Newsbreak: Shrine Bowl preview

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Shrine Bowl preview (Casper Star-Tribune).

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I have been lucky enough to watch some Shrine Bowl practices this week — two by each team. And while I think the North has the advantage this year, the South has impressed me with how it has approached the week.

The North offense strikes me as one that is steady and consistent, but I am not sure how explosive it will be. Meanwhile, the South offense has shown it can strike from anywhere at anytime, but I do worry about the South’s ability to consistently put together time-sustaining drives.

Defensively, the North squad will be strong against the run but will have to prove they can stop the South’s potent passing attack to win. The South defense, though, has to punch up its run-stopping efforts to keep the North from just handing off, gaining five yards a pop and piling up 50 points in the process.

Overall, the North has more depth and has shown more consistency on both sides of the ball, which is why I think the North wins. The South will need its playmakers to make big plays — and it will need to keep the North off-balance to keep the North’s consistent play inconsistent.

–patrick

Wyoming high school football: Five talking points for 2011

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The start of the 2011 season is now less than three months away. It’s just about this time every year that I start thinking about high school football in earnest. These are some of the questions that have been bouncing around my head the past few weeks:

1. Can the Douglas win streak keep going? The streak is now at 30 or 31 games, depending on how you count. Either way, what the Bearcats have done the past three seasons demands respect and inspires disbelief. Stringing together back-to-back undefeated seasons and three consecutive state titles is exceedingly rare. Whether Douglas can continue the rampage across Class 3A in 2011 remains to be seen; maintaining a streak like that, no matter the talent level, is incredibly difficult. Of course, a streak doesn’t become a streak unless you can overcome all of that anyway….

2. Can Rawlins and Shoshoni end their losing streaks? Rawlins has lost 23 consecutive games, Shoshoni 19. Will those streaks come to an end in 2011? For the sake of those programs and those communities, let’s hope so. Rawlins may have the tougher go, as the Outlaws face seven Class 3A foes and open with Sidney, Neb., and Rawlins hasn’t beaten a team from its own classification since 2006. Shoshoni, meanwhile, was an extremely young team last year and another year of maturation might help the Wranglers not only break the streak, but crawl into playoff contention, too.

3. How will reclassification affect things? This year, five schools — Green River, Wheatland, Wyoming Indian, Dubois and Hulett — have dropped in classification. But a change in classification doesn’t necessarily mean a change in results on the field. The last three schools to drop in classification all saw mixed results: Greybull went from 2-7 to 1-7 after going from 3A to 2A in 2007; Southeast went from 10-1 to 11-0 after going from 2A to 1A in 2007; and Riverton went from 1-8 to 4-6 after going from 5A (now 4A) to 3A in 2009. Dropping a classification, then, is no guarantee of success.

4. How will Cheyenne South do in its first varsity year? Cheyenne South’s first year of varsity football will be handicapped by the most obvious of missing elements: no seniors. But the Bison also have to overcome a brutal three-week stretch to open the season: at defending state champion Natrona in Week 0; hosting perennial power Cheyenne Central in Week 1; at Sheridan, last year’s 4A runner-up, in Week 2. If the Bison can survive that three-week stretch without losing confidence, they could climb into the postseason in their first year — but the question is, can a team with no seniors maintain the needed confidence to face the rigors of a 4A schedule week in and week out?

5. Will parity rule in 4A? I didn’t realize this before I started writing this post, but think about this: In the past seven years, the Class 4A/5A championship has been won by six different schools. Gillette is the only school to win the title twice in the past seven years, winning it all in 2006 and 2008, but Cheyenne East, Green River, Cheyenne Central, Natrona and Sheridan have all won titles since 2004 in Wyoming’s big-school classification, too. Will we see a school that hasn’t won a title in that span (Rock Springs, Laramie, Evanston, Kelly Walsh or South) continue this run of juggling at the top at the end of this season?

What do you think will be some things to watch in 2011? Post your thoughts below and we can start talking about what should be an exciting year….

