A familiar person around Natrona County will be the new head football coach at Midwest.
Dean Kelly will lead the Oilers in 2019. Both Kelly and Midwest activities director Michael Gibson verified the hiring via email to wyoming-football.com on Monday.
Kelly teaches math at Midwest and was the head girls basketball coach the past two years. He was also an assistant coach with the Oilers’ football team the past two years.
Prior to moving to Midwest, Kelly was the principal at Natrona County High School in Casper. He was also previously the athletic director for the Natrona County School District and, before that, taught math at NCHS, starting in 1997.
He also previously taught and coached in Glenrock from 1992-97 and Stanton County High School in Kansas from 1989-92. He was an assistant football coach for nine years in that span, plus the two years at Midwest. He also coached basketball and track, with three years as the boys basketball head coach at Stanton County and four years as the girls basketball head coach at Glenrock.
He resigned as NC’s principal in 2014 after assuming the job before the start of the 2007-08 school year.
Kelly replaces Ken Swieter, who resigned after 12 years as Midwest’s head coach to become an assistant at Kelly Walsh. Gibson will join the coaching staff as an assistant coach, he said.
Other Wyoming high schools with new head coaches for 2019 include Kelly Walsh, Gillette, Rock Springs, Evanston, Torrington, Glenrock, Lovell, Big Piney, Pinedale, Wyoming Indian, Kaycee, Meeteetse, NSI and Ten Sleep.
–patrick