Reese resigns head football coach spot at Rock River

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The only varsity football coach Rock River has ever known has stepped down.

Terrance Reese resigned as Rock River’s football coach late last week. Reese and Rock River Principal Wade Fiscus verified the resignation in emails to wyoming-football.com.

Reese led Rock River for its first two varsity seasons, finishing 1-6 each season.

Reese cited the desire to spend more time with his three children, the travel distance between his home in Laramie and his coaching responsibilities in Rock River, and the time commitment of pursuing a master’s degree as reasons for stepping down.

“I hope a position in football opens in the near future because I love a challenge and being head coach at the smallest and newest football program in state was definitely that,” Reese wrote. “But at this time it is in the best interest of my family to be a father and husband and take care of the responsibilities that the Lord blessed me with.”

Fiscus said a replacement has not yet been named.

–patrick

Three Wyoming football coaches enter 2016 with chance for coaching milestone

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Three Wyoming high school football coaches have the chance to become the winningest coaches at their respective high schools this fall.

Cheyenne South’s Dan Gallas, Lovell’s Doug Hazen and NSI’s Anthony Simmons have the chance to win more total games than any other coach in their programs’ histories if they can win enough games this fall.

Each coach has significantly different thresholds to reach.

Hazen needs six victories to overtake Lovell’s all-time wins leader, Roy Strom, who has 59.

Simmons needs nine victories to overtake Mike Gorzalka, NSI’s all-time wins leader with 14.

And Gallas needs four victories to move past Tracy Pugh, the only coach South had known prior to this year, and his three victories.

They’ll join an existing group of 12 active coaches that are already have more victories than any other coach in their program histories. In descending number of total victories, they are:

Todd Dayton, 298 at Cokeville
Steve Harshman, 174 at Natrona
Mark Bullington, 129 at Southeast
Ray Kumpula, 109 at Glenrock
Vic Wilkerson, 101 at Gillette
David Trembly, 78 at Dubois
Larry Yeradi, 74 at Wright
Chad Goff, 65 at Cheyenne East
Michael Bates, 52 at Snake River
Andy Garland, 24 at Upton-Sundance (as co-op)
Trip Applequist, 16 at Farson
Terrance Reese, 2 at Rock River

The coach with the most victories at his current school without being the program’s all-time leader is Douglas’ Jay Rhoades, who has 81 victories but still needs 33 more to catch the Bearcats’ all-time leader, Pete Petranovich.

The biggest deficit to make up belongs to Laramie’s Chuck Syverson, who has nine victories at Laramie but still trails John Deti Sr. by 194.

–patrick

Saratoga hires Willford to head coach position

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Saratoga has named Kegan Willford as its new football coach, the Saratoga Sun reported.

Willford replaces Scott Bokelman, who was the Panthers’ head coach for six seasons.

Willford teaches social studies in Encampment and coaches the Encampment high school track and junior high girls basketball teams; Encampment and Saratoga have long had a football co-op agreement. He is a Saratoga native who was an all-state and Shrine Bowl selection as a high school football plaer; he graduated from SHS in 2003.

Willford is the son of former Saratoga coach Burt Willford, who was the Panthers’ head coach from 1992-2002.

Bokelman went 16-33 in six seasons as head coach and took the Panthers to the playoffs in 2011.

–patrick

McPhie named new head coach in Thermopolis

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Thermopolis has hired Matt McPhie to be its new head football coach.

McPhee and Thermopolis AD Brandon Deromedi both verified the hire via email to wyoming-football.com on Tuesday. McPhie replaces Rob Anderson, who resigned both his teaching and coaching positions, Deromedi said. Anderson had also previously been Thermopolis’ girls basketball coach.

McPhie has been a coach at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the past two years, with the 2014 season spent as running backs coach and 2015 as wide receivers coach; he also coached wide receivers and tight ends at Augustana in the 1997 season. McPhie was an honorable mention all-America wide receiver at Augustana in 1996. His full bio is available at the bottom of the page here.

Anderson went 13-15 in three years as head coach. Thermopolis qualified for the playoffs in each of Anderson’s three years and reached the Class 2A semifinals in 2013. Anderson will be the head football coach at Filer (Idaho) this fall.

