Week 0 picks

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Welcome to zero week — the most secretive week of the Wyoming high school football season.

Oh, sure, games are scheduled. So are some jamborees and scrimmages. But verifying what’s what is definitely a pain, at least for me.

My displeasure with the opening weekend of football season has been voiced on more than one occasion (click here and here to see past rants). Don’t get me wrong here — I love the chance that Wyoming’s teams from the smaller schools have with this week. For me, though, it’s a logistical nightmare. That’s really my only beef with it — it’s inconvenient for me to have to figure out what’s a game, what’s a scrimmage, who’s taking the week off and what I count.

It reached a frustrating peak for me this week when I called a school to try and figure out if the school’s football team was playing this weekend. That school’s representatives refused to tell me if the team was playing or not until I answered a series of questions — who I was, why I wanted to know, why I cared. Even then, the secrecy surrounding what should be a fun way to start the season was unnerving and, frankly, insulting. I eventually gave up — I felt so uncomfortable by the questioning that I just hung up. (By the way, I eventually got the information from another school that was more than happy to help. Mad props to not being weird about it.)

But never mind my problems. The players don’t care about those. This is supposed to be a fun week, and in the right situations, it is. Minus the Class 4A’s official start to the season, this week gives teams chances to experiment, to have some fun going against someone other than their teammates and to see just what is in store for the next eight to 11 weeks. That’s cool.

As a reminder for what I do in the way of record-keeping during this week: I keep track of games. Games execute normal timing rules, use officials and keep score. If it meets those criteria, I count the game in a team’s win-loss record. Below I’ve picked the winners for the games and posted the remainder of the schedule along with it. Remember, projected winners are in bold.

If you see any discrepancies between your knowledge and the schedule I have posted below, please let me know ASAP so I can set it straight. After all, me calling the school directly might lead to a list of questions of which the FBI would be proud.

Games
Friday
Class 4A
Cheyenne Central at Natrona: Having a game this big this early in the season is a real treat. I am really excited to see how this game turns out, because the winner receives an automatic target on its collective back. The loser avoids the target. Both options are dangerous when handed to good teams — and the Indians and Mustangs both plan on being quite good this year. 7 p.m.
Evanston at Gillette: Both teams have generated some unique buzz around them this offseason. Can Evanston flourish under a new coach? Can Gillette replace all of its talented players that graduated? Lots of questions will be answered in this one. 7 p.m.
Green River at Cheyenne East: I will wander over the hill to Cheyenne to check this one out on Friday. I’m anticipating a fantastic game — I think Green River is underestimated and I think East has expectations no team coming off a 2-7 season should have to endure. 6 p.m.
Laramie at Rock Springs: Both teams will be trying out some inexperienced players in some new positions. That means this game could swing on one big play — and that should make it a really fun game to attend. 7 p.m.
Sheridan at Kelly Walsh: The Trojans have to be eager to have their rematch with the Broncs so early in the season. Remember, KW was only two points away from playing at the War last year. But Sheridan is the defending champ and they, too, are eager to start the season strong. I’ll give the edge to the Broncs, but not by much. 7 p.m.
Class 2A
Lovell at Thermopolis: Can the Bobcats go on another run like they did last year? This intriguing game against the Bulldogs in the opener will help answer that question. (PS — I LOVE this game. The two schools made an effort to really get the full potential out of Zero Week by scheduling this one and I was thrilled to see it on the schedule. Mad props to both schools.) 7 p.m.
Interclass
Greybull at Riverside: After four consecutive losses — a streak snapped by Greybull’s win over Riverside last year — the old rivalry between the Buffs and Rebels might finally be swinging back Greybull’s way. (Another excellent example of fully realizing the potential of the openness of zero week. Mad props to both schools for keeping this rivalry going.) 7:30 p.m.
Interstate
Lyman at Altamont, Utah: Altamont is consistently one of the better teams in Utah. Lyman will get tested in this one — but it will also give the Eagles a great opportunity to gear up for the season and will definitely make them a better team. 7 p.m.
Newcastle at Custer, S.D.: Last season, Newcastle beat Custer for the first time since 1991 by topping the Wildcats in double overtime in zero week. I’m sure Custer remembers — and wants revenge. 6 p.m.
Rich County, Utah, at Mountain View: Rich County consistently puts out one of Utah’s top small-school teams. Mountain View can win it, but the Buffs need the sort of consistency in this game that the Rebels tend to have game in and game out. 4 p.m.
Saturday
Class 3A
Jackson at Riverton: This one should be fun. Both teams are a bit under the radar this fall, but they both have potential to be huge spoilers in 3A this fall. That said, I think Riverton could be the least talked-about dangerous team in the classification this year. We’ll see, at least in part, on Saturday. 1 p.m.
Interclass
Hulett at Midwest  (six-man): A last-minute addition to the schedule after Hulett couldn’t  field an 11-man team, this game might give the Red Devils a taste of the game that they might play full-time for the next couple years. 1 p.m.
Southeast at Cheyenne East JV: The four-time defending state champs start the quest for “one for the thumb”… even though as a player you can only win four titles in a four-year high school career… There goes that metaphor. Oh, well. 1 p.m.
Wind River at Big Piney: Another great zero week opportunity for two teams of about equal strength (on paper) to hash it out on the gridiron. By the way, did everyone forget about Big Piney? Looking at how the West is shaping up this fall, the Punchers could be fighting it out with Greybull for home-field advantage come their Week 7 showdown. Noon.
Interstate
Cody at Laurel, Mont.: Laurel has beaten Cody three out of the past four years. Even so, I’ll lean on the law of averages and a little home-state pride and call for the Broncs to pull the slight upset on the road. 7 p.m.
Powell at Miles City, Mont.: If you have the chance, get on up to Miles City on Saturday night. This could be the best game of the week — especially if you appreciate good defense. Remember, these two teams played to a 7-0 score last year in Powell…. 7 p.m.

