Buffalo and Newcastle will not play their scheduled game on Friday after Newcastle officials learned their players had been exposed to COVID-19 during the Dogies’ game last week.
A press release from Weston County School District No. 1 Superintendent Brad LaCroix said a player from Hot Springs, S.D., who played against Newcastle last week tested positive for the disease earlier this week.
The Dogies did not practice on Thursday, the release said, and one Newcastle player was put on COVID-19 testing protocol.
The release said no one on the Newcastle football team has yet tested positive for COVID-19. Schools remain open. Other activities will go on as scheduled.
“We suspended team activities immediately when a member of the team went into the protocol, and had hoped we would have information this morning from health officials that would allow us to life that suspension and play tonight’s game,” LaCroix said in the release. “We were able to buy a little time last night, but we simply had to make a ‘go’ or ‘no-go’ decision this morning. Without new information from health officials, we can’t justify lifting the suspension yet and sadly have to cancel tonight’s game out of caution. The health and well-being of our players and their families — both here and in Buffalo — has to be our first priority, and we just don’t have enough information at this time to go ahead and play tonight.”
The game was a nonconference game, with Buffalo in Class 3A and Newcastle in Class 2A. Previously, officials with the Wyoming High School Activities Association have said games lost to COVID-19 would be listed as no-contest games, not as forfeits.
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A total of 23 Wyoming high school football games during the regular season match up teams from the same county.
Two of those games happen this week. By coincidence, both games involve defending state champions. The opponents of those defending champs, though, are on the schedule for significantly different reasons.
Of the two matchups, let’s start with the more traditional one. Snake River visits Hanna in a rematch of last year’s Class 1A six-man championship.
The Carbon County rivals were six-man’s two best teams last year, and both entered the title game undefeated — oddly enough, because they didn’t play in the regular season. Snake River won that game and the title. The rematch on Saturday won’t have the same drama as their last meeting, but it will help set the pace for the rest of six-man.
The other intra-county game happening this week hasn’t happened often. In fact, despite long histories, these two teams have only played each other twice before, in 1984 and 1985.
Those two teams are defending Class 2A champion Mountain View and winless-at-Class 3A last year Evanston.
It’s hard to know what to make of this game. Then again, it’s hard to know what to make of Mountain View this year, as the Buffalos lost a ton of seniors from last year’s championship squad.
Meanwhile, Evanston started slow last week in a 29-14 loss to Ben Lomond, Utah, losing its 12th game in a row dating back to 2018.
The only other times these two Uinta County programs faced each other came in heady days for both programs. In 1984, both teams reach their respective championship games — Mountain View winning 2A, Evanston losing 3A — and although they didn’t repeat that success in 1985, they did repeat the game, and both were competitive all season. Evanston won both games.
This time around might be a bit different, with the smaller Mountain View riding a wave of program momentum and Evanston trying to gain confidence.
And of those 23 intra-county games scheduled this season, the Evanston-Mountain View game is the only varsity-vs.-varsity game that has two teams from different classifications facing each other.
The little guy doesn’t get this intra-county chance again this season.
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Week 1 is always intriguing, because we learn so much about so many things. Every game will be fun to watch unfold. Regardless, these are the ones I’ll be watching with a more focused eye:
After losing to Wheatland in a Week 0 game last week, Rawlins plays Lyman this week in a game that will tell us a lot about the relative strengths of the two 2A conferences. …
I can’t shake the feeling that Pinedale-Glenrock could be one of the best games of the week. …
Every single 1A nine-man game will be fun to follow. With as much shake-up as there was last offseason — teams moving in and out, in addition to learning the nuances of the nine-man game — anything is possible. …
Dubois could be a breakthrough team in six-man this year. The opener with a veteran but shallow Kaycee team will be interesting to watch unfold.
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Now, for the picks. I put the teams I think are going to win in bold, but I think really hard before I do so. Or I flip a coin.
