I was prompted last week to compile some out-of-state series records to go with the in-state ones I compiled last month (see the result of that research here and here).

First, a disclaimer: Keep in mind that for all the numbers I mention below, I’m counting varsity vs. varsity games only. Games where Wyoming varsity teams played out-of-state JV or sophomore teams aren’t counted in these totals.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well Wyoming has done against out-of-state foes. Total, Wyoming actually has a winning record against out-of-state teams: 1471 victories, 1416 losses, 99 ties, a winning percentage of .509.

Per state, Wyoming’s records break down this way:

Utah: Wyoming leads 120-91-2 (.568)
South Dakota: Wyoming leads 402-329-28 (.548)
Idaho: Wyoming leads 143-126-8 (.531)
Montana: tied 223-223-15 (.500)
Nebraska: Wyoming trails 370-413-18 (.473)
Colorado: Wyoming trails 205-231-28 (.472)
North Dakota: tied 2-2
Alberta: Wyoming leads 2-0
Saskatchewan: Wyoming leads 2-0
Minnesota: Wyoming leads 1-0
Texas: Wyoming leads 1-0
Kansas: Wyoming trails 0-1
(List edited from original post to show Texas series)

The state Wyoming schools have played more times than any other is Nebraska, with 801 total varsity vs. varsity contests. South Dakota is second with 759; Colorado (464), Idaho (277) and Utah (213) bring up the pack.

The most-played out-of-state series is the one between Sheridan and Billings/Billings Senior, Mont. The two Bronc squads have played 59 times, and the Billings squad leads the series 39-18-2. The two schools have not played each other since 1969.

Other out-of-state leading series are:

Nebraska: Torrington-Gering, 51 games, tied 24-24-3 (last meeting 2008)
South Dakota: Newcastle-Custer, 44 games, Newcastle trails 16-25-3 (last meeting 2011)
Colorado: Cheyenne Central-Fort Collins, 40 games, Central trails 16-23-1 (last meeting 1985)
Idaho: Jackson-Teton, 31 games, Jackson leads 16-14-1 (last meeting 2011)
Utah: Kemmerer-Rich County, 19 games, Kemmerer trails 9-10 (last meeting 2008)

For Ted.

–patrick

School shopping — defined as a head coach leaving a position at one school to take a head coaching position at another school in the year after — used to be common practice in Wyoming high schools.

Not so much anymore.

Sometimes, coaches have come to — or left — Wyoming in a school shopping mode. But leaving the head coaching position at one Wyoming school for the head spot at another in-state school has become increasingly rare.

Certainly, other factors play into shifting coaching jobs, among them other career and family goals. But it is interesting to note how little it happens nowadays, especially when you consider how common it was 40 or 50 years ago.

Some of Wyoming’s most successful coaches switched one in-state head spot for another in successive years. John Deti Sr., John Deti Jr., John McDougall, Okie Blanchard, Dallas Hoff, Art Hill and Kay Fackrell all did so, and all of these men are on the list — the quite short list — of Wyoming coaches who have more than 100 victories in their careers.

This year, for the first time since Don Dinnel’s move from Rawlins to Evanston in 2005, we have a coach moving from one head coaching position to another, as Ted Holmstrom makes the move from head coach at Lyman to head coach at Laramie.

However, despite the technique’s fairly common use in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, it’s only been done 13 times by 11 coaches since 1980 and only three times since 1995 (John Cundall going from Gillette to Greybull in 2004, and Dinnel going from Mountain View to Rawlins in 2003 and from Rawlins to Evanston in 2005).

For comparison, the in-state switch was done 22 times in the 1940s, 12 times in the 1950s, 20 times in the 1960s and 14 times in the 1970s.

The 13 most recent coaches to swap head coaching positions in-state:

Don Dinnel, Rawlins to Evanston, 2005
John Cundall, Gillette to Greybull, 2004
Don Dinnel, Mountain View to Rawlins, 2003
Stephen Bailey, Ten Sleep to Meeteetse, 1995
John Scott, Kemmerer to Gillette, 1995
Rich Steege, Burns to Pinedale, 1994
Paul Colgate, Lander to Gillette, 1990
Gary Glenn, Riverton to Douglas, 1990
Craig Nelson, Lovell to Lyman, 1989
Dwayne Trembly, Seton (St. Mary’s) to Cheyenne East, 1989
Hunter Short, Meeteetse to Newcastle, 1988
Hunter Short, Douglas to Meeteetse, 1986
Jim Keen, Powell to Cheyenne East, 1982

The changes are a small but interesting footnote to Wyoming high school football. Many changes were not “up,” to bigger or more successful programs; in fact, a lot of changes were pulled off by coaches who wanted to move to smaller or less successful programs, where the pressure was not as intense. In many ways, these changes reflect the men more than the programs and tell more of a personal story than they tell a football story.