The remainder of the zero week schedule:

Scrimmages and Jamborees
Friday
Interclass
Cokeville, Kemmerer at Lander, 6 p.m.
Saturday
Big Horn, Glenrock, Normative Services, Rocky Mountain, Tongue River at Sheridan jamboree (at NSI), 9:30 a.m.
Burns, Lusk, Pine Bluffs, Torrington at Torrington jamboree, 9 a.m.
Cheyenne South, Saratoga, Wright at Casper (NCHS), 10 a.m.
Shoshoni at Wyoming Indian, 10 a.m.
Wheatland at Rawlins, 11 a.m.

Off: Buffalo, Burlington, Douglas, Dubois, Guernsey-Sunrise, Farson, Guernsey-Sunrise, Hanna, Kaycee, Lingle, Meeteetse, Moorcroft, Pinedale, Snake River, Star Valley, Sundance, Ten Sleep, Upton, Worland.

As always, remember that I do these picks to have a little fun. After all, we have to remember that, when we boil it down, we’re talking about children playing games. Don’t take it too seriously and hopefully you will have fun with it, too. 🙂

So there they are — the picks for opening weekend. Agree? Disagree? Something wrong with my schedule? Post your thoughts below, then let’s go enjoy some football (without the KGB-style questioning).

–patrick

Newsbreak: Class 4A, Central, Buffalo, Torrington

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Class 4A capsule preview (Casper Star-Tribune). … Josh Borm gives Central a nice weapon (Wyoming Tribune Eagle). … Buffalo balances offense with QB (Buffalo Bulletin). … Torrington hosts jamboree (Torrington Telegram).

–patrick

Hulett forfeits 2010 season

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Hulett will not field a varsity football team in 2010.

Micki Tucker, activities director at Hulett, said in an e-mail the Red Devils had trouble fielding a full team for the 2010 season. She also said a sub-varsity schedule for the Red Devils is still in the planning stages.

The Wyoming High School Activities Association will tally the games as forfeit losses for Hulett, Associate Commissioner Trevor Wilson said. Hulett is in the Class 1A 11-man East Conference.

The eight teams on Hulett’s schedule for this fall can fill the open week with another game, although the game will be a non-conference game and will not count toward playoff seeding. (When teams officially schedule new opponents, I will post that information here and will also update the 2010 schedule and results page.)

The Red Devils went 4-4 last season, but missed out on a playoff spot after losing their season finale to Pine Bluffs, 22-20.

