2021 Shrine Bowl assistant coaches announced

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The 2021 Wyoming Shrine Bowl all-star football games now have their full complement of coaches.

Shrine Bowl Executive Director Frank Selby announced the full coaching staffs in a release Tuesday, completing the staffs started with the announcement of head coaches in December.

South head coach Brent Walk of Mountain View will be joined by assistants Paul Garcia of Cheyenne East, Wes Gamble of Douglas, Michael Collins of Mountain View, Logan Wright of Saratoga and Jack Cobb of Snake River.

North head coach Matt McFadden of Cody will have Trent Pikula of Thunder Basin, Jim Talich of Cody, Kirk McLaughlin of Big Horn, Larry Yeradi of Wright and Zeb Hagen of Meeteetse on his staff.

This year’s game will be June 12 at Cheney Alumni Field in Casper.

–patrick

96 players nominated for Wyoming scholar-athlete award

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A total of 96 Wyoming high school football players have been nominated for the scholar-athlete awards given by the Wyoming Chapter of the National Football Foundation.

Two finalists from each classification — one lineman and one back — will be given $1,200 scholarships from the group. The top scholar-athlete will earn an additional $1,200 scholarship and is eligible for regional and national recognition.

The group will also give out awards to honor contributions to amateur football, to fans of UW and high school football, to coaches and officials, and to players who are nominated for courage and perseverance awards.

The scholar-athlete awards are based 40% on football ability, 40% on academic achievement and 20% on extracurricular activities and citizenship. All nominees must be seniors and have a GPA of 3.0 or better.

Last year’s winner was Dax Yeradi of Wright. Here is a list of all former Wyoming Chapter award winners.

Due to COVID-19, a date and location for the group’s annual award ceremony have not been set.

The nominees are:

Class 4A
Cheyenne Central: Andrew Johnson.
Cheyenne East: Josiah Aragon, Nick Begeman, Trey Bower, Graedyn Buell, Shaye Ellis, Dakota Heckman, Jackson Hesford, Logan Kusler, Isaac Marshall, Cael Pugh, Jake Rayl, Bradley Whitright.
Cheyenne South: Kobe Barto.
Laramie: Isaac Sell.
Natrona: Myllian Allison, Dominick Bradach, Rhett Buhler, Braxton Bundy, Avery Cox, Robert Douglas, Bode Draper, Brady Dutcher, Jace George, Colter Helm, Ben Hoppens, D’Anthony Smith, Zack Southerland, Harrison Taubert, Nolan Valdez.
Rock Springs: Collin Madsen.
Sheridan: Izak Aksamit, Rance Beck, Kavan Bede, Alexander Coon, Carter Dubberley, Francisco Gallegos, Zach Koltiska, Quinton Mangus, Ryan Marchant, Kyle Meinecke, Ben Novotny, Reece Osborne, Kahlil Rios, Matthew Taylor, Justin Vela, Gaige Vielhauer.
Thunder Basin: Sergio Aguilar, Dillon Bannister, River Brisko, Gavin Carroll, Michael Coleman, Kameron Engle, Andre Felton, Hayden Lunberg, Hunter Lunberg, Alex O’Dell, Scott O’Dell, Jaxon Pikula, Brody Richardson, Camden Schlekeway, Dyse Shepherd.

Class 3A
Cody: Keaton Stone, Nic Talich.
Green River: Jacob Fuss, James King, Jacob Marinez, Seth White.
Lander: Jack Sweeney.
Riverton: Rylan Koehn.
Star Valley: Brant Nelson.
Worland: Rudy Sanford.

Class 2A
Kemmerer: Aaron Ortiz, Austin Peternal.
Lovell: CJ Lindsay.
Mountain View: Hunter Meeks.
Pinedale: Carson Gregory.
Wheatland: Adam Suko.

Class 1A nine-man 
Pine Bluffs: Marvin Reza.
Saratoga: Teagan Love.
Shoshoni: Kaden Dower.
Southeast: Sawyer Anderson, Brant Fullmer, Bodie Herring, Reece Robertson.
Wind River: Colter Collver.
Wright: Kagen Baker, Kayden Mack.

Class 1A six-man
Encampment: Dalton Peterson.
Farson: Parker Clawson, Carson Jones, Colby Jones, Zander Reed.
Meeteetse: Hadley Abarr, Tozai May, Dale McBride.

–patrick

This post was updated at 8:11 p.m. MST Jan. 4 to correct a spelling mistake on Bodie Herring’s name.

