One team’s success in 2015 and 2016 will define the preseason discussion of Class 1A six-man in advance of 2017.

The Kaycee Buckaroos enter this season with 20 consecutive victories and two consecutive state championships behind them. Ahead of them is a schedule full of teams ready for the opportunity to knock them down.

As Kaycee tries for a three-peat, something not yet accomplished in Wyoming’s six-man ranks, teams behind them are lining up for their opportunity to put the state’s longest active winning streak to an end.

No team in Class 1A six-man carries the momentum Kaycee carries into 2017. No team may have as much talent, either. That combination could help the Buckaroos not only win another championship but also cement their legacy as one of the state’s great small-school football dynasties.

Four questions to answer

Will Kaycee lose this year? Probably not. The Buckaroos start 2017 having won their past 20 games — the longest active winning streak in the state regardless of classification. They also return four all-state selections, the most in six-man this fall. Teams will challenge Kaycee, but with a deep senior class pushing the way, don’t be surprised to see Kaycee go 11-0 again.

Who has the toughest schedule? Farson. While trying to defend their West Conference title, the Pronghorns figure to have three big challengers: Burlington, Snake River and Meeteetse. Farson has to play all three of those teams on the road. It’s a challenge Farson didn’t have to sweat last year — the Pronghorns played all three of those teams in Farson last year — and it will be interesting to see how last year’s runners-up handle the pressure of trying to win big games on the road.

Is anyone else even in the discussion? Yes, but only as upset picks. Snake River, Meeteetse and Burlington all proved to be worthy foes in the West, while Guernsey-Sunrise, Lingle and Midwest could challenge Kaycee for supremacy in the East. However, it will be surprising if anyone other than Kaycee hoists the trophy in Laramie in November.

What’s new for Lingle? A chance at the playoffs. The Doggers finished third in the East Conference last year but were held out of the playoffs for opting down from 1A 11-man. This year, with Thunder Basin’s opening in Gillette causing a cascade of changes, the Doggers are once again eligible for the postseason. Fellow 11-man opt-down school Riverside, though, is still ineligible for the playoffs.

Four players to watch

Mark Largent, Kaycee. A two-time all-state pick, Largent was Kaycee’s No. 1 tackler last season, leading the Buckaroos in virtually every tackling category. The senior is also a go-to option in Kaycee’s passing game, with 16 catches for 238 yards and seven touchdowns last year.

J.D. Corson, Snake River. Another two-time all-state pick, Corson is entering his fourth year as the Rattlers’ starting quarterback. If his yardage totals keep growing like they have — he threw for 1,157 yards as a freshman, 1,220 as a sophomore and classification-best 1,853 as a junior — Snake River should again find success. And, oh by the way, he was the co-defensive player of the year last year in six-man.

Lain Mitchelson, Farson. Mitchelson gets it done on both sides of the ball. He led six-man with 1,653 rushing yards last year; he also had 31 rushing touchdowns, also best in six-man. Just a junior, Mitchelson was also Farson’s top tackler last year, leading the Pronghorns with 43 solo tackles.

Josh Graybill, Meeteetse. If the Longhorns want to make it to Laramie in November, they’ll have to go through Graybill. The senior is Meeteetse’s leading returning rusher, receiver and tackler, and he’s the Longhorns’ only returning all-state selection.

Four key games

Farson at Burlington, Sept. 8. The West Conference opener for both squads will be telling. Can Farson overcome its losses to graduation? Can Burlington hang with last year’s runners-up?

Lingle at Guernsey-Sunrise, Sept. 8. Both the Doggers and Vikings have big goals set for this season. This East Conference opener between the old rivals will set the pace for the season, for better or worse.

Guernsey-Sunrise at Kaycee, Sept. 30. On paper, the Vikings pose the biggest regular-season challenge to the Buckaroos’ 20-game winning streak. Fortunately for Kaycee, it gets to play this one at home.

Farson at Snake River, Oct. 21. The Week 8 showdown between the Pronghorns and Rattlers last season decided the West Conference championship. It might do so again this season.

Predicted order of finish

East Conference: Kaycee; Guernsey-Sunrise; Midwest; Lingle; Hanna; Hulett; NSI; Rock River.

West Conference: Farson; Snake River; Burlington; Meeteetse; Riverside; Dubois; St. Stephens; Ten Sleep.

Way-too-early title game score prediction

Kaycee 52, Farson 38. About the only thing that can stop the collision course between the Buckaroos and Pronghorns is some kind of unexpected regular-season upset. Given the right conditions, this could happen, but the odds are on both of last year’s title-game participants to make it back to Laramie again.

