Midwest alums Cathy and Steve VanNorman hooked me up with some more Midwest game films from the early 1980s, including the first two Class 1A state championship games from 1983 and 1984. Score! I’ve added these games to my YouTube playlist of archived Midwest football game films:

1980 vs. Big Horn
1983 vs. Guernsey-Sunrise
1983 vs. Cokeville (1A state championship game)
1984 vs. Big Horn
1984 vs. Tongue River
1984 vs. Moorcroft
1984 vs. Burlington (1A semifinal)
1984 vs. Cokeville (1A state championship game)

With the earlier upload of Midwest football game videos, this now makes 92 MHS football games available online.

If you’ve got Wyoming varsity high school football game tapes around that you’d like digitized and posted to YouTube, let me know! I’m happy to help. I love seeing the game in its previous eras.

–patrick

Doug Spriggs will be the football coach in Rock River this year, wyosports.net has reported.

Rock River has had three coaches in the past few weeks, as Terrance Reese resigned in July and new coach Brandon Barba stepped down after the first week of practice.

Spriggs previously coached in Casper and at Riverside, Wyosports’ story said.

–patrick

I’m going to try something new tonight: a livestream! Chat Wyoming high school football with me in real time. Post comments and questions here, and I’ll answer them as I see them. Plus, it’s likely my cat will maeke an unscheduled cameo appearance!

http://www.youtube.com/user/pschmiedt/live

–patrick

No Class 4A team is more interesting this season than Rock Springs.

The Tigers went 5-5 last season — exactly middle-of-the-pack kind of stuff. But, boy, was it interesting.

Of Rock Springs’ 10 games, eight were decided by a possession or less. The Tigers won those close games against teams below them in the standings (14-13 against Laramie, 28-21 against Kelly Walsh, 28-27 against Evanston, 50-47 against Cheyenne South) and lost those close games against teams above them (13-7 against Cheyenne East, 20-12 against Sheridan, 19-14 against Natrona, 14-13 against East again).

That dichotomy — playing close against both the best and worst 4A teams in the state — made Rock Springs an intriguing team to watch in 2015. With a significant crew of players coming back from that squad, many people, including yours truly, think this can be the Tigers’ breakthrough season.

The first test? East: The team that beat Rock Springs twice by a combined seven points last season.

Conveniently, Rock Springs hosts East on Friday to open the season.

If Rock Springs can beat East, it may signal a shift in 4A’s power structure. Since 2011, Gillette, Cheyenne East, Natrona and Sheridan have been a combined 136-4 against the other six teams in the classification.

The Tigers know what they’re facing. They haven’t beaten a Big Four team since beating East in 2011, one of the four in that 136-4. They’ve come close, though, as last year showed.

Playing close is a good start, but last year, close ultimately went down as an “L” too many times for the Tigers to make that jump from middle-of-the-pack to title contender.

Last year, Rock Springs stormed the Big Four castle, but only got as far as tearing down the fence around the castle. For the Big Four, the Tigers were frustrating, and they exposed some weaknesses, but ultimately tearing down the fence didn’t affect the castle at all.

This year, the fence isn’t enough. The Tigers are aiming for the tower. And they might be able to slip past the moat in the season opener….

+++

As usual, picks are below, with teams in bold the teams I’m prognosticating as the winners of said games. For a full season schedule with kickoff times, click here.

Games
Friday
Class 4A
Cheyenne Central at Natrona
Cheyenne East at Rock Springs
Evanston at Cheyenne South
Kelly Walsh at Gillette
Laramie at Sheridan
Class 1A six-man
Hulett at Meeteetse
Interstate
Jackson at Teton, Idaho
Juab, Utah, at Star Valley
Lead, S.D., at Upton-Sundance
Lyman at Altamont, Utah
Moffat County, Colo., at Rawlins
Newcastle at Custer, S.D.
Powell at Miles City, Mont.

Scrimmages and Jamborees
Friday: Cokeville at Kemmerer; Farson at Evanston JV; Greybull at Shoshoni; Mountain View at Green River; Pine Bluffs, Torrington at Glenrock; Pinedale at Big Piney; Riverton at Cody; Thermopolis at Lander; Wind River at Lander JV.
Saturday: Douglas, Southeast at Wheatland; Dubois, Midwest, Snake River jamboree (at Natrona); Guernsey-Sunrise, Riverside, Ten Sleep at Kaycee; Lovell at Buffalo; Lusk at Burns; Moorcroft, Wright at Big Horn; Rocky Mountain at Powell JV.
Off: Burlington, Hanna, Lingle, Normative Services, Rock River, St. Stephens, Saratoga, Tongue River, Worland, Wyoming Indian.

+++

To be clear, here are the rules I use to determine whether a Zero Week contest is a game or is something else:

  • 1. Was the game played with four 12-minute quarters with normal timing rules?
  • 2. Were officials used? And were normal rules of play instituted for the game?
  • 3. Was score kept?

If these three criteria are met, I call it a game and record it as such on this site. Many of the contests listed above violate rule No. 2 — they play a normal game but don’t have special teams plays.

Aside from Class 4A, we can think of Zero Week as Wyoming football’s “soft launch.” We can see some pieces come together, but we won’t see all we need to see until a week from now.

So what do you think — about Zero Week, the 2016 season, football, life? Post a comment! I would love to hear your thoughts.

–patrick

Both Moorcroft and Rock River will open their seasons with different coaches than the ones who were anticipated.

Moorcroft will have activities director Randi Faeth leading it on the sidelines after coach Dusty Petz took some time away to deal with health issues, the Casper Star-Tribune reported.

Meanwhile, new Rock River coach Brandon Barba stepped away after about a week due to some unforeseen circumstances, he told wyoming-football.com.

Rock River’s new coach is still to be determined.

Other offseason coaching changes in the state include:

Burlington: Trent Aagard replaces Aaron Papich
Cheyenne South
: Dan Gallas replaces Tracy Pugh
Guernsey-Sunrise: Curtis Cook replaces Chris Link
Lingle: Matt Cornelius replaces Kevin Derby
Pinedale: Mitch Espeland replaces Allen Johnson
Rocky Mountain: Richard Despain replaces David Hayes
Saratoga: Kegan Willford replaces Scott Bokelman
Star Valley: McKay Young replaces Chris Howell
Ten Sleep: Jake Zent replaces Andy Ray
Thermopolis: Matt McPhie replaces Rob Anderson
Wheatland: Tom Waring replaces Dusty Hudson

–patrick

Entering the 2016 season, only 50 of Wyoming’s 65 high school football fields will have lights.

Of those 15 without lights, 10 stadiums belong to schools that play six-man football. The only 11-man programs without lights on their field are Mountain View, Lyman, Big Piney, Cokeville and Sundance — and Sundance won’t host any Upton-Sundance co-op home games this year as the field is rebuilt in a new location to make room for a new elementary school.

As more and more 11-man programs add lights, day games are becoming rarer and rarer as more schools opt for the Friday night lights.

Most of the schools playing day games this season are six-man schools. Ten Sleep is the only program in the state that will play every regular-season game in 2016 during daylight hours, and 14 of the 16 six-man programs will play at least half their games during the day.

Of 11-man programs, Cokeville’s seven day games is tops; Big Piney, Lyman and Mountain View will play five day games apiece. No other 11-man program will play more than half its games during the day. And 31 of Wyoming’s 64 programs will play all their games at night, including every 4A and 3A program.

Games were defined as day games if they started prior to 5 p.m. Zero Week scrimmages and jamborees of 4A weren’t considered.

Here are the schools playing at least one day game this regular season:

Ten Sleep: 8 day games
Burlington, Cokeville, Dubois, Farson, Hulett, Kaycee, Snake River: 7 day games
Normative Services, Rock River, St. Stephens: 6 day games
Big Piney, Hanna, Lyman, Mountain View: 5 day games
Guernsey-Sunrise, Meeteetse, Riverside: 4 day games
Lingle, Shoshoni: 3 day games
Greybull, Midwest, Pinedale, Rocky Mountain, Saratoga, Wyoming Indian: 2 day games
Glenrock, Kemmerer, Lovell, Newcastle, Tongue River, Upton-Sundance, Wright: 1 day game

Among those games are 10 games to be played in daylight hours at stadiums with lights. NSI is the leader here — only one of NSI’s four home games this year will be under the lights as the Wolves embrace the six-man day game tradition. Shoshoni will play a pair of home day games, while Guernsey-Sunrise, Riverside, Tongue River, Wyoming Indian and Rocky Mountain will each play a single day game despite having lights on their fields.

Want to see a full season schedule with kick times for every game? Click here.

Want to read up on Wyoming high school football stadiums? Click here.

–patrick

If I had unlimited time and money, I know how I would spend my autumns: running around Wyoming watching high school football.

Unfortunately, I don’t have unlimited time or money. If I did, though, this is what my fantasy Wyoming football road trip might look like — keeping in mind that my options have to be realistic. So here it is: 27 games over eight weeks.

Week 0
Friday, Aug. 26: Cheyenne East at Rock Springs, 7 p.m. Forget all the scrimmages and jamborees; I’m going to the one game that means the most this week. Rock Springs was soooo close to knocking off East not once but twice last season. Both times, East won. This may be the game that sets the course of 4A all year long.

Week 1
Thursday, Sept. 1: Lusk at Moorcroft, 6 p.m. … Friday, Sept. 2: St. Stephens at Rock River, 4 p.m.; Torrington at Wheatland, 7 p.m. … Saturday, Sept. 3: Farson at Guernsey-Sunrise, noon. The most appealing game of the week might be the revival of the rivalry between Torrington and Wheatland, a series that has been put on hiatus the past couple seasons. It’s nice to see it back. I’ll sandwich that game with a couple six-man games in the area, but I’ll be able to start with the first non-4A game of the season on Thursday in Crook County.

Week 2
Friday, Sept. 9: Mountain View at Lyman, 4 p.m.; Rawlins at Green River, 7 p.m. … Saturday, Sept. 10: Wright at Cokeville, 2 p.m. On the Friday of Week 2, there’s only one “day” game, and we’re fortunate — it’s the Bridger Valley Bowl. That alone makes the week worth it. From there, we’ll go down the road and catch an intriguing game between Rawlins and Green River and then stay in the southwest to catch the first game EVER between Wright and Cokeville on Saturday.

Week 3
Friday, Sept. 16: Upton-Sundance at Shoshoni, 2 p.m.; Lovell at Greybull, 7 p.m. … Saturday, Sept. 17: Burlington at Ten Sleep, 2 p.m. I was torn this week — northeast for Rock River-Kaycee and then Natrona-Gillette? Or go northwest for this pair? Ultimately, I decided that seeing what might be the best 1A 11-man nonconference game of the year and the game that might decide the 2A West was the better trip. And I get a six-man game on Saturday to boot in a nice revival of an old rivalry.

Week 4
Thursday, Sept. 22: Shoshoni at Wind River, 7 p.m. … Friday, Sept. 23: Rocky Mountain at Cokeville, 1 p.m.; Cody at Star Valley, 7 p.m. … Saturday, Sept. 24: Snake River at Dubois, 3 p.m. Thursday game! As for Friday, the Lincoln County double-dip is really appealing, and it gives me a chance to drive through Grand Teton National Park before the six-man Saturday. Can’t resist that. 🙂

Week 5
Friday, Sept. 30: Gillette at Sheridan, 7 p.m. … Saturday, Oct. 1: Hulett at Normative Services, noon. Week 5 only has one game that starts under daylight, so I decided catching the Energy Bowl — which might be the biggest and best game of the 4A regular season — was the best option for Week 5. There’s a nearby six-man game on Saturday to boot.

Week 6
Friday, Oct. 7: Snake River at St. Stephens, 4 p.m.; Buffalo at Riverton, 7 p.m. … Saturday, Oct. 8: Meeteetse at Farson, 2 p.m. Fremont County gets some love this week. Buffalo-Riverton will be huge in the 3A East. Meanwhile, the Saturday game just over South Pass could be the make-or-break game in the 1A West.

Week 7
Thursday, Oct. 13: Cheyenne East at Evanston, 6 p.m. … Friday, Oct. 14: Saratoga at Rocky Mountain, 1 p.m.; Pine Bluffs at Tongue River, 6 p.m. … Saturday, Oct. 15: Midwest at Kaycee, 2 p.m. The annual Thursday game between East and Evanston gives us a bonus game! From there, a lack of intriguing day games has us heading north for a pair of 1A 11-man games that will, if nothing else, provide some beautiful, scenery-filled backdrops for football. Oh, and the Midwest-Kaycee rivalry game on Saturday is always a can’t-miss.

Week 8
Friday, Oct. 21: Riverside at Burlington, 1 p.m.; Cody at Powell, 7 p.m. … Saturday, Oct. 22: Guernsey-Sunrise at Hulett, 3 p.m. Our trip comes to an end with a pair of Northwest corner rivalries, and rivalries are always awesome. The trip ends with a LONG jaunt from Powell to Hulett, but it’s worth it; the Guernsey-Hulett game is the last game of the season. When that one’s over, I can begin planning my postseason travels…

In this trip, I’d see 43 of Wyoming’s 64 football programs, and I’d get to see 11 teams play twice. I’d make it to 26 different stadiums, and I’d stop by Cokeville twice. I’d travel almost 4,000 miles.

Now, if I could only find a way to get that unlimited time and money….

–patrick

Class 4A football the past few years has had an aura of familiarity.

That familiarity is both frustrating and interesting — frustrating in the regular season and quarterfinals, where ideas like parity, surprise and intrigue are laughable pipe dreams, and interesting in the final two rounds of the playoffs, where we see four teams battle it out for supremacy in back-to-back weekends that represent the best high school football the state has to offer.

The separation between wanna-bes and already-ares has never been clearer.

And that’s what makes Rock Springs’ rise to prominence so darn interesting coming into 2016.

Four questions to answer

The Big Four again? Yes, the Big Four again. A state championship game involving anyone but Cheyenne East, Sheridan, Gillette or Natrona seems unlikely. The same four teams have occupied the 4A semifinals every season since 2010, and although they’ll be challenged this year, these four programs aren’t going anywhere.

Which one of the Big Four has the best chance of winning it all? Gillette. In a year where Class 4A is somewhat turbulent due to the number of seniors who graduated, the Camels’ two returning all-state selections is tied for the most in 4A. Beyond that, the Camels return four all-conference players, a number second only to Cheyenne East. And, maybe most importantly, Gillette is fired up to avenge last year’s title-game loss, a misstep that cost it an unbeaten season and state title.

Who has the best chance of ruining 4A’s status quo? Rock Springs. The Tigers finished one point away from a trip to the semifinals last year — falling 14-13 to Cheyenne East — and showed some tremendous improvement from 2014 to 2015. If that improvement continues, Rock Springs could be a title contender. And it helps that the team returns one of the best running backs in the state in Matt Fowler.

Will a new coach bring success to Cheyenne South? It will be tough. Dan Gallas takes over at South after a successful career in Colorado. The Bison, who have won three games in five varsity seasons and went winless in 2015, have had time to build a program; Gallas’ responsibility will be to move from “patience” to “progress.”

Four players to watch

Lane Tucker, Gillette. The most college-ready player in the state might be the lineman from Gillette. He drew several Division I scholarship offers before committing to North Dakota State this summer. Tucker’s responsibilities will be diverse — he was an all-state selection on both the offensive and defensive lines last season — but he will likely be up for the challenge.

Matt Fowler, Rock Springs. Fowler ran for 1,293 yards last season, more than any other player in Class 4A. He’s the leading returning rusher in the classification by a wide margin. And he’s part of an offense that focuses on the run. As good as last year was, this year might top it.

Madden Pikula, Gillette. Just in case you forgot, the Gillette offense was record-setting last year — the Camels scored more points in a season than any other team in state history. Pikula was a big part of that; he notched 1,014 receiving yards, more than any other player in Wyoming. He’ll be breaking in a new quarterback this fall — or he might be the quarterback himself — but his role will be critical to Gillette’s success.