Sign up for a release day alert for “A Century of Fridays”

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Cover for the book "A Century of Fridays: Wyoming High School Football, 1894-2020," which will be out soon!
“A Century of Fridays: Wyoming High School Football, 1894-2020,” will be out soon!

“A Century of Fridays: Wyoming High School Football, 1894-2020,” my book all about the history of Wyoming football from its inception to today, will be out soon.

The book is in the final stages of proofing. I hope to have it out in the next few weeks.

If you want to be the first to know when the book is ready for purchase, share your email address with me and I’ll give you a heads up before anyone else. The people on the list will have an exclusive window of opportunity to buy the book (potentially at a lower price) than anyone else. Your email address won’t be sold or shared with anyone else.

Be the first to know — all it takes is a few seconds. You can sign up by clicking here.

Thanks for supporting this adventure.

–patrick

Updates: Saratoga, all-state, Super 25, Six-man Shootout, NFL players

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Some updates to the site:

I added David Jones’ 1982 rushing season to the individual records listings. The back from Saratoga had 1,976 rushing yards that year, good for ninth all-time.

I also added a few new first names to the all-state listings from 1920-39. I’m still missing more than 100 first names, though, so if you can help filling in those gaps, let me know.

I also added the 2020 Casper Star-Tribune’s Super 25 first team to the Super 25 listings. Thanks to Jack Nowlin at the Star-Tribune for providing the details necessary to make that happen!

I also added a page for the Wyoming-Nebraska Six-man Shootout game, listing game results, coaches and players for each year.

I also added a page for Wyoming high school football players who played at least one NFL regular-season snap. This information was previously on my blog, but I wanted to give it a more permanent home.

–patrick

Walk, McFadden chosen as 2021 Wyoming Shrine Bowl head coaches

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Brent Walk of Mountain View and Matt McFadden of Cody will be the head coaches for the 2021 Shrine Bowl all-star football game.

Walk will lead the South team while McFadden will lead the North, Shrine Bowl executive director Frank Selby said Tuesday in a release.

Walk was the head coach of the South for last year’s Shrine Bowl, which was canceled due to COVID-19.

McFadden was previously head coach for the North in the 2015 game; Walk was also the South’s head coach that year.

The North has won seven Shrine Bowls in a row and leads the series 25-18-3.

This year’s game will be played June 12, 2021, at Cheney Alumni Field in Casper.

–patrick

Moody resigns as Greybull head coach

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Eli Moody, the head coach at Greybull the past three seasons, has resigned as the Buffaloes’ leader.

Greybull activities director Nolan Tracy confirmed Moody’s resignation in an email to wyoming-football.com on Friday. Moody did not return an email sent Thursday.

Greybull went to the playoffs twice in Moody’s three years but never advanced past the first round. In the last three years, Greybull has gone a combined 8-18.

The Buffs went 2-7 last year, falling to Lusk in the first round of the Class 1A nine-man playoffs.

Tracy said the position has not yet been posted, but he said the position would likely be posted after New Year’s.

Class 4A Laramie is also seeking a new head coach this offseason. If you know of other head coaching changes in the state, please email me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick

Laramie’s Reed resigns head coach position with Plainsmen

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Clint Reed, who has been the head football coach at Laramie the past four seasons, won’t return as the Plainsmen’s head coach in 2021.

Reed’s resignation came Wednesday, a report from KOWB-1290 AM Radio in Laramie said. Laramie activities director Ron Wagner released a statement acknowledging Reed’s contributions to the program.

Reed confirmed via email to wyoming-football.com on Thursday that he was no longer part of the program.

“I would’ve liked to continue as a coach, but after discussions with our administration it became clear it was best for me to step down,” Reed said via email. “My hope is that the next coach will continue to work on the foundation and help Laramie become a competitive and winning program.”

Reed will continue to teach math at Laramie High School.

Reed has been with the Laramie program for close to two decades, the last four as head coach.

Laramie has a combined record of 10-29 the past four seasons, including a 2-8 mark in 2020. The Plainsmen haven’t had a winning season or won a playoff game since going 9-1 and finishing as Class 4A runners-up in 2000.

Reed’s resignation is the first reported head coaching change in Wyoming this offseason. If you know of other head coaching changes, please email me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick

Note: This post was updated at 8:43 p.m. MST Dec. 17 with comments from Reed.

Wyoming’s unexpected state football champs (or, losing record sandwich)

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Seven Wyoming high school football champs had weird spikes of success — going from losing record to state championship back to losing record over the span of three years.

