Author Archives: Patrick

The roster

Hardest players to leave off the team: Rocky Kirk (Kelly Walsh); Chris Packer and Mike Noseep (Lander); Andy Harold (Torrington); Alan Ista, Brian Mills and Mike Luther (Hulett); Aric Lopez (Campbell County); Casey Adams (Laramie); Ty Barrus (Meeteetse); Kade Ames (Rocky Mountain); Cody Sinclair and Colte Russell (Thermopolis); Matt Mason (Riverton); Barry Wilkinson (Dubois); Kelly Merritt (Star Valley); Isaac Kalinowski, Evan Halchishick and Aaron Levin (Natrona); Mike Johnson and Ben Trautwein (Wheatland); Owen Heck and Dax Michelena (Sheridan); Matt Stock (Cheyenne Central); Zack Zawacki (Powell); Kurtiss Riggs, Anthony Gipson and Chad Goff (Green River); Jeff Kelly (Douglas); Justin Gonzales (Mountain View); Brian Zowada (Lusk); Trevor Moon and Garrett Patik (Buffalo); Michael Booth (Southeast); Chad Mitchell (Cokeville); Grant Curry (Lingle).

Impressions: Man, the 1990s was definitely the decade of the quarterback. I’m not sure if it was just the fact that passing games expanded for the first time, and it drew a lot of attention because of that, or if this just happened to be a great time for developing quarterbacks in the Equality State. Maybe both? … Offensive line average is up to 242 pounds, defensive line is at 220. … Yep, that’s three Poppingas. Brothers. No other all-decade team has more than two players with the same last name. … It’s definitely showing my age (Midwest High School class of 2000, in case you missed it) to say that this was really the first group where I knew (or knew of) a lot of these guys at the time they were playing. That definitely changes a person’s perspective. It’s one thing to read articles from the 1930s; it’s another to have your hand in the grass. That’s part of why the honorable mention list is getting longer. If someone who was 10 years older than me had built these lists, I’m sure the 1980s honorable mentions would have been longer, too. Even so, only one player I actually played football with or against made the final 53, so go figure.

Up next: The 2000s, Saturday.

–patrick

The roster

Hardest players to leave off the team: Marc Martini (Sheridan); Pete Gosar (Pinedale); Dave E. Jones (Natrona); Travis Bandemer (Laramie); Erik Stensaas and Neil Mattinson (Rock Springs); Darren Wehrer (Cody); Dutch Van Patten, Brian Skarohlid and James Cunningham (Cheyenne Central); Mike Cubbage (Powell); Mark Hardee and Jeff Yeaman (Douglas); Scott Schroefel (Natrona); Dave Gosnell, Matt O’Brien and Sean Simmons (Kelly Walsh); Danny Sanchez (Worland); Greg Hoff (Midwest); John Hepp (Buffalo); Robert Allen (Star Valley); Willie Jefferson (Rawlins); basically the whole 1989 Cokeville team.

Impressions: This team is definitely a reflection of some changing approaches — some big and burly, but more and more long, lanky players and guys who helped expand passing games. … Players are still getting bigger, though. O-line averages 236 pounds per player, d-line is at 222 (second only to the 2010s team). … Yes, that’s right — three players from Jackson’s 1982 team. Super impressive group for some reason. … In all, the class of 1982 (graduating class of 1983) has nine selections, tied with 1974 for the most from any one year. … For some reason, the 1980s were the great era of the Wyoming Cowboy walk-on. As the Cowboys expanded their recruiting base, more Wyoming players were walk-ons who proved their mettle the hard way. Consequently, though, many more Wyoming athletes ended up playing in nearby states, and Black Hills State and Chadron State in particular were the beneficiaries.

Up next: The 1990s, Wednesday.

