Week 3 picks: Casper Christian prepares for the biggest game in program history (for now)

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Since six-man’s return in 2009, eight new programs have entered Wyoming’s football ranks: Kaycee, Snake River and Farson in 2009, Cheyenne South in 2011, St. Stephens in 2013, Rock River in 2014, Thunder Basin in 2017 and Encampment in 2019.

Varying degrees of success have followed, in two distinct camps.

The happy campers? Kaycee, Snake River and Farson have all won multiple state championships. Thunder Basin and Encampment have yet to finish a season with a losing record.

The blistered, sprained-ankle, sunburnt and/or missing campers? Cheyenne South has one playoff berth, zero playoff victories and a winning percentage under .100. St. Stephens has won five games in 10 years. Rock River no longer fields a football team.

Enter Casper Christian, the state’s newest high school football program and the ninth since 2009 to try to establish fresh gridiron roots in Wyoming.

After a hodgepodge schedule a year ago that included games against a handful of six-man teams and several against Natrona’s sophomores and freshmen, the Mountaineers are now an official, playoff-eligible program that, so far, has shown an affinity for shedding the label of newcomer.

Now 3-0 after a 57-26 victory against Hanna last week in the program’s first conference game, Casper Christian has arguably the biggest game in program history, as short as it is, on Saturday in Casper.

Understanding why requires understanding a little bit about the Class 1A six-man South Conference.

The conference’s top three preseason teams — two-time defending champion Snake River, three-time semifinalist Encampment and two-time semifinalist Dubois — are the teams everyone else is chasing.

That leaves Casper Christian, along with Farson and Hanna, in the position of chasers.

The Mountaineers will have their shot at all of them, with a trip to Baggs to play Snake River next week, a home date with Dubois in Week 6 and a trip to Encampment to end the conference season in Week 7.

But for now, their game with Farson (kickoff at noon Saturday at Natrona) will be Casper Christian’s make-or-break, just as it will be for the Pronghorns, too. Chasing down those top three after a loss to secure any kind of hope of a playoff berth gets a lot harder.

Meanwhile, in the Mountaineer camp, a victory keeps the hope for not only the postseason alive, but the hopes for a bigger opportunity later in the year when the “biggest game in program history” is a memory, replaced by games with far more significance.

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Some other games to watch in Week 3:

As cool as Casper Christian’s quick start has been, the biggest game in Casper is still Friday’s Oil Bowl between Kelly Walsh and Natrona. Both teams enter the game coming off a victory, so it will be interesting to see whose momentum is preserved moving forward. …

Arguably the 3A game of the week pits Douglas and Powell against each other. They are both undefeated, Douglas at 2-0 and Powell at 3-0, and they always seem to have good games against each other. Four of the past six meetings between the Bearcats and Panthers ended with margins of seven points or less, including Douglas’ OT victory in last year’s 3A quarterfinals. …

The “Burton Bowl” is happening this week as coach Jim Burton’s new team, Lander, faces his old team, Evanston. Those scenarios are few and far between, and they’re always interesting to watch unfold. …

If Torrington ends up moving to Class 3A next year, will this be the last Wheatland-Torrington rivalry game that we see for awhile? …

Greybull is off to its first 2-0 start since 2016. All the Buffaloes did that year was go to the 2A title game. So if Greybull can knock off West top threat Big Piney this week, watch out. …

Farson and Casper Christian aren’t the only ones engaged in an important 1A-6 South game, as two of those three aforementioned frontrunners, Encampment and Dubois, will face off Saturday in Dubois. This game is so key, I heard Master Lock is sponsoring it.

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On to this week’s picks. I denote the team I think will win in bold. It’s a fun little game I play. It’s much smaller than the actual games being played.

Thursday
Class 2A
Upton-Sundance at Tongue River
Class 1A nine-man
Rocky Mountain at Wyoming Indian
Interclass
Cheyenne East JV at Shoshoni
Friday
Class 4A
Cheyenne East at Laramie
Cheyenne South at Campbell County
Kelly Walsh at Natrona
Rock Springs at Sheridan
Thunder Basin at Cheyenne Central
Class 3A
Buffalo at Cody
Douglas at Powell
Lander at Evanston
Riverton at Star Valley
Worland at Green River
Class 2A
Cokeville at Pinedale
Glenrock at Big Horn
Lyman at Lovell
Newcastle at Burns
Thermopolis at Mountain View
Torrington at Wheatland
Class 1A nine-man
Lingle at Guernsey
Pine Bluffs at Wright
Saratoga at Lusk
Southeast at Moorcroft
Wind River at Riverside
Class 1A six-man
Ten Sleep at Kaycee
Interstate
Kemmerer at Rich County, Utah
Rawlins at Moffat County, Colo.
South Fremont, Idaho, at Jackson
Saturday
Class 1A nine-man
Greybull at Big Piney
Class 1A six-man
Burlington at Midwest
Encampment at Dubois
Farson at Casper Christian (at Natrona)
Meeteetse at Hulett
Snake River at Hanna
Interclass
St. Stephens at Shoshoni JV

For a full schedule including kickoff times, click here. You can click on “Week 3” at the top of the page to take you directly to this week’s schedule.

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Here are the results of my picks from last week and this season:

Last week: 28-6 (82 percent). This season: 71-16 (82 percent).

A quick housekeeping note from last week: Wind River’s varsity actually had the week off. The Cougars’ JV played Natrona’s sophomores, not their varsity. That result has been removed from the site.