–patrick

Wyoming high school football, 1895 to 1919: It’s what you call a “hodgepodge”

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The time prior to World War I is a confusing one for Wyoming high school football. Few schools played the sport with any consistency. Schools occasionally fielded teams for a year or two, then disappeared. Even schools that fielded teams had trouble developing consistent schedules.

In the end, what we see is a hodgepodge of starts and stops. In all, at least 10 schools fielded teams prior to World War I, but only two schools had teams with any consistency.

Here is a quick look at the schools that fielded teams prior to 1918:

Five schools I didn’t think had teams prior to World War I: Fort Washakie, Lander, Douglas, Wheatland, University Prep.

Douglas: The Bearcats started in 1908 and also played in 1909, then went away for a few years. Douglas also fielded teams again in 1913 and 1914, and then gave it up again. The Bearcats came back for good after the war.
Lander: Like Douglas, Lander started in 1908. The Tigers also played in 1910. And that’s all I’ve found for Lander prior to the Tigers’ restart in 1922.
Fort Washakie: I found games between Lander and Fort Washakie in 1910; it’s all I’ve found (so far) for the school prior to 1926.
Wheatland: Wheatland’s “official” start was 1912. The Bulldogs also fielded teams in 1913 and 1914, but put away the pigskin after that season and waited until after the war to come back.
University Prep: Prep played games in 1908 and 1909, then gave it up before restarting its program in 1920.

Two schools I knew had history prior to World War I, but I knew it was murky: Buffalo and Natrona.

Buffalo: Buffalo started fielding teams in 1916, but often played only one or two games a season due to difficulties in scheduling.
Natrona: NC’s play has been spotty at best; I have the Mustangs with teams in 1908, 1909 and 1912 prior to “starting” in 1919.

Three schools I knew had deep histories that extended prior to World War I: Sheridan, Cheyenne Central, Laramie.

Sheridan: The Broncs started in 1909, but didn’t play any interscholastic games that year. Sheridan’s first official year came in 1910 and the Broncs have had a program ever since.
Laramie: Laramie fielded teams in 1901 and 1903, then gave it up (near as I can tell) until 1908. The Plainsmen also gave up football in 1913 and 1914 and also didn’t play in 1918 due to the worldwide flu epidemic. Their start? I think it’s 1895. At least that’s the earliest Laramie game I’ve found so far.
Cheyenne Central: The only thing that has stopped Cheyenne is the flu, which wiped out the 1918 season. Otherwise, the cherry and black have played at least one game every year since 1904. However, I have yet to find games for Cheyenne prior to 1902.

Here is a year-by-year look at which teams played in which seasons prior to 1920, to the best of my knowledge (so far):

1919: Buffalo, Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Natrona, Sheridan.
1918: No games, influenza epidemic (I have seen Sheridan records claiming a 10-0 loss to Billings in 1918, but for the life of me I cannot find it)
1917: Buffalo, Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Sheridan.
1916: Buffalo, Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Sheridan.
1915: Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Sheridan.
1914: Cheyenne Central, Douglas, Sheridan, Wheatland.
1913: Cheyenne Central, Douglas, Sheridan, Wheatland.
1912: Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Natrona, Sheridan, Wheatland.
1911: Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Sheridan.
1910: Cheyenne Central, Fort Washakie, Lander, Laramie, Sheridan.
1909: Cheyenne Central, Douglas, Laramie, Natrona, University Prep.
1908: Cheyenne Central, Douglas, Lander, Laramie, Natrona, University Prep.
1907: Cheyenne Central.
1906: Cheyenne Central.
1905: Cheyenne Central.
1904: Cheyenne Central.
1903: Laramie.
1902: Cheyenne Central.
1901: Laramie.
1900: No indications of any teams.
1899: No indications of any teams.
1898: No indications of any teams.
1897: Laramie.
1896: Laramie.
1895: Laramie.

I have not found any games for teams prior to 1895. Yet.

As for the results of the games themselves: I will be uploading 1895 through 1919 sometime after I move. I am in the process of moving back to Casper and won’t have the computer for a few days….