–patrick

Post updated 12:55 p.m. July 8 to reflect Anderson’s new position.

Wyoming high school football stadiums, ranked

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On Twitter and Facebook a while back, I asked question where answering the “what” was fairly easy but answering the “why” was quite a bit tougher:

What’s your favorite high school football stadium in Wyoming? And what’s your least favorite?

The answers varied widely; some people’s favorites were others’ least favorite. In the process, I learned quite a few tidbits about Wyoming’s high school football stadiums. So I decided to rank them, one to sixty-five.

Before we get into the list, let’s clarify: This is my list. It’s subjective. It’s faulty. In your mind, it’s probably wrong. You’re right. If I did this list again tomorrow, it’d probably come out different. But it’s my list. And I’m a sucker for:

  • mountains
  • stadiums built into the sides of hills or mountains
  • brick
  • concrete-anchored seating
  • trees and shrubs

And I hate:

  • aluminum bleachers
  • portable bleachers
  • portable aluminum bleachers

And I’m indifferent to:

  • the presence or absence of a track
  • the playing surface itself
  • the “tradition” of the team itself playing on the field

In short, I love stadiums that look like they are supposed to be there, and only there — that this little corner of the world was meant to be reserved for football. Permanence plays a big part in that. Stadiums that look permanent, with brick and concrete stands, specialized landscaping or earth moving and other buildings that appear to be built around the field, have a soft spot in my heart.

And, obviously, I despise the places that look replaceable — the stadiums that look like convenience and little else drove the selection; the stadiums that look like they could be picked up and moved and placed somewhere else in a matter of days; the stadiums that don’t speak to longevity or history.

Consequently, I hate a lot of new stadiums. They’re too new to have any character. They’re too cost-effective to have any sense of permanence. They’re too easy to mistake for another.

So here it is. Every Wyoming high school football field, ranked, with a lot of bias and personal experience and only a little research:

