Greybull tabs Heinemeyer as head coach

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Greybull has named Josh Heinemeyer as its head football coach.

Heinemeyer, 29, a social studies teacher in Greybull, takes over for John Cundall, who resigned in March after leading Greybull for seven seasons. Heinemeyer was named head coach on Tuesday.

Heinemeyer was previously an assistant wrestling coach in Greybull. He also was the offensive coordinator at Beach (N.D.) High School before coming to Greybull three years ago.

In a phone interview Thursday, Heinemeyer said he would try to mold Greybull’s offense to fit the personnel, but also said he would like to try to open up the Buffs’ offense to include more passing sets.

“We are just going to do our best to install a pretty new system in a short amount of time,” he said.

Greybull is a combined 17-5 in the past two seasons, reaching the Class 2A semifinals each of the past two years. Heinemeyer said he wanted to “try to keep the ball rolling” and continue the Buffaloes’ success of the past couple years.

Heinemeyer played at the college level at two small colleges in Wisconsin — Lakeland College and Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

The only other position known to be open in Wyoming is the position in Burns. If you know of any other openings or changes in the Wyoming high school football coaching ranks, you can post a comment here or email me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick

South names Tracy Pugh head coach

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Cheyenne South has named Tracy Pugh as head coach for its first varsity season.

Pugh takes over for Scott Noble, who led the Bison’s sub-varsity squads last fall.

To hear a KFBC Radio interview with Pugh, click here and follow the link on the right side of the page. To see KGWN-TV’s story on the hiring, click here.

–patrick

Burns’ Fullmer retires

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After 38 years in coaching — including the past 17 as the head football coach at Burns — Bill Fullmer is retiring.

Fullmer compiled a 58-79 record as head coach of the Broncs, a run that included a state championship and the only undefeated season in school history in 2008 (11-0). A native of Lingle, Fullmer has tallied more victories on the Burns sideline than any other coach in school history.

Fullmer confirmed his retirement in an email Tuesday.

Fullmer is also the activities director at Burns and has previously served on the board of directors of the Wyoming High School Activities Association. As of now, Fullmer said he plans on keeping the AD job at Burns but will retire from teaching and coaching.

Fullmer’s career has included stops at Sioux County, Neb., where he was the head coach for football, basketball and track for three years, Eastern Wyoming College and Newcastle. He has spent the past 27 years in Burns, including 17 as head football coach.

With 17 years of head coaching experience, Fullmer was the fourth-longest tenured active coach in the state. Only Cokeville’s Todd Dayton, Natrona’s Steve Harshman and Hulett’s Steve Colling had been the head coaches at their respective schools longer than Fullmer.

Fullmer is the sixth head coach in Wyoming to step down this offseason. New coaches have been hired at Rock Springs, Green River, Kelly Walsh and Torrington, while the head coaching position at Greybull remains open. Cheyenne South, which will play its first varsity season in 2011, is also searching for a head football coach.

Know of any other coaching changes in the state? Post a comment below or email me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick

Rock Springs hires head coach

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Tom Jassman, a longtime assistant coach in Rock Springs, has been hired as the Tigers’ new head coach.

Jassman takes over for Tony Yerkovich, who resigned after seven years leading the team. Yerkovich went 19-47 with the Tigers.

Jassman takes over a team that went 2-7 last year and barely missed a Class 4A playoff spot.

Jassman is the second Class 4A coach to take over a program in 2011. Jon Vance was hired earlier this spring as the head coach at Kelly Walsh. Class 4A newcomer Cheyenne South is also looking for a head football coach.

A short biography on Jassman is available by clicking here.

Steve Core at KUGR radio in Green River reported the signing to wyoming-football.com this morning.

More details will be posted here as I receive them. If you know of any other open head football coaching positions in Wyoming, comment below or email me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick

Updates: Guernsey-Sunrise, Basin, Worland Institute, Hanna, Newcastle, Midwest, Laramie, Meeteetse

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A hodgepodge of updates that I’ve been collecting over the past couple weeks:

Updates:

Corrected the date and opponent and found the score for the Torrington JV’s 14-7 victory over Guernsey-Sunrise on Sept. 14, 1982

Found the date and location for Basin’s 22-0 home win over the Worland Institute on Sept. 16, 1953

Found the score for Hanna’s 14-10 victory over Guernsey on Oct. 20, 1944

Found the score of Newcastle’s 26-0 loss to Crawford, Neb., on Oct. 14, 1922

Found the Newcastle-Edgemont, S.D., game scheduled for Nov. 4, 1922, was canceled

Found the date for Newcastle’s 28-0 loss to Edgemont, S.D., on Oct. 21, 1921

I also removed two games I had listed in which teams did not field teams (to the best of my knowledge): a scheduled date between Big Horn and Dayton on Oct. 9, 1942 (Dayton did not field a team this year) and a scheduled date between Arvada-Clearmont and Ten Sleep on Oct. 11, 1963 (Arvada-Clearmont did not field a team this year).