–patrick

Perfection and imperfection

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A little more than a year ago, I wrote this post about teams going either scoreless or un-scored-upon for an entire season. I noted that, in Wyoming, it hadn’t happened in either case since 1946.

But, since the time I wrote that post, I have completed research back to 1920 and can now say that there were indeed teams who weren’t scored upon all season — and there were teams who didn’t score for entire seasons.

I can also say the list of the un-scored-upon is much shorter than the list of the scoreless. In fact, my list of un-scored-upon teams only numbers two since 1920: Byron in 1939 and Heart Mountain in 1943.

Both come with asterisks.

Byron’s 1939 season is listed here on a technicality: I can’t find final scores for two of the Eagles’ games that year. In the five game results I know, Byron was 5-0 and outscored its opponents 123-0. But I have yet to find final scores for a game scheduled on Sept. 30 with Meeteetse and for a game scheduled on Oct. 5 with Deaver-Frannie. I don’t even know for sure if those games were played. Here is the Eagles’ schedule and results for the season as I have them posted on the Byron team page:

1939 (5-0) Coach: Malcolm LeSueur
S14/1939 Burlington 0 Byron 12 NWDN
S21/1939 Deaver-Frannie 0 Byron 20 LC/NWDN
S23/1939 Byron 32 Meeteetse 0 CE/NWDN
S26/1939 Byron 19 Ten Sleep 0 CTH/NWDN
S30/1939 Meeteetse Byron
O3/1939 Byron 40 Burlington 0 CTH/LC
O5/1939 Byron Deaver-Frannie
O27/1939 Basin Byron not played BRR

The other team to go an entire season without allowing a point is the Heart Mountain squad from 1943. This was the first year that the Heart Mountain Japanese internment camp played football against other schools, and with the anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States at the time, it was difficult to find teams willing to come to the camp and play (the football team was not allowed to leave the camp to play games). Nevertheless, in the team’s three games in 1943, the Eagles went 3-0 and didn’t allow a point, outscoring their three foes 38-0. In fact, the Eagles also shut out their first three opponents in 1944 before falling 19-13 to Natrona in the only loss in program history in a game that ended both the 1944 season and the camp’s interscholastic team. Here is the Eagles’ 1943 season as seen on their team page:

1943 (3-0) Coach: Ray Thompson
O1/1943 Worland 0 Heart Mountain 7 CTH/NWDN
O9/1943 Red Lodge (MT) 0 Heart Mountain 25 CTH/HMS
O23/1943 Lovell 0 Heart Mountain 6 CTH/HMS

The scoreless teams? Well, there were numerous teams that went entire seasons without scoring a point between 1920 and 1945. The list also includes the only program to go two consecutive seasons without a score: Gebo in 1934 and 1935. Of teams that played more than one game in their seasons, scoreless teams include:

University Prep 1920 (0-4, outscored 121-0, first season after more than 10 years without a program)
Riverton 1922 (0-3, outscored 175-0, first season in program history)
Sundance 1924 (0-2 with one missing game, outscored 61-0, first season in program history)
Lingle 1926 (0-6, outscored 181-0)
Newcastle 1928 (0-2, outscored 142-0)
Valley 1928 (0-2, outscored 22-0)
Superior 1928 (0-2-2 with one missing game, outscored 19-0)
Manderson 1928 (0-4, outscored 176-0)
Lander 1928 (0-5-1, outscored 52-0)
Gillette 1929 (0-3-1, outscored 95-0)
Basin 1931 (0-6, outscored 135-0)
Gebo 1934 (0-6-1, outscored 135-0)
Gebo 1935 (0-4-1, outscored 81-0)
Buffalo 1935 (0-7, outscored 192-0)
Guernsey 1938 (0-5-1, outscored 75-0)
Sunrise 1940 (0-2, outscored 13-0, but probably played more games than this)

Upton’s 1938 team may also make the scoreless list. That season, the Bobcats went 0-6; they were outscored 152-0 in five games and also lost to Custer, S.D., but the score for that game has not been located yet.