Gotta see before you die

1. Big Horn Field, Big Horn

2. Outlaw Stadium, Rawlins

3. Homer Scott Field, Sheridan

4. Puncher Stadium, Big Piney

5. Mike Moon Field, Buffalo

6. Longhorn Stadium, Meeteetse

7. Walt Gray Field, Tongue River

Pretty neat

8. Buffaloes Stadium, Greybull

9. Oiler Field, Midwest

10. Cheney Alumni Field, Natrona

11. Bearcat Stadium, Douglas

12. Red Devil Stadium, Hulett

13. Harry Geldien Stadium, Kelly Walsh

14. Sheldon Henderson Stadium, Glenrock

15. Rams Stadium, Dubois

16. Okie Blanchard Stadium, Cheyenne East

17. Miner Stadium, Hanna

18. Braves Field, Star Valley

19. Robert Hileman Field, Saratoga

20. B.F. Weaver Field, Upton

21. Korfanta Field, Pinedale

22. Kay Fackrell Stadium, Evanston

Somewhat memorable

23. LeRoy Sinner Field, Wind River

24. Wolves Stadium, Green River

25. Bill Bush Stadium, Lander

26. Deti Stadium, Laramie

27. William T. McIntosh Stadium, Jackson

28. Wolves Stadium, NSI

29. Ranger Stadium, Kemmerer

30. Tiger Stadium, Rock Springs

31. LeRoy Hayes Field, Thermopolis

32. Bronc Stadium, Burns

33. Spike Vannoy Field, Cody

34. Viking Stadium, Guernsey-Sunrise

35. Schoonmaker Field, Newcastle

36. Bulldog Stadium, Sundance

37. Riske Field, Cheyenne Central

38. Rebel Stadium, Riverside

39. Carlstrum Field, Pine Bluffs

40. Clarence Lammers Stadium, Mountain View

41. Buckaroo Stadium, Kaycee

42. Camel Stadium, Gillette

Definitely a football field

43. Warrior Stadium, Worland

44. Fullmer Stadium, Lusk

45. Panther Stadium, Powell

46. Rattler Field, Snake River

47. Bailey Field, Shoshoni

48. Wolverine Stadium, Riverton

49. Panther Field at Battlecat Stadium, Wright

50. Pioneers Stadium, Ten Sleep

51. Bulldog Stadium, Wheatland

52. Chiefs Intertribal Stadium, Wyoming Indian

53. Grizzly Stadium, Rocky Mountain

54. Wolves Field, Moorcroft

55. Kirk Field, Lingle

56. Bison Stadium, Cheyenne South

57. St. Stephens’ field, St. Stephens

58. Teeters Field, Southeast

59. Kevin P. Robertson Memorial Stadium, Lovell

60. Wiseman Field, Torrington

61. Rock River’s field, Rock River

62. Panther Field, Cokeville

63. Eagle Stadium, Lyman

64. Husky Stadium, Burlington

65. Big Sandy Park, Farson

–patrick

Most common final scores in Wyoming high school football

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Trying to predict an exact final score in any one high school football game is nearly impossible.

But if you’re going to take a shot in the dark, try 6-0.

That score has been reached 516 times in Wyoming high school varsity football games since 1894, making it by far the most common final score. The second-most popular tally, 13-0, has only been reached 344 times, according to listings at this site.

Although 6-0 is by far the most common final score, its popularity has waned recently. The final score of 6-0 only happened once in 2015 — and it was in a six-man game, with Guernsey-Sunrise beating Kaycee.

The last full-length 11-man game to finish with that score was when Moorcroft beat Sundance in Week 1 in 2010. (Burlington beat Shoshoni 6-0 in a triangular playoff in 2013.)

It’s interesting to note that the most popular scores at the highest level of football are nowhere near as popular at the high-school level. The most common NFL final score of 20-17 has only happened 19 times in Wyoming high school football. The second-most common in the pro ranks, 27-24, has only occurred five times in Wyoming.

And 6-0 has only occurred 77 times in the NFL, and only once since 1993.

The most surprising final score that has never shown up in Wyoming history is 31-23. Never reached at the Equality State prep level, the final of 31-23 has been achieved 27 times in the NFL.

Some other final scores that have never been reached in Wyoming? 11-10; 18-10; 23-15; 25-17; 32-17; 49-17; 34-23; 29-25; 37-26; 43-28; 35-31; 35-32; and 36-33.

Here are the final scores that have been reached at least 100 times in Wyoming high school football games:

6-0: 516
13-0: 344
20-0: 341
7-0: 311
12-0: 300
7-6: 273
19-0: 267
14-0: 262
13-6: 239
12-6: 237
21-0: 231
20-6: 225
14-6: 222
26-0: 273
27-0: 218
28-0: 216
0-0: 211
33-0: 204
13-7: 196
19-6: 186
34-0: 182
26-6: 178
32-0: 176
25-0: 173
18-0: 165
14-7: 161
12-7: 148
13-12: 140
6-6: 136
27-6: 132
40-0: 131
20-7: 130
19-7: 126
14-13: 123
35-0: 123
21-6: 122
45-0: 118
41-0: 116
28-6: 116
32-6: 115
38-0: 115
42-0: 114
46-0: 114
14-12: 113
31-0: 111
20-14: 110
24-0: 109
21-14: 107
21-7: 107
39-0: 107
18-6: 106
26-7: 103
33-6: 103

–patrick

Trent Aagard named new coach at Burlington

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Trent Aagard will be the new head coach at Burlington this fall.

Aagard, who was an assistant coach with the Huskies for the past three years, verified the change via email this week with wyoming-football.com. He takes over for Aaron Papich, who led the Huskies for the 2015 season.

Aagard is a Burlington native and the younger brother of former Burlington head coach Mike Aagard.

Papich went 4-2 with the Huskies in six-man exhibition games. Burlington forfeited its 11-man season after its Week 1 loss to Lusk and played a patchwork six-man schedule instead. Burlington officially moves into the six-man classification this season and will be in the West Conference.

–patrick

Updates: 1966 and 1965 standings; 1968 and 1970 AA all-state teams

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With thanks again to “Stat Rat” Jim Craig, I have made the following updates to the site:

Standings: Added the 1966 and 1965 statewide standings.

