Come back with me to the fall of 1996, to the back row of Mrs. Epperson’s freshman English class at Midwest High School.
The reading is done, the analysis questions are answered. Now what?
Well, if you’re little freshman Patrick Schmiedt, you dip into the realm of made-up high school football. You take all your friends and put them on “teams” that don’t exist. You develop a schedule. You imagine interesting scenarios and play them out in the form of box scores, standings, weekly stats, rankings, playoffs, a champion.
Here’s the thing — when I created those teams, I took every Wyoming high school that didn’t yet have a football team and gave them one. I distributed my friends onto 10 rosters across the state. All of a sudden, places like Farson, Snake River, Encampment, Glendo, Arvada-Clearmont and others had football teams, all under the umbrella of the “Wyoming 8-Man Football Association.”
Welcome to the fantasy world of my 15-year-old mind.
In the lone season of the imaginary league, Snake River wins the state championship, defeating Glendo (and its all-state tight end, me) 31-28. I might have had just a smidgen of self-indulgence, too, as I led the state in catches and receiving yards in this season.
In 1996, that’s where such a game belonged: in fantasyland. Snake River didn’t have a team, neither did Glendo, and neither did any of those other eight schools. And I was never going to lead the state in receiving yards anywhere except for in fake box scores in games that would never be played. But all of it was fun to think about.
Eventually, the self-indulgence of me catching 10 passes a game gave way to the much bigger idea of a non-11-man option for Wyoming’s small high schools. Sparked by my English class downtime scenarios, I always wondered in the back of my mind if we would ever see a football team in a place like Baggs that could live up to the championship aspirations in real life. More broadly, I wondered if such a league could ever be developed in the first place.
Those possibilities remained just that, possibilities, for the next 12 years. Then, in 2008, the Wyoming High School Activities Association approved six-man football to start in 2009. Then Snake River came along, for real, as did Kaycee, Farson and, eventually, Rock River and Encampment. It was like these little doodles had come to life.
Since then, Snake River has won five state championships, including the two most recent, and will enter Saturday’s game against also-undefeated Encampment with a school-record 26-game winning streak in tow.
So when two 5-0 teams meet on Saturday in Baggs, whose programs were not that long ago limited to imaginary teams and rosters and box scores created during downtime in a high school English classroom?
Yeah, you could call it a dream come true.
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Other games that would have spent less time on my mind as a 15-year-old but are now definitely filling it now:
Well, it’s time. Star Valley at Cody. Last week proved just how tight it could be at the top of the 3A West, as the Braves needed a literal last-second field goal to beat Powell 24-21. Now Star Valley has Cody, which has played well but whose 6-0 record comes with a caveat — just one of those victories has come against a team with a winning record, that one a 34-7 victory against 3A East frontrunner Buffalo. Star Valley has to say the same, though, as the Braves’ only victory against a winning-record team was last week’s against Powell. Still, the top of 3A only has room for one team, and whoever wins this one will absolutely claim that right, at least for the next week or so until the next challenge comes along. …
I feel like I have to absolutely give some mad props to the Campbell County Camels, who picked up a monumental crosstown victory against Thunder Basin last week in an emphatic 49-17 victory. The Camels are now 5-1. Trouble is, so is this week’s opponent, Natrona. Are the Camels “back”? A road victory against the Mustangs would prove the point even more emphatically than last week’s victory. …
Between Lovell, Lyman, Mountain View and Cokeville (and Thermopolis who’s lurking at 2-1), the 2A West is a hodgepodge of messy scenarios. So far, only Mountain View is unscathed by it all, but by far the Buffalos’ toughest remaining test is this week’s home date against Lovell. …
Douglas has won 10 in a row and 16 out of the last 17 games it’s played against Riverton. But the way both teams looked last week — Riverton controlling from start to finish in beating Lander 50-21, Douglas stumbling at home against Buffalo in a 13-3 loss — this one could be a table-turner. I’m curious to see how both teams handle a set of shifting expectations. …
The capital city bragging rights are (basically) on the line this week as Cheyenne Central and Cheyenne East meet up to renew acquaintances. The Thunderbirds are coming off a loss, something they haven’t had to face all season. Will East’s loss to Sheridan last week mean a deflating coming into this rivalry game? Or will preparing for the Indians, who have had back-to-back shutout victories, snap the T-Birds back to reality? …
One of the most intriguing games on the schedule is in Basin, where Riverside hosts Rocky Mountain. If you just look at the records, it might not look like much: Rocky is 4-1, Riverside 2-3. But the Rebels are better than their record indicates, and I think the Grizzlies will provide a great measuring stick in a game that will have huge playoff implications in the 1A nine-man West. …
Another critical nine-man game will happen in Goshen County this weekend with Southeast making the quick trip to Lingle. Even though the Doggers are 5-0 and the Cyclones are 4-1, neither one has any breathing room in the East, not with Pine Bluffs also at 5-0 and Lusk, the only team to beat Southeast this season, still hanging around, and Saratoga at 2-1 in league play, all of them viable threats in the conference standings. …
And let’s put a fork in St. Stephens’ 2023 season. All of the Eagles’ remaining opponents have scheduled replacement games or decided to take a bye. It’s safe to say their season is done.
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Now for the picks! The teams in bold are the ones I think will win. When I can’t think anymore, I flip coins. It’s about as effective as using my brain.
Thursday
Class 1A nine-man
Big Piney at Shoshoni
Greybull at Wind River
Pine Bluffs at Saratoga
Class 1A six-man
Ten Sleep at Meeteetse
Interclass
Wyoming Indian at Cody JV
Friday
Class 4A
Campbell County at Natrona
Cheyenne East at Cheyenne Central
Cheyenne South at Rock Springs
Kelly Walsh at Sheridan
Thunder Basin at Laramie
Class 3A
Evanston at Powell
Green River at Jackson
Lander at Rawlins
Riverton at Douglas
Star Valley at Cody
Worland at Buffalo
Class 2A
Burns at Tongue River
Kemmerer at Pinedale
Lovell at Mountain View
Lyman at Thermopolis
Newcastle at Big Horn
Torrington at Glenrock
Upton-Sundance at Wheatland
Class 1A nine-man
Guernsey at Wright
Moorcroft at Lusk
Rocky Mountain at Riverside
Southeast at Lingle
Class 1A six-man
Burlington at Kaycee
Farson at Hanna
Interstate
Cokeville at Rich County, Utah
Saturday
Class 1A six-man
Dubois at Casper Christian
Encampment at Snake River
Midwest at Hulett
For a full schedule including kickoff times, click here. You can click on “Week 6” at the top of the page to take you directly to this week’s schedule.
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Here are the results of my picks from last week and this season:
Last week: 25-6 (81 percent). This season: 154-31 (83 percent).
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With so many critical games this week, where is your attention drawn — in the real world, not the fake one? Leave a comment here, or hit me up on the Facebook page or on Twitter.
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–patrick