School: Ten Sleep
Nickname: Pioneers
Colors: blue and red
Stadium: Pioneers Stadium
State championships: None
Times worth remembering: The Pioneers put together three consecutive playoff berths from 1984-86, buoyed by a pair of conference championships in 1984-85. Ten Sleep went 19-8 in those three years combined, including back-to-back 7-2 seasons in the two conference championships.
Times worth forgetting: Football died for seven years at Ten Sleep, and bringing it back may have not seemed like the best idea after looking at the scoreboard the first few years it was back. After returning to the field in 1972, the Pioneers won just two games the first three years they were back, going a combined 2-23 from 1972-74. That included a forfeit loss to Dubois in Ten Sleep’s first scheduled game back from its seven-year hiatus. Numbers have always been Ten Sleep’s big question mark; the Pioneers also canceled their 1990 season and played truncated seasons in 1992, 1994, 2007 and 2008 due to a lack of players.
Best team: In the final year of the Bighorn Basin’s rogue eight-man division, the Pioneers proved they were ready for the transition to 11-man. In 1976, Ten Sleep went 7-0, holding its final five opponents to a total of six points. For the season, the Pioneers outscored their foes by an average of 39-5. In ’77, the Pioneers went 6-1 in their first full-fledged year of 11-man.
Biggest win: The Pioneers’ only playoff win in program history came in 2005, a 29-14 victory over Rapelje/Ryegate, Mont., in the opening round of the Montana six-man playoffs. It was Ten Sleep’s first year in the six-man division in the Big Sky State, and the victory helped assure the Pioneer faithful that the move was the right one.
Heartbreaker: Jumping into 11-man play in 1977, the Pioneers adapted quickly, winning their first six games to set up a showdown with Meeteetse in the final game of the regular season. The stakes were simple: winner goes to the playoffs, loser stays home. And, on Ten Sleep’s home field, Meeteetse won — 32-26 in double overtime. It was the best chance at success Ten Sleep had for years; the Pioneers didn’t reach the postseason until 1984.