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Who’s your surprise team to this point in the season? Leave a comment here, or hit me up on the Facebook page or on Twitter.

If you like what you see here, consider a page sponsorship. 

–patrick

Week 2 picks: Conference play creates intriguing matchups in 2A, 1A

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In all, 38 teams start conference play this week. Those games are in Class 2A, Class 1A nine-man and Class 1A six-man, where bigger conferences mean more league games.

Of those 19 games, a few stand out as potential title-deciders.

In particular, the 1A six-man South game between Dubois and Snake River will have big ramifications come playoff time. The South is shaping up as a three-team race between the Rams, Rattlers and Encampment, but Farson will also be a tough out and newcomer Casper Christian — don’t look now — is 2-0. While Dubois/Snake River is the game drawing top billing, Encampment’s game with Farson this week is also crucially important.

In the 2A West, Lovell and Cokeville met in last year’s semifinals and will meet again in the first week of conference play. Both teams played in thrillers last week, Lovell beating defending 2A champion Big Horn in double overtime and Cokeville losing by seven to Upton-Sundance. And while Lovell appears to have that early advantage, Cokeville hasn’t started a season 0-2 since 1987. This one may not decide a title, but for two teams used to winning, a loss will be a rough sting.

And in 1A nine-man, the most intriguing game of the week might be between Lingle and Lusk in Goshen County. Lusk lost last week, yes, but played well enough against a ranked Big Piney squad to keep it respectable. Lingle… well, we can’t learn too much about a team when it wins by 71 against clearly inferior competition. This week will give us a chance to learn a lot about both these teams and their title chances.

In each case, six more weeks of conference matchups await. No titles will be decided this week. But it’s hard to win a conference title if you lose your first conference game of the year, and that makes Week 2 just as critical as any other.

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Up in Class 4A, conference play is already into its third week. Although the schedule wasn’t designed for this to happen, a weird quirk of how things have gone so far makes Week 2 “separation week.” The four teams with 1-1 records (Campbell County, Rock Springs, Cheyenne Central and Natrona) all face one another in a week of potential make-or-break games. A loss here for any one of these four teams sends hopes of a first-round home playoff game into deep trouble. …

Class 4A also gives us what might objectively be called the game of the week with 2-0 Thunder Basin traveling south to play 2-0 Cheyenne East. Thunder Basin has a 105-24 scoring advantage through two weeks, East a 94-19 advantage. Arguably, though, East has had the tougher schedule. Either way, seeing them face each other will help clarify a lot about the top of 4A. …

Three teams start the competitive parts of their schedules in Week 2. Saratoga (against Moorcroft) begins its season after canceling its Week 1 game due to questionable numbers. Meanwhile, Midwest and Ten Sleep meet in a game of teams with 0-0 records. …

St. Stephens will again sit out a week as Wind River, which was scheduled to play the Eagles this week, will play a sub-varsity team from Natrona instead. Oddly enough, Wind River also had to scramble to find a make-up game last week, too, after Saratoga canceled on them. At this point, it’s unclear if St. Stephens’ season will get off the ground at all this year. …

One of last year’s most exciting out-of-state games will see its rematch on Friday when Loveland’s Resurrection Christian comes from Colorado to Buffalo. Last year, the Bison lost 20-14 in overtime, so it’ll be interesting to see how they match up when they’re in Johnson County as opposed to greenie-land. …

Also on the out-of-state list this week is the now-traditional showdown between Star Valley and Sugar-Salem, Idaho. Both programs are their respective state’s defending 3A champ (Sugar-Salem has actually won four titles in five years). Neither team has lost yet this year, either, with the Braves at 2-0 and the Diggers at 3-0. Always a good one. …

Speaking of out-of-state foes, Rich County, Utah, is off to a 3-0 start. The Rebels will play their next seven games against 2A West opponents, and that stretch starts this week with Mountain View. …

It’s been an odd start for Cheyenne South, which has lost games by scores of 56-10 and 69-3. Both games are Wyoming high school football scorigami, meaning it’s the first time those final scores have ever been achieved in a Wyoming high school football game. So far, we’ve had six scorigami games this year: South’s two games (56-10 loss to Thunder Basin and 69-3 loss to Sheridan), Cody 56-2 over Lander, Casper Christian 61-53 over Kaycee, Mitchell, Neb., 55-24 over Wheatland and Snake River 78-28 over Meeteetse. …

This week’s can’t-get-a-read coin-flipper game: Kaycee/Meeteetse. I’m watching this one extra-close, because I literally have no idea which direction to lean. …

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Here are this week’s picks. I put the team I think will win in bold. Somehow, it generates an emotional response. Language is weird.

