If it feels like home-field advantage isn’t what it used to be, you’re right.
Or you’re completely wrong.
It depends on what your definition of “used to” is.
In looking at the 24,426 games on wyoming-football.com since 1894 where we know the winner, the loser and the location — and where the location was not a neutral site — we can see a consistent pattern in how often home teams win games. In total, home teams have 13,495 victories, 10,392 losses and 539 ties, a baseline winning percentage of .564. (If your math isn’t up to par, or if you’re just skimming, that means home teams have won 56.4 percent of Wyoming high school football games.)
Remember .564. It’s the measuring stick against which all other numbers in this post are measured.
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From season to season, home teams deviate subtly, but consistently, away from that baseline.
And those deviations are a factor of time — as long as that time is your great-grandpa’s time.
From 1920 to 1938, for 19 consecutive seasons, the home teams won Wyoming high school football games at above-average rates. Since 1939, though, winning percentages have been much more consistent.
Moreover, since 1939, there has been no consistent pattern. There have been stretches of home-field success and home-field struggle. In fact, since 1939, the winning percentage for Wyoming high school football teams is .557, which almost a full percent lower than our baseline.
For five straight years from 1942-46, home teams won at above-average rates, the longest such stretch in that era. However, in the 18 seasons from 1958-75, home teams won at an above-average rate just twice (1962 and 1968). That includes a seven-year stretch from 1969-75 where home teams won at below-average rates, the longest such streak.
That record was recently challenged; from 2013-18, the home team won at a below-average rate, too. In 2019 (.592) and 2020 (.577), the rate was above average, though; last year’s .563 was almost exactly on the average.
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The outliers stretch our expectations of what’s possible.
In 1977, home teams had a winning percentage of .483, the only time in Wyoming’s history that home teams finished below .500. Twice — in 1917 and again in 1984 — home teams went exactly .500, going 140-140 in 1984 and a much more modest 6-6-1 in 1917. The fourth-lowest winning percentage for home teams came recently, in 2015, when home teams had a winning percentage of .507.
Home teams did best in the early years. Since 1939, when numbers began evening out, home team’s best success came in 2002, when home teams had a winning percentage of .613. That was followed by 1989 (.612), 1983 (.612), 1991 (.611) and 2010 (.608).
Between 1921 — when high school football really took off in Wyoming — and 1939, the best home-field winning percentage came in 1923, when home teams went 62-27-4 (.688). In the 18 years between 1921 and 1938, home teams had a winning percentage of .622, almost 6 percent better than the average.
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So what happened? Why was home-field advantage so advantageous in the early years and less meaningful since 1939?
The short answer boils down, I think, to two factors: consistency and infrastructure.
In Wyoming’s early days of high school football, referees weren’t always the most neutral parties. The Wyoming High School Activities Association wasn’t even formed until 1931, 10 years after high school football got going. And even then, it took a while before the WHSAA coordinated officiating. Once officiating became more consistent, so did the game results.
As for infrastructure, take a look at this map of Wyoming in 1927. Count up the number of paved roads. Not many, are there? As the road system improved — as evidenced by this map from 1951, just 24 years later — teams could travel faster, spend less time on the road and arrive at games more refreshed and ready to play.
Since 1939, the most remarkable thing isn’t the change in home-field advantage. It’s the lack of it.
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Here’s a table listing the home-team records and winning percentages by year for Wyoming high school football:
Lovell has had its fair share of football success.
With a pair of championships to its name and a runner-up finish in Class 2A last year, the Bulldogs have a proud gridiron history.
And now, Lovell can also call itself the capital of high school football coaches in Wyoming.
Three Lovell alumni will be head coaches across the state this year — Nicc Crosby for his alma mater, Richard Despain at Rocky Mountain and Eli Moody at Cheyenne South.
With three alumni among Wyoming’s head football coaching ranks, Lovell can claim more than any other program.
While seven other schools (Campbell County, Cheyenne Central, Douglas, Green River, Hulett, Kelly Walsh and Wheatland) have two alumni leading up Wyoming high school football programs, no one can touch Lovell’s trio.
Here’s a quick glimpse of where Wyoming’s high school football coaches went to high school:
Crosby is one of 11 coaches who ply their trade at their alma mater. The others:
Andrew Rose, Campbell County
Mike Apodaca, Cheyenne Central
Kevin Cuthbertson, Green River
Patrick Sweeney, Worland
Travis Romsa, Burns
Jeromy Moffat, Big Piney
Trent Aagard, Burlington
Boz Backen, Hulett
Dave Largent, Kaycee
Jack Cobb, Snake River
Most Wyoming head football coaches come from Wyoming high schools, with 42 of the 64 coaches statewide graduating from in-state high schools. The count of 42 is up quite a bit from the total of 34 in 2018. Fifteen others come from bordering states, with Nebraska and Idaho (four each) the most popular. Coaches also hail from Montana and Utah (three apiece) and Colorado (one).
