Part of this research that I have always wanted to discover is the names of the coaches who have the most victories at each school.
Now, after a few weeks of counting and tallying, I have that list — the coaches with the most victories at each school.
I have tallied the all-time victories leaders before, but those records were career totals and did not look at the victory totals at each school.
Only 10 current coaches are their program leaders. They include Burns’ Bill Fullmer, Cokeville’s Todd Dayton, Glenrock’s Ray Kumpula, Hulett’s Steve Colling, Kaycee’s Dustin Sipe, Kemmerer’s Shawn Rogers, Natrona’s Steve Harshman, Snake River’s Mike Bates, Southeast’s Mark Bullington and Wright’s Larry Yeradi.
Only one coach has the most victories at two schools — Carl Mirich. He is the leader at both Moorcroft and Goshen Hole.
The leader for each program is listed below. Programs that did not win a game or where no coaches are known are not listed. Totals are from 1920 to 2010 only. As always, this list and these totals are dependent on the names I have; to see the names I’m missing for the Coaches Project, click here.
Albin: Joseph Weller (8 victories, 1942-43)
Clearmont/Arvada-Clearmont: Mike Starr (19 victories, 1938-41)
Basin: Andy Johnson (69 victories, 1966-76)
Big Horn: Rick Scherry (133 victories, 1975-2000)
Big Piney: Joel Eskelsen (148 victories, 1983-2007)
Bow-Basin: Dean Bartow (9 victories, 1978-81)
Buffalo: Mike Moon (136 victories, 1974-97)
Burlington: Rick Wheeler (30 victories, 2000-05)
Burns: Bill Fullmer (58 victories, 1994-present)
Byron: Frank Thompson (52 victories, 1959-66)
Cheyenne Central: John Powell (94 victories, 1924-39)
Cheyenne East: Art Kissack (38 victories, 1970-76)
Cheyenne St. Mary’s: Marv Strauch (33 victories, 1954-59)
Cody: John McDougall (131 victories, 1974-98)
Cokeville: Todd Dayton (253 victories, 1980-present)
Cowley: Scott Nielsen (19 victories, 1971-73)
Dayton: Richard Gruber (34 victories, 1950-55)
Deaver-Frannie: Dennis Dyvig (28 victories, 1966-69 and 1971)
Douglas: Pete Petronovich (113 victories, 1943-68)
Dubois: Pat Ballinger (41 victories, 1988-97)
Encampment: Burt Willford (2 victories, 1990)
Evanston: Kay Fackrell (92 victories, 1980-97)
Farson: Neal Nelson (5 victories, 1987-88) and Ruline O’Neill (5 victories, 1989)
Fort Washakie: William Balmer (1 victory, 1926-27)
Gebo: Clarence Speich (9 victories, 1932-37)
Gillette: John Alberta (68 victories, 1961-70)
Glendo: George Carmin (58 victories, 1954-67)
Glenrock: Ray Kumpula (81 victories, 1990-96 and 2002-present)
Goshen Hole: Carl Mirich (14 victories, 1970-73)
Green River: Tom Wilson (53 victories, 1987-99)
Greybull: Tim Nolan (47 victories, 1983-89)
Guernsey: Ed Jolovich (18 victories, 1955-61)
Guernsey-Sunrise: Tony Gamble (81 victories, 1967-81)
Hanna: Brad Barlow (31 victories, 1985, 1987-92 and 1995-98)
Heart Mountain: Ray Thompson (3 victories, 1943) and Talbot Rudolph (3 victories, 1944)
Hulett: Steve Colling (72 victories, 1992-present)
Huntley: LeRoy Cundall (20 victories, 1961-66)
Jackson: Jim Rooks (42 victories, 1981-88)
Kaycee: Dustin Sipe (12 victories, 2009-present)
Kelly Walsh: Tom Staffileno (37 victories, 1982-88)
Kemmerer: Shawn Rogers (54 victories, 2003-present)
LaGrange: Duane Christensen (1 victory, 1961)
Lander: Art Quinlan (38 victories, 1930-36 and 1939)
Laramie: John E. Deti (203 victories, 1944-76)