Thursday
Class 1A nine-man
Moorcroft at Saratoga
Friday
Class 4A
Campbell County at Rock Springs
Cheyenne Central at Natrona
Kelly Walsh at Cheyenne South
Sheridan at Laramie
Thunder Basin at Cheyenne East
Class 3A
Cody at Worland
Green River at Rawlins
Powell at Lander
Riverton at Evanston
Class 2A
Burns at Torrington
Kemmerer at Thermopolis
Lovell at Cokeville
Pinedale at Lyman
Tongue River at Glenrock
Upton-Sundance at Big Horn
Wheatland at Newcastle
Class 1A nine-man
Guernsey at Pine Bluffs
Lusk at Lingle
Riverside at Wyoming Indian
Shoshoni at Greybull
Wright at Southeast
Class 1A six-man
Hulett at Burlington
Kaycee at Meeteetse
Interstate
Gering, Neb., at Douglas
Jackson at Wood River, Idaho
Loveland Resurrection Christian, Colo., at Buffalo
Mountain View at Rich County, Utah
Sugar-Salem, Idaho, at Star Valley
Saturday
Class 1A nine-man
Big Piney at Rocky Mountain
Class 1A six-man
Casper Christian at Hanna
Dubois at Snake River
Farson at Encampment
Midwest at Ten Sleep
Interclass
Natrona JV at Wind River

For a full schedule including kickoff times, click here. You can click on “Week 2” at the top of the page to take you directly to this week’s schedule.

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Here are the results of my picks from last week and this season:

Last week: 28-7 (80 percent). This season: 43-10 (81 percent).

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Which game jumps out to you as a potential conference championship game in the making? Leave a comment here, or hit me up on the Facebook page or on Twitter.

If you like what you see here, consider a page sponsorship. 

–patrick

Reclassification numbers for 2024-25, 2025-26 released to Wyoming schools

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Enrollment numbers to be used to classify schools for Wyoming high school sports were recently released to schools, giving an indication of which classification schools will be in for sports in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.

For most sports, Wyoming will use a new system for classifying its schools starting in the fall of 2024. Football will keep its existing structure, but some programs may switch classifications depending on enrollment.

Enrollment figures for the next round of reclassification, as provided by WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson, are as follows:

1. Kelly Walsh, 2,035
2. Natrona, 1,886
3. Cheyenne East, 1,748
4. Rock Springs, 1,548
5. Cheyenne Central, 1,416
6. Campbell County, 1,354
7. Cheyenne South, 1,331
8. Thunder Basin, 1,297
9. Sheridan, 1,140
10. Laramie, 1,127
11. Star Valley, 919
12. Jackson, 916
13. Evanston, 827
14. Green River, 776
15. Riverton, 763
16. Cody, 630
17. Lander, 592
18. Powell, 558
19. Douglas, 510
20. Rawlins, 455
21. Torrington, 356
22. Buffalo, 352
23. Pinedale, 349
24. Worland, 343
25. Wheatland, 263
26. Lovell, 239
27. Mountain View, 238
28. Lyman, 237
29. Newcastle, 234
30. Burns, 224
31. Glenrock, 215
32. Moorcroft, 203
33. Thermopolis, 192
34. Kemmerer, 188
35. Tongue River, 165
36. Big Horn, 147
37. Big Piney, 145
38. Wyoming Indian, 138
39. Greybull, 138
40. Pine Bluffs, 132
41. Shoshoni, 130
42. Sundance, 127
43. Rocky Mountain, 127
44. Fort Washakie, 121
45. Wright, 119
46. Wind River, 117
47. Arapahoe Charter, 107
48. Lingle, 100
49. Saratoga, 98
50. St. Stephens, 92
51. Lusk, 85
52. Southeast, 82
53. Upton, 77
54. Riverside, 76
55. Cokeville, 68
56. Burlington, 65
57. Hanna, 64
58. Guernsey, 63
59. Midwest, 61
60. Snake River, 58
61. Dubois, 54
62. Farson, 54
63. Hulett, 43
64. Ten Sleep, 40
65. Encampment, 34
66. Rock River, 34
67. Kaycee, 31
68. Meeteetse, 30
69. Arvada-Clearmont, 26

For all sports except football, reclassification returns to hard enrollment cutoffs for the 2024-25 school year, thanks to a WHSAA vote earlier this year. Schools with 700 or more students will be in 4A, from 210 to 699 in 3A, from 110 to 209 in 2A, and remaining schools in 1A. Classifications will be the same for all sports except football, eliminating the structure of varying classifications for each sport. With those cutoffs, classifications for all other sports will be as follows starting in 2024-25:

Class 4A (15 schools): Kelly Walsh, Natrona, Cheyenne East, Rock Springs, Cheyenne Central, Campbell County, Cheyenne South, Thunder Basin, Sheridan, Laramie, Star Valley, Jackson, Evanston, Green River, Riverton.

Class 3A (16 schools): Cody, Lander, Powell, Douglas, Rawlins, Torrington, Buffalo, Pinedale, Worland, Wheatland, Lovell, Mountain View, Lyman, Newcastle, Burns, Glenrock.

Class 2A (14 schools): Moorcroft, Thermopolis, Kemmerer, Tongue River, Big Horn, Big Piney, Wyoming Indian, Greybull, Pine Bluffs, Shoshoni, Sundance, Rocky Mountain, Wright, Wind River.

Class 1A (22 schools): Lingle, Saratoga, St. Stephens, Lusk, Southeast, Upton, Riverside, Cokeville, Burlington, Hanna, Guernsey, Midwest, Snake River, Dubois, Farson, Hulett, Ten Sleep, Encampment, Rock River, Kaycee, Meeteetse, Arvada-Clearmont.

Conference alignments will be set by participating schools.

FOOTBALL: Football varies from other sports in its reclassification procedures as it places a certain number of schools in each classification as opposed to using an enrollment cutoff number. Currently, the top 10 schools are classified as 4A, the next 12 (schools 11-22) are 3A, the next 14 (schools 23-36) are 2A, the next 14 (schools 37-50) are 1A nine-man and the remaining schools are 1A six-man.

