Category Archives: Six-man

I wanted to recognize both Farson and Snake River for posting victories last week.

On Thursday, Farson beat the Big Piney freshmen and sophomores 26-25 in Farson. Don’t know the details, only that the Pronghorns won…. the school’s first football victory since 1989.

Then, on Saturday, Snake River beat the Natrona frosh-soph team 38-26 in Casper. According to the research I have available so far, it’s the Rattlers’ first victory since 1953.

Those are big victories for resurrected programs. And they’re victories that the team — and the communities — will remember for a long time.

–patrick

Wyopreps.com is reporting that Fort Washakie won’t field its football program this fall. The school had about a dozen players show interest last spring but only one showed up for the first practice.

That leaves eight teams playing six-man. And never mind the eight open dates that For Washakie leaves for the eight remaining participating schools. This is not a good sign for the sport, period.

Originally, six-man was the solution. Remember that? Five existing teams and five new teams joining together to form something new, unique and exciting. Now, after Rock River scrapped its plans in April and Fort Washakie joining the Longhorns this week, Snake River, Kaycee and Farson are the lone remaining schools starting up their programs this fall.

And now, the onus is on the eight remaining schools — and especially the three newbies — to keep six-man alive for at least the next two years.

It’s disheartening to see two programs die before they could even play one game. And it’s certainly unprecedented.

But for six-man to thrive, some other small schools are going to have to join them.

None of the other football-less schools (Arapaho Charter, Arvada-Clearmont, Chugwater, Encampment, Glendo and St. Stephens) have even hinted interest at starting a program. That means some of the other schools now playing 11-man will have to go down to six-man.

We could speculate all day as to what schools might benefit from six-man, but right now that does little to help. Unfortunately, until at least the next reclassification cycle, the eight survivors have the responsibility to see the sport through. If this sport is destined to grow in this state, it not only has to survive these first two years — it has to prove to other schools that it’s worth the effort.

And in 10 years, when we look back on the 2009 season, what will we see? The beginning of something fun, unique and special or the impetus of frustration, alienation and eventual disintegration?

That’s up to the remaining eight schools to decide.

It’s a position Rock River and Fort Washakie have forced upon them.

–patrick

Are you ready for the death of SEWAC football? For all but ending of out-of-state football games? For absolutely crazy travel?

Wyoming’s football landscape could be changing big time as the WHSAA board of directors meets this week in Casper. And all of the above could come true — because no one will want to be known as the guy who voted against sanctioning six-man football.

By all accounts, the return of state-sanctioned six-man football — something that hasn’t existed in Wyoming since 1956 — is exactly what the state needs. With two teams already playing in Montana anyway, three current 11-man programs ready to drop and four more new programs already approved by their respective school boards, six-man football makes way too much sense for Wyoming not to have it.

But at what expense?

With the rearrangement, conferences for Wyoming’s other four classifications have been expanded (granted, proposed to expand, but still…) to fill the change.

Here are how the conferences would shape up if passed on Tuesday, courtesy of my other blog, the one I get paid to write:

Class 4A: Gillette, Kelly Walsh, Natrona County, Cheyenne Central, Cheyenne East, Evanston, Green River, Laramie, Rock Springs, Sheridan.
3A West: Cody, Jackson, Lander, Powell, Star Valley, Worland.
3A East: Buffalo, Douglas, Rawlins, Riverton, Torrington, Wheatland.
2A West: Big Piney, Greybull, Kemmerer, Lovell, Lyman, Mountain View, Pinedale, Wyoming Indian.
2A East: Burns, Big Horn, Glenrock, Moorcroft, Newcastle, Thermopolis, Tongue River, Wright.
1A 11-man West: Burlington, Cokeville, Dubois, Riverside, Rocky Mountain, Saratoga, Shoshoni, Wind River.
1A 11-man East: Hulett, Lingle, Lusk, Normative Services, Pine Bluffs, Southeast, Sundance, Upton.
1A six-man: Fort Washakie, Guernsey, Hanna, Kaycee, Snake River, Meeteetse, Midwest, Rock River, Ten Sleep.

Look at that closely. One Class 4A conference with 10 teams. Two Class 2A and two Class 1A 11-man conferences with eight teams apiece. One six-man conference with nine teams.

When did big conferences become vogue? And why?

Dig deeper and more problems become apparent.