Special note (results prior to 1920): Although scoreless or un-scored-upon seasons were much more common prior to 1920 due to shorter seasons and limited opponent pools, one team should be mentioned from this era: the 1917 Sheridan Broncs. That seasons, the Broncs put up perhaps the most dominating stretch of games ever put together by a Wyoming team. That season, Sheridan went 7-0 and outscored foes by a total of 300-0 — an average of almost 43-0 per game. It is the only verified complete (more than five games) season in state history in which a team has gone unbeaten, untied and un-scored-upon.

Sheridan’s 1917 results: Defeated Buffalo 96-0; defeated Billings, Mont., 7-0; defeated Buffalo 77-0; defeated Billings Poly, Mont., 22-0; defeated Miles City, Mont., 13-0; defeated Billings Poly, Mont., 7-0; defeated Worden, Mont., 78-0.

Season results from 1900 to 1919 will be posted soon.

–patrick

One game: Who’s your coach/quarterback/kicker?

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Here is a fun little game to get us through the April doldrums, where the Laramie weather has turned downright October-ish and I keep waiting to grab my notebook and head to a game….

You have one game and three choices.

Winning this game is a necessity. Fortunately, you get to choose three pieces to this team, and they can come from any era of Wyoming high school football. On this team, you get to pick the coach, the quarterback and the kicker.

Who do you choose?

To get the discussion started, here is who I choose… but I’d love to hear your choices, too.

My coach: Todd Dayton. Give me one game, and I want Dayton, Wyoming’s all-time top coach in terms of victories, coaching it. I really didn’t understand, Xs- and Os-wise, how Dayton won so many games until November, but watching Cokeville play Lusk in last year’s 1A 11-man title game proved to me just how quickly he can turn a bad situation into a good one. If you remember that game, Lusk scored an easy touchdown on its first drive, but had a hard time making a first down — much less a touchdown — after that. After the game, the pack of reporters asked Dayton what his team did to fix the problem. He said it was a simple change along the defensive line to combat Lusk’s blocking schemes. That explanation resonated with me for a couple reasons. One, it only took one drive for Dayton, his assistants and his players to notice the problem and fix it. That’s efficient. Two, Dayton and his staff had trained their players well enough for them to quickly adapt to the new situation and to change what they had worked on all week to fit a new game plan. It worked — Cokeville won 26-6 — but the thing is that in Cokeville, such little, almost imperceptible, adjustments are what help make the Panthers a force year in and year out.

My quarterback: Corte McGuffey. Other quarterbacks have won more games. Other quarterbacks have won more championships. Other quarterbacks have thrown for more yards, more touchdowns, more completions. But ask me who I want under center for the game-winning drive. It’s Corte. He proved himself in Riverton by helping the Wolverines win a Class 3A title in 1994 — Riverton’s first state football championship, a game in which McGuffey threw for more than 400 yards — and then went onto a stellar career at Northern Colorado.

My kicker: Aaron Elling. The Lander Tiger/UW/Minnesota Vikings kicker has hit a few clutch kicks in his career. Although his leg never helped Lander win a state title, with a game on the line I want consistency. And Elling may be the most consistent kicker a Wyoming high school has ever produced (although Natrona’s Aaron Levin may come in a close second).

Your turn…. I am looking forward to hearing who you would pick. Only 129 days to the 2011 kickoff!

–patrick

New series starting in 2011

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Every couple of years, when the WHSAA has to build a new football schedule to accommodate changes to classifications and conferences, we get to see several matchups that we have never seen before.

In 2011, with Cheyenne South coming into the mix and several other schools in new conferences or classifications, we see more first-time matchups than we have in years.

Obviously, the biggest change comes with South, as the Bison will play their first year of varsity football in 2011. Therefore, it only makes sense that the Bison will establish new series with all of its opponents. This year, that’s all of 4A (Gillette, Sheridan, Natrona, Kelly Walsh, Cheyenne Central, Cheyenne East, Laramie, Rock Springs and Evanston).