The presence of Fort Washakie (ranked No. 44) and Arapahoe Charter (ranked No. 47) will not affect football reclassification. Fort Washakie and Arapahoe Charter typically don’t offer varsity-level team sports. In the scenarios above, they have been removed from the rankings, thus adjusting the cutoff for 1A-9/1A-6 football to school No. 52 as opposed to No. 50.

In 2024-25 and 2025-26, Torrington is scheduled to move from 2A to 3A, while Worland is scheduled to move from 3A to 2A. Guernsey will also be scheduled to move from 1A-9 to 1A-6.

Other scheduled moves are more difficult to project, as numerous schools in 2A, 1A nine-man and 1A six-man opt either up or down to fit into their preferred classification.

Current schools opting up or down include Moorcroft, Wyoming Indian, Big Horn, Cokeville, Saratoga and Riverside. However, Wyoming Indian (1A-9), Saratoga (1A-9) and Big Horn (2A) will no longer have to opt up or down, as their enrollment now places them into the classifications in which they were already playing. Wyoming Indian will be playoff-eligible with this shift.

Moorcroft, Riverside and Cokeville will have choices to make, though. Moorcroft currently opts down to 1A-9 but will continue to be a 2A school by enrollment. Riverside also presently opts up to 1A-9 despite being classified as 1A-6 by enrollment, and the Rebels will remain below the nine-man cutoff. Cokeville will likely opt up to remain in 2A despite being a 1A-6 school in enrollment, as they have done the past few years.

Upton-Sundance will also remain in 2A in their co-op agreement.

Schools scheduled to move — Torrington, Worland and Guernsey — could also choose to opt up or down, as could any other school regardless of any changes to classification.

All opt-up or opt-down proposals must be approved by the WHSAA board of directors. Wilson said via email last week that opt-up and opt-down requests won’t be finished until the end of September.

Class 4A football will remain unchanged.

Casper Christian is not included in the above projections, since its enrollments were not included in ADM figures. Casper Christian offers six-man football as its only varsity sport at this point.

The first of four WHSAA quarterly regional meetings is scheduled for Wednesday in Wheatland. The fall WHSAA board of directors meeting will be Sept. 26-27 in Casper.

–patrick

Updates: Cody, Evanston, Greybull, Upton

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A few quick updates to the site:

I fixed the score for Upton’s 34-26 loss to Newell, S.D., on Sept. 9, 1977. This game is famous for being the most overtimes in a game in Wyoming history with five OTs. I noted this game a few weeks back in another blog post, where I first noticed the discrepancy between what I had (32-24) and the actual final.

I also found three coach names — two first names and one full name — for the coaches’ project. I found first names for Cody’s coach in 1921, E.E. Phillips, and Evanston’s coach in 1924, Julian House. I also found Greybull’s coach in 1925, John Simpson.

All the updates have been made on all the relevant pages.

–patrick

Week 1 picks: When defending champions meet their would-be party-crashers, what happens?

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Since 2000, Wyoming high school football has had 72 regular-season games that were rematches of the previous year’s championship game.

That total will increase to 74 this week, as we will see a pair of rematch games from 2022 title games to jumpstart Week 1 of 2023.

This week, Shoshoni travels to Pine Bluffs on Thursday to reprise the Class 1A nine-man title game, while Big Horn visits Lovell on Friday in a rematch of last year’s 2A championship game.

Big Horn and Pine Bluffs are the defending champs. So they’re the favorites, right? Well, the 72-game rematch history since 2000 tells us… not much.

In those 72 games, the defending champs do have a slight edge. Teams coming off a championship have won 40 of those games and lost 32 — a winning percentage of 55.6% that’s barely above random. 

However, the short-term history favors the defending champs. We had five such games in last year’s regular season, and the defending champs won four. Lovell was the only team to reverse the curse last year, beating Lyman in their rematch of the 2021 2A championship game. But Sheridan, Cody, Shoshoni and Snake River all won their rematches last year.

At the same time, that success from defending champs is a blip on a radar full of blips. Defending champs went a combined 3-9 between 2018 and 2021, so there’s no real discernible pattern in the past few years.

And that makes sense. These are not the same teams that played last year in Laramie. Seniors are gone, freshmen are in, approaches are different, planning is fresh. I hesitated a lot to even use the word “rematch” in describing these games, because so much has changed in the past nine months. 

Two other such games are coming this fall. Sheridan and Cheyenne East will play on Sept. 29 in a 4A showdown, Cody and Star Valley on Oct. 6 in 3A.

But it would be foolhardy to look at last year’s title games and think they’ll have much to do with how things go on the field this year. Barely above random, at least.

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On to some other action that’s catching my eye in the first full week of statewide play but the second week for many teams: 

Four of the five 4A teams who won last week face off against each other. Natrona travels south to play Cheyenne East, while Rock Springs makes the long trek to Gillette to play Thunder Basin. It will be interesting to see how that Week 0 momentum rolls into Week 1… or not. …

We have a couple of neutral-site games this week, as Cokeville and Upton-Sundance meet in Shoshoni and Dubois and Hulett play in Ten Sleep. Those are always fun. …

This week’s super-intriguing coin-flip games: Kemmerer/Glenrock and Rocky Mountain/Wright. I can’t get a gut feeling either way on these, which usually means some exciting football to come. …

A late change to the schedule affects Evanston, as the Red Devils will play South Summit, Utah, NOT Jordan, Utah, this week. …

Several changes hit the Week 1 schedule. Lingle will play at sub-varsity team from Cheyenne Central this week instead of St. Stephens as the Eagles prepare to launch their season in Week 2 instead. Wind River will play Campbell County’s JV instead of Saratoga as the Panthers have struggled with numbers so far. And Midwest and the Kelly Walsh sophomores, who were supposed to play on Saturday, will not. Ten Sleep and Encampment will also delay their season openers by a week, although Encampment played in the Dubois jamboree last weekend.