–patrick

The roster

Hardest players to leave off the team: Mel Miles and Ballard Johnson (Star Valley); Mike Nissen (Worland); Rob Russell (Cody); Kelly Wilson (Wheatland); John Menke (Buffalo); David Rogers (Midwest); Denny Dunivent, Matt Johnson and Lance Parham (Laramie); Mark Kulmus (Rawlins); Ted Holmes (Douglas); Mike Madrid (St. Mary’s); Marshall Patton and Jim Hill (Natrona); Brick Cegelski (Cheyenne Central); Kevin Goglio (Green River); Bruce Miller (Torrington).

Impressions: The Milward Simpson Award started in the 1970s, and yes, I was more partial to the players who showed up on those lists. … Players are getting bigger. Offensive line averages 214 pounds per player, defensive line averages 208. … Cheyenne leads the defensive backfield for this decade, but can you imagine how difficult it would have been to pass against East in 1975 with two future NFL players (Jesse Johnson and Mike McLeod) staring down opposing quarterbacks? … By the way, East’s 1975 team, along with Rawlins’ 1974 team, each had three selections. … Find receiving statistics from the 1970s. I dare you. … I won’t repeat it here, but from what I could glean from newspaper reports at the time, Gerry Geldien’s career at ASU ended way too soon. I’ll just say the stories you may have heard about Frank Kush being a jerk are true. … That 1974 class (last year of playing, not graduation year) has nine players all on its own, and honestly, we could probably put that group up against any other year and they’d be just fine. That class is tied with another, future, group for the most selections from any single year.

Up next: The 1980s, Monday.

–patrick

The roster

Hardest players to leave off the team: Mike Jay and Charles Gulley (Torrington); Wally Stock (Star Valley); Ken Madia (Sheridan); Dan Bush and Dan Siek (Natrona); Rick Carroll (Wheatland); Mike Murdock (Big Piney); Mark Hopkinson (ugh) (Mountain View); Jerry Hart (Shoshoni); Tom Bramlet (Lusk); Bart Parham (Laramie).

Addition (7-21-24): Another player who deserves special consideration is Glenrock’s Ron Stewart. He scored 36 (!) touchdowns his senior year as the Herders went a combined 26-1 his final three years. Stewart was killed in action in Vietnam. (Thanks to a current Wyoming head coach who let me know about Stewart and his story.)

Impressions: This team’s makeup definitely represents the approach of the time — run the ball, stop the run. Running back and linebacker in particular were full of a lot of athletic dudes, making those choices particularly tough. … Offensive line averages 203 pounds, defensive line 206. … I wish we could have seen Rollie Parkison’s senior year. A couple all-decade players didn’t play their senior years, but Parkison’s is the most recent. As I understand it, he was beyond the eligible age for high school sports by his senior year. Still. … Shoshoni’s Orlando Cordova, the team’s return specialist, was Wyoming’s only three-time all-state football player between 1929 and 1981. … Laramie, which was arguably the team of the decade, has 11 selections on the team of the 1960s.

Up next: The 1970s, Saturday.

–patrick

The roster

Hardest players to leave off the team: Marty Hamilton (Torrington); Dave Madia and Bill Sweem (Sheridan); Warren Benson (Laramie); Del Wight, Larry Johnson and Ernie Trujillo (Natrona); Bill Chung (Green River); Robert Trew (Rawlins); Virgil Sanders (Byron); Norm Perue (Saratoga).

Impressions: This might be the most stacked offensive backfield of any team. When Jerry-freakin’-Hill somehow isn’t in the backfield, you KNOW it’s loaded. … The smallest offensive line of any of the eight teams, averaging just over 177 pounds per player. … Yes, Gale and Gary Christy are twins. They’re part of the Sheridan 1953 crew, which has four selections in all — (spoiler alert) the most from any one single team in any of the all-decade teams. By the way, the Broncs went 9-0 and outscored their opponents 252-14 that season (yes, 14), so they probably earned the praise. … The wideouts and tight ends of this group fell mostly into one particular type: tall, lanky dudes who were years ahead of their time. I’d have loved to see any of them play, oh, any time past about 1990. … Post-high-school athletic endeavors of this group included basketball, track and rodeo. … This group was among the last of the three-sport and four-sport college lettermen, a trend that didn’t last much past the 1950s.