Lingle: Roger Fuss (40 victories, 1970-74 and 1980-83) and Ron Halley (40 victories, 1984-90 and 1994-98)
Lovell: Roy Strom (59 victories, 1992-2003)
Lusk: Jerry Fullmer (174 victories, 1975-2004)
Lyman: Loren Huntsman (39 victories, 1996-2001 and 2006-09)
Manderson: Jim Caines (12 victories, 1961-64)
Manville: Joe Sandoval (10 victories, 1946-47 and 1950)
Meeteetse: Jim Barrus (51 victories, 1966, 1971-73, 1984-85, 1988-91 and 1993-94)
Midwest: Dallas Hoff (131 victories, 1962-89)
Moorcroft: Carl Mirich (110 victories, 1980-2002)
Morton: R.E. “Dick” Kinzer (29 victories, 1955-59)
Mountain View: Don Dinnel (94 victories, 1989-2002)
Natrona: Steve Harshman (125 victories, 1991-present)
Newcastle: Erv Wentling (48 victories, 1977-85)
Normative Services: Mike Gorzalka (14 victories, 2000-02)
North Big Horn: Steve Hutchinson (7 victories, 1979-80)
Pavillion: Chuck Frost (14 victories, 1963-64 and 1966-68)
Pine Bluffs: Tom Watson (49 victories, 1986-99 and 2006)
Pinedale: Gene Andrews (54 victories, 1973-82)
Powell: Harold Hand (60 victories, 1955-64)
Ranchester: Al Peyton (4 victories, 1954-55)
Rawlins: Fran Connor (42 victories, 1953-61)
Reliance: Jack Smith (32 victories, 1946-54)
Riverside: Steve Olson (62 victories, 1990-2003)
Riverton: Don Julian (63 victories, 1993-2001)
Rock Springs: Mike Lopiccolo (62 victories, 1981-91)
Rocky Mountain: Ben Smith (101 victories, 1988-2002)
St. Stephens: Chuck Murray (21 victories, 1961-63)
Saratoga: Mike Koulentes (35 victories, 1972-77)
Sheridan: Bruce Keith (99 victories, 1978-93)
Shoshoni: Harold Bailey (128 victories, 1975-2001)
Snake River: Mike Bates (13 victories, 2009-present)
Southeast: Mark Bullington (98 victories, 1999-present)
Star Valley: Jerry Hart (83 victories, 1969-81) and Robert Linford (83 victories, 1988-98)
Sundance: Lance Hofland (52 victories, 1999-2007)
Sunrise: Tony Balzan (17 victories, 1952-56)
Superior: Tony Katana (26 victories, 1948-53)
Ten Sleep: John Hamilton (38 victories, 1972-82)
Thermopolis: Joe Bush (59 victories, 1924-34)
Tongue River: Walter Gray (140 victories, 1965-91)
Torrington: Doug Bartlett (102 victories, 1981-2000)
University Prep: Don Harkins and John Engstrom (co-coaches, 4 victories, 1929)
Upton: B.F. “Tead” Weaver (51 victories, 1954-68)
Valley: Herbert Snyder (1 victory, 1925)
Wheatland: Bill Pentland (82 victories, 1982-98)
Wind River: Dick Quayle (76 victories, 1987-2004)
Worland: Carl Selmer (86 victories, 1947-57)
Worland Institute: Norman Holmskog (2 victories, 1957)
Wright: Larry Yeradi (69 victories, 1995-present)
Wyoming Indian: Kevin Jordan (16 victories, 1993-2000)
In compiling these records, I also made a double-check of each team’s overall record. In doing so, I discovered a few errors I had made in my tallies over the years. Most of them were small — usually one win, loss or tie either way — but a couple were pretty big corrections. Nevertheless, records for the following teams have been corrected and have been updated on all the relevant pages: Albin, Arvada-Clearmont, Big Horn, Cheyenne East, Cody, Cowley, Deaver-Frannie, Douglas, Dubois, Encampment, Evanston, Farson, Gillette, Glenrock, Greybull, Hanna, Huntley, Jackson, Kelly Walsh, Kemmerer, Lovell, Mountain View, Natrona, Newcastle, Pinedale, Rock Springs, Rocky Mountain, St. Stephens, Saratoga, Star Valley, Ten Sleep, Tongue River, Upton, Wheatland.
–patrick