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Picks. I got ’em. Half of you love ’em, half of you want me to reconsider. Regardless, I’m bold with my picks, at least when it comes to the typeface.

Thursday
Class 1A nine-man
Lusk at Big Piney
Shoshoni at Pine Bluffs
Friday
Class 4A
Cheyenne Central at Kelly Walsh
Cheyenne South at Sheridan
Laramie at Campbell County
Natrona at Cheyenne East
Rock Springs at Thunder Basin
Class 3A
Cody at Riverton
Green River at Lander
Jackson at Douglas
Worland at Powell
Class 2A
Big Horn at Lovell
Cokeville vs. Upton-Sundance (at Shoshoni)
Glenrock at Kemmerer
Thermopolis at Tongue River
Wheatland at Mountain View
Class 1A nine-man
Greybull at Moorcroft
Guernsey at Wyoming Indian
Riverside at Southeast
Rocky Mountain at Wright
Class 1A six-man
Dubois vs. Hulett (at Ten Sleep)
Hanna at Kaycee
Meeteetse at Snake River
Interclass
Cheyenne Central JV at Lingle
Farson at Shoshoni JV (nine-man)
Buffalo at Newcastle
Pinedale at Rawlins
Interstate
Bear Lake, Idaho, at Lyman
Burlington at Custer, Mont.
Burns at Yuma, Colo.
South Summit, Utah, at Evanston
Star Valley at Preston, Idaho
Torrington at Mitchell, Neb.
Saturday
Interclass
Burlington JV at Casper Christian
Wind River at Campbell County JV
Open: Encampment, Midwest, St. Stephens, Saratoga, Ten Sleep.

For a full schedule including kickoff times, click here. You can click on “Week 1” at the top of the page to take you directly to this week’s schedule.

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Here are the results of my picks from last week and this season:

Last week: 15-3 (83 percent). This season: 15-3 (83 percent).

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What do you see on the Week 1 schedule that has you excited for the start of the season? Leave a comment here, or hit me up on the Facebook page or on Twitter.

If you like what you see here, consider a page sponsorship. 

–patrick

Does six-man football have a blowout problem?

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From the perspective of a fan who has no rooting interest, a close game always makes for a more interesting experience than a blowout.

And from that perspective, Wyoming’s six-man classification in 2022 may have given us some of the most boring football we’ve ever seen.

Last year in Class 1A six-man, the chances were significantly better that the game would end with a running clock than in a down-to-the-wire finish — and it wasn’t even close.

More than 61% of six-man games in 2022 (36 of 59) ended with the winning team winning by at least 45 points, the cutoff point for the mercy-rule running clock. This included all seven playoff games. Only two of those 59 six-man games (3.4%) were decided by a margin of a single possession or less. Overall, only 10 of those 59 games last season were decided by less than 20 points.

The average margin of victory was 44.3 points.

Not all that exciting.

The hope is that the blowout trend in 2022 was just an anomaly. After all, the 61% blowout rate was the highest at the six-man level since its return to Wyoming in 2009. And the 3.4% single-possession game rate was the lowest.

Blowouts have always been more plentiful than single-possession games, but the differences in 2022 were stark:

YearTotal gamesMargin 45 or moreMargin 8 or lessPercent finishing with mercy rulePercent single-possesison
20094113431.7%9.8%
20104118443.9%9.8%
20114819339.6%6.3%
20124816933.3%18.8%
20136231450.0%6.5%
20145930750.8%11.9%
20155922537.3%8.5%
20167234447.2%5.6%
20176736453.7%6.0%
20186626739.4%10.6%
20196833748.5%10.3%
20205718731.6%12.3%
202150211042.0%20.0%
20225936261.0%3.4%

Some hope that 2023 might return to some kind of normalcy is the fact that the 2021 season was maybe six-man’s most exciting. In that season, 20% of six-man games finished as one-possession games, the highest rate since six-man’s return in 2009.

–patrick

2023 Wyoming high school football preview magazine: Read it now!

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Cover of the Wyoming high school football preview magazine.

The 2023 edition of the Wyoming high school football magazine is out now! It’s the most complete and comprehensive preview of the 2023 football season you’ll find anywhere in the state.

This is the 12th year of the magazine, which includes previews of every team in the state. This year, I interviewed every coach in the state (except one… can you find it?) for this magazine. Thanks to the coaches for all their help!

Printed copies will be shipped to the locations of the advertisers in the magazine in the next week or so. You’ll be able to pick up a free print copy of the magazine at their locations. Please support the advertisers who support the magazine — we can’t do it without them!

And, in case you missed it: Click or tap here to read the magazine online.

–patrick

Week 0 picks: 4A’s fun starts a week early

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I don’t know if my joy for the Class 4A football season was properly expressed in that classification’s season preview last week.

So let me say it out loud, clearly: This is gonna be a fun season.

Well, not fun in a competitive kind of way. There’s still clear separation among 4A’s tiers, and that’s not going to change in 2023.