Coaches Project: Updates for Laramie and Midwest.

Streaks: Noted two long losing streaks: Meeteetse’s 0-21 streak from 1947-51 and Guernsey’s 0-21 streak from 1922-30. Guernsey’s streak is not counted among the streaks due to a five-year gap in which the school did not field a football team.

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

–patrick

Newsbreak: Green River coach

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Don Maggi will be the new football coach in Green River.

Maggi was the offensive coordinator at Natrona County (see bio here).

Maggi takes over for Darren Howard, who was 22-19 in four years with the Wolves, including a state runner-up finish in 2008. Howard is taking an administrative position at Green River High. The Wolves were 2-8 last year but will be moving from Class 4A to Class 3A in 2012.

This is the fifth head coach opening in the state this year; openings at Kelly Walsh and Torrington have already been filled, while openings at Rock Springs and Greybull, last I knew, were still open.

The Green River opening is an attractive one for several reasons — one of those is all the experience in the building. Former Wolf coaches Howard, Jason Fuss and Tom Wilson are all now in administrative positions at the school.

Maggi will also teach social studies at GRHS.

Wilson announced the hiring in a press release on Tuesday. The Casper Star-Tribune reported the hiring; see the CST story here.

Know of any other openings in the state? Let me know here or email me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick

Winningest coaches by school

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Part of this research that I have always wanted to discover is the names of the coaches who have the most victories at each school.

Now, after a few weeks of counting and tallying, I have that list — the coaches with the most victories at each school.

I have tallied the all-time victories leaders before, but those records were career totals and did not look at the victory totals at each school.

Only 10 current coaches are their program leaders. They include Burns’ Bill Fullmer, Cokeville’s Todd Dayton, Glenrock’s Ray Kumpula, Hulett’s Steve Colling, Kaycee’s Dustin Sipe, Kemmerer’s Shawn Rogers, Natrona’s Steve Harshman, Snake River’s Mike Bates, Southeast’s Mark Bullington and Wright’s Larry Yeradi.

Only one coach has the most victories at two schools — Carl Mirich. He is the leader at both Moorcroft and Goshen Hole.

The leader for each program is listed below. Programs that did not win a game or where no coaches are known are not listed. Totals are from 1920 to 2010 only. As always, this list and these totals are dependent on the names I have; to see the names I’m missing for the Coaches Project, click here.