Hulett had moderate success in the mid-1990s, finishing as state runners-up in Class 1A nine-man in 1992, 1993 and 1994 and in Class 1A Division II in 1996. The Red Devils advanced to the state semifinals as recently as 2008 in Class 1A.

The program last failed to field a team in 1982. The Red Devils also played a sub-varsity schedule in 1981.

–patrick

Five Minute Introduction: Shoshoni

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School: Shoshoni
Nickname: Wranglers
Colors: blue and yellow
Stadium: Bailey Field
State championships: 1959 and 1985
Times worth remembering: There’s a reason why Shoshoni’s field is named after coach Harold Bailey. From 1976-87, the Wranglers didn’t have a losing season, compiling an overall record of 75-22, including a 9-1 1985 season that culminated in the Wranglers’ second state championship.
Times worth forgetting: When Bailey took over the program in 1975, he was assuming the reins of a squad that won just one game in the previous three seasons. The 1972 Shoshoni team went 1-8, but somehow it got worse. The 1973 team went 0-8-1, but somehow it got worse. The 1974 team went 0-9, and finally it couldn’t get any worse.
Best team: Led by speedy, shifty junior Orlando Cordova in the backfield, the 1959 Wranglers were rarely challenged on their way to the Class B championship. Shoshoni’s biggest win of the season came in the first game of the year, a 13-7 thriller over perennial favorite Byron; from there, only St. Stephens put up any kind of challenge before Shoshoni again beat Byron in the championship game. On average, the Wranglers won by a 31-6 score — an offensive and defensive juggernaut unlike few others seen in the low-scoring 1950s.
Biggest win: After several close calls in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Wranglers finally won a state championship for coach Bailey in 1985, beating Seton 18-7 in the 2A title game. Shoshoni trailed 7-6 late but scored two touchdowns eight seconds apart in the final minute and 20 seconds to pull away. A six-yard scoring run by Jeff Campbell gave Shoshoni the lead and a nine-yard interception return for a touchdown by Lance Bolt on Seton’s first play of its subsequent drive sealed the championship.
Heartbreaker: Finally in the playoffs, Shoshoni let its best opportunity slip away by a single point. The Wranglers, despite 6-1 records in 1976 and 1977, couldn’t make it into the postseason, but those shortcomings helped fuel an 8-0 regular season in 1978. In the Class B semifinals against Cokeville, though, the Wranglers let that work slip through their fingers in a 7-6 loss. Despite outgaining the Panthers 203-161 and despite scoring first on a 65-yard pass from Rick Pingetzer to Russ Ackerman in the first quarter, the Wranglers couldn’t convert on the extra point — and that was all the margin Cokeville needed. Cokeville blasted Lingle in the championship game the next season; Shoshoni, which lost first-round playoff games in 1980 and 1984 before winning the state title in 1985, was left to lick its wounds.

Shoshoni team page.

2010 Wyoming high school football schedule (including kickoff times)

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I finally tracked down enough schedules to post a complete schedule of the 2010 season, complete with dates, start times and Zero Week plans. Click here to check it out. I will be posting scores and, maybe, standings on this page as the season progresses, so be sure to check it out throughout the season to see the changes.

–patrick

New ADM figures posted by WHSAA

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The Wyoming High School Activities Association this week posted the ADM figures for the next round of reclassification — decisions the group will make this fall to start in the fall of 2011. Click here to see them (Adobe Acrobat required).

Obviously, the ramifications of reclassification, and the new ADMs, go beyond football. The big change for fall 2011 will be the addition of Cheyenne South, which adds one more school into the jumble and presents some interesting new questions. I wrote at this time last year that the WHSAA has some tough decisions to make when it comes to South’s addition to football. The new numbers make it even more so….

Reclassification always causes some hang-ups along the line. This cycle, with South, makes it especially interesting.

For now, 4A football and conferences for the other 4A sports appear to be the most contentious subjects of reclassification this year.

In a nutshell, the WHSAA needs to decide on a number for 4A football, and every other classification decision can cascade down from there. Will 4A have 10 teams in it, like now, with South in 4A and Green River (now 12th in ADMs) bumped to 3A? Or will it have 11 — with Riverton (ADM 11th) forced in, or with Green River possibly opting up? Or will it have 12 with BOTH Riverton and Green River?