Thursday Interclass Evanston JV at Big Piney Rawlins at Lyman Friday Class 4A Campbell County at Laramie Kelly Walsh at Cheyenne Central Natrona at Cheyenne East Sheridan at Cheyenne South Thunder Basin at Rock Springs Class 3A Lander at Green River Powell at Worland Riverton at Cody Class 2A Kemmerer at Wheatland Lovell at Big Horn Pinedale at Glenrock Tongue River at Thermopolis Class 1A nine-man Greybull at Moorcroft Riverside at Pine Bluffs Shoshoni at Southeast Wind River at Lingle Wright at Rocky Mountain Class 1A six-man Guernsey-Sunrise at Farson Kaycee at Dubois Interclass Douglas at Torrington Mountain View at Evanston Newcastle at Buffalo Interstate Burns at Mitchell, Neb. Jackson at Bear Lake, Idaho Preston, Idaho, at Star Valley Rich County, Utah, at Cokeville Ten Sleep at Bridger, Mont. Saturday Class 1A six-man Burlington at Hulett Meeteetse at NSI Midwest at Encampment Snake River at Hanna Interclass Kelly Walsh sophs at Lusk Open: Saratoga, Upton-Sundance. Upton-Sundance’s game with the Campbell County JV was canceled this week.
For a full schedule including kickoff times, as well as results from past weeks, go here. Click on “Week 1” on the top of the page for this week’s schedule.
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Here are the results of my picks from last week and this season:
Last week: 12-3 (80 percent). This season: 12-3 (80 percent).
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Which matchup has you fired up for Week 1? Leave a comment here, or hit me up on the Facebook page or on Twitter.
If you believe what you read, there’s a good chance Cheyenne teams could make up 100% of the teams in this year’s 4A championship.
The Cheyenne hype train will leave the Capital City on Friday, bound for Casper and Gillette. Upstart Cheyenne Central will make its way to the Oil City to face Natrona; annual contender Cheyenne East moves through the Powder River Basin to play Thunder Basin.
Cheyenne victories here? Everyone’s chase goes through Laramie County.
Cheyenne losses here? The Thunderbirds and Indians are left doing the chasing.
These games will, one way or another, establish Class 4A’s hierarchy in the early goings of this season. A loss in the opener won’t make or break anyone’s season in 4A — Sheridan in 2009 won the 4A title after losing its opening game by 22, Gillette did the same in 2008 after losing its opener by 34, and Central did that in 2005 after falling by 38 to open its year. But, hey… no team since 2009 who’s lost its opener has won a 4A title, so there you go.
Their opponents are formidable. Natrona is always tough, with just one losing season since 1993. Thunder Basin was unbeaten until mid-November last year.
Barring anything catastrophic, the 2020 season will ultimately be decided in November. August, though, is a good time to set some expectations — and to make everyone else follow your lead.
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Other games I’m watching this (abbreviated) week:
Seven interstate games are on the docket for this week, and each one brings its own unique angle to it. I’m most interested to see how the 3A West does, as Jackson heads to Teton, Idaho, and Star Valley hosts Summit Academy, Utah. …
Although the nine-man super-jamboree has been canceled, we’ll still see some interesting nine-man scrimmages pop up this week. Two are in Casper — an extra treat for central Wyoming fans who just can’t get enough football.
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On to some picks, which I do weekly ’round these parts. Teams I think will win are in bold, because it’s the simplest way to show you, and I’m a simple guy.