The most recent such team was Guernsey-Sunrise’s 2009 team. The year before its title, the Vikings went 2-6; after moving to six-man in 2009, they went 9-0 and won the state’s first six-man championship in more than 60 years. Then, in 2010, the Vikings went 1-8.

The Vikings’ unexpected title was the third time that happened in three consecutive years. The same thing happened to Burns in 2008 (4-5, to 11-0, to 3-5) and to Jackson in 2007 (4-5, to 11-0, to 2-6).

But it hasn’t happened since 2009, and it rarely happened prior to 2007.

Prior to that, four other teams — Midwest in 1991, Green River in 1976, Natrona in 1957 and Cheyenne Central in 1941 — won state championships in between two losing seasons.

Midwest’s 1991 10-1 season was sandwiched between seasons of 4-5 and 0-8. Green River won the 1976 Class A title in between years of 2-7 and 1-8.

Natrona, meanwhile, won the 1957 championship with a 6-1-1 record in between identical 2-6-1 seasons.

Central’s 1941 team was the first to accomplish the feat, going 7-1-1 to win it all in 1941 despite going 4-5 the year before and 3-4 the year after.

For the 33 Wyoming teams who had losing records in 2020, hope is out there — for both winning a championship and avoiding a place on this short list by making winning a habit, not a flare-up.

–patrick

Updates: Individual records, all-state first names, Cheyenne Central, Douglas

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Nine performances from the 2020 season have been added to the individual records page.

Two top-10 passing performances were turned in this year from the Capital City. Cheyenne East’s Graedyn Buell threw for 3,065 yards, second-best all-time, while Cheyenne Central’s Andrew Cummins threw for 2,369 yards, 10th-best.

Jackson’s Brody Hasenack ran for 2,093 yards this year, a mark good for fifth all-time.

Cheyenne Central’s Andrew Johnson finished with 1,050 receiving yards, ninth-best all-time.

Finally, Torrington’s Cody Pierce finished with 256 defensive points, a mark tied for 10th-best all-time.

Four single-game performances also made the top 10. Hasenack had two — a 350-yard rushing performance against Riverton in the regular season, sixth-best on the list, and a 344-yard game against Riverton in the playoffs, which ranks ninth.

Mountain View’s Ashton Schofield had a 220-yard receiving game against Lyman, which ranks ninth on that list.

I also added two other games to the individual records page. Casey Bramlet’s 402-yard passing game from 1998, which I stumbled upon while doing some other research, was added. I also added Matt Hartford’s 243-yard receiving game from 2000 to the list. Thanks to Danny Shorb for letting me know about that game!

All-state updates

Also, thanks to the continuing research of “Stat Rat” Jim Craig, I added first names for the honorable mention all-state selections on the 1952 team. Thanks Jim for the help!

I also went a little crazy with the all-state teams from the 1920s and 1930s and added as many first names as I could find — which was probably close to 30. I’m still missing about the same amount, so if you can help provide those first names, let me know at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

Game updates

Thanks to a tip from Shane Stinson, I fixed the score between Douglas and Belle Fourche, S.D., from this season. It was 47-7, not 47-21. Thanks to Shane for the heads up!

I also noted that the Nov. 25, 1915, game between Cheyenne Central and the Colorado State JV was canceled.

All of these updates are reflected on all the relevant pages.

–patrick

The #wyo100 — I need your help!

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If you follow wyoming-football.com on its social media accounts — Facebook and Twitter — you’ve noticed me asking for your nominations for who you think would HAVE to be included on a list of Wyoming’s 100 best high school football players of all-time.

The #wyo100 (new unofficial hashtag) will highlight Wyoming’s 100 best high school football players ever, in line with what will roughly be the state’s 100th year of high school football. There’s still time for nominations — just reply here!

My research for this led me to compile a list of four-time, three-time and two-time all-state selections. The raw numbers for first-team picks:

  • Four-time selections: 3
  • Three-time selections: 112
  • Two-time selections: 1,095
  • Total first-team selections: 7,623

The math behind this? More than 99.4% of total all-state selections aren’t going to make the #wyo100. Even those two-time selections have barely a 9% chance of making it.

But I don’t want to just put a whole bunch of three-timers on the list and call it good. I REALLY want y’all’s insight. So leave your thoughts below about which player (or players) HAS to be on this list. And thanks a TON to those of you who have already chimed in with your nominations. Thanks!

–patrick