunity to meet colleges they otherwise would not have met.
The Hot Bowl is organized and hosted by C.H.A.M.P.S., Communities Helping Americans Mature, Progress and Succeed, a program of America’s Drug Free Productions (501c3 non-profit organization). C.H.A.M.P.S.  is committed to educating youth on the dangers of the abuse of alcohol, illicit drugs, bullying and teen suicide.  
It is difficult to project the economic impact on a community.  Economists have long recognized that when visitors inject new money into an economy it spreads like ripples in a pool after a stone has been tossed into it. New money is spent and re-spent so its initial impact is multiplied several times. What is the total effect to the local economy?  An economic impact study is not available.     
Hotels supply over 350 room nights. Local merchants benefit from food, fuel and souvenir sales. The Hot Bowl receives lots of positive reviews from local businesses.  This philanthropic impact of the Hot Bowl will relocate to a centralized location.  The Hot Bowl will always serve the young people of this community.  If anyone in Copperas Cove wants to attend the HOT Bowl and cannot afford to do so, please contact me. I will continue my pledge to make that happen.  
Although the Hot Bowl is relocating, it will always be remembered for having its beginning and history in Copperas Cove.  Thank you, Copperas Cove, for the 17 great years of support.   
Thought for the week, “Hard work pays off, hard work beats talent any day, but if you’re talented and work hard, it’s hard to be beat.”  Robert Griffin III