The remaining seven head coaches come from Washington (two) and New York, North Carolina, California, Maryland and Ohio (one each).
On the college level, though, only 19 coaches are graduates of the University of Wyoming. It’s still the most of any college, though, as Black Hills State claims nine alumni, and Chadron State has four.
Schools with two alumni among the ranks of Wyoming high school head football coaches include Sioux Falls, Montana State, Colorado Mesa, Weber State, Utah State, Southern Utah, Dakota Wesleyan and Dickinson State. Schools with a single alumnus are Augustana (South Dakota), Dana (Nebraska), Hiram (Ohio), Idaho State, Marist (New York), MSU-Billings, MSU-Northern, Montana-Western, Northern State, Tabor (Kansas), UNLV and Wayland Baptist (Texas). Four coaches statewide have not finished a bachelor’s degree.
I love hopping on Google Maps and planning a trip — whether it’s to British Columbia, Australia, Kazakhstan or somewhere in between — that I will likely never take in my life.
So, once again, it’s time to plan the trip I’ll never take.
This annual version of “what if” always leads me back to Wyoming and the roundabout trip I would take if I had forgotten my job, maxed out my credit card and alienated my wife. This is that trip: the dream Wyoming high school football road trip for 2022:
Week 0 (Aug. 26-27) Casper nine-man jamboree, noon Friday Rock Springs at Kelly Walsh, 6 p.m. Friday Shoshoni nine-man jamboree, 10 a.m. Saturday Right now, five teams are scheduled to be at the Casper jamboree, including defending 1A nine-man champ Shoshoni, so a stop there will help suss out where the season might be headed. Then, to make it easy, let’s stay in Casper to watch last year’s runner-up Tigers face Kelly Walsh. The Saturday slate is jamboree-heavy, so why not another bunch of nine-man scrimmages in Shoshoni?
Week 1 (Sept. 1-3) Pine Bluffs at Shoshoni, 4 p.m. Thursday Kaycee at Hanna, noon Friday Campbell County at Laramie, 6 p.m. Friday Ten Sleep at Encampment, 2 p.m. Saturday There’s no way I’d miss the 1A nine-man title game we missed last year, with Pine Bluffs-Shoshoni at the top of the docket for the week. A little adventuring around the Snowies will give me three games all intriguing in their own right, although none stands out on the can’t-miss list in the preseason (although seeing Ten Sleep in its first game back after missing 2021 is a cool opportunity).
Week 2 (Sept. 8-10) St. Stephens at Wind River, 5:30 p.m. Thursday Snake River at Dubois, 3 p.m. Friday Evanston at Riverton, 6 p.m. Friday Ten Sleep at Midwest, 2 p.m. Saturday This is a big week in Fremont County, so why not hit up as many games in County 10 as I can? The marquee matchup is Snake River-Dubois, pitting two six-man teams that figure to be near the top of the classification this year. And Midwest is the closest Saturday game, so let’s go for it.
Week 3 (Sept. 15-17) Big Piney at Greybull, 6 p.m. Thursday Lovell at Lyman, 1 p.m. Friday Sheridan at Rock Springs, 6 p.m. Friday Lusk at Saratoga, 2 p.m. Saturday It’s an early wake-up call to get from Greybull to Lyman, but it’s worth it to see rematches, plural, of two of the 2021 state title games on the same day. The 2A game is reprised in the Bridger Valley between Lovell and Lyman, while the 4A game sees a do-over in trona country between Sheridan and Rock Springs. Everything else is gravy.
Week 4 (Sept. 22-24) Burlington at Meeteetse, 7 p.m. Thursday Cody at Jackson, 5 p.m. Friday Farson at Dubois, 2 p.m. Saturday After two consecutive 3A title game showdowns, there’s no way I’d miss another Cody-Jackson showdown, especially since this one is the 3A West opener for both teams. I could have snuck in another game with some creative planning, but a one-game Friday is worth it if this is the game.
Week 5 (Sept. 29-Oct. 1) Upton-Sundance at Newcastle, 6 p.m. Thursday Torrington at Tongue River, 2 p.m. Friday Campbell County at Thunder Basin, 7 p.m. Friday Hulett vs. Snake River, at Midwest, 2 p.m. Saturday I finally get to the northeast corner of the state in Week 5, where I can catch a pair of 2A East games as well as the Coal Bowl. Seems like the right way to spend the week.