From there, deciding on the number of teams for 3A, 2A and 1A divisions will become much easier. Until then, we can’t really speculate on which teams will be in which classifications…

Oh, and one extra wrench for the WHSAA to deal with: South is not anticipating a varsity schedule in 2011, the first year of the new reclassification cycle.

This year is also the opportunity for 1A teams to decide if they want to play six-man or 11-man. Has anyone heard anything about current 11-man teams prepping for a move to six-man? Or vice-versa? Those decisions, too, will help guide the WHSAA’s decision-making for both classifications and conferences.

As for 4A conference  divisions — something that has dogged the WHSAA for the past four years, even though they try to stay out of it as much as possible and technically don’t even set conferences, only regions for regional tournaments — that gets fun with South coming in and Star Valley (ADM 13th) likely leaving to go back to 3A. It’s either really easy (Evanston, Riverton, Green River, Rock Springs and the two Casper schools in the West, Gillette, Sheridan, Laramie and the three Cheyenne schools in the East) or it’s really hard. Knowing how those discussions have gone over the past four years, it’ll be really hard.

Otherwise, everything else looks pretty straightforward for all sports except football. Star Valley with ADM 13 appears headed back to 3A for everything but football; Thermopolis, ranked 31st, will head back to 2A; and Lingle, hanging out in the 49th spot, will go to 1A for all except football.

For football, as explained earlier, the speculations about which teams might end up in which classifications is a little premature. But IF the WHSAA sticks with its 10-12-16 split for 4A, 3A and 2A, and IF no teams opt up or down, then it looks like Green River will move to 3A, Wheatland will go to 2A and Wyoming Indian will head to 1A.

(If you don’t know what ADM is, it stands for Average Daily Membership and it’s based on projected enrollment numbers. Check out the WHSAA front page to read up on that.)

The ADMs, with two-year averages (of course, you can click here and see the full numbers all pretty-like):

1. Gillette, 2,216
2. Natrona, 2,023
3. East, 1,556
4. Kelly Walsh, 1,447
5. Rock Springs, 1,397
6. Central, 1,352
7. Laramie, 1,040
8. Sheridan, 922
9. South, 910
10. Evanston, 900
11. Riverton, 777
12. Green River, 767
13. Star Valley, 734
14. Cody, 690
15. Jackson, 654
16. Lander, 502
17. Douglas, 500
18. Powell, 480
19. Rawlins, 478
20. Torrington, 389
21. Worland, 378
22. Buffalo, 345
23. Pinedale, 310
24. Wheatland, 286
25. Newcastle, 248
26. Mountain View, 226
27. Lyman, 225
28. Glenrock, 219
29. Lovell, 214
30. Big Piney, 203
31. Thermopolis, 201
32. Kemmerer, 183
33. Burns, 183
34. Wright, 178
35. Greybull, 167
36. Moorcroft, 163
37. Tongue River, 145
38. Big Horn, 140
39. Wind River, 132
40. Wyoming Indian, 124
41. Rocky Mountain, 117
42. Southeast, 117
43. Sundance, 113
44. Lusk, 113
45. Pine Bluffs, 109
46. Shoshoni, 103
47. Riverside, 97
48. Saratoga, 97
49. Lingle, 92
50. Upton, 85
51. Burlington, 80
52. Snake River, 71
53. Hanna, 71
54. St. Stephens, 70
55. Fort Washakie Charter, 65
56. Hulett, 64
57. Guernsey-Sunrise, 64
58. Cokeville, 63
59. Farson, 61
60. Normative Services, 60
61. Dubois, 58
62. Midwest, 55
63. Kaycee, 51
64. Arapaho Charter, 51
65. Ten Sleep, 39
66. Encampment, 36
67. Rock River, 33
68. Meeteetse, 33
69. Arvada-Clearmont, 33
70. Glendo, 20
71. Chugwater, 18

I love seeing the enrollment figures come out every two years — partly because where these numbers fall have a huge influence on what schools do for two years, partly because I’m a reclass nerd. Granted, enrollment numbers aren’t everything, as success is also determined by hard work, attitude, community support, etc., etc., blah blah blah. But they’re a big piece of the puzzle.

Thoughts? Ideas? Concerns? Questions? Post ’em below. I’m always down for a reclass chat.

–patrick