South’s move prompted one other big schedule shift: that of Wheatland. With the Bison coming to 4A, the Bulldogs got bumped to 2A and will play four schools this year that they have never played before — all new conference rivals (Big Horn, Tongue River, Moorcroft and Wright).

Hulett and Dubois, both moving from 11-man to six-man, will also play several new opponents in 2011.

In all, there are 21 new matchups in 2011. Here is a quick week-by-week breakdown at the games involving teams that have never faced each other before (not counting any Week 0 games that aren’t 4A, which aren’t scheduled by the WHSAA):

Week 0: Cheyenne South-Natrona.

Week 1: Cheyenne Central-Cheyenne South; Pine Bluffs-Wyoming Indian; Wind River-Kemmerer; Rawlins-Sidney, Neb.

Week 2: Cheyenne South-Sheridan; Wheatland-Wright; Snake River-Dubois; Lusk-Hill City, S.D.

Week 3: Laramie-Cheyenne South; Hulett-Kaycee.

Week 4: Cheyenne East-Cheyenne South; Wheatland-Moorcroft; Kaycee-Dubois.

Week 5: Cheyenne South-Evanston; Big Horn-Wheatland.

Week 6: Cheyenne South-Kelly Walsh; Farson-Hulett.

Week 7: Gillette-Cheyenne South.

Week 8: Rock Springs-Cheyenne South; Wheatland-Tongue River.

Click here to see the 2011 schedules in full.

–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

Wyoming’s oldest programs

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When I first tell people about this website, one of the first questions they ask me is, “Oh, when was the first game?”

Unfortunately, at this point, I have to give the answer I don’t like to give: I simply don’t know.

That’s one of the unfortunate parts of doing a lot of this research — I don’t know where the “start” of this project is supposed to be.

I know Wyoming high school football games go back to at least Feb. 22, 1893, when the University of Wyoming beat a team from Cheyenne High School (the forerunner to today’s Central). Between 1893 and 1920, though, is a whole lot of gray. And prior to 1893 is completely uncertain.

This I can say for sure: Only seven high schools in the state had football programs in 1920.

The seven schools that suited up before the “explosion” of teams in 1921 were Buffalo, Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Natrona County, Newcastle, Sheridan and University Prep.

Prior to 1920, though, there is not much I can say for sure.

What I know about these seven programs is this: University Prep’s first year was 1920. … Sheridan started its program in 1909 and played its first official games in 1910. … Buffalo did not put any teams together prior to 1916. … Newcastle started its program in the late teens or 1920; I don’t know for sure. … Laramie goes back to at least 1898, when the Plainsmen played, and beat, UW. … Accounts at the time said 1919 was Natrona’s first year, but NC games could actually go back as far as 1895. … Central goes back to at least February 1893 but may go back further, although I doubt it.

Throw into the mix the fact that I’ve seen references of Wheatland playing Cheyenne teams in the mid-teens, and it becomes an interesting puzzle to piece together.

The 1921 season, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, was a big one for Wyoming high school. That season, 11 programs (Basin, Cody, Cowley, Douglas, Evanston, Gillette, Greybull, Powell, Thermopolis, Torrington, Worland) started their programs, bringing Wyoming’s total up to 18. By 1924, 38 schools had programs.

That helps me keep going. I know that my research is “done” for all but six schools.

But, even now, I still don’t know where the “start” really is. And I still can’t answer that question about the first game.

–patrick

The ripple effect of Gillette’s proposed high school

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Gillette’s school board gave preliminary approval to a new, comprehensive high school in a vote Tuesday. And while the vote certainly has much more meaningful and important ramifications than those of the sporting kind, it’s the changes to the sporting scene that draw my attention right now.

One of the reasons why is because of the success of the Gillette high school athletic programs. The Camels have arguably the best sports programs in the state.