Friday Class 4A Cheyenne Central at Natrona Cheyenne East at Thunder Basin Cheyenne South at Kelly Walsh Laramie at Sheridan Rock Springs at Campbell County Class 3A Riverton at Powell Interclass Natrona sophs at Glenrock Rawlins at Wheatland Interstate Jackson at Teton, Idaho Lead-Deadwood, S.D., at Upton-Sundance Lyman at Malad, Idaho Newcastle at Hot Springs, S.D. Ben Lomond, Utah, at Evanston Summit Academy, Utah, at Star Valley Torrington at Gering, Neb. Saturday Class 2A Tongue River at Lovell
The rest of the schedule is scrimmages and jamborees. No picks here, because no winners or losers here. But hey, it’s football, so everybody wins because it’s being played at all. Friday Big Piney, Cokeville at Kemmerer jamboree Cody at Douglas Dubois, Farson, Guernsey-Sunrise at Encampment jamboree Lander at Pinedale Lingle at Pine Bluffs Mountain View at Green River Saturday Big Horn at Buffalo Greybull vs. Lusk, at Casper (Kelly Walsh) Kelly Walsh frosh/sophs at Midwest Meeteetse at Cody JV Moorcroft at Southeast Shoshoni vs. Wright, at Casper (Natrona) Thermopolis at Worland Open: Burlington, Burns, Hanna, Hulett, Kaycee, NSI, Riverside, Rocky Mountain, Saratoga, Snake River, Ten Sleep, Wind River.
For a full schedule including kickoff times, as well as results from past weeks, go here. Click on “Week 0” on the top of the page for this week’s schedule.
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What game has you the most charged up for the opening of the season? Leave a comment here, or hit me up on the Facebook page or on Twitter.
I added a page for the annual award winners from the Wyoming Chapter of the National Football Foundation.
Some coaching updates:
Added Midwest’s coach for 1940; it was Henry Hartwell.
Also added the first name for Laramie’s coach in 1923; it was Stewart Clark. It’s the same Stewart Clark who later went on to be the basketball coach at UW later in the 1920s.
All the updates have been made on all the relevant pages.
In 1997, as well as in 1996 and 1985, only six new head coaches were hired statewide, although Wyoming did have fewer football programs at those times.
Since 1997, the number of new head football coaches statewide has varied between eight and 14 in any given year. There were 14 new head coaches prior to both the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
It’s impossible to talk about Class 4A football in Wyoming without talking about the influence of the Big Four.
Combined, the group of Sheridan, Natrona, Cheyenne East, and the unique circumstance of Gillette (up to 2016) and Thunder Basin (since 2017) have combined for 71 playoff victories since 2009.
The other 4A programs in Wyoming — Cheyenne Central, Cheyenne South, Kelly Walsh, Rock Springs and Laramie, and previously Evanston (left after 2016) and Green River (left after 2010) — have combined for six.
The stratification seemed to break a bit in 2019, as Cheyenne Central reached the semifinals while Natrona didn’t. Even so, two Big Four programs — Sheridan and Thunder Basin — met for the championship.
Sheridan won the big-school championship for the fourth time in five years, continuing the Big Four’s domination over the classification.
Central’s resurgence, though, is showing the path other 4A schools can take to challenge the supremacy of the programs that have dominated the goings-on for a decade.
Four questions to answer
Is the guard really changing in Class 4A? Yes, but don’t get too excited. Cheyenne Central — which hadn’t won a playoff game since 2009 prior to last year — will be the fifth team in the title chase, breaking up the “Big Four” of Cheyenne East, Thunder Basin, Sheridan and Natrona. And Rock Springs is hovering. However, there’s still a clear split between the top and the bottom of the classification.
Who’s going to win it all this year? Probably a team from Cheyenne. Both East and Central are absolutely loaded this year, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them play each other in a title game in November. That said, Sheridan can never be counted out, Thunder Basin will again be extremely talented, and Natrona lacks experience but has loads of tradition and depth.
Any hope for anyone else? Not really. I love what I saw from Rock Springs last year, and if they can turn close losses into close victories, the Tigers can be one of those teams other coaches hate to see on a schedule. Campbell County showed some spunk in the quarterfinals, too. And Laramie’s been the beneficiary of a transfer boom. All that said, a quarterfinal victory for anyone who’s not Thunder Basin, East, Central, Natrona or Sheridan would be a surprise. Central’s entry into this discussion is welcome surprise in a staid 4A, but a surprise nonetheless.
Really — nothing about Sheridan? OK, time for the Broncs to get their love. They deserve it. With four championships in five years, Sheridan can never be ruled out of a 4A championship chase. No program develops talent faster or more consistently than the one up north.