Instead, the individual performances in 4A this year could be so much fun to watch, on both sides of the ball.

With the top five quarterbacks and seven of the top eight tacklers returning this season, 4A is rife with possibility for some amazing individual performances this season. The fun starts Friday with a full slate of Class 4A games, the classification that begins a week earlier than the rest of the state because, well, size matters.

From the team end of things, though, it makes sense to look at the defending champs — well, to be specific, the two-time defending champs — and the challenge they have to start. Sheridan will have a tough trip and a tough draw against Cheyenne Central in what is, on paper, the best 4A game of the week.

The two new Class 4A coaches, Orah Garst at Campbell County and Ted Holmstrom at Rock Springs, will make their debuts at home. The Camels host Cheyenne East, one of the most loaded teams entering the season, while the Tigers host a Kelly Walsh team looking to rebound after a tough season.

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Most of the teams who are opting for games over scrimmages or jamborees this week will play out-of-state foes, with six such games on the schedule. My favorite will be in Uinta County. Evanston and Ben Lomond, Utah, have developed a fun rivalry the past couple seasons. Each of the past two games has been decided by one point, Evanston winning 14-13 two years ago and Ben Lomond winning 23-22 last year.

Beyond that, five other games are on the schedule, including a hybrid 9-man/11-man game between Sublette County rivals Pinedale and Big Piney that won’t officially count. If you’ve never seen a hybrid game before, you’re in for a treat. When Big Piney has the ball, teams will use nine players; when Pinedale has the ball, teams will use 11. These kinds of games were actually quite common back in the early 1990s with Wyoming’s previous nine-man setup — I saw quite a few growing up in Midwest — and I’m glad to see their return.

One late switch to the schedule moves what was the Shoshoni jamboree to Greybull.

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On to the picks. Since it’s the opening weekend, some of you might have forgotten that bold means I pick that team to win. You’ll catch on quick, though.

Friday
Class 4A
Cheyenne East at Campbell County
Kelly Walsh at Rock Springs
Laramie at Natrona
Sheridan at Cheyenne Central
Thunder Basin at Cheyenne South
Class 3A
Lander at Cody
Powell at Riverton
Class 1A six-man
Casper Christian at Kaycee
Interclass
Burns at Rawlins
Pinedale at Big Piney
Interstate
Ben Lomond, Utah, at Evanston
Gering, Neb., at Torrington
Malad, Idaho, at Lyman
Mitchell, Neb., at Wheatland
Star Valley at Shelley, Idaho
Teton, Idaho, at Jackson
Saturday
Interclass
Mountain View at Green River
Tongue River at Sheridan JV

Several teams are playing near-games this week, as well, with modified rules for certain situations or special teams plays. I try to keep those listed separately on the schedule. As usual during Zero Week, here is a reminder of the rules I use to determine whether a Zero Week contest is a game or is something else:

  • 1. Was the game played with four 12-minute quarters with normal timing rules?
  • 2. Were officials used? And were normal rules of play instituted for the game?
  • 3. Was score kept?

If these three criteria are met, I call it a game and record it as such on this site.

The list of scrimmages and jamborees for the week:

Thursday
Kemmerer at Cokeville
Friday
Big Horn at Natrona sophs
Burlington, Dubois, Encampment, Farson at Dubois jamboree
Lingle, Pine Bluffs, Saratoga, Southeast at Pine Bluffs jamboree
Lusk, Newcastle, Shoshoni, Wind River, Wright at Wright jamboree
Moorcroft at Upton-Sundance (at Sundance)
Worland at Thermopolis
Saturday
Greybull, Riverside, Wyoming Indian at Greybull jamboree
Lovell at Buffalo
Open: Douglas, Glenrock, Guernsey-Sunrise, Hanna, Hulett, Meeteetse, Midwest, Rocky Mountain, St. Stephens, Snake River, Ten Sleep.

For a full schedule including kickoff times, click here. You can click on “Week 0” at the top of the page to take you directly to this week’s schedule.

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What’s your bold prediction for the 2023 season? Remember, it only counts if you say it before the season starts. Leave a comment here, or hit me up on the Facebook page or on Twitter.

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–patrick

Wyoming prep hoops coaches: The 1940s

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Editor’s note: This post was written by “Stat Rat” Jim Craig, formerly of Lusk and now of Cheyenne, who has provided significant help to the research on Wyoming sports history.

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In amassing and compiling data about Wyoming prep basketball from the early 1930s to the late 1960s, it’s sometimes fun to answer obscure questions. Information for this article centers within the decade of the 1940s and coaching. To wit: Which hoops coaches were the most successful during the 1940s? I’ll be using research from the 1939-40 basketball season up to and including the 1948-49 campaign, 10 seasons total.

This was a tough decade to coach in, made more difficult by the four years that World War II lasted. Coaches, generally being younger men, found themselves to be prime candidates for the military. Many volunteered right after the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941 and several Wyoming schools had to scramble to find replacement coaches mid-season. Often, older school superintendents—many were ex-coaches— stepped in as coaches pro tem. The average tenure for a coach at any one school was only 1.75 years for the entire decade. Longest tenures of the decade at any one school totaled eight years by Clarence Birch at Cokeville and Lincoln Gardner at Star Valley. Only three coaches coached every season of the 1940s: Coach Birch (also Encampment), Carl Murphy (Lingle and Riverton) and Charlie Roberts (Burlington, Lovell and Worland).