Week 6 (Oct. 6-8) Wright at Guernsey, 7 p.m. Thursday Tongue River at Burns, 2 p.m. Friday Cheyenne Central at Cheyenne East, 6 p.m. Friday Snake River at Encampment, 2 p.m. Saturday The Capital Bowl between Central and East is always worth your attention, and the games around it make for a fun week. A thin Saturday slate is highlighted by the six-man title game rematch, though, and Carbon County is now becoming a frequent stop… not that I’m complaining.
Week 7 (Oct. 13-15) Shoshoni at Wind River, 7 p.m. Thursday Cokeville at Thermopolis, 2 p.m. Friday Worland at Lander, 6 p.m. Friday Burlington at Ten Sleep, 2 p.m. Saturday I’m really curious to see how the Fremont County rivals Shoshoni and Wind River stack up against each other this year, so the Thursday game is the one that drove the other choices for the week. That said, everything else is intriguing in its own way — especially as we get closer to the playoffs.
Week 8 (Oct. 20-22) Riverside at Big Piney, 4 p.m. Thursday Lyman at Cokeville, 1 p.m. Friday Star Valley at Jackson, 6 p.m. Friday Kaycee at Farson, 3 p.m. Saturday Numbers won out here. There were lots of great games scheduled for Week 8 across the state, but the most intriguing pair of games that was geographically feasible was the Cokeville-Jackson duo, both of which could have some big postseason ramifications hanging on the line.
In this scenario, I end up seeing 46 of Wyoming’s 64 teams, including 15 teams twice — Rock Springs, Campbell County, Jackson, Lyman, Tongue River, Cokeville, Shoshoni, Wind River, Big Piney, Kaycee, Encampment, Dubois, Meeteetse, Burlington and Farson. I’d also see Ten Sleep and Snake River three times apiece. I’d see eight of the 10 4A teams, seven of 12 3A teams, nine of 15 2A teams, 11 of 16 1A nine-man teams and all 11 1A six-man teams.
I’d also make it to 28 locations, including Jackson, Shoshoni, Wind River, Dubois, Encampment and Midwest twice.
And I’d be broke, so I’d probably start a GoFundMe after Week 8 so I could see the playoffs.
If you want to plan your trip, or at least just see when and where your favorite teams are playing, check out the full 2022 season schedule. Bookmark it — it’s where I will post results all season long and any updates to the schedule.
For these two classic feline rivalries, at least in terms of Wyoming football, the cats are 1-1.
That’s because in games involving cat mascots, the cats lead the series against the dogs but are behind in the series against the birds.
To clarify: 16 Wyoming high schools with football in their history have, or have had, cats as their mascots. This includes Panthers (Arvada-Clearmont, Cokeville, Manville, Powell, Saratoga, Wright); Tigers (Encampment, Lander, Lusk, Rock Springs); Bobcats (Basin, Thermopolis, Upton); Bearcats (Douglas); Cougars (Wind River) and Wildcats (Albin).
When those teams go up against the teams with dog mascots, the cats usually escape with the victory. The dog teams — Wolves (Green River, Moorcroft, NSI), Bulldogs (Lovell, Sundance, Wheatland), Huskies (Burlington) and Coyotes (Carpenter) — trail in their series with the cats 525-369-27.
When the hunted becomes the hunter, though, the cats aren’t quite as fortunate. Against the bird teams — Eagles (Byron, Glendo, Heart Mountain, Lyman, St. Stephens, Tongue River), Thunderbirds (Cheyenne East) and Hawks (Hawk Springs) — the cats trail 172-181-5.
And you have now completed reading what might be the most ridiculous post I’ve ever put on this blog.
A preliminary heat of the Class 1A girls 100-meter dash at the 1989 state track and field meet may have been the greatest race ever run in Wyoming track and field history.
If you believe the results.
In one heat, an existing class record for the 100 was broken* by four different runners.
First, some context: Michelle Thompson of Encampment had set the record for the 1A girls 100 in the 1987 state track preliminaries with a 13.00. In more than nine years of Class 1A 100-meter dash races at state before that, no 1A runner had ever been below 13.
Encampment senior Brandy James set a new record* by winning her heat in 12.25 seconds, beating the existing record by three-quarters of a second. And Albin senior Chris Brown was only one-one hundredth off that pace with a 12.26.
Also in the heat were Big Horn freshman Dawn Holder, who ran a 12.50, more than a half second faster than the record, and Hanna junior Kim Bonner, who ran a 12.72, whose fourth-place finish in the heat in and of itself would have chopped off more than a quarter-second off the existing record.
In one heat, four runners not only beat* that record of 13.00, they shattered it.
In the other 1A heat, Big Horn’s Anna Hubbard won — with a 13.51, apparently more a second and a quarter slower than the other heat. Albin’s Becca Brown was second at 13.77, Encampment’s Tami Levandowski was third at 14.01 and Hanna’s Sarah Briggs was fourth at 14.55.
In the finals, though, times from these record-setting* runners increased* precipitously. Chris Brown won, with a time of 13.26 — apparently, exactly one second slower than her preliminary time*. James, the record*-setter, finished second at 13.28. Hubbard, the winner of the “slow” heat, finished third at 13.45. Becca Brown was fourth at 13.65, Holder fifth at 13.78 and Bonner sixth at 13.82.
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By now, you’ve figured out that this heat was special. Here are the differences between the times* ran in the preliminaries and the times ran in the finals for the top six finishers.
Runner
Preliminary heat
Final heat (place)
Difference
Chris Brown, Albin
12.26
13.26 (first)
+1.00 seconds
Brandy James, Encampment
12.25
13.28 (second)
+1.03 seconds
Anna Hubbard, Big Horn
13.51
13.45 (third)
-0.06 seconds
Becca Brown, Albin
13.77
13.65 (fourth)
-0.12 seconds
Dawn Holder, Big Horn
12.50
13.78 (fifth)
+1.28 seconds
Kim Bonner, Hanna
12.72
13.82 (sixth)
+1.10 seconds
“Fast heat” participants are in bold.
Based on the results above, we can surmise that in this “fast” heat, one of three things happened:
Four runners, all in the same preliminary heat, ran the races of their lives and all broke the existing class record by more than a quarter-second each, only to run times that were all at least one full second slower during the championship heat, AND ran times that were more than a second better than anyone else in the second heat, AND ran times they could not even come close to duplicating in the final (or at any other time in their high school careers), OR…
The timing was off for the first heat, and who knows what the times were? OR…
The times were mis-reported as 12-point-whatever instead of 13-point-whatever.
My guess is No. 3. My guess is the record-setting run that James has had credit for the past 33 years was actually a 13.25, a quarter-second off what was the existing record but exactly in line with what she ended up running in the final. My guess is the wrong person has been credited with a state record this whole time.
The Wyoming High School Activities Association, for 33 years, has implicitly said No. 1 is what happened.
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Here’s where it gets crazy — this wasn’t the only time the timing failed on a girls 100-meter dash trial IN THIS MEET.
Something equally suspicious happened in Class 3A girls. And that one was caught.
In that classification, four runners in the second preliminary heat of the 100 all turned in 3A record*-breaking times, led by Torrington’s Robyn Young at 11.83 seconds. Following her were Thermopolis’ Betsy Snook (11.97), Wheatland’s Gina Sorenson (12.18) and Jackson’s Jennifer Goetz (12.30).
The existing Class 3A record at the time was the 12.45 run by Wheatland’s Ronda Munger in 1983. Just like in 1A, four girls, all in the same heat, had just destroyed* it.
And Young’s timed 11.83, as well as Snook’s timed 11.97, beat* the existing all-class state record of 11.99, set by Central’s Betty Jackson in 1982.
The winner of the other 3A girls 100 heat, the “slow” heat, was Jackson’s Heidi Eggers, who ran a 12.84.
So, yeah, these times seemed unusual. Sure, Young was the defending Class 3A girls 100-meter dash champion. Her winning time in 1988, though? 13.13.
Young, despite setting the new record*, did not defend her title. The next day, Eggers won the final in 12.99. Young, the record*-setter the day before, ran a 13.11 to finish third; Snook was fourth at 13.48; Goetz was sixth at 13.56.
Just like in 1A, everyone in the “fast” heat in 3A was more than a second slower in the finals than their preliminary time*.
For the second time in a matter of moments, a girls 100-meter dash preliminary resulted in times that were way off.
But only one got attention.
One fraudulent record disappeared from the records. The other remained.
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News coverage in the Casper Star-Tribune hinted at the controversy on the day. Here’s part of the story from the CST’s Sally Ann Shurmur (then Michalov) on May 20, discussing the 3A race specifically:
“Although a heathy wind was blowing and gusting throughout the day, Wyoming High School Activities Association Commissioner Mike Colbrese said all times and distances would stand as set, regardless of possible wind aid, because there are no facilities for measuring that at the stadium.
“Colbrese added that several coaches had objected to that decision.”
In retrospect, the coaches had a point. Just the wrong one.
It wasn’t the wind that was pushing runners to amazing times. If that were the case, times across all classifications would have reflected this, for both boys and girls. This didn’t happen. Instead, something threw off the timing system for those two heats.
Further proof of the sketchiness of the times put up in those two preliminary races were the performances of the runners the week before state.
In addition to James and Young, all the other runners in those two preliminary heats in 1A and 3A — Chris Brown, Holder, Bonner, Snook, Sorenson, Goetz — weren’t close to the times they ran* in their preliminary race in their respective regionals, either. For example, James’ winning time at the Class 1A Southwest regional meet the week prior to state was 13.50 seconds. In the same race, Bonner finished third at 14.09. Moreover, from available records and results, none of those sprinters had ever came close to touching those times before, and they never came close to touching them again.
In fact, in the week before the 1989 regional track meets, Cheyenne East’s Shanelle Porter was listed by the Casper Star-Tribune as the leader in the state for girls in the 100-meter dash. Her top time was listed as 12.42. Then at regionals, she ran a meet record 11.99; only Tongue River’s Lacey Cooper (12.45), Kelly Walsh’s Ann-Marie Gosar (12.46), and Young (12.8) were at or below 12.8 in regional finals. The fastest 1A time at a regional was Hubbard’s 13.28 at the Northeast Regional.
So, either four runners obliterating* a 1A record of 13.00 was either a timing mistake, or it was the greatest race in state meet history.
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For one heat at state, the mistake was rectified.
The 3A and overall record that Young had broken* did not last. Her record* time was eventually stricken from the WHSAA’s records; when, exactly, is unsure, but it happened sometime between the end of the 1989 meet and the 1990 state meet, where Jackson’s 11.99 was again listed as the overall record. The current Class 3A record time is held by Rawlins’ Kereston Thomas, who ran a 12.12 in 2011. Munger’s 12.45, retroactively reinstated as the 3A record, stood until 2008.
As it turns out, four people really didn’t break the Class 3A record in one preliminary heat, all by healthy margins.
Here’s the thing: Despite what the existing records say, it didn’t happen in Class 1A, either.
James’ time, and the times of the others in her preliminary heat, didn’t get the same scrutiny as Young, for two big reasons. First, Young’s time was for an overall state meet record and James’ record was only for the 1A classification record. The prestige of the overall record drew more scrutiny to it. Second, James’ time came in a preliminary race — it didn’t affect who actually won the individual state championship or any team scores.
Regardless, James’ record still stands.
And we are mistakenly left to believe that this preliminary heat from 1989 is the greatest race in state track and field history — a race where three (and almost four) sprinters put up times that only one Class 1A sprinter, before or since, was ever able to come close to matching.
Here are the 10 fastest* Class 1A girls 100-meter dash times ever run at the Wyoming state track and field meet:
Runner
School
Time
Type of heat
Year
Brandy James
Encampment
12.25*
Preliminary
1989
Chris Brown
Albin
12.26*
Preliminary
1989
Maggie Ochsner
Lingle
12.32
Final
2007
Maggie Ochsner
Lingle
12.46
Preliminary
2006
Dawn Holder
Big Horn
12.50*
Preliminary
1989
Sydney Holiday
Ten Sleep
12.50
Final
2017
Kaelyn Riley
Lingle
12.51
Preliminary
2019
Trae Patch
Lingle
12.55
Preliminary
2007
Maggie Ochsner
Lingle
12.61
Final
2006
Sydney Holiday
Ten Sleep
12.62
Preliminary
2017
In all 1A heats, the 13-second barrier in the 100 meters has been broken 43 times by 23 runners, and the 12.50 mark has been reached or broken* six times by four runners, as noted above.
Ochsner’s slowest time across two 1A meets was 12.64. She went on to become a Division I sprinter and hurdler, running at both Wyoming and Weber State.
Holiday transferred to Broomfield High School in Colorado for her junior and senior seasons. She’s currently on the track and field team at the University of Oregon, one of the top track programs in the country.
Patch and Riley both ran track at Chadron State.
By all indications, James, Brown and Holder never participated in track and field in college.
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The rightful record-holder of the Class 1A 100-meter dash state meet record is Lingle’s Maggie Ochsner.
Ochsner’s winning time of 12.32 seconds in 2007 is the best the state has ever seen at the Class 1A level. A four-time champion in the 100, Ochsner’s 12.32 as a junior broke the record she had set the year before of 12.46, run in the preliminaries; that race broke what should have been the existing record, the 12.70 that Lingle’s Hilary Larson ran in 1996.
Kaycee’s Heather Perry should have gotten credit in 1994 for a state record with her 12.82. That beat the mark set the year before by Pine Bluffs’ Becca Christensen, who had a 12.90 in the preliminaries in 1993 and should have been recognized as the first 1A runner to break 13-flat.
And Thompson’s 13.00 from 1987 should have stood until then.
One kink is that the current iteration of record-keepers has never had anyone question this record and would have a tough time overturning a record that’s been on the books for 33 years. In the 18 years that Ron Laird has been the commissioner of the Wyoming High School Activities Association, he said no one has asked him about the validity of this record (until now).
“We have never had anyone question it, and would have no way of knowing, at this time, if it is not accurate,” Laird said via email this summer.
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The 3A and 1A mis-times overshadowed someone who was actually running some record-setting times in 1989: East’s Porter.
A junior at the time, she won the 100, 200 and 400 for Cheyenne East at the 1989 meet, setting state meet records in the 200 (24.86) and 400 (55.86). (By the way, the state championship meet mark Porter set as a senior in 1990 (54.78) still stands as the all-class state meet record.) Her 100-winning time of 12.18 seconds actually was legit.
I wonder: If the “Best of the Best” award were around in 1989 — it didn’t start until 1994 — what would have happened? Would the debate over that award (Young’s sketchy 11.83 or Porter’s legit 12.18) have shined more light on James’ 1A time*?
When reached via Facebook and later contacted via email, James, now Brandy Spinda, did not respond to questions about her performance at the 1989 state track meet.
Regardless, one of the beauties of time, whether it’s 12.25 seconds or 33 years, is perspective. As time passes, we learn, and we gain wisdom from that new perspective.
That perspective is only meaningful, though, if acted upon.
Although the evidence will forever be no more than circumstantial, it’s also hard to overlook because it all points to one critical conclusion — that James’ time, like Young’s, was clearly inaccurate.
Yet, for 33 years on and counting, it still stands as the benchmark for all Class 1A sprinters to try to hit.
Young’s stricken 11.83 is a footnote in the state’s track and field history. James’ 12.25* should be, too.
–patrick
This post was updated at 5:04 p.m. July 28 to fix an incorrect first name.
In the past 10 seasons, the Equality State’s success record against out-of-state foes remained remarkably stable.
Wyoming’s all-time record for varsity vs. varsity games involving an out-of-state opponent is 1,581-1,526-105, a winning percentage of .509.
That winning percentage is exactly what it was 10 years ago.
Wyoming’s opportunities for out-of-state games have mostly come against teams from the six bordering states. Here is how Wyoming has fared in those series:
Wyoming vs. Nebraska (836 games): Wyoming trails 383-435-18 (.469) Wyoming vs. South Dakota (826 games): Wyoming leads 434-363-29 (.543) Wyoming vs. Montana (493 games): Wyoming leads 243-232-18 (.511) Wyoming vs. Colorado (487 games): Wyoming trails 217-241-29 (.475) Wyoming vs. Idaho (330 games): Wyoming leads 166-155-9 (.517) Wyoming vs. Utah (226 games): Wyoming leads 129-95-2 (.575)
Other series include: Wyoming vs. North Dakota: Series tied 2-2 Wyoming vs. Saskatchewan: Wyoming leads 2-1 Wyoming vs. Alberta: Wyoming leads 2-0 Wyoming vs. Texas: Series tied 1-1 Wyoming vs. Minnesota: Wyoming leads 1-0 Wyoming vs. Nevada: Wyoming leads 1-0 Wyoming vs. Kansas: Wyoming trails 0-1
The most common out-of-state series is (still) Sheridan vs. Billings Senior, Montana; the two squads have played each other 59 times, although the last meeting came in 1969.
Other series with at least 40 games are Torrington vs. Gering, Neb. (55); Newcastle vs. Custer, S.D. (52); Newcastle vs. Lead, S.D. (44); Cheyenne Central vs. Fort Collins, Colo. (41); Jackson vs. Teton, Idaho (41); and Sheridan vs. Miles City, Mont. (40).
Meanwhile, 10 active programs — Cheyenne South, Farson, Lander, Riverside, St. Stephens, Shoshoni, Thunder Basin, Wind River, Wright and Wyoming Indian — have never played a varsity out-of-state opponent.
These three Wyoming high school football players are bound by one similarity — their shoes were the last thing to touch a football in a state championship game.
All three had game-winning kicks on the final play of a championship game, the only three such players to have that honor since state football title games started officially in Wyoming in 1931.
Perhaps not coincidentally, all three had their kicks in overtime.
Russell came first in the capper to one of the most exciting championships in state history. Russell’s extra-point kick on the final snap of the third overtime helped Cody defeat Laramie 41-40 in the Class AA championship in 1976.
Mitchell kicked an extra point on the final snap of overtime to give Thermopolis a 21-20 victory against Lovell in the Class 2A title game in 1990.
Lass’ 18-yard field goal (shorter than an extra point) came on the final play of overtime in Worland’s 17-14 victory against Star Valley in the 2002 3A title game.
Across 260 all-time championship games, they are the only three to end with a kick through the uprights to make title dreams come true.
Honorable mentions
The closest Wyoming has ever come to a regular-season final-play deciding kick came in 1997. Brooks Paskett kicked a field goal with 9 seconds left in the Class 3A title game in 1997 to boost Riverton to a 23-20 victory against Star Valley.
Also, Moorcroft’s Kyle Workman (1996), Meeteetse’s Jason Yockey (1993), Jackson’s Bill Wiley (1986) and Pinedale’s Tanner Boone (1975) hit field goals in the final two minutes of their games to help their respective teams win state championships. Workman and Yockey broke ties; Wiley and Boone boosted teams that trailed at the moment of their kicks.
On the “what could have been” end of things, Cokeville missed a short field goal in the final minute of the 2006 Class 1A title game that would have likely won the game; instead, Guernsey-Sunrise claimed the crown.
Is there a title-game, playoff or regular-season kick that sticks out in your memory? Leave a comment about it!
Weekly rankings from 1955-83 and from 1952 have been added to the annual listings on wyoming-football.com.
This all but completes a big chunk of research on weekly polls, the first part of which — from 1984 to 2021 — was posted and shared on wyoming-football.com in January.
Polls from 1955 to 1983 included two polls per week — one from the Associated Press and, usually, one from United Press International. Prior to 1960, though, the UPI poll was not yet being conducted, and a poll from the Wyoming Association of Sportswriters and Sportscasters fills those years.
The top five teams in each classification have been ranked since 1972. From 1965-70, the top 10 teams in both Class AA/A and Class B were ranked in the UPI polls, while the top 10 in all classes were ranked in the single AP poll. (The exception is in 1971, when the AP ran top fives for Class AA, Class A and Class B, while UPI ran top 10s in Class AA/A and Class B.) Prior to 1965, both the AP and UPI/WASS poll had one set of all-class rankings, which ranked the top 10 teams regardless of classification.
Once again, a huge thank you goes out to “Stat Rat” Jim Craig for his help in filling in the numerous missing pieces I had in this research. This wouldn’t have been possible without his help!
With a game-high nine tackles, including eight solo tackles, Natrona County graduate Logan Wilson may have had the best game ever by a former Wyoming high school football player in a Super Bowl.
In Sunday’s game, Wilson, a second-year linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals, finished Super Bowl LVI with nine total tackles, the best on either team; he also led both teams with three tackles for loss. Despite Wilson’s sheet-filling stat line, the Bengals lost the game 23-20 to the Los Angeles Rams.
Here’s how Wilson’s performance in the Super Bowl stands up to the performances of the four other former Wyoming high school football players to reach that stage:
Brett Keisel, DE, Greybull: Played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowls XL, XLIII and XLV. Had three tackles, including a tackle for loss, in Super Bowl XL; had five tackles in Super Bowl XLIII; had three tackles in Super Bowl XLV.
Boyd Dowler, WR, Cheyenne: Played for the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowls I and II. Did not make the box score in Super Bowl I (injured on sixth play); had two catches for 71 yards and a touchdown in Super Bowl II.
Jerry Hill, RB, Lingle: Played for the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowls III and V. Ran nine times for 29 yards and a touchdown (the Colts’ only one) in Super Bowl III; on the roster but did not make the box score in Super Bowl V, the last game of his career.
John Burrough, DE/DT, Pinedale: Played for the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII. Did not make the box score.
Honorable mention goes to LB Brady Poppinga of Evanston, who was on injured reserve for the Packers during Super Bowl XLV.
I firmly believe that even bad football is good football.
And that even after more than 100 years and after close to 26,000 Wyoming high school football games, there hasn’t been a single bad game.
With that in mind, and inspired by Secret Base/SB Nation’s YouTube series “The Worst,” I set out to find the worst Wyoming high school football game ever played and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that, honestly, even bad football is good football.