Four players to watch
Graedyn Buell, Cheyenne East. Buell did something pretty rare last year — he was named the Class 4A offensive player of the year as a junior. The stats back that choice, though. He led the entire state regardless of classification with 2,989 passing yards, completing 201 of 327 passes while sporting a 35-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Carter Lobatos, Cheyenne Central. No player in Wyoming will be a bigger threat on both offense and defense than Lobatos. He led the Indians’ rushing attack with 1,238 yards last year, and he also led Central’s defense with 127 tackles — second-best in 4A last year.
Jaxon Pikula, Thunder Basin. Pikula was a consistent threat out of Thunder Basin’s backfield, running for 1,189 yards and 16 touchdowns last year. He also caught 17 passes for 129 yards as part of a balanced ‘Bolts offense.
Andrew Johnson, Cheyenne Central. Johnson led Class 4A in receptions last year with 73 and was second in receiving yards with 994. But on defense, he finished with five interceptions and 10 pass deflections, numbers that no other returning player in 4A could match in 2019.
Four key games
Week 0 games, Aug. 28. The opening week of the season gives us two critical games that will go a long way in shaping this season’s 4A race — Central at Natrona and East at Thunder Basin. Both Cheyenne teams have high hopes, and if they can anchor those hopes to a 1-0 record, those hopes turn into expectations.
Thunder Basin at Rock Springs, Sept. 4. The Tigers could be 4A’s biggest surprise this year. All it would take is a couple attention-getting victories early in the season. Rock Springs has no better opportunity than this game against the ‘Bolts in Sweetwater County in the second game of the season.
Cheyenne East at Sheridan, Sept. 25. The Broncs have won the past seven games they’ve had with the Thunderbirds. East will need to find a way past Sheridan, at Homer Scott Field, to really show it belongs in the championship conversation.
Cheyenne East at Cheyenne Central, Oct. 9. The annual Capital Bowl takes on added fervor in 2020 with both teams trying to stake claims to the top spot in 4A. This might be the most critical rendition of the intra-city rivalry in more than a decade.
Predicted order of finish
Cheyenne East, Sheridan, Cheyenne Central, Thunder Basin, Natrona, Rock Springs, Laramie, Campbell County, Kelly Walsh, Cheyenne South.
Way-too-early title game score prediction
Cheyenne East 33, Sheridan 26. Class 4A will probably be (and normally is) the classification with the most variability between teams from the beginning to the end of a season. The game we see between them in September will probably be wildly different from any playoff rematch.
What do you think about 4A’s changes? Leave a comment, or drop a line on Twitter or Facebook.
One ramification of game and season cancellations is unbalanced schedules — something we now see in the Class 1A nine-man West Conference.
Decisions by St. Stephens and Wyoming Indian to cancel their fall sports have created unbalanced conference schedules for other members of the Class 1A nine-man West Conference.
In conference play, Greybull and Shoshoni have three home games against just one road game. Meanwhile, Riverside and Wind River have three road games against just one home game.
The helped: Greybull and Shoshoni.
Greybull: Home games against Wind River, Rocky Mountain, Riverside; road game against Shoshoni
Shoshoni: Home games against Rocky Mountain, Greybull, Riverside; road game against Wind River
The neutral: Rocky Mountain.
Rocky Mountain: Home games against Riverside, Wind River; road games against Shoshoni, Greybull
The harmed: Riverside and Wind River.
Riverside: Home game against Wind River; road games against Rocky Mountain, Greybull, Shoshoni
Wind River: Home game against Shoshoni; road games against Greybull, Riverside, Rocky Mountain
The easiest fix? Flip-flop the locations of two games. Have Wind River play at home against Greybull (Week 2) and have Riverside play at home against Shoshoni (Week 8). That would give everyone in the conference two home games and two road games.
Would Greybull and Shoshoni be willing to make those changes? Are Riverside and Wind River willing to ask?
More importantly: Is this the last time we’ll see this happen in 2020?