What do you think? Is the state title Kaycee’s to lose, or will a challenger end the winning streak and the title streak? Comment below and let’s hear what you think will happen in 1A six-man this year — and who will lead it as it happens.

Next week: Class 1A 11-man.

–patrick

Micah Christensen will be Gillette’s head coach this fall, stepping in to fill a spot recently vacated by longtime coach Vic Wilkerson.

Christensen told wyoming-football.com on Wednesday he was asked to lead the staff by activities director Cliff Hill after Wilkerson resigned suddenly July 14 after 13 seasons as the Camels’ head coach. Christensen’s hire has not yet been formally approved by the Campbell County School District board, he said, but he said he has been working in the capacity of head coach for more than a week. The board next meets Aug. 1.

Christensen has been a football coach for 20 years, with 12 years as Gillette’s linebackers coach and eight years in Brush, Colorado, as defensive coordinator before that.

Christensen said his main motivation for accepting the position was “knowing the tradition that there was here, and not wanting to leave… and wanting to continue that tradition here at the high school. I love Camel football, and I found this was a great opportunity to step in and build on what we had going.”

The Camels have reached the Class 4A semifinals each of the past 12 seasons and won state titles in 2006 and 2008. Gillette finished 9-2 last season.

However, new cross-town rival Thunder Basin will start its program this fall.Seniors and juniors got to choose whether to attend Gillette or Thunder Basin, and most of last year’s returners have opted to play at Thunder Basin. Christensen said he would only have about five seniors and maybe a dozen juniors out this fall.

Sophomores, freshmen and all subsequent classes, though, will have their school set by a district boundary. With that, Christensen said he expected about 30 sophomores and 35 freshmen to join the squad this fall — and Christensen said he’s gotten about 10 emails in the past week from new players inquiring about joining the team.

“I see that as a challenge and I look forward to that challenge,” he said.

Christensen said not much will change in terms of scheme, but he said the Camels’ pace may slow as young players gain experience.

“If we’ve got a lot of inexperienced guys, we’re going to have to scale back,” Christensen said.

–patrick

I recently added the Wyoming high school football standings from 1894-1947 to the site. Click here for a full listing of year-by-year standings.

Standings prior to 1948 list overall records only, as district play was loosely organized, each team in a district did not necessarily play every other team in the same district, and district records alone were not how a district champion was determined.

I also combined the 1904, 1905, 1906 and 1907 season pages onto the page that previously listed the results from 1894-1903 only. That’s here. All of the links have been redirected on all the relevant pages.

–patrick

Gillette coach Vic Wilkerson, one of the most successful coaches in state history, resigned on Friday.

Wilkerson confirmed his resignation via text on Monday with wyoming-football.com.

The change comes in the same year that the city of Gillette opens its second comprehensive high school, Thunder Basin.

In an interview for the Wyoming high school football preview magazine in late June, Wilkerson said most of last year’s returning varsity contributors had opted to play for Thunder Basin instead of Gillette.

At the time, Wilkerson said the Gillette program wouldn’t return any players who contributed to the Camels’ varsity a year ago. He anticipated only three seniors and about 10 juniors to come out this fall, and none of those players had varsity experience. That meant sophomores and freshmen — about 30 in each class — would have to make up the remaining holes at the varsity level.

“I have no returning varsity players at Campbell County High School,” Wilkerson said at the time.

Several coaches also left the Camels’ program to join the staff at Thunder Basin. Wilkerson did say five coaches were returning to Gillette, though, and two coaches had been hired in the offseason to complete the Camels’ staff.

Who will replace Wilkerson at Gillette is unclear. Wilkerson said he did not know if a new coach was in place yet; he is leaving the program outright and is not staying on as an assistant coach.

Wilkerson was 110-35 in his 13 seasons as head coach of Camels. He has more victories than any other Gillette coach in program history, and his 13-year tenure is the longest in program history.

Wilkerson led his teams to five double-digit victory seasons and to state championships in 2006 and 2008. The Camels also finished as state runners-up in 2012, 2014 and 2015. Gillette has reached the large-school playoff semifinals each of the past 12 seasons.

Gillette went 9-2 last season.

Wilkerson’s 110 victories is 22nd all-time in state history. Only five active coaches — Cokeville’s Todd Dayton, Natrona’s Steve Harshman, Sheridan’s Don Julian, Southeast’s Mark Bullington and Glenrock’s Ray Kumpula — have more in-state victories than Wilkerson.

Gillette, Thunder Basin and Laramie are the Class 4A schools to bring in new head coaches this offseason.