–patrick

I wrote a blog post last week detailing some interesting findings I had from analyzing Wyoming’s high school football series records. One of the cool side projects of this research was finding out who each school had played the most. That’s what I’ve posted below.

For in-state opponents only, the top opponents for each active Wyoming high school (and the series record, in parentheses) are:

Class 4A
Cheyenne Central: Laramie, 127 games (CC 63-58-6)
Cheyenne East: Central, 60 games (CC 41-19)
Cheyenne South: the nine opponents they had in 2010, one game apiece (South trails all series 1-0)
Evanston: Green River, 94 games (GR 57-31-6)
Gillette: Buffalo, 73 games (Buf 35-31-7)
Kelly Walsh: Gillette, 50 games (Gil 30-20)
Laramie: Central, 127 games (CC 63-58-6)
Natrona County: Sheridan, 99 games (NC 52-41-6)
Rock Springs: Green River, 96 games (RS 60-32-4)
Sheridan: Natrona, 99 games (NC 52-41-6)

Class 3A
Buffalo: Gillette, 73 games (Buf 35-31-7)
Cody: Powell, 111 games (Cody 59-48-4)
Douglas: Wheatland, 95 games (Dou 56-36-3)
Green River: Rock Springs, 96 games (RS 60-32-4)
Jackson: Star Valley, 74 games (SV 60-14)
Lander: Riverton, 115 games (Riv 58-50-7)
Powell: Cody, 111 games (Cod 59-48-4)
Rawlins: Rock Springs, 77 games (RS 52-22-3)
Riverton: Lander, 115 games (Riv 58-50-7)
Star Valley: Evanston, 88 games (SV 49-35-4)
Torrington: Wheatland, 93 games (Tor 73-19-1)
Worland: Thermopolis, 97 games (Wor 58-34-5)

Class 2A
Big Horn: Tongue River, 53 games (TR 33-19-1)
Big Piney: Pinedale, 97 games (BP 54-43)
Burns: Pine Bluffs, 47 games (PB 28-19)
Glenrock: Newcastle, 38 games (Glk 23-15)
Greybull: Lovell, 84 games (Lov 53-27-4)
Kemmerer: Evanston, 76 games (Eva 47-27-2)
Lovell: Powell, 85 games (Pow 52-31-2)
Lyman: Big Piney, 76 games (BP 44-31-1)
Moorcroft: Sundance, 62 games (Mor 36-26)
Mountain View: Lyman, 72 games (MV 42-30)
Newcastle: Buffalo, 67 games (Buf 40-26-1)
Pinedale: Big Piney, 97 games (BP 54-43)
Thermopolis: Worland, 97 games (Wor 58-34-5)
Tongue River: Big Horn, 53 games (TR 33-19-1)
Wheatland: Douglas, 95 games (Dou 56-36-3)
Wright: Moorcroft, 26 games (Wri 15-11)

Class 1A 11-man
Burlington: Meeteetse, 55 games (Brl 29-22-4)
Cokeville: Big Piney, 65 games (Cok 34-31)
Lingle: Pine Bluffs, 60 games (Lin 36-22-2)
Lusk: Douglas, 56 games (Dou 37-18-1)
Normative Services: Upton, 12 games (Upt 9-3)
Pine Bluffs: Lingle, 60 games (Lin 36-22-2)
Riverside: Greybull, 25 games (Rsd 13-12)
Rocky Mountain: Greybull, 25 games (RM 13-12)
Saratoga: Hanna, 50 games (Sar 31-19)
Shoshoni: Wind River, 46 games (WR 27-19)
Southeast: Pine Bluffs, 36 games (SE 26-10)
Sundance: Upton, 75 games (Upt 38-32-5)
Upton: Sundance, 75 games (Upt 38-32-5)
Wind River: Shoshoni, 46 games (WR 27-19)
Wyoming Indian: Dubois, 34 games (Dub 23-11)

Class 1A six-man
Dubois: Shoshoni, 40 games (Sho 25-15)
Farson: Pinedale, 15 games (Pin 9-4-2)
Guernsey-Sunrise: Lingle, 47 games (Lin 25-22)
Hanna: Saratoga, 50 games (Sar 31-19)
Hulett: Sundance, 52 games (Sun 37-15)
Kaycee: Midwest and Snake River, 5 games each (Kay 3-2 over Mid, SR 4-1)
Meeteetse: Burlington, 55 games (Brl 29-22-4)
Midwest: Upton, 57 games (Upt 33-22-2)
Snake River: Hanna, 10 games (Han 7-3)
Ten Sleep: Burlington, 52 games (Brl 28-24)

–patrick

Prior to the 2011 season, I compiled series records for all series that would be continued that year. At the time, I kicked around the idea of compiling series records for all teams against their in-state opponents to see which series really are the most played.

