Worland has hired Thor Ware to be its next football coach.

The school hired Ware in March. Ware will also teach math at Worland.

Prior to coming to Worland, Ware spent two years as the head coach at Sugar-Salem in Sugar City, Idaho, where he went 11-8. Before Sugar-Salem, he was the head coach for 11 years at Rainier High in Oregon. At Rainier, Ware compiled an overall record of 73-33, including a state championship in 2010. He was also an assistant coach in Oregon and Texas.

Ware is Worland’s fourth head coach in four years. He replaces the co-coaches Josh Garcia and Bryan Bailey, who led Worland for one season together after former coach Curt Mayer unexpectedly resigned shortly before the beginning of the season. Worland went 3-6 last year.

To see the list of all coaching changes statewide, click here.

–patrick

Team Wyoming will play for its third consecutive victory in the Six-man Shootout when it plays Team Nebraska on Saturday.

Wyoming won last year’s game 40-26 and won the inaugural game 54-52 in 2012.

The game will be at noon (MDT) Saturday in Bladen, Nebraska.

Rosters for the game are here. Wyoming will play the game with 17 players, as Hulett’s Wyatt Bears will not play in the game.

–patrick

Rock Springs’ Nick Blume broke two longstanding individual Shrine Bowl records on Saturday.

The South team, led by Blume and quarterback Austyn Matthews of Douglas, also set several unofficial team records despite losing 41-13 to the North in the annual all-star football game in Casper.

Blume broke two 30-year-old Shrine Bowl records with 168 receiving yards and 13 catches, breaking the mark set by Sheridan’s Chuck Johnson of 151 yards on eight catches from 1984.

Matthews set a South team record for total offense (312 total yards, 289 passing and 23 rushing), pass attempts (39), passing yards (289). The South also set team records for pass attempts (56), pass completions (31) and passing yards (342).

The North team tied team records with five offensive touchdowns and six total touchdowns and set a new team record with 41 points.

The North now leads the all-time series 20-18-3.

Game stories from the Casper Star-Tribune and the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle have more details about the game, and you can see all the unofficial Shrine Bowl records here.

Thanks to Jeremiah Johnke of the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle for providing the game box score!

Update, 1:58 p.m. June 16: Here’s a copy of the game statistics sheets (PDF) courtesy of Shrine Bowl Executive Director John Cundall.

–patrick

The 41st annual Shrine Bowl all-star football game will be played at 7 p.m. Saturday in Casper.

Teams joined together Saturday and made the annual trip to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Salt Lake City early in the week. Last year’s game raised $20,000 for Shrine Hospitals.

The North won last year’s game 34-6 and leads the all-time series 19-18-3. Shrine Bowl results and unofficial records are listed here.

The rosters for the game are as follows:

NORTH
Big Horn: Colter Carzoli.
Buffalo: Jeremia Nicholson.
Burlington: Preston Wardell.
Cody: David Lee.
Dubois: Sterling Baker.
Gillette: Austin Fort, Bryce Lyman, Billy Williams.
Hulett: Story Penning.
Kelly Walsh: Kirk Durtsche, Jake Geil.
Lander: Jack Mazurie.
Lovell: Hyrum Hopkin, Dillon Pickett.
Midwest: Cameron Ray.
Natrona: Michael Bailey, Brad Gillis, Josh Seghetti, Tyler Trout, Sam Turner.
Newcastle: Merritt Crabtree, Wade Gordon.
Powell: Hayden Cragoe, Anthony Lujan, Garrett Lynch, Garrett Michael.
Riverton: Logan Hartbank, Austin Patterson.
Rocky Mountain: Joey Jewell.
Sheridan: Nick Gill, Justin Orum, Daniel Sessions.
Thermopolis: Kaden Haun.
Upton-Sundance: Lane Carter.
Wright: Kodiak French, Daniel Magana.