–patrick

Note: Updated 9:37 a.m. July 17, 2017, to indicate Laramie’s hiring of a new coach.

In compiling the results for this website, I came across a handful of games that were listed as postponed.

Now, we all know the difference between a postponed game and a canceled game, right? A canceled game won’t be made up; a postponed game will be.

Not everyone understands or acknowledges this difference. Even so, a few games exist in this database as “postponed” instead of canceled, but no make-up game or result is noted. Perhaps these games were postponed in hope that the game would be made up but later was not. Often, such failures in scheduling weren’t acknowledged by the various newspapers in the state — the games just disappeared. Or they were replayed and the game result was never published. I’m not sure.

These are those games:

O30/1923 Cheyenne Central Wheatland postponed-snow
S24/1937 Lovell Sheridan postponed-infantile paralysis
O31/1941 Pavillion Byron postponed
N5/1956 Lusk Newcastle postponed
O25/1957 Huntley Chugwater postponed-bad field
O8/1993 Hill City (SD) Upton postponed-snow
N3/1922 Basin Cody ppd-snow
O2/1942 Deaver-Frannie Cowley ppd.
O9/1942 Byron Deaver-Frannie ppd.
O16/1942 Gillette Midwest ppd-snow (played each other later but had scheduled two games against each other that year)
O16/1942 LaPorte (CO) St. Mary’s ppd.
S29/1943 St. Mary’s Albin ppd (played each other later but had scheduled two games against each other that year)
O19/1951 Ranchester Big Horn ppd
O26/1951 Dayton Ranchester ppd
S17/1965 Glenrock Upton ppd-snow
S17/1965 Green River Kemmerer ppd-snow (played each other later but had scheduled two games against each other that year)
S17/1965 Lander Greybull ppd-snow
S24/1965 Deaver-Frannie Morton ppd
S28/1973 Glenrock Goshen Hole ppd., light failure

Seven games that were listed as postponed I’ve been able to figure out that yes, indeed, they were rescheduled and played. The listing for those seven games already existed in the database; however, the originally scheduled games, listed here, have been removed.

S12/1952 Sundance Newcastle ppd-polio
O11/1957 Cheyenne Central Rawlins postponed-flu
O17/1957 Big Horn Moorcroft postponed-flu (this game was rescheduled but not played)
S17/1965 Thermopolis Buffalo ppd-snow
S17/1965 Riverton Worland ppd-snow
S17/1965 Torrington Rock Springs ppd-snow
S17/1965 Laramie Natrona ppd-snow

–patrick

About a year ago, I compiled a list of playoff records for Wyoming football coaches. One of the notable things about the list was that every coach on the list had his fair share of losses. Even the best coach can’t win every playoff game every year… right?

Well, I went back to the data, and as it turns out, of the 356 coaches who have coached at least one Wyoming playoff game, 33 are unbeaten in the postseason. Of those 33, though, only seven have three or more victories:

Rick VanCleeve, Thermopolis 1985-92, 9-0
Lee Kremers, Kaycee 2015-16, 6-0
Jim McLeod, Cheyenne Central 1979-89, 6-0
Wilford Mower, Byron 1945-52, 6-0
Lou Maiben, Byron 1954-57 and Wheatland 1959-62, 4-0
Will Gray, Pine Bluffs 2011-2016, 3-0
McKay Young, Star Valley 2016, 3-0

Three of these coaches — Kremers, Gray and Young — led their teams to state championships last season.

Of the remaining 26 coaches, 17 are 2-0 and nine are 1-0.

This is a tough list on which to stay. The longer coaches coach, the more likely they are to have at least one playoff loss. Even the best playoff coach, Cokeville’s Todd Dayton (whose 67 playoff victories are more than twice as many as any other coach in state history) has 14 playoff losses to his name, too.

Meanwhile, 128 of those 356 coaches are winless in the playoffs….

–patrick

Ross Hauptman will be the new head football coach in Ten Sleep this fall.

Hauptman teaches fourth and fifth grades at Ten Sleep. Prior to coming to Ten Sleep, Hauptman taught and coached middle-school sports in Highwood, Montana.

Ten Sleep principal/activities director Russ Budmayr confirmed the hiring Wednesday via email to wyoming-football.com.

Hauptman takes over for Jake Zent, who resigned from the school in January. Zent went 22-30 in eight years with the Pioneers, as the head coach from 2007-12 and in 2016.

Ten Sleep was 1-7 last season.

LaramieThunder BasinJackson, WorlandKemmererTongue River and Snake River also have new coaches for next season. If you know of a program seeking a new coach, please comment below or email me: pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick