School: Sheridan
Nickname: Broncs
Colors: blue and yellow
Stadium: Homer Scott Field
State championships: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995 and 2009
Times worth remembering: The early 1990s were Sheridan’s boom times. The Broncs won four consecutive 4A championships and five in six years, at one point winning 30 consecutive games. From 1990-93, the Broncs were 38-2. The 1991 team was ranked 23rd in the nation by USA Today — the only Wyoming team ever to obtain such a ranking.
Times worth forgetting: For nine years, from 1973-81, the Broncs never had a winning record. The team was consistently respectable, but consistently came up short in the close ones, losing 17 times by a touchdown or less. The 1981 team showed signs of a turnaround by winning its first three games, but had to forfeit two of them and finished 4-5; the 1982 team went 10-0 and won the Class AA title.
Best team: The 1991 team finished in the national top 25 for a reason — they were really, really good. The Broncs went 10-0 and were never really threatened on their way to winning the title — their closest game was the 27-8 win over Gillette in the 4A championship. The talented squad had seven all-staters, including 4A’s back of the year (Blaine Phillips) and lineman of the year (Derek Rupp). For the season, the Broncs outscored their foes 427-92. (Honorable mention goes to Sheridan’s 1953 team, which went 9-0 and gave up only 14 points the entire season on their way to the mythical state title.)
Biggest win: The Broncs’ 1990s dynasty was established only by destroying the existing dynasty — that of Cheyenne Central. The Indians had won the state titles in 1988 and 1989 and were favorites for the 1990 title, too. After all, the game against Sheridan was in Cheyenne, and Central had beaten Sheridan earlier in the season, 28-20 in Sheridan. But Paul Westika scored three second-half touchdowns for Sheridan, which held on as Central scored 27 fourth-quarter points but still came up short. Sheridan’s 35-30 victory was the first of the program’s five championships in the 1990s.
Heartbreaker: The Broncs were just seconds away from establishing a dynasty in the mid-1980s, too, but two gut-wrenching September losses kept Sheridan out of the playoffs despite 8-1 records. In 1984, it was a 20-19 loss to Laramie; in 1985, it was a 17-13 loss to Natrona. Laramie went on to win the state championship in ’84, as did Natrona in ’85, and although Sheridan won the 4A title in 1986, the two losses the previous two seasons left the Bronc faithful wondering what could have been.
The never-ending process of digging up Wyoming’s high school football history continued a little bit more this week. In addition to completing research on the 1943 season (which, like 1944 and 1945, will wait until after the 2010 season to get posted here), I’ve added the following updates:
Coaches Project
Added some coaches for Basin, Byron, Cowley, Deaver-Frannie, Greybull, Lyman, Manderson, Pavillion and St. Stephens. Check out those individual team pages for the updates.
New games
Added Meeteetse’s game with the Cody JV on Oct. 23, 1959 (and added it to the missing games list because I couldn’t find a result)
Added Cowley’s game with the Cody JV on Oct. 31, 1959 (and added it to the missing games list because I couldn’t find a result)
Added Manderson’s 26-13 victory over the Greybull JV on Oct. 27, 1959
Added Mountain View’s 40-20 victory over Lyman on Sept. 25, 1965
Missing games and updates
Found the score for Ten Sleep’s 26-0 victory over Burlington on Oct. 7, 1959
Found the score for Burlington’s 22-6 loss to the Cody JV on Sept. 7, 1984
Corrected the date of the Sept. 17, 1965, game between Mountain View and Cokeville (I had listed Sept. 20)
–patrick
The South Shrine Bowl roster was released on Thursday. The Star-Tribune and Wyopreps both carried the lists. Here’s who was chosen:
Burns: Frankie Vossler.
Cheyenne Central: Mike Davis, Kyle Grott, Levi Henrie, Conner Long.
Cheyenne East: Cheyton Vermillion.
Douglas: Tyler Crawford, Pierre Etchemendy, Quentin Kane, Colter McNare.
Evanston: Jose Campos.
Glenrock: Kyle Farley, Dustin Worthington.
Green River: Chris Andrews, Drew Martinez, Colter Rood.
Guernsey-Sunrise: Kevin Boomhower.
Kemmerer: Shane Corpening, Taylor Doherty, Eric Robinson, Cole Shimmin.
Lingle: Dakota Forkner, Mike Hill.
Mountain View: Preston Condos.
Rawlins: Trey Jebens.
Rock Springs: Welsey Padilla, Josh Ward, Riley Yerkovich.
Saratoga: Sam Gates.
Southeast: Dane Hansen, Tanner May.
Star Valley: Larry Chavez, Bill West.
Torrington: Mitch Schlager.