Up next: The 1960s, Wednesday.

–patrick

The roster

Hardest players to leave off the team: Walt McDonald and Harry Barnes (Worland); Wes Christensen (Laramie); Ken Gardner (Star Valley); Dan Sedar, Bill Logan, Lee Shrum and Stan Hendrickson (Natrona); Fay Thompson (Midwest); Hugh Crawford and Clarence Smith (Cheyenne Central).

Impressions: The first of eight all-decade teams kicks off with this combined team from the 1920s and 1930s, although I probably could have made separate teams for both decades. … This is by far the smallest of the teams, weight-wise. For players whose weights could be found, the offensive line averages only 188 pounds; the defensive line only averages 182. The offensive line is the second-smallest of any team. … Several team members were not stars in high school but flourished in college. That includes Kayo Lam, who didn’t even play high school football in Glenrock but became a star in the Colorado backfield. Two others are Rawlins’ Tim Moynihan and Natrona’s Thomas Kassis, who were mainstays in the offensive line at Notre Dame while the Irish were busy winning national championships and piling up unbeaten seasons. … Several members of Wyoming’s 1943 national championship basketball team are also all-decade selections (on this team, Shadow Ray), while Taft Harris was part of Wyoming’s 1934 national championship team, proving that athleticism goes well beyond one sport. … World War II took a notable toll on both this team and the 1940s/1950s team, but Lee Kizzire’s story deserves to be told more often.

Up next: The 1940s/1950s, Monday.

–patrick

As I’ve been hyping for several months now, the Wyoming high school football all-decade teams — followed by the all-decade tournament — is coming up quickly.

Teams will be released every Saturday, Monday and Wednesday on the wyoming-football.com blog, The HQ (where you’re at right now), working forward in time, leading up to the first game. Dates for team releases include:

• 1920s/1930s: Saturday, July 13
• 1940s/1950s: Monday, July 15
• 1960s: Wednesday, July 17
• 1970s: Saturday, July 20
• 1980s: Monday, July 22
• 1990s: Wednesday, July 24
• 2000s: Saturday, July 27
• 2010s: Monday, July 29

Rosters will include information about the players, including their high school team, the position they will play in the simulation, their number for both high school (when available) and in the simulation, their height and weight in their senior year (when available, or in a year or two before or after their senior year), and a short biography.

Unfortunately, your favorite player may have been left off the team. That said, I looked up, down, left and right for information on everyone who I thought deserved a look. I fell down so many rabbit holes while I weighed your suggestions, which I asked for several times on my Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as on this site. Although I made the final decisions on all roster choices, I also sought the expertise of several former and current coaches, media and others whose opinions I value to help provide their insight and expertise. And I know, for sure, that I couldn’t catch everything or everyone. Regardless, there were some difficult choices, and I feel like even rosters of 100 players for every decade couldn’t cover the depth and breadth of talent in Wyoming in each 10-year span. Putting these teams together is one of the toughest things I’ve ever done for this site, knowing all the while that exclusions of qualified players was going to happen.

As for positions? Well, I had to use a mix of a player’s high school and college/pro experience. Some players who were running backs in high school were defensive linemen in college, or a defensive back in high school was a linebacker in college, or a quarterback in high school was a tight end in college. I tried to use high school positions, but I also wanted to put the best football players into the simulation; consequently, while most players’ high school positions are used, some college and pro positions are also used in several instances for where players will play in the all-decade tournament.

I also tried to use players’ high school numbers when I could find them for their in-game uniform numbers. If two players had the same number, I tried to use a player’s college number or, sometimes, a similar number — for example, if two players were No. 11, one might keep 11 and the other one could become 1, 17, 41… something like that. When I couldn’t find a player’s number for either high school or college, which was especially common in the early days before numbers were worn, I picked one randomly.

