Follow developments faster than the speed of blog! We’re on Twitter now. You can follow wyoming-football.com @wyomingfootball. It will probably be more active during the season, but don’t wait until then to get on board!

–patrick

Some quick missing games updates from another round in the library:

Found the score for Lovell’s 33-6 loss to Billings Central, Mont., on Oct. 21, 1954

Found the score for Lingle’s 64-28 loss to Harrison, Neb., on Oct. 12, 1951

Found the score for Byron’s 36-13 victory over the Cody sophomores on Oct. 10, 1946

Byron’s victory was part of a long winning streak for the Eagles, now with 26 verified games. However, according to reports from that era, the streak actually pushes into the 40s and is probably Wyoming’s longest — but, thus far, only 26 games have been accounted for.

All of the updates have been made on all the relevant pages.

As an aside, research (going backward) has been “completed” through 1903. The only schools I can find with teams in this era are Cheyenne (Central) and Laramie, and I have run into years — especially with Laramie — where I can’t find any evidence of a team existing. That makes the research go fast (only searching for two schools) but also go slow (looking for something that may not even be there). Now that I am finished with grad school, my research should pick up quickly over the next week or so. Maybe even “done.”

–patrick

After 38 years in coaching — including the past 17 as the head football coach at Burns — Bill Fullmer is retiring.

Fullmer compiled a 58-79 record as head coach of the Broncs, a run that included a state championship and the only undefeated season in school history in 2008 (11-0). A native of Lingle, Fullmer has tallied more victories on the Burns sideline than any other coach in school history.

Fullmer confirmed his retirement in an email Tuesday.

Fullmer is also the activities director at Burns and has previously served on the board of directors of the Wyoming High School Activities Association. As of now, Fullmer said he plans on keeping the AD job at Burns but will retire from teaching and coaching.

Fullmer’s career has included stops at Sioux County, Neb., where he was the head coach for football, basketball and track for three years, Eastern Wyoming College and Newcastle. He has spent the past 27 years in Burns, including 17 as head football coach.

With 17 years of head coaching experience, Fullmer was the fourth-longest tenured active coach in the state. Only Cokeville’s Todd Dayton, Natrona’s Steve Harshman and Hulett’s Steve Colling had been the head coaches at their respective schools longer than Fullmer.

Fullmer is the sixth head coach in Wyoming to step down this offseason. New coaches have been hired at Rock Springs, Green River, Kelly Walsh and Torrington, while the head coaching position at Greybull remains open. Cheyenne South, which will play its first varsity season in 2011, is also searching for a head football coach.

Know of any other coaching changes in the state? Post a comment below or email me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick

Powell’s best season in school history just might be 1957.

That season, the Panthers went 11-0 on their way to winning the Class A championship, beating Rawlins 19-13 in the semifinals and Torrington 40-6 in the championship game — and both games were on the road.

But how good were these Panthers, really?

Now, you can see for yourself — thanks to the son of a former Powell player who has uploaded films of Powell’s two playoff games to YouTube.

The films were uploaded by Wesley Fryer, who noted on his Flickr account that his father, Tom Fryer, was Powell’s quarterback in both games. He also noted on his YouTube profile that the game film was digitized by Biff Beck, a PHS graduate from that era.

You can read more about the process of digitizing and uploading the films on Fryer’s blog by clicking here.

The videos. Please note that these were the Class A playoffs, not the Class 4A playoffs as listed on the videos:

First half of Rawlins-Powell semifinal (if it’s not showing up below, click here):

Second half of Rawlins-Powell semifinal (if it’s not showing up below, click here):

First half of Torrington-Powell championship (if it’s not showing up below, click here):

Second half of Torrington-Powell championship (if it’s not showing up below, click here):

There are plenty of interesting things to note about each video. What do you see that catches your eye? (I will post some more later about what interests me in these videos.)

This is a fantastic collection of videos; props to Mr. Fryer and Mr. Beck for taking the time to preserve and share them with the world. I would love to see more films like this from this era!

–patrick

Tom Jassman, a longtime assistant coach in Rock Springs, has been hired as the Tigers’ new head coach.

Jassman takes over for Tony Yerkovich, who resigned after seven years leading the team. Yerkovich went 19-47 with the Tigers.

Jassman takes over a team that went 2-7 last year and barely missed a Class 4A playoff spot.

Jassman is the second Class 4A coach to take over a program in 2011. Jon Vance was hired earlier this spring as the head coach at Kelly Walsh. Class 4A newcomer Cheyenne South is also looking for a head football coach.

A short biography on Jassman is available by clicking here.

Steve Core at KUGR radio in Green River reported the signing to wyoming-football.com this morning.

More details will be posted here as I receive them. If you know of any other open head football coaching positions in Wyoming, comment below or email me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick

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

A hodgepodge of updates that I’ve been collecting over the past couple weeks:

Updates:

Corrected the date and opponent and found the score for the Torrington JV’s 14-7 victory over Guernsey-Sunrise on Sept. 14, 1982

Found the date and location for Basin’s 22-0 home win over the Worland Institute on Sept. 16, 1953

Found the score for Hanna’s 14-10 victory over Guernsey on Oct. 20, 1944

Found the score of Newcastle’s 26-0 loss to Crawford, Neb., on Oct. 14, 1922

Found the Newcastle-Edgemont, S.D., game scheduled for Nov. 4, 1922, was canceled

Found the date for Newcastle’s 28-0 loss to Edgemont, S.D., on Oct. 21, 1921

I also removed two games I had listed in which teams did not field teams (to the best of my knowledge): a scheduled date between Big Horn and Dayton on Oct. 9, 1942 (Dayton did not field a team this year) and a scheduled date between Arvada-Clearmont and Ten Sleep on Oct. 11, 1963 (Arvada-Clearmont did not field a team this year).

Coaches Project: Updates for Laramie and Midwest.

Streaks: Noted two long losing streaks: Meeteetse’s 0-21 streak from 1947-51 and Guernsey’s 0-21 streak from 1922-30. Guernsey’s streak is not counted among the streaks due to a five-year gap in which the school did not field a football team.

All the updates have been made on all the relevant pages.

–patrick

Don Maggi will be the new football coach in Green River.

Maggi was the offensive coordinator at Natrona County (see bio here).

Maggi takes over for Darren Howard, who was 22-19 in four years with the Wolves, including a state runner-up finish in 2008. Howard is taking an administrative position at Green River High. The Wolves were 2-8 last year but will be moving from Class 4A to Class 3A in 2012.

This is the fifth head coach opening in the state this year; openings at Kelly Walsh and Torrington have already been filled, while openings at Rock Springs and Greybull, last I knew, were still open.

The Green River opening is an attractive one for several reasons — one of those is all the experience in the building. Former Wolf coaches Howard, Jason Fuss and Tom Wilson are all now in administrative positions at the school.

Maggi will also teach social studies at GRHS.

Wilson announced the hiring in a press release on Tuesday. The Casper Star-Tribune reported the hiring; see the CST story here.

Know of any other openings in the state? Let me know here or email me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick

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