The proposal calls for the 10 Class 4A teams to play each other in a nine-game round-robin regular season, with the top eight teams advancing to the playoffs. That means absolutely ZERO non-conference games. One of the ideas behind eliminating the WHSAA power ratings as a way to decide playoff qualifiers was to put more emphasis on conference play. But if EVERY game is a conference game, then it’s sort of like power ratings never went away.

Also, it’s the WHSAA’s plan to use Zero Week for the first 4A games. Um…. have you ever watched one of those games/scrimmages? About 15-20 percent of the kids can’t play because they don’t have the minimum number of practices. And what about schools that start school the same day of practice (like the two Casper schools, among a few others)? They would be at a huge disadvantage that first game simply because they’ve had about half the practice time that their opponents have had.

As for the Class 2A and 1A 11-man levels, conference games are way, way too prevalent, as well. With eight teams per conference, the WHSAA’s plan is for Week 1 to be a non-conference game against somebody from the other conference (i.e. the eight teams from the 2A East would play someone from the 2A West) and the remaining seven games would be conference games. Once again, conference play dominates the schedule — and that creates huge ramifications and fallout that I don’t think anyone truly understands.

Take, for example, Burns. The Broncs are a Class 2A East team in the proposed alignment, and their closest conference game is with Glenrock, more than 180 miles one-way. And with only one non-conference game — which will be against a 2A West team — Burns is looking at six hour round-trips, minimum, for each of their road games.

Burns already has several schools of similar size within 130 miles — namely, traditional SEWAC rivals Pine Bluffs, Southeast, Lingle and Lusk in Wyoming; Kimball, Mitchell, Morrill, Bayard and Bridgeport in Nebraska; and Julesburg and Merino in Colorado. But the Broncs won’t be playing any of them in this new alignment.

Speaking of 2A, take a look at Greybull and Lovell. Those two schools are in the same conference as the old-school Southwest with Pinedale, Big Piney, Kemmerer, Lyman and Mountain View, as well as conference throw-in Wyoming Indian. So instead of playing the likes of nearby Burlington, Riverside, Powell or Thermopolis, Greybull and Lovell will be playing teams that are in some cases more than 300 miles away.

Basically, interclass games will cease to exist, while out-of-state games will be eliminated for all but the 3A classification.

Re-read that sentence and then think about it. Hard.

Several of the games that make the most sense logistically and competitively will be eliminated. No more Douglas-Glenrock, or Riverside-Greybull, or Shoshoni-Wyoming Indian or Wind River-Wyoming Indian, or Evanston-Star Valley…. instead, teams — and their fans — will be forced to travel two or three times further for a game that will likely provide the same amount of competition. Where’s the sense in that?

I think the clear answer is to break up some of those conferences. Why have an eight-team conference when two four-team conferences will work just as well, reducing travel and keeping competitive games closer to home? Just take the top two from each conference to qualify for the playoffs. What’s wrong with interclass games and small conferences?

(By the way, what happens when Wyoming Indian decides it wants to play down in Class 1A, as it’s opting to do now? Will the WHSAA deny WI what it’s granted for the past several years for the sake of even conferences and easy scheduling? If so, will the 1A West become a nine-team conference? Eight conference games and then the postseason? Wow.)

Not that I’m in charge, but here’s how I’d set it up:

4A North: Gillette, Kelly Walsh, Natrona County, Sheridan, and one of the Cheyenne schools.
4A South: Evanston, Green River, Rock Springs, Laramie, and the other Cheyenne school.
3A East: As is: Buffalo, Douglas, Rawlins, Riverton, Torrington, Wheatland.
3A West: As is: Cody, Jackson, Lander, Powell, Star Valley, Worland.
2A Northeast: Big Horn, Moorcroft, Newcastle, Tongue River.
2A Southeast: Burns, Glenrock, Wright.
2A Northwest: Greybull, Thermopolis, Lovell, Wyoming Indian.
2A Southwest: Big Piney, Kemmerer, Lyman, Mountain View, Pinedale.
(Quick 2A explanation: I’d have the second-place team from the SE play the third-place team from the SW in, like, Rawlins, the Monday before the first round of the playoffs to qualify. If WI dropped to 1A, the play-in would rotate annually between the second-place team from the NW and the second-place team from the SE against the third-place team from the SW…. the other second-place team would qualify automatically….)
1A Northeast: Hulett, Normative Services, Sundance, Upton.
1A Southeast: Lingle, Lusk, Pine Bluffs, Southeast.
1A Northwest: Burlington, Riverside, Rocky Mountain, Shoshoni.
1A Southwest: Cokeville, Dubois, Saratoga, Wind River.