As for the All-Decade Tournament itself: Games will be simulated using customized rosters on EA Sports NCAA Football 25 on a PS5. Live streams (with my occasional commentary of the games; I’ll try to be entertaining) will be shown on my YouTube channel, allowing for both live watching and rewatching. Games will be streamed on the following schedule, with all games scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. Mountain:

• Game 1: 2010s vs. 1970s, Wednesday, July 31
• Game 2: 1990s vs. 1950s/1940s, Thursday, Aug. 1
• Game 3: 2000s vs. 1960s, Friday, Aug. 2
• Game 4: 1980s vs. 1930s/1920s, Saturday, Aug. 3
• Game 5: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, Sunday, Aug. 4
• Game 6: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, Monday, Aug. 5
• Game 7: Semifinal, Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, Tuesday, Aug. 6
• Game 8: Semifinal, Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, Wednesday, Aug. 7
• Game 9: Seventh place, Game 5 loser vs. Game 6 loser, Thursday, Aug. 8
• Game 10: Fifth place, Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, Friday, Aug. 9
• Game 11: Third place: Game 7 loser vs. Game 8 loser, Saturday, Aug. 10
• Game 12: Championship, Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, Sunday, Aug. 11

Not coincidentally, the first practice of the 2024 season for Class 4A teams is Monday, Aug. 12.

This has been one of my most daunting projects for wyoming-football.com, so I hope you appreciate what comes from it. Thanks again for your support, and hopefully we’ll see you in the chat on the livestreams.

–patrick

How would a team of Wyoming high school football players from the 1970s stack up against a team of players from the 2010s?

We’ll never know for sure.

But we can try, if we get a little creative about it.

Welcome to the Wyoming high school football all-decade tournament — an eight-team, 12-game cornucopia of possibilities to figure out which decade just might have been the state’s best.

The three-round bracket will include teams from each of the six most recent decades — the 2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, 1970s and 1960s. Players from the 1950s and 1940s will be combined into one team, as will players from the 1930s and before.

Games will be simulated using customized rosters on EA Sports NCAA Football 25 on a PS5. Live streams and commentary of the games will be show on my YouTube channel. Dates and times are to be announced, but be on the lookout for an early August start.

Teams and rosters will be introduced on this site in the coming days. Each team will have rosters of 53 players with the following breakdowns:

• Offense: Two quarterbacks, five running backs, five wide receivers, three tight ends, nine offensive linemen.
• Defense: Seven defensive linemen, seven linebackers, eight defensive backs, two rovers.
• Special teams: One kicker, one punter, one return specialist.
• Wild cards: Two “athletes” who could show up anywhere on the field.

With 53 players over eight teams, that’s 424 players in total.

Yeah, it’s an undertaking. But it’s been fun to go down the rabbit holes. I’ve already dug into the histories of probably close to 800 players to try to find the right mix of 424. Rosters are being chosen using a mix of both a player’s performance in high school as well as their performance afterward. For example, how can the team of the 1990s not include Cheyenne East’s Troy Dumas, who starred at Nebraska before playing in the NFL but was never actually an all-state selection? Or how can the team of the 1980s not include Pinedale’s John Burrough, who was a star at Wyoming and played several seasons (and in a Super Bowl) in the NFL but, again, was never an all-state pick? I am trying to find the right balance between high school success and collegiate/pro success, and often I will use the post-high-school success to help make decisions. That said, not every member of every roster has to have played collegiately.

I’m also trying to get a good mix of big-school, medium-school and small-school athletes, as well as a good mix of players from all parts of the state. That said, I am still in the process of finalizing the selections. If you have some players that you think are worth consideration for the team, please leave me a comment below, or tag wyoming-football.com on the Facebook page or on Twitter.

All that said, I hope you enjoy the selections and enjoy the tournament. I can’t wait to share it with you!

–patrick