Albin: Joseph Weller (8 victories, 1942-43)
Clearmont/Arvada-Clearmont: Mike Starr (19 victories, 1938-41)
Basin: Andy Johnson (69 victories, 1966-76)
Big Horn: Rick Scherry (133 victories, 1975-2000)
Big Piney: Joel Eskelsen (148 victories, 1983-2007)
Bow-Basin: Dean Bartow (9 victories, 1978-81)
Buffalo: Mike Moon (136 victories, 1974-97)
Burlington: Rick Wheeler (30 victories, 2000-05)
Burns: Bill Fullmer (58 victories, 1994-present)
Byron: Frank Thompson (52 victories, 1959-66)
Cheyenne Central: John Powell (94 victories, 1924-39)
Cheyenne East: Art Kissack (38 victories, 1970-76)
Cheyenne St. Mary’s: Marv Strauch (33 victories, 1954-59)
Cody: John McDougall (131 victories, 1974-98)
Cokeville: Todd Dayton (253 victories, 1980-present)
Cowley: Scott Nielsen (19 victories, 1971-73)
Dayton: Richard Gruber (34 victories, 1950-55)
Deaver-Frannie: Dennis Dyvig (28 victories, 1966-69 and 1971)
Douglas: Pete Petronovich (113 victories, 1943-68)
Dubois: Pat Ballinger (41 victories, 1988-97)
Encampment: Burt Willford (2 victories, 1990)
Evanston: Kay Fackrell (92 victories, 1980-97)
Farson: Neal Nelson (5 victories, 1987-88) and Ruline O’Neill (5 victories, 1989)
Fort Washakie: William Balmer (1 victory, 1926-27)
Gebo: Clarence Speich (9 victories, 1932-37)
Gillette: John Alberta (68 victories, 1961-70)
Glendo: George Carmin (58 victories, 1954-67)
Glenrock: Ray Kumpula (81 victories, 1990-96 and 2002-present)
Goshen Hole: Carl Mirich (14 victories, 1970-73)
Green River: Tom Wilson (53 victories, 1987-99)
Greybull: Tim Nolan (47 victories, 1983-89)
Guernsey: Ed Jolovich (18 victories, 1955-61)
Guernsey-Sunrise: Tony Gamble (81 victories, 1967-81)
Hanna: Brad Barlow (31 victories, 1985, 1987-92 and 1995-98)
Heart Mountain: Ray Thompson (3 victories, 1943) and Talbot Rudolph (3 victories, 1944)
Hulett: Steve Colling (72 victories, 1992-present)
Huntley: LeRoy Cundall (20 victories, 1961-66)
Jackson: Jim Rooks (42 victories, 1981-88)
Kaycee: Dustin Sipe (12 victories, 2009-present)
Kelly Walsh: Tom Staffileno (37 victories, 1982-88)
Kemmerer: Shawn Rogers (54 victories, 2003-present)
LaGrange: Duane Christensen (1 victory, 1961)
Lander: Art Quinlan (38 victories, 1930-36 and 1939)
Laramie: John E. Deti (203 victories, 1944-76)
Lingle: Roger Fuss (40 victories, 1970-74 and 1980-83) and Ron Halley (40 victories, 1984-90 and 1994-98)
Lovell: Roy Strom (59 victories, 1992-2003)
Lusk: Jerry Fullmer (174 victories, 1975-2004)
Lyman: Loren Huntsman (39 victories, 1996-2001 and 2006-09)
Manderson: Jim Caines (12 victories, 1961-64)
Manville: Joe Sandoval (10 victories, 1946-47 and 1950)
Meeteetse: Jim Barrus (51 victories, 1966, 1971-73, 1984-85, 1988-91 and 1993-94)
Midwest: Dallas Hoff (131 victories, 1962-89)
Moorcroft: Carl Mirich (110 victories, 1980-2002)
Morton: R.E. “Dick” Kinzer (29 victories, 1955-59)
Mountain View: Don Dinnel (94 victories, 1989-2002)
Natrona: Steve Harshman (125 victories, 1991-present)
Newcastle: Erv Wentling (48 victories, 1977-85)
Normative Services: Mike Gorzalka (14 victories, 2000-02)
North Big Horn: Steve Hutchinson (7 victories, 1979-80)
Pavillion: Chuck Frost (14 victories, 1963-64 and 1966-68)
Pine Bluffs: Tom Watson (49 victories, 1986-99 and 2006)
Pinedale: Gene Andrews (54 victories, 1973-82)
Powell: Harold Hand (60 victories, 1955-64)
Ranchester: Al Peyton (4 victories, 1954-55)
Rawlins: Fran Connor (42 victories, 1953-61)
Reliance: Jack Smith (32 victories, 1946-54)
Riverside: Steve Olson (62 victories, 1990-2003)
Riverton: Don Julian (63 victories, 1993-2001)
Rock Springs: Mike Lopiccolo (62 victories, 1981-91)
Rocky Mountain: Ben Smith (101 victories, 1988-2002)
St. Stephens: Chuck Murray (21 victories, 1961-63)
Saratoga: Mike Koulentes (35 victories, 1972-77)
Sheridan: Bruce Keith (99 victories, 1978-93)
Shoshoni: Harold Bailey (128 victories, 1975-2001)
Snake River: Mike Bates (13 victories, 2009-present)
Southeast: Mark Bullington (98 victories, 1999-present)
Star Valley: Jerry Hart (83 victories, 1969-81) and Robert Linford (83 victories, 1988-98)
Sundance: Lance Hofland (52 victories, 1999-2007)
Sunrise: Tony Balzan (17 victories, 1952-56)
Superior: Tony Katana (26 victories, 1948-53)
Ten Sleep: John Hamilton (38 victories, 1972-82)
Thermopolis: Joe Bush (59 victories, 1924-34)
Tongue River: Walter Gray (140 victories, 1965-91)
Torrington: Doug Bartlett (102 victories, 1981-2000)
University Prep: Don Harkins and John Engstrom (co-coaches, 4 victories, 1929)
Upton: B.F. “Tead” Weaver (51 victories, 1954-68)
Valley: Herbert Snyder (1 victory, 1925)
Wheatland: Bill Pentland (82 victories, 1982-98)
Wind River: Dick Quayle (76 victories, 1987-2004)
Worland: Carl Selmer (86 victories, 1947-57)
Worland Institute: Norman Holmskog (2 victories, 1957)
Wright: Larry Yeradi (69 victories, 1995-present)
Wyoming Indian: Kevin Jordan (16 victories, 1993-2000)

In compiling these records, I also made a double-check of each team’s overall record. In doing so, I discovered a few errors I had made in my tallies over the years. Most of them were small — usually one win, loss or tie either way — but a couple were pretty big corrections. Nevertheless, records for the following teams have been corrected and have been updated on all the relevant pages: Albin, Arvada-Clearmont, Big Horn, Cheyenne East, Cody, Cowley, Deaver-Frannie, Douglas, Dubois, Encampment, Evanston, Farson, Gillette, Glenrock, Greybull, Hanna, Huntley, Jackson, Kelly Walsh, Kemmerer, Lovell, Mountain View, Natrona, Newcastle, Pinedale, Rock Springs, Rocky Mountain, St. Stephens, Saratoga, Star Valley, Ten Sleep, Tongue River, Upton, Wheatland.