As for 1A six-man, the round-robin schedule and a nine-team conference makes sense. It’s not like they have a whole lot of options for non-conference games anyway, and the nine-team set-up works perfectly for an eight-game schedule.

But for 4A, 2A and 1A 11-man, splitting the conference works better. There are more options for non-conference scheduling — and building up the team chemistry and fundamentals that coaches know are essential to their teams’ success before conference games — and it would reduce travel for a good number of the schools involved. And it CAN be done without sacrificing the sanctioning of six-man football.

Here’s the rub: The vote is scheduled to go down Tuesday afternoon. Changing the conference alignments — as we saw last time around — can be done in November if need be. But football schedules usually come out before that November meeting.

If no one on the WHSAA board is willing to speak up on Tuesday, there will be more than a little bit of hell to pay once the coaches, players and parents actually see an alignment like this in action. And right now, no one wants to speak up because they don’t want to be the one that’s remembered as the one that killed six-man.

Even though, if they do it right, they can have both.

–patrick

In case you haven’t heard, the Wyoming High School Activities Association gave preliminary approval to resurrecting six-man football in the state this week.

As you can see, I’m pretty jazzed about it. I think it’s going to be huge.

But just how huge?

Well, it won’t start that way. Six-man will need a few years to truly develop in Wyoming. But my guess is that by 2013, Wyoming’s six-man league could include as many as a dozen teams, or more.

All teams classified as Class 1A have the option to choose between six-man and 11-man. So, with that in mind, here is a team-by-team breakdown of who will go to six-man and who will go to 11-man, based in part on a survey distributed by the WHSAA back in Feburary and in part by my humble, yet somewhat educated, opinion:

THE PIONEERS OF SIX-MAN

Meeteetse and Ten Sleep: Answered in favor of a six-man program. Duh. These guys have been the catalyst for this whole thing. Both programs were struggling simply to put a team together, much less win, in Wyoming. They both ditched Wyoming and 11-man and went to play six-man in Montana. Both have had some success up there, too. Both teams have made the playoffs, and Meeteetse made it as far as the state semifinals two years ago. Thank goodness, too, because if these guys had gone up to Montana and struggled, I don’t think six-man in Wyoming would have ever gotten off the ground.

Fort Washakie: Answered in favor of a six-man program. These guys are psyched. I honestly think Fort Washakie will be THE school to show all the others how to build a program quickly.

Guernsey: Answered in favor of a six-man program. Guernsey’s offense is already eerily similar to some six-man offenses. Coincidence? Also, the Vikings are stinging from swiftly declining enrollment and are in a perfect position to adopt six-man right away.

Hanna: Answered in favor of a six-man program. That kind of surprised me, because Hanna had always been in the “11-man or nothing” camp. But with Hanna’s enrollment dropping as fast as it is, six-man makes a lot of sense, and maybe the folks there finally wised up to that.

Midwest: Answered in favor of a six-man program. From what I understand, the Midwest community is starting to get excited for the change. After 16 consecutive years of missing the playoffs, change can’t hurt.

Kaycee: Answered in favor of a six-man program. Kaycee already has the approval of its school board to move forward. They have a field and they’ve also had a proven track record of sending players to Buffalo. (Personally, as a member of the Midwest High School Class of 2000, I’m still a little bitter that the Kaycee-Midwest co-op team never happened in football. Kaycee always had some great athletes and we really could have been a much better team with them on our side…. That said, six-man makes a ton of sense for Kaycee’s community. I’m glad to see the Kaycee administration take the bull by the horns and run with this.)

Rock River: Answered in favor of a six-man program. Of all the newbies, I’m most worried about the Longhorns. They have the support of their school board and they have the numbers (barely), but I’m not sure about how the community has and/or will react. If the reaction is anything less than 100 percent “Let’s do this!”, Rock River might miss the ’09 season.

THE JOHNNY-COME-LATELYS

Lingle: Answered in favor of an 11-man program. But I don’t think that’ll last, especially if nearby Guernsey finds some early success playing six-man and if Lingle continues to struggle with its numbers for boys in its school. Estimated six-man entry: 2011.

Dubois: Answered in favor of an 11-man program. But the Rams also noted that they could be hurting for numbers within the next few years. It won’t take long. Estimated six-man entry: 2011.