+++

All-state: Added the 1970 AA all-state team and the Associated Press 1968 AA all-state team, and updated Tom Neuman’s information on the 1966 AA all-state team: He was from Rawlins, not Riverton.

In adding the AP 1968 AA all-state team, the 1968 Class AA UPI all-state team was removed. Here it is, so you can compare the changes:

First team

CHEYENNE EAST: Wes Webb, G.
LARAMIE: Scott Freeman, QB; Larry Garcia, HB; Gary Engen, G; Greg Kipper, E.
NATRONA: Dave True, C.
POWELL: Charles Hoston, E.
SHERIDAN: Ken Madia, HB; Dick Doyle, T.
WORLAND: Jerry Seawright, FB; Nick McAuley, T.

Honorable mention
CHEYENNE CENTRAL: Jerry Lopez; Ken Crauser; Don Westbrook; Monty Gore; John Klecker.
CHEYENNE EAST: Bob Ward; Herb Webb.
GREEN RIVER: Allen Kemp.
KELLY WALSH: Ted Sandberg.
LARAMIE: Karl Lenk; Rod Holland; Don Smith; Kevin Freeman.
LOVELL: Mike Davis.
NATRONA: Scott Jones; Bill Heck.
POWELL: Pat Sapp.
RAWLINS: Mike Grauberger.
RIVERTON: Bill Fleak; Ken House; Bill Ray.
ROCK SPRINGS: Jerry Levitt; Ray Foianini.
SHERIDAN: Mickey Doyle; Doug Minick; Steve Olson; Dave Eisenman.
WORLAND: Keith Howard; Alan Hanson; Steve Bradshaw; Mark Burton.

–patrick

Team Wyoming set to play in Six-man Shootout

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The Wyoming team will take the field today for the fifth annual Six-man Shootout against the Nebraska all-star team in Albion, Nebraska.

The game will kick off at 1 p.m. (noon MDT). A live video stream will be available here.

The Wyoming roster is as follows:

DUBOIS: Zak Rose.
FARSON: Neale Jones.
GUERNSEY-SUNRISE: Forest Foos, Jonah Girard.
HANNA: Wyatt Phillips.
HULETT: Curtis Cornett, Reece Jolley.
KAYCEE: Hayden Fauber, Rio Stafford.
MEETEETSE: Carter Johnson, A.J. Merz, Scott Sessions, Shawn Shepperson.
SNAKE RIVER: Braden Duncan, J.P. Ely, Irving Ortega.
TEN SLEEP: Quentin Fettig, J.D. Nelson.

Wyoming is coached by Meeteetse’s Matt Jensen. Meeteetse’s Dale Query, Dubois’ David Trembly and Hulett’s Boz Backen and Ryan Neiman are the assistant coaches.

Nebraska’s roster includes Michael Buitron and Ben Miles of Arthur County; Logan Schultz of Deschler; Austin Anthony, Gabe Haney and Wyatt Rowe of Hyannis; Calyn Werkmeister of Maywood/Hayes Center; Yovan Perez of Minatare; Jake Kennedy and Tanner Hudson of Riverside; Bryce Hoffmeister, Brandon Miller and Drake Shanle of St. Edward; Quentin Journey of Silver Lake; Garrett Ellis of Sioux County; Brock Leslie of Spalding Academy; Trey Brown of Walthill; and Triston Farley of Wilcox Hildreth. Nebraska’s head coach is Joe Imus of Riverside.

Wyoming is 3-1 all-time in the series. Nebraska won last year’s game 34-8.

–patrick

 

 

 

Zent retakes helm at Ten Sleep

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Jake Zent will again be the head football coach at Ten Sleep.

Ten Sleep principal and athletic director Russ Budmayr affirmed the hiring to wyoming-football.com on Friday via email.

Zent was the Pioneers’ head coach for six years, from 2007-12, leading the team to a 21-23 record, including a trip to the six-man semifinals in 2010. He takes over for Andy Ray, who had led the team since 2013 but resigned under pressure in April.

–patrick