Jacob Hallam, Sheridan. Hallam is the only one of Sheridan’s seven all-state players from 2015 to return this fall. But he was an all-state selection on both the offensive and defensive line, and his presence in the middle of the action will help anchor the Broncs, giving the defending champions experience in a critical place on the field.

Four key games

Cheyenne East at Rock Springs, Aug. 26. You think the Tigers haven’t had the season opener circled on their calendars all offseason? The team that booted them from the playoffs is the same team they’ll see in Week 0 — and it’s Rock Springs’ perfect chance to prove it belongs in the mix.

Natrona at Gillette, Sept. 16. The Mustangs and Camels have a well-documented rivalry. As usual, this one will be big. The Camels have the advantage in both returning firepower and home field, but games between these two teams rarely tilt decisively one way or another.

Gillette at Sheridan, Sept. 30. This rivalry was already intense enough. This time, though, the two teams are staging not only the Energy Bowl, they’re also staging the rematch of last year’s Class 4A title game. Intense barely describes what this one will be like.

Cheyenne East at Cheyenne Central, Sept. 30. One of the forgotten oddities of the 2015 season is the Indians’ 20-17 victory against the Thunderbirds, Central’s first over East since 2010. East recovered from that loss; Central never took advantage of that victory.

Predicted order of finish

Gillette; Sheridan; Rock Springs; Cheyenne East; Natrona; Laramie; Evanston; Kelly Walsh; Cheyenne Central; Cheyenne South.

Way-too-early title game score prediction

Gillette 34, Sheridan 28. The Camels win the title they thought they’d get last year as one last sendoff to the days of one high school in Gillette. And then we spend all offseason wondering how much the addition of Thunder Basin High School will affect the Camels’ repeat bid.

Cheesy 80s pop song that should play over the loudspeakers at War Memorial Stadium after this classification’s title game

Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper. Because time after time, we’re used to seeing the same group of four teams playing at the War.

Alternate choice: Cool Change by the Little River Band. If someone who’s not one of the Big Four wins it all, that’d be a cool change — as long as you’re not among the Big Four.

What do you think? Is another Camels-Broncs title game in the making? Is this the year Rock Springs comes in and disrupts the Big Four’s reign? Will some darkhorse surprise us all? Let me hear your thoughts on big-school football for the year!

(And, yes, I know, “Cool Change” was released in 1979. It was on the year-end chart for 1980. Whatever. LRB rules.)

–patrick

Brandon Barba has been hired as Rock River’s new football coach.

Barba and Rock River principal Wade Fiscus verified the hiring via email this week to wyoming-football.com.

Barba, originally from Mesa, Arizona, has spent the last three years coaching at Verrado High School in Buckeye, Arizona, he said via email. His role at Verrado was as a coach for the freshman team, but he also coached varsity offensive line and varsity scout.

He said he has applied for a teaching job in Laramie and came to the area with his wife, who is pursing a doctorate at the University of Wyoming.

Dakota Anderson, a student in UW’s teaching program, will be Rock River’s assistant coach.

Barba replaces Terrance Reese, who resigned in July after leading the Longhorns during their first two seasons of varsity play.

Rock River went 1-6 in both 2014 and 2015.

–patrick

Thanks to Jim Craig’s continuing research, I’ve been able to make the following updates to the site:

Fixed the score of Basin’s 25-6 victory against Shoshoni on Sept. 21, 1956; I had the score transposed, with Shoshoni winning by that score.

Added Cokeville’s 40-26 victory against Mountain View on Sept. 9, 1955. This was actually Mountain View’s first game in program history.

Added Cowley’s 63-30 victory against Belfry, Mont., on either Sept. 9 or 10, 1955 (added to the missing games list because a date and a location couldn’t be verified).

Added Lingle’s 30-24 victory against Sunrise on Oct. 29, 1954.

Added statewide standings for 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1958.

Through my own research, I also found the final score for one more game: Evanston’s 57-0 loss to Montpelier, Idaho, on Oct. 23, 1942. I had already noted that Evanston had lost this game; this update simply provided the final score.

All the changes are reflected on all the relevant pages.

–patrick

Post Navigation