Top Ten 1940s Coaching Records by Wins
CoachSchool(s)SeasonsWinsWin%Q-FactorMedalChamp
*Okie BlanchardCentral, Natrona81870.8421.0000.8756
Charlie RobertsBurlington, Lovell, Worland101450.5820.6000.1001
Carl DirManville, Shoshoni, Worland, Rawlins91390.6120.3330.1110
Lincoln GardnerStar Valley81230.7450.5000.0000
Joe SchwartzSaratoga, Rawlins, Natrona61200.7220.6670.3331
Chester ChristiansenLovell, Evanston61140.7130.6670.6670
Silas LymanBuffalo, Ranchester71090.6090.7140.0000
William EngstromSuperior, Rock Springs61020.6181.0000.1670
Clarence BirchCokeville, Encampment10990.5690.4000.2001
Archie ConnChugwater, Torrington7910.6070.7140.0000
Darrell HathawayNatrona4870.7311.0000.5000
Norman MikkelsonSuperior, Glenrock6830.610.5000.0000
Nerbert CrossmanRozet6820.6670.5000.1670
Joseph WellerAlbin5810.7570.2000.0000
Walter DowlerRock Springs, Central3790.841.0001.0002
Floyd ForemanLaramie4760.6971.0000.7500
*Wilford MowerByron4740.7471.0000.5002
John BaysMidwest4740.6921.0000.0000
Henry HartwellMidwest4740.7051.0000.0000
Frank MathewClearmont, Powell4730.640.7500.0000
Floyd HartLusk5730.5530.4000.0000

Q-Factor=percentage of times qualified for the state tourney; Medal=percentage of times finishing 1st, 2nd, or 3rd; *Wyoming Coaches Association Hall of Fame member

The chart above answers most questions about the decade, showing that C. H. ‘Okie’ Blanchard is by far and away the best hoops coach of the 1940s. (The same thing occurs for the 1930s and 1950s by the way, articles for a different day, maybe.) Okie leads in total wins by 42 games, win percentage, qualified all of his teams for the state tourney, medaled (first, second or third) seven of eight times, and won six of 10 big-school state championships. And he spotted two years of the 1940s to his prep hoops coaching brethren by stepping away from prep sports to coach and work at the University of Wyoming.

Best of the rest? Because he only coached three years in the 1940s, Walter Dowler doesn’t make the top 10 win list, but still rings up an impressive total of 79. Coach Dowler succeeded Okie at Rock Springs as head coach and won the 1937-38 state championship—too early to count on this arbitrary time span—won it again for the Tigers in 1940-41 and the next year in Cheyenne in 1941-42. Coach Dowler might’ve won another state title the following year but the Uncle Sam had different plans for him. Coach Blanchard was named his replacement and took the 1942-43 state title. After his stint in the Navy, Dowler turned his energies toward school administration and Okie continued to post a string of championships for the Indians. (Dowler’s lowest 1940s finish was second place in the 1939-40 season to—you might’ve guessed it— Coach Okie’s NCHS Mustangs.)

Three to consider—Byron’s Wilford Mower took home two 1940s state championships, coaching the final four years of that decade. He posted 74 wins, added another state title in 1950 and 111 1950s wins to his Hall of Fame total. Laramie’s Floyd Foreman ended his stellar coaching career in the 1940s with 76 wins in the four years he coached during the decade, qualifying the Plainsmen for tourney play each year and medaling three times. Just missing the top ten was Natrona County’s Darrell Hathaway with 87 wins during a four-year span of the 1940s. His Mustangs qualified each time for the state tourney and medaled twice. That average of over 21 wins a year is enviable.

Halls of Fame are a rather recent phenomena, and Wyoming started theirs in 1984. Have any 1940s coaches been omitted by the Wyoming Coaches Hall of Fame? The biggest stumbling block is the 20-year requirement of coaching with at least 80% of that occurring in Wyoming. As mentioned before, WWII disrupted many coaching careers during this decade and as a result, most fall short of the required two decades. Coaches then coached ALL sports all year long: football in the fall, basketball during the winter and track in the spring. Such investments in time tended to shorten coaching careers. The same can be said for coaches during the 1930s, where the Great Depression affected school budgets, cancelled or reduced seasons and caused all teachers uncertain employment circumstances.

Personally I’d like to see Floyd Foreman added to the Hall of Fame list, even if he’s a few years short of 20. My records go back to the 1930-31 season and I believe Coach Foreman started in Laramie the year before in the 1929-30 school year. My records—minus the 1929-30 campaign—show an amazing career. Coach Foreman qualified the Plainsmen for all the state tourneys except one, and that was the state tourney cancelled by the scarlet fever in 1935-36. His teams medaled 10 times: two state championships, five runners-up and three third place finishes. Minus that first year, he totaled 257 wins and a .754 win percentage. Pretty impressive accomplishments, even if his 14 years served are shy of 20, and certainly worthy of recognition in the Wyoming Coaches Hall of Fame.

Class 4A season preview: The year of the quarterback — and of those who’d tackle them

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Four questions to answer

Can we expect the usual suspects again in 4A this year? Yes, but parity is slowly creeping its way in. It’s Sheridan, Cheyenne East and Natrona, per usual, who are among the favorites. However, Cheyenne Central has reached the semifinals twice in the past four years, and Thunder Basin is eager to re-establish itself as a title threat after two consecutive quarterfinal exits. Meanwhile, both Rock Springs and Campbell County have been mentioned as programs who could surprise depending on how they find their footing with new head coaches.