Finding the worst among the nearly 26,000 games played, though, is as much as a struggle as finding the best (as I tried to do the past two decades, the 2000s and the 2010s).
I decided to hone in on a specific kind of game — the kind where two teams that were otherwise winless during the season played each other. Once I identified those kind of games, I looked to see how those teams did in the remainder of their respective seasons. Specifically, I was looking for two teams that, outside the one game they played against each other, lost all their other games that season by at least 30 points.
Only one 11-man game in state history met that condition.
In 2004, Midwest defeated Wyoming Indian 26-12 in the season opener for both teams. With the conditions outlined above, I’m willing to call this game the worst Wyoming high school football game ever played.
Now, the “worst” is a loaded term here. It may not be the worst single game — as I’ll explain — but it very well might be the game between the two worst teams. Think of it this way: If you could rank every single season of every single team, and put them all on one line, the rankings of 2004 Midwest and 2004 Wyoming Indian might combine to be the lowest combined ranking of two teams playing each other in any one game.
So why is this game worth your attention, 18 years after it was played? Isn’t this the kind of game we’d want to forget — not highlight?
Nah. Even bad football is good football.
Just look at the team stats box score, which I cobbled together from the video of the game on YouTube. (Yes, this game is on YouTube. I’ll take the blame, or the thanks.) It honestly looks pretty normal, or at least typical of a 1A season opener.
Midwest 26, Wyoming Indian 12
Mid 0 20 0 6 – 26
WI 0 6 0 6 – 12
Team stats Mid WI
First downs 13 8
Rushes-yards 46-196 28-81
Passing C-A-I-Y 6-11-0-98 3-7-1-50
Total plays-yds 57-294 35-131
Fumbles-lost 7-1 2-1
Penalties-yds 6-71 3-25
When this game was played on Aug. 27, 2004, it was clear this was far from a state championship preview. The Oilers went 1-6 in 2003 and had only scored 14 points the entire season; Wyoming Indian had gone 1-7 and lost its last six, the beginning of what eventually became a 26-game losing streak.
The 2004 film showed the Chiefs only had two players available on the bench, the Oilers only three. Do the math; combined, these two teams had 27 players available for this game. But these kinds of games happen often, or at least often enough for this game not to be a huge exception to the rule in 1A football.
Not every play was beautiful:
And it seemed like the lines on both teams never learned about leverage, at least according to the way they stand straight up on plays like this one.
But the game DID have a couple nice hits…
… and good enthusiasm, like my man doing the “conversion dance.”
Now, on to my four favorite plays of the game:
(4) Watch the Chiefs’ right tackle against the Oilers’ defensive lineman on this play. My Midwest man got so turned around that he tried to tackle a tackle. The WIHS O-lineman was just like “What is HAPPENING right now?” before gently tossing the dude to the ground.
(3) Imagine being Midwest’s middle linebacker and taking on a QUADRUPLE TEAM from the Chiefs’ offensive line. Intimidation bonus +10; yardage bonus though only +1.
(2) Not a play, but Midwest’s pre-snap movement here had the Chiefs’ defense completely discombobulated. Just like they planned it?
(1) My favorite play BY FAR is this Midwest touchdown, which came on the last play of the first half and gave Midwest a 20-6 lead heading into halftime. The play is fine. But don’t watch the play so much as the celebration. It’s either some of the best sportsmanship I’ve ever seen, or it’s the most SAVAGE thing I’ve ever seen a wide receiver do to a defensive back.
On this Friday in 2004, the game was little more than another Week 1 tally. Only after the season did its true historic nature take hold.
For the rest of the 2004 season, neither the winning Oilers or the losing Chiefs had a single close game. Midwest’s closest game in 2004 aside from the Chiefs game was a 38-point loss (46-8) to 2-7 Hanna; Wyoming Indian’s closest loss aside from Midwest was a 32-point loss (38-6) to 2-6 Riverside. As noted… this game is the only 11-man game in state history where two otherwise winless teams lost every other game in their seasons by at least 30 points.
Two such six-man games have come in recent years (Ten Sleep defeating St. Stephens in 2017 and Midwest defeating Dubois in 2018), and it’s happened once in nine-man (St. Stephens defeating Wyoming Indian in 2021), but obviously scoring comes differently in those versions of the game.
Watching the 2004 Midwest-Wyoming Indian game in retrospect, in no way, shape or form was it well played. But it was fun to watch, even 18 years later, and for the players I’m sure it was fun to play. I think it proves even bad football is good football.