SOUTH
Big Piney: Garrett Formo.
Burns
: Mikky Heward, Travis Romsa.
Cheyenne Central: Damon Macleary, Grayson Sipe, Judd Stewart.
Cheyenne East: Shane Brooks, Clinton Jaure, Brett Schaeffer, Eric Williams.
Cheyenne South: Adam Haberkorn.
Cokeville: Cody Nate.
Douglas: Logan Barker, Garrett Boner, Austyn Matthews, Layne McGuire, Chance Miller.
Evanston: Cole Wilkinson.
Glenrock: Devon Parkinson.
Green River: Garrett Wilson.
Lingle: Wyatt Hageman.
Lusk: Hunter Dockery, Matthew VandeBossche.
Lyman: Landen Bradshaw, Tui Magalogo.
Mountain View: Brennan Walk, Trystin Walker.
Rock Springs: Nick Blume.
Southeast: Travis Jinks, Wyatt Somsen.
Star Valley: Bryan Burton, Sam Gertsch, Garrett Gregg.
Torrington: Caden Coffelt, Brett Spencer.
Wheatland: Critter Ruwart.

–patrick

Assistant coach John Rounds has been promoted to be the new head football coach at Lander.

Rounds, who has previously been Lander’s offensive line and linebackers coach, replaces Doug Hughes, who became the school’s activities director. Hughes went 26-29 in six years as head coach, qualifying for the playoffs six years in a row but never making it past the quarterfinals.

Rounds is also a business teacher at Lander and advises the school’s Future Business Leaders of America group.

To see the list of all coaching changes statewide, click here.

–patrick

In each of the past two years, a coach in his first year as a head coach at his school has taken his team to War Memorial Stadium and has come away with a state championship.

Two years ago, Lyman’s Dale Anderson led the Eagles to a state championship in his first year as head coach in the Bridger Valley. Last year, Meeteetse’s Matt Jensen did the same with the Longhorns.

But they haven’t been alone. In all, 26 coaches have won state titles in Wyoming in their first season as head coach of their respective squads.

Three times, coaches in their first years have won state championships in the same season — most recently in 2009, when first-year-with-team coaches Chuck Syverson (Thermopolis) and Casey Moats (Guernsey-Sunrise) both led their squads to state titles.

Coaches who won a state title in their first year as head coach of their respective teams:

Lew Kelly, Worland 1924
Dean Mickelwait, Natrona 1928
Okie Blanchard, Natrona 1937
Walter Dowler, Cheyenne Central 1941
Eddie Talboom, Evanston 1951
Paul Briggs, Natrona 1951
Grant Smith, Cowley 1955
Al Peyton, Tongue River 1956
Harry Geldien, Natrona 1957
Bill Sollars, Shoshoni 1959
Wimp Hewgley, Worland 1959
Fran Gillette, Powell 1967
Denny Brown, Byron 1968
Scott Nielsen, Cokeville 1969
Art Kissack, Cheyenne East 1970
Kay Fackrell, Lyman 1976
Jim McLeod, Cheyenne Central 1979
Jim Rooks, Jackson 1981
Van Hokanson, Star Valley 1982
Jim Hissong, Mountain View 1984
Mark Bullington, Southeast 1999
Alan Frank, Guernsey-Sunrise 2006
Casey Moats, Guernsey-Sunrise 2009
Chuck Syverson, Thermopolis 2009
Dale Anderson, Lyman 2012
Matt Jensen, Meeteetse 2013
(Honorable mention: Ray Kumpula, Glenrock 2002, who won a state title after five years away from being the head coach at Glenrock.)

+++

The number of coaches who entered on top only barely outnumbers the number of coaches who left on top.

A total of 25 Wyoming head coaches have stepped down (or moved on or retired) after a championship season. This number of 25 includes two instances of the same coach leaving his school after a state championship — current Tongue River coach John Scott left Kemmerer after leading the Rangers to a state title in 1994 and did the same after helping Gillette win a state championship in 2000.