Wheatland: Tyler Smart.
Alternates: Todd Baker, Pine Bluffs; Sam Barnham, Torrington; Trent Beauxis, Evanston; Blake Condos, Lyman; Josh Conine, Cheyenne Central; Zack Ellis, Lingle; Chris Gorman, Pine Bluffs; Clayton Hollar, Rock Springs; Keith Jenkins, Wheatland; Jake Marcus, Douglas; James Montez, Hanna; Jon Sorenson, Laramie.
The North roster should be out soon. The game is June 12, 2010, in Casper.
Calling Wednesday’s national signing day a quiet one in Wyoming is an understatement.
Actually, the silence is pronounced, as only a smattering of state athletes have made a commitment to play football at the college level.
Here’s the list I have so far; if you know of others who have made commitments to specific schools to continue their careers, either post it below in the comments section or e-mail me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.
List includes both written and verbal commitments:
Colton Blankenship, Wind River, Chadron State
Noah Creel, Kelly Walsh, Wyoming (walk-on)
Taylor Doherty, Kemmerer, Wyoming (walk-on)
Pierre Etchemendy, Douglas, Chadron State
Mike Hill, Lingle, Chadron State
Luke Knapton, Laramie, Wyoming (walk-on)
Tom Manning, Kelly Walsh, South Dakota
Drew Martinez, Green River, Wyoming
Colter Rood, Green River, Carroll College
Mitch Schlager, Torrington, Chadron State
Patrick Snead, Gillette, Chadron State
Austin Woodward, Sheridan, Wyoming (walk-on)
Just a quick post here to recognize the Rawlins girls basketball team, which ended a string of 76 consecutive losses by beating Newcastle last Saturday.
Rawlins Times SE Kirk Hanna put together a nice story about the Outlaws’ victory that has since been picked up by the AP — click here to read it.
I’ve got a little connection to the team, as I wrote a feature story about the streak last winter. Click here to read it.
The 76 consecutive losses is an unofficial state record, breaking the old unofficial mark of 63 straight losses the Kemmerer boys had in the late 1980s. In case you’re counting, it was 1,140 calendar days since Rawlins last won…. but now, no one has to count anymore.
–patrick
School: Greybull
Nickname: Buffaloes
Colors: blue and yellow
Stadium: Buffaloes Stadium
State championships: 1960
Times worth remembering: From 1960-62, the Buffs were the team everyone had to watch. The 1960 team went 10-1-1 and won the school’s only state championship. The 1961 team had an 8-0 regular season and was the top-ranked team in the state — regardless of classification — before a shocking loss to Buffalo, a team Greybull beat in the final week of the regular season, in the first round of the playoffs. In 1962, the Buffaloes went 8-0 and finished second to Laramie in the final statewide poll to decide a mythical state champion.
Times worth forgetting: Few schools have had the problems Greybull has had in maintaining success. The Buffs set the unofficial state record for consecutive losses with 35 from 1978-82, and also lost 29 straight from 1996-2000 and 27 straight from 1963-67. Eighteen of the 35 losses in the state record-setter were by shutout, but the 2000 season, in which the Buffs were outscored 288-6, was probably the toughest to get over.
Best team: Although the 1960 team was led by one of the best players in Wyoming history — future CFL star Tom Wilkinson — the 1962 team was probably Greybull’s best. Aside from a 19-7 win over Riverton, Greybull won every game by at least 20 points and didn’t allow any opponent more than seven points in any single game. Of the 11 first-team all-state positions in Class A, five went to Greybull players, an unheard-of ratio for that time. Six other players made second-team or honorable mention all-state.
Biggest win: When a school has but one state championship, the biggest win in school history seems pretty obvious. But the 1960 championship victory, a 14-7 win over Evanston, was not nearly as big as the two games the Buffaloes had to win the previous week to simply reach the title game. After tying with Lander for the Bighorn Basin championship, the Buffs beat the Tigers 33-7 in a Tuesday playoff for the right to play Buffalo four days later in the Class A semifinals. In that game, Greybull tied Buffalo 14-14 but advanced by winning the overtime period — setting the stage for the school’s only title-game victory to date.
Heartbreaker: There are a couple painful regular-season overtime losses that Greybull has suffered — a 22-14 loss to Lovell in 1987 and a 12-6 loss to Evanston in 1977 — that not only ruined the Buffaloes’ undefeated seasons, but also kept them out of the playoffs, as well. However, the 19-15 loss to Burns in the 1983 title game, which came after Greybull broke its 35-game losing streak in the season opener, is a tougher one to swallow. The Buffaloes not only missed out on the championship, but they haven’t been back to the title game since.