Where does defending champ Sheridan have an advantage? The offensive line. Two of Sheridan’s closest competitors, East and Natrona, will have all-new starters on the line; Sheridan, meanwhile, returns beaucoup experience up front, including all-stater Alex Haswell. Thunder Basin is the only other 4A team that returns linemen with comparable experience, and even there the Broncs still have the edge.

Is this the year of the quarterback in 4A? Potentially, but it’ll also have to be the year of the pass-catcher. The five players who had the most passing yards per game in Class 4A all return — Thunder Basin’s Alonso Aguilar, Cheyenne East’s Cam Hayes, Campbell County’s Mason Drube, Rock Springs’ Michael Faigl and Laramie’s Ben Malone. All of them are seniors except for Drube, a junior. The challenge across the board will be bringing less experienced receivers up to speed; each team except for Rock Springs lost, at minimum, its top receiver from 2022.

What else is it the year of? The tackler. Of the top eight players in defensive points last season, six of them are back — Campbell County’s Levi Palmer, Sheridan’s Dane Steel and Alex Haswell, Cheyenne East’s Colby Olson and Kolbe Dierks and Cheyenne South’s Damien Pino. (Kelly Walsh’s Kadon Boyce would have also made the list, but KW coach Aaron Makelky said Boyce transferred away this summer, and it’s not clear at this point who Boyce will play for this fall.)

Preseason class MVP

Drew Jackson, Cheyenne East. The East Conference offensive player of the year in 2022, Jackson has to be accounted for on every play no matter what side of the ball he’s on. He ran for 1,017 yards and 11 touchdowns and also had 601 receiving yards and six more TDs; he’s East’s leading returner in both rushing and receiving. Defensively, he was sixth for the T-Birds with 55.5 tackles and led East with five interceptions.

Preseason class breakout player

Noah Sides, Natrona. Technically, Sides’ breakout season came last year, when he led Natrona’s defense with 76.5 tackles. As Natrona’s only returning first-team all-conference selection, though, Sides’ presence on an experienced Mustang defense will be accentuated as a senior leader, and his productivity could reach even greater heights this fall because of that.

Other players to watch

Cam Hayes, Cheyenne East. One of Wyoming’s most complete quarterbacks entering 2023, Hayes can do it all. He’s got the accuracy, completing 216 passes on 309 attempts last year; he’s got the ability to move the ball, throwing for 2,867 yards and running for 621 more; he’s got the nose for the end zone, running for seven TDs and throwing for 40. You can’t ask for much more from a quarterback — and he still has his senior season to go.

Dane Steel, Sheridan. The reigning West Conference defensive player of the year, Steel led the Broncs with 103.5 tackles last season; he notched 10 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks and two interceptions. He was nearly as busy on offense, reeling in 22 catches for 390 yards and leading the Broncs with six receiving touchdowns.

Alex Haswell, Sheridan. The Bronc lineman was doing a man’s job as a junior, controlling the Broncs’ defense up front — and he put up some big numbers in doing so. His 15.6 defensive points per game ranked him fifth among all players in Class 4A. He finished with 13 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks to lead 4A in both categories, and added two fumble recoveries, four pass deflections and a blocked kick to all that.

Levi Palmer, Campbell County. It’s hard to talk defense in Class 4A without talking about Palmer, the only player in the classification last year to average more than 10 tackles per game. Palmer’s 10.4 tackles per game — 104 over 10 games — led 4A last year. He also had five tackles for loss, two sacks and three interceptions to go with his seemingly omnipresent tackling abilities.

Four key games

Cheyenne Central at Natrona, Sept. 8. Both the Indians and Mustangs have been on the edge of breakthroughs the past couple years, but neither one has players who knows what it feels like to be in a championship game. The frustrating part for both is that to make that jump, they’ll have to go through the other.

Thunder Basin at Cheyenne East, Sept. 8. After two consecutive quarterfinal playoff exits, the ‘Bolts are eager to prove they belong in the championship conversation. Well… what better opportunity to do so than on the road against the Thunderbirds early in the season? The precedent exists: The ‘Bolts have won their last two regular-season games on the road at East.

Sheridan at Cheyenne East, Sept. 29. The consensus top two teams in Class 4A this year meet in Week 5 in the Capital City. Whether they’ll still be 1-2 by this time remains to be seen, but it will still represent a rematch of last year’s title game.

Natrona at Sheridan, Oct. 13. In a rivalry that speaks for itself, the annual game between the Mustangs and Broncs has typically been key in deciding playoff seeding and, eventually, home-field advantage in the playoffs. This Week 7 matchup figures to have similarly high stakes this year, but that’s nothing new for either program.

Predicted order of finish

Cheyenne East; Sheridan; Natrona; Cheyenne Central; Thunder Basin; Rock Springs; Campbell County; Kelly Walsh; Laramie; Cheyenne South.

Way-too-early title game score prediction

Cheyenne East 40, Sheridan 32. The Thunderbirds’ talent on offense should be enough to make other defenses nervous, and that’ll draw a lot of early attention, but East’s defense is also top-notch. They’ll start the season with the edge, but they’ll have to improve to keep it.

Is this East’s year, or will someone else bring some surprises to 4A this season? Leave a comment, or drop a line on Twitter or Facebook.

–patrick