But the Gillette area is growing like crazy right now, and with the city’s largest kindergarten ever scheduled to enter the school system next fall — and with no signs of the growth stopping — the Campbell County School District is preparing for the influx that’s expected to bulge the limits what is already the state’s largest high school.

Tuesday’s decision guarantees nothing; it only was a vote to submit a plan to the School Facilities Commission, which oversees school construction in Wyoming. But, more than likely, Wyoming’s largest high school will be chopped in half sometime in the next 10 years, and we will see another full-on athletic program born in Wyoming, much like we are seeing now with Cheyenne South.

Even so, the average daily membership, the number the Wyoming High School Activities Association uses for reclassification, for each school will likely be close to — if not more than — 1,200 by the time the new high school opens.

It will be another Class 4A school. And it may mean time for massive reorganization of the conferences and classifications used by the WHSAA.

Maybe as massive as changing the number of schools in Class 4A.

Wyoming has been at 12 schools in Class 4A for all sports except football since about 1990, and although the schools in that mix have changed, the number 12 has remained fairly static.

Gillette’s new school, coupled with Cheyenne South’s entry into 4A in 2012, may prompt the WHSAA to do more than just shift the smallest school in the ADMs down to 3A. Right now, that means Green River, which would move from 12th to 13th with Gillette’s new school, gets bumped down to 3A.

Another option is 14 schools, which would most likely bring Star Valley back from 3A to 4A.

But, this time around, the WHSAA may need to look at something more dramatic: a 16-school Class 4A. Bring up Star Valley, Cody and Jackson. There is a beautiful natural break right now between what would be school 16, Jackson (ADM 654) and school 17, Lander (ADM 502).

The timetable on the opening of a new high school in Gillette is still five to 10 years, maybe more when you factor in design, budget and construction time.

Even so, for argument’s sake, here are the ADM figures used by the WHSAA for the 2012-13 senior class, with Gillette split in two, just to see what it looks like:

1. Natrona 2,036
2. East 1,457
3. Rock Springs 1,429
4. Kelly Walsh 1,400
5. Central 1,302
6. Gillette 1,119
7. Gillette new 1,119
8. South 1,086
9. Laramie 1,039
10. Sheridan 916
11. Evanston 898
12. Riverton 793
13. Green River 771
14. Star Valley 734
15. Cody 689
16. Jackson 654

Compounding the confusion in this is the news that the Natrona County school board support for its plan of adding a satellite campus to Natrona County and Kelly Walsh high schools rather than building a new, comprehensive school may be wavering.

If Casper can build a new high school, with the new school taking 1/3 of the students out of NC and 1/3 of the students out of KW, the ADM numbers might look something like this when Gillette’s new school is factored in:

1. East 1,457
2. Rock Springs 1,429
3. Natrona 1,357
4. Central 1,302
5. Casper new 1,146
6. Gillette 1,119
7. Gillette new 1,119
8. South 1,086
9. Laramie 1,039
10. Kelly Walsh 933
11. Sheridan 916
12. Evanston 898

And THEN, 12 makes sense because of the large gap between Evanston at 12 (898) and Riverton at 13 (793).

Of course, any decision the WHSAA makes is still, at minimum, five years away. Probably closer to 10 than five. And any decision the WHSAA makes will also take into consideration ramifications beyond 4A — how having 12, or 14, or 16, or 10 schools in 4A will affect 3A, 2A and 1A — and how regional alignments will be constructed.

Remember, too, that football uses different classification cutoffs than other sports. Will 10 schools still fit into 4A, with Evanston or possibly even Sheridan most likely making the move to 3A? Will 4A have to expand? Will other classifications have to change?

Cheyenne South’s entry, all in all, created just a few ripples to the structure of Wyoming’s sports scene.

The entry of Gillette’s new high school could end up being the impetus of a complete transformation.

–patrick

Mascots: Best and worst in Wyoming

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A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine posed me a question on Facebook: Which Wyoming high school mascot was my favorite? And, maybe even more importantly, which was my least favorite?