However, “leaving on top” hasn’t happened often recently. In fact, the last coach to do so was Green River’s Jason Fuss, who stepped aside after leading Green River to a state title in 2004.

Coaches whose final year at a school was a state championship year

Oscar “Oc” Erickson, Sheridan 1931
Okie Blanchard, Natrona 1939
Walter Dowler, Rock Springs 1940
Fred Chez, Sheridan 1940
Eddie Talboom, Evanston 1951
George Dorrington, Hanna 1952
Grant Smith, Cowley 1955
Al Peyton, Tongue River 1956
Carl Rollins, Sheridan 1958
Wimp Hewgley, Worland 1959
Henry Eckroth, Greybull 1960
Vince Zimmer, Powell 1966
Rich Nelson, Glenrock 1968
Keith Dodd, Glenrock 1971
Art Van Renssalaer, St. Mary’s 1972
Jim House, Green River 1973
Rod Flack, Kelly Walsh 1981
Jim McLeod, Cheyenne Central 1989
Ray Face, Worland 1989
Rick VanCleeve, Thermopolis 1992
Bruce Keith, Sheridan 1993
John Scott, Kemmerer 1994
Kay Fackrell, Evanston 1997
John Scott, Gillette 2000
Jason Fuss, Green River 2004

+++

Some of the names from the first list repeat on the second — and with good reason.

Evanston’s Eddie Talboom (1951), Cowley’s Grant Smith (1955), Tongue River’s Al Peyton (1956) and Worland’s Wimp Hewgley (1959) won state championships in their only years as the head coach of those schools. Talboom went on to coach at Rock Springs, winning a state title with the Tigers in 1959. Peyton — who was the coach at Ranchester before taking over for the consolidated Eagles in the championship season in 1956 — left to coach at Shoshoni. Smith and Hewgley, meanwhile, were never again head football coaches in the state.

Okie Blanchard and and Jim McLeod, meanwhile, both came in and left on top in their stops at Natrona and Cheyenne Central, respectively. Blanchard won titles in his first (1937) and last (1939) years at Natrona, while McLeod won championships in his first (1979) and last (1989) years at Central.

Kay Fackrell pulled off a similar feat — he won a state title in his first year with Lyman (1976) and in his last year with Evanston (1997).

On the opposite end of this spectrum is Walter Dowler. Dowler won a state championship with Rock Springs in 1940, then left for Cheyenne Central, where he won a state title with the Indians the next year. Coaching against numerous former players, Dowler’s Indians beat the Tigers 8-7 in the second game of the 1941 season.

No school has had a tougher time keeping ahold of a championship-caliber coach than Sheridan. Four times, the Sheridan coach has left the Broncs after leading them to a state championship: 1931 (Oc Erickson), 1940 (Fred Chez), 1958 (Carl Rollins) and 1993 (Bruce Keith). No other school has lost more than two coaches after a championship season.

This season, at least seven Wyoming high schools will take the field with new head coaches. Will one of them continue the trend we’ve seen the past two years of coaches winning a state championship in their first year as head coach of that team?

–patrick

Josh Seghetti of Natrona County High School is the latest addition to the Shrine Bowl’s North squad.

Seghetti will replace Kris Adams of Gillette, the game’s executive director, John Cundall, said via email.

The annual all-star football game is scheduled for June 14 in Casper.

–patrick

Terrance Reese will be the head coach for Rock River’s first varsity football season.

Reese was an assistant coach for the Rock River girls basketball team and was previously an assistant on the football coaching staff at Laramie. He has also coached youth football in Laramie.

Rock River is playing six-man varsity football for the first time in 2014. The Longhorns have played sub-varsity seasons the past two years.

Rock River ADs Edna Sanchez and Kelly Vallier verified the hiring via email to wyoming-football.com.

Reese replaces Ray Moore, who was the Longhorns’ coach for their sub-varsity season last year. Moore resigned after he was arrested and charged with felony sexual assault of a minor in February.

To see the list of all coaching changes statewide, click here.

–patrick