We may see more unbalanced schedules like this in 2020 if more games or more seasons are canceled. The 1A nine-man West may be just the first example.
College teams across the country are scrambling as conferences postpone, cancel or reschedule games; the NFL’s direction is uncertain, too. Last week, the Mountain West — including the University of Wyoming — postponed its fall sports.
In Wyoming, COVID-19 will be the fourth wave of illness to threaten high school football. In 1918 and 1957, the culprit was influenza; in 1951, polio.
Every time, games were canceled. Every time, school leaders made hard decisions. Every time, players, coaches and teams had to sacrifice football for something bigger.
And once, a pandemic changed a team and community irreversibly, putting in perspective what it means to try to do normal things in times that are anything but.
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1918’s influenza outbreak
By far, the most severe of the previous football-delaying outbreaks came with the 1918 influenza epidemic.
That fall, Wyoming high school football teams didn’t play a single game.
In early October, schools across the state started shutting down due to the epidemic. Many did not reopen until January.
The sports affect was limited almost solely to football. Even then, only a small selection of high schools in the state had the sport. Only Sheridan, Buffalo, Cheyenne Central and Laramie fielded football teams in 1917; those same teams, plus Natrona, were the only schools to field football teams in 1919. The University of Wyoming football team also canceled its 1918 schedule.
By the late winter of 1919, the epidemic had cleared up, and the second annual state basketball tournament was played in Laramie that March.
In 1957, another influenza epidemic struck Wyoming. Although not as severe as the 1918 flu that wiped out the entire season, 18 Wyoming high school football games were lost to the flu in 1957.
The cancellations started on Sept. 27, when a game between Rock Springs and Green River was canceled. Rawlins and Evanston canceled their game the following week. Three more games were canceled the week of Oct. 11; the week of Oct. 18, the peak of the flu wave, nine games were canceled. Flu wiped out five more games after that.
The 1957 flu pandemic killed 116,000 people in the U.S. Of those, the number of flu deaths in Wyoming was quite low — reports from November 1957 indicated fewer than five.
But the caution of 1957 was informed by the tragedy of 1951.
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1951 brings polio and perspective
In 1951, the worry wasn’t the flu. It was polio.
In the 1951 calendar year, the United States had 28,386 cases and 1,551 deaths due to polio; in 1952, at the outbreak’s peak, the U.S. had 57,879 cases and 3,145 deaths.
Unofficially, eight Wyoming high school football games in 1951 were canceled due to polio. Another 11 games were canceled beyond that, although some were canceled during the first week in November, which brought a big snowstorm to Wyoming.
Sheridan was the first hotspot where multiple games were canceled. The Broncs had to give up three midseason games — games against Lead, S.D., Cheyenne Central and Riverton were all canceled after Sheridan’s schools were closed on Oct. 4. Sheridan’s schools re-opened on Oct. 22; by then, 25 people had contracted polio in the area and two people had died. The schools reopened only after no new cases were reported for a week. The Broncs finished their season, losing their final two games to finish 2-3-1. (Two other Sheridan County six-man games involving Ranchester were also canceled because of polio.)
A second hotspot was Guernsey. There, the toll was much higher — both for the football team and its players.
During the 1951 season, the Guernsey Longhorns (as they were known before combining with Sunrise in the 1960s) were in the middle of an amazing turnaround. After finishing winless in 1950, the Longhorns were a charmed team in 1951. Winning close game after close game — including 20-16 against Manville, 24-16 against Glenrock and 25-24 against archrival Sunrise on Oct. 26 — Guernsey was 7-0.
The day of the victory against Sunrise, though, the Longhorns were understandably distracted. One of their teammates, 16-year-old junior Floyd Stellpflug, had gone into the hospital in Scottsbluff, Neb., the night before. He had polio.
The Longhorns still won. On the field, a district championship and a place in the state playoffs was still nearly in reach. After beating Sunrise, the only conference game that remained was against twice-beaten Huntley on Nov. 2. With a victory, the Longhorns would reach the playoffs for the first time in program history.
The game never happened.