This friend was from Guernsey and briefly summarized the origin of the Guernsey-Sunrise Vikings: the (Sunrise) Miner + the  (Guernsey) Longhorn = the Viking. What once was a fairly neutral mascot for me quickly became one of my favorites.

I have done my fair share of research on Wyoming high school mascots, but somehow that story had passed me by. But it also made me start thinking about some of the state’s mascots and which ones I really liked — and which ones I didn’t.

So here’s a brief rundown of some of my favorites, and some of my least favorites, both past and present:

Best mascots: In short, I like originality. And I like schools that try to find something that’s both original AND reflects something unique about their community. There are plenty of those in Wyoming — the Big Piney Punchers, the Lingle Doggers, the Hanna/Sunrise Miners, the Midwest Oilers, among others.

Western heritage obviously has a pull in Wyoming, and I like to see schools playing that up: Newcastle Dogies, Glenrock Herders, Laramie Plainsmen, Kemmerer Rangers, Shoshoni/Pinedale/Medicine Bow Wranglers, Meeteetse/Rock River Longhorns, Ten Sleep Pioneers, Kaycee/University Prep Buckaroos and a ton of Broncs and Bison and Buffalo(e)s. I like most of these; some of them are a bit predictable and dopey, but I can’t hate them.

I love Oregon Trail references: Torrington Trailblazers, Fort Laramie Pioneers. I also love the courage it takes for Rawlins to maintain the Outlaws name.

One of my favorites from the closed-school division is the Dayton Elks. I should hate it, but I kind of like the flaunting of bad grammar. I also love the Elks’ Sheridan County neighbors, the Ranchester Rustlers. Of course, these two schools combined to make Tongue River… but more on that in a second.

The Carpenter Coyotes also comes off the tongue nice. I appreciate any school that will name itself after an animal most people in this state are willing to kill for a $2 bounty.

But I think my all-time favorite is the Farson Pronghorns. How in the world is Farson the only Wyoming high school, past or present, to pick the Pronghorn as its mascot? That is incredibly confusing to me. The fastest mammal in North America, about 90 percent of all of them in the world live in Wyoming, and only one high school picks that as the mascot? Not only that, but Farson is the only high school in the nation with Pronghorns as its mascot. Mad props to Farson for doing so; shame on everyone else for ignoring the obvious.

(By the way, the only other original-to-the-country mascot in Wyoming is the Lingle Doggers.)

Worst mascots: My friend tried to make the case for the Camels of Campbell County being the worst mascot in the state. I disagree; I love wordplay and, although not totally original, the Campbell County Camels does have a nice ring to it. I stay neutral to it. Not one of my favorites, but certainly not in the discussion of the worst.

My least favorites are the ones that you can see coming from a mile away, like the Buffalo Bison or the Hawk Springs Hawks.

More than that, though, I hate the common mascots that have nothing to do with the school itself. How many Panthers and Eagles and Bulldogs do we need? Unless an actual eagle made its nest in the tree out in front of the school, or an actual bulldog saved the school from burning down, or an actual panther ate an entire class of kindergartners back in the day, then you need to come up with something more original.

Which leads me to my least-favorite mascot in Wyoming: The Tongue River Eagles. How do you take two fantastic, original mascots like the Ranchester Rustlers and Dayton Elks, end up disposing them both and coming out with something so generic?

Clearly, this is nothing against the school or the fine folks of northern Sheridan County. The people there now had nothing to do with this choice, certainly made in the the post-World War II, post-Korea fervor of all-American patriotism. St. Stephens opened at about the same time and went with Eagles, and the Heart Mountain Japanese internment camp was also known as the Eagles. And we can’t forget the area at the base of the Big Horns IS great for eagle sightings….

But come on. Eagles is the most common nickname for high schools in the country, with more than 1,200 high schools claiming it. Rustlers and Elks were both so unique, so different, so cool, and Eagles is just so… just so… frustrating.

Come on. Who wouldn’t root for the Tongue River Elk Rustlers?

How about you? Your favorite? Your least favorite? Post it below and let’s have some fun, just be nice, as always.

–patrick