Well, spring break was a couple weeks ago… and I tallied. This is, in part, what I came up with.

Seventeen in-state series have at least 80 games played. In descending order of total games, they include:

1. Cheyenne Central-Laramie: Central leads 63-58-6 (127 total games)

2. Riverton-Lander: Riverton leads 58-50-7 (115 total games)

3. Cody-Powell: Cody leads 59-48-4 (111 total games)

4. Natrona-Sheridan: Natrona leads 52-41-6 (99 total games)

5. Natrona-Cheyenne Central: Natrona leads 48-47-3 (98 total games)

6t. Worland-Thermopolis: Worland leads 58-34-5 (97 total games)

6t. Big Piney-Pinedale: Big Piney leads 54-43 (97 total games)

8. Rock Springs-Green River: Rock Springs leads 60-32-4 (96 total games)

9. Douglas-Wheatland: Douglas leads 56-36-3 (95 total games)

10. Green River-Evanston: Green River leads 57-31-6 (94 total games)

11. Torrington-Wheatland: Torrington leads 73-19-1 (93 total games)

12. Star Valley-Evanston: Star Valley leads 49-35-4 (88 total games)

13. Powell-Lovell: Powell leads 52-31-2 (85 total games)

14. Lovell-Greybull: Lovell leads 53-27-4 (84 total games)

15. Torrington-Douglas: Torrington leads 54-27-2 (83 total games)

16. Worland-Lander: Worland leads 43-37-1 (81 total games)

17. Natrona-Laramie: Natrona leads 45-34-1 (80 total games)

In all, 81 in-state series have at least 50 games played (in-state series only). Those series incorporate all but 16 of the state’s 62 schools. Of the programs that ware actually around 50 years ago, only two haven’t played in a series that incorporates 50 total games (Glenrock and Shoshoni).

Some other stats I thought were kind of cool:

Eternal optimist award (so you’re telling me there’s a chance!): St. Mary’s and Dubois. They play in the two most one-sided series of all time. The Gaels “win” top honor for their series with Torrington; St. Mary’s is 0-21 all-time against the Trailblazers. Meanwhile, Dubois is close behind for its series against Cokeville, a series the Rams trail 0-20.

Cup-of-coffee award (that one time makes the other 30 worth it): Torrington. The Trailblazers have played Cheyenne Central 31 times and have a 1-30 record against the Indians. Runner-up award goes to Saratoga for its series against Big Piney; the Punchers and Panthers have played 24 times, with the Panthers winning once and tying once.

Look in the mirror award: Riverton and Cody. The all-time series between the Wolverines and Broncs is tied at 33-33-2. At 68 games, it’s the most-played series that is tied heading into 2012. Of course, Natrona and Central — No. 5 on the list above — shared this award prior to last season.

More on series records later this week….

–patrick

The Wyoming and Nebraska rosters for the first “Six-man Shootout” all-star football game have been set.

The first game is scheduled for June 30 in Arthur, Neb., Wyoming coach Michael Bates of Snake River said.

The roster from Wyoming includes 20 total players, including four players from Snake River (Daniel Wille, Rex Stanley, Miles Engelhart, O.B. Ready), four from Kaycee (Jordan Largent, Chase Gosney, Lane Robinson, Cody Wells), three from Midwest (Adam VanNorman, Chad Rinker, Ty Fenster), two from Ten Sleep (Kolter Hughes, Skyler Stephenson), two from Dubois (Mitchell Baker, Tyrell Finley), two from Guernsey (Taylor Girard, Chris Orr), two from Hulett (Austin Snook, Cooper Letellier) and one from Hanna (Wyatt Houston).

Bates will be Wyoming’s head coach; the offensive coordinator is Kaycee coach Dustin Sipe and the defensive coordinator is Midwest’s Ken Swieter.

Nebraska’s roster includes 18 players: Arthur County’s Jordan Trimble, Hunter Walker and Brad Vasa; Hitchcock County’s Cale Brown, Gabe Ware and Alex Pollman; Lynch’s Cameron Goldman; Sioux County’s Sean Grote; Loup County’s Tyler Barta, Brandon Barker and Tyrel Hinton; Wheeler Central’s Matt Olson; Greeley/Wolbach’s Brett Ryan; Cedar Rapids’ Tyler Hellbusch; Elkhorn Valley’s Bryce Potter and Arcadia’s Matthew Quick. The Nebraska head coach is Scott Tribmle of Arthur County.

Arthur County was Nebraska’s six-man state champion in 2011; Trimble and Brown were named honorary co-captains of Nebraska’s all-state six-man team, which was selected in November.

–patrick