GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO)-- You can't come to Grand Junction 7 times in the past 8 years without building a bit of a tradition.

Those are the exact thoughts of Iowa Western's head coach Marc Rardin. "A year ago when we won the districts," Rardin recounts, "I was hugging my assistant coach and I said, 'Hey, we get to go to Flyin' Roosters.'"

That was the first stop for the Reivers crew on Wednesday - the day that the team arrived in Grand Junction.

On a serious note, however, Coach Rardin believes the extensive amount of experience that he and his staff had accumulated in the last decade at JUCO will be the biggest benefit for the top-ranked Reivers.

Their first game is against San Jacinto on Saturday morning at 9am. It's a rematch of the 2010 National Championship when the Reivers won their first title.