Four days after entering the hospital, and four days before the Huntley game, Stellpflug died.
Within 48 hours of Stellpflug’s death, Guernsey’s school board ordered the school closed for a week to limit the disease’s spread. By then, two of Stellpflug’s teammates (Johnny Hall and Johnny Sudbury) and Stellpflug’s sister-in-law (Mary Stellpflug) were also in various Wyoming hospitals being treated for what was thought to be polio, as well. However, at least one case (Mary Stellpflug’s) was pneumonia, not polio.
The closure of the school also brought about a closure to Guernsey’s football season. The Longhorns canceled their final two games, finishing 7-0 but also finishing without Stellpflug.
Two others Platte County boys — a 9-year-old from Guernsey and an 8-year-old from Wheatland — died later in November. (For perspective, Hall died in 2016 at age 82. His obituary said he struggled with the side effects of his affliction with polio for the rest of his life.)
Wyoming had 211 total polio cases in 1951, and more than 30 people died, including Stellpflug and the two other Platte County children.
Although polio peaked across the country in 1952, its effects were limited in Wyoming that year. In 1952, Wyoming only had five high school football games canceled. None of the cancellations were attributed to polio.
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Now, in 2020, Wyoming’s football players, coaches and administrators are preparing for a fight that they haven’t had to face in more than 60 years.
The disease has already had a massive effect on Wyoming high school sports.
The Class 4A/3A state basketball tournament was canceled on March 12, the morning after Wyoming had its first verified active case of COVID-19. For the first time since 1936 (and a scarlet fever outbreak), the state basketball tournament was canceled.
Part of why leaders can justify returning to fall sports when the number of lab-confirmed cases per day is nearly triple what it was when spring sports were canceled is that we know much more about COVID-19 now than we did in April. We understand better how it travels. We understand better how to protect ourselves. We understand better how to manage the sickness if we are infected.
But, like polio and influenza, COVID-19 still has the potential to incapacitate and kill.
To think we won’t have cancellations or school closures this fall is naive (but I love the optimism). To think football will go on unaffected is misguided; COVID-19 has already affected sports, as we’ve seen with Wyoming Indian and St. Stephens.
It’s easy to maintain a status quo, to move forward as if nothing’s wrong. As a state, Wyoming and her citizens have to be prepared to make, and abide by, hard decisions, decisions that disrupt that status quo. In fact, some such decisions have already been made.
Teams, coaches, players and fans have to mentally commit now — if they haven’t already — to do the things that will help save the season. Be willing to wear the mask. Be willing to forgo the pregame tailgate. Be willing not to have the pep band. Be willing to give up attending a game due to distancing restrictions. Be willing to have a big rivalry game canceled. Be willing to sacrifice a perfect season or a state championship.
Players, especially, have to commit to speaking up if they exhibit symptoms. No team has any room for selfish players this fall. If symptomatic, players have to speak, and they need to be in homes, in schools and on teams that encourage them to speak — before they get others sick, before the disease ends not just that player’s season but his entire team’s, before schools close, before the curve becomes a spike, before another funeral.
Be willing to do these things, and football can continue. It won’t be “normal” football, but these aren’t normal times.
Be willing, in Floyd Stellpflug’s memory — and his lesson.
Ten Sleep has selected Dane Weaver to be its football coach this season.
Ten Sleep activities director Sarah Novak confirmed Weaver’s hiring via email Thursday to wyoming-football.com. In a separate email, Weaver said his hiring was made official Monday.
Weaver has been at Ten Sleep for the past three years and has been an assistant football coach for the Pioneers.
The Pioneers, a Class 1A six-man team, have not fielded a team in either of the past two years due to low numbers. Practice for 3A, 2A and 1A teams starts Monday.
Four Class 3A programs — Green River, Powell, Riverton and Worland — as well as Class 1A nine-man Riverside and Class 1A six-man Midwest have also hired new head coaches since the end of last season.
–patrick
This post was updated at 5:20 p.m. Aug. 13 to note Weaver’s hiring day.