Snake River: No answer to survey, but has voiced tentative support of a six-man team. I’m not sure what the holdup is down there in Baggs. From what I hear, the folks working for the energy companies down there are really excited about this. The school population is as high as it’s ever been, including a core of athletic boys. Come on, Baggs! Unfortunately, I just don’t see a program developing soon enough to be a part of the inaugural class. There’s been too much feet-dragging. I hope Snake River proves me wrong. But…. Estimated six-man entry: 2011.

Farson: No answer to survey, but has voiced tentative support of a six-man team. I learned this week that Farson’s big problem is its field. When Farson gave up football in 1990, it cut the water line to the field. That’s proving to be a problem now, because the damage might be irreparable….. That, plus somewhat mediocre community and school district support (from what I’ve heard) could keep Farson from starting a program right away. Give it time. Farson is a six-man football hotbed waiting to happen. Estimated six-man entry: 2011.

Shoshoni: Answered in favor of an 11-man program. But Shoshoni, like Dubois, has also dropped hints about enrollment problems and hasn’t wholly rejected the idea of six-man. I think as soon as Dubois goes, Shoshoni won’t be far behind. Estimated six-man entry: 2013.

Arapaho Charter: No answer to survey. Arapaho actually has an enrollment that’s quite a bit bigger than six-man torch-carrier Fort Washakie. If Fort Washakie proves it can do it, I don’t think Arapaho will wait long to offer a program, as well. Estimated six-man entry: 2015.

THE 11-MAN STICKLERS

Burlington, Cokeville, Lusk, Pine Bluffs, Riverside, Rocky Mountain, Southeast: This group supports 11-man and they always have the numbers to do so. Unless there’s a nuclear attack or something, these guys will always play 11-man.

Encampment/Saratoga: Encampment answered no interest in football; Saratoga answered in favor of an 11-man program. These two schools have successfully co-opted this team and I see no reason for them to break that, nor for them to go to six-man. I think they’ll stay co-opted, and I think they’ll stay in 11-man. Why mess up a good thing?

Hulett, Sundance, Upton: Answered in favor of 11-man. These three schools, along with Moorcroft, will tend to stick together. I don’t see any one of them breaking away from their neighbors any time soon — even though Upton and Hulett have struggled with numbers lately (Upton ended the 2007 season with 11 players).

Normative Services: No answer to survey. Personally, I think NSI will stick with 11-man. One, NSI always has great numbers. Two, NSI is more about player participation and character development than wins and losses (as it should be). The chance to put five more players on the field will be too powerful to pass up. And more power to them, because NSI does some great work — about 99.9 percent of it away from the football field.

Wind River: Answered in favor of 11-man. Watching Wind River in all this could be interesting, especially if Fremont County rivals like Dubois, Shoshoni and Wyoming Indian all go to six-man and if Wind River’s school enrollment keeps dropping. I think Wind River will hold onto 11-man for as long as it can, and I think they’ll be able to do so for at least the next 10 years.

NO FOOTBALL TO SEE HERE

Arvada-Clearmont: Answered no interest in football. A-C had an extremely successful co-op with Normative Services in the early part of this decade. There are two big factors going against A-C, though: no field and a small population of boys in the school. Unless there is an influx of boys, I don’t think A-C can support a team year in and year out.

Chugwater and Glendo: Answered no interest in football. These schools are having trouble supporting basketball programs right now. I don’t see any way they’ll be able to sponsor football.

St. Stephens: No answer to survey. As long as St. Stephens remains a private school, it will never have sufficient funds to support a football program.

THE WILD CARD

Wyoming Indian: Didn’t get a chance to answer the survey, because, technically, the Chiefs would be a 2A school in the new realignment. But the Chiefs have opted down for the past several years, and I think they’ll do that again if their enrollment dictates that they play 2A ball. And… if you’re going to opt down, why not opt down all the way? Six-man it up! Of course, like previous seasons, the Chiefs won’t be eligible for the playoffs.

So there it is. Meeteetse, Ten Sleep, Fort Washakie, Guernsey, Hanna, Kaycee, Midwest and (maybe) Rock River in the inaugural season, joined by Lingle, Dubois, Snake River, Farson, Shoshoni and (maybe) Arapaho Charter by 2015. More than a dozen schools playing six-man within the next seven years.

It’s an exciting time to be associated with this state and with this sport.

–patrick