–patrick

Top 10 coaching victories list shuffled (1920-29 now accounted for…)

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Just a quick update to post the top 10 coaches in terms of victories, now that the years 1920-29 are accounted for. The list really has not changed that much; only Okie Blanchard’s numbers have changed, and no new coaches entered the top 10.

Coach Wins Losses Ties
Dayton, Todd 253 49 0
Deti, John E. 205 94 8
Deti, John R. 188 102 2
Fullmer, Jerry 174 82 0
McDougall, John 156 115 2
Blanchard, Okie 149 55 7
Eskelsen, Joel 148 81 0
Hoff, Dallas 144 95 6
Gray, Walter 140 87 0
Moon, Mike 136 79 1

The only other coach of the 1920s era to even come close to entering the discussion is John Powell. Powell, who coached Cheyenne Central from 1924 to 1939, finished his career with a 94-50-7 record. The 94 victories has him 27th on the all-time Wyoming list.

By the way, according to the records I have compiled so far, victories leader Todd Dayton will achieve another milestone next fall — he is only five games behind John E. Deti for the state record of most games coached. Deti has 307 games logged; Dayton has 302. Deti Sr. still has Dayton beat in the number of seasons coaching, as Deti’s 35 years total is four better than Dayton’s 31.

My big question with Deti Sr. is if he coached in 1943, the season before he started at Laramie. I have him coaching in Meeteetse in 1941 and Shoshoni in 1942, but I don’t know his whereabouts in 1943 before coming to Laramie in 1944. It’s worth noting that I don’t know who Shoshoni’s coach was in 1943. It might have been Deti. Still trying to track that down. (Here is where I put the obligatory link to my Coaches Project notes.)

(The other coach on the top 10 list I’m still tracking is Dallas Hoff. I think he was probably the coach at Superior in 1961 — which would add two victories to his total — but I haven’t been able to prove it yet.)

–patrick

Update: 1920 through 1929 added

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Now it’s finally done: 10 more seasons, 1920 through 1929, have been added to the database. All the relevant pages have been updated with the addition of 1,105 new games, all played in a decade that saw unprecedented growth of football across the state.

Some suggestions of cool things to check out:

(1) The scoring records page has several new additions to it, thanks to some ridiculous blowouts from the 1920s. With the game just taking shape, some really good teams played some really bad teams, and a ton of blowouts ensued — including the state-record 127 points Cheyenne Central scored on Douglas in 1921. Of the six highest scores in state history now listed on the page, five were from the 1920s, and the other was in 1930.

(2) The all-time standings listings, by winning percentage and by total victories, were juggled a bit thanks to a decade’s worth of games. Specifically, Worland, Thermopolis, Sheridan, Cheyenne Central and Natrona had great decades; some other programs struggled in their infancy and were shifted down. By the way, I have now recorded more than 500 victories for both Cheyenne Central and Natrona; NC leads the total victories list since 1920 with 526 Ws. Seven other programs have at least 400 victories since 1920.

(3) The Grass Creek team page. The only new team page that came with this upload isn’t that deep — only one game has ever been recorded for the Grass Creek school, a 45-0 loss to Thermopolis back in 1926. But it exists.

(4) The school details page, which now has an interesting timeline of the “births” and “deaths” of programs at the bottom of it. Check it out. (More to come on this in a separate blog post.)

(5) The winning and losing streaks page. A significant unbeaten streak — Worland’s 35 consecutive unbeaten games from 1924-28 — was added. This streak, encompassing 33 victories and two ties, is tied for second-longest in state history. Another streak, Fort Washakie’s 0-28-2 winless streak, was noted, but not added to the list because of an eight-year gap the school went in that streak without playing the sport.

(6) Your ways to help! There are several additions to the missing games list and the Coaches Project list. If you can help me with any of this info, please do!

(7) Your favorite team page! Cruise around and check out all the new listings, and have fun. This upload should “complete” school records for all but six programs, as only Sheridan, Natrona, Laramie, Cheyenne Central, Buffalo and Newcastle played games prior to 1920. (“Complete” is in quotes there because I know these records will never be “complete;” they are only the best I can do with what I have available to me.)

Several all-state lists were also tracked down; they will be added to the all-state listings soon.

–patrick