Each Friday, wyoming-football.com is taking a look at the teams, players and trends to watch in each classification this fall. Today, we look at Class 1A 11-man, the second preview in a series of five.
Four questions to answer
Is Cokeville building a new dynasty? The Panthers had gone a very un-Cokeville-like six years without a championship before winning the 1A 11-man title last fall. As usual, it was a small Cokeville team that took the field (in both weight and number), but eight of the Panthers’ 18 players were all-state picks last fall and four of those all-state choices are back this season.
Is Southeast ready to bounce back? Few teams have had the success the Cyclones have had in the past few years. With three consecutive state titles from 1999-2001 and four straight from 2006-09, as well as 14 consecutive years in which they have earned the right to host a first-round playoff game, the Cyclones have made it clear that the state title road will almost always go through Yoder. After a “down” year in which the Cyclones lost to eventual state champion Cokeville in the semifinals, Southeast returns all-staters Zac Zimmerer and Zach Eisenbarth and may again be the team to beat in the East Conference.
Who will challenge the two favorites? Cokeville and Southeast top the discussion of 1A 11-man title favorites, but after that, a whole bunch of uncertainty takes over. Parity appears to be the name of the game in 1A’s second tier, as numerous schools — Burlington, Rocky Mountain, Riverside and Wind River in the West and Pine Bluffs, Lingle and Lusk in the East — try to assert themselves as top-tier schools. But the problem might not be beating Cokeville and Southeast; it might be surviving the parity in the middle long enough to have the chance to move forward.
Is this the year Shoshoni ends the streak? Shoshoni’s losing streak is now at 19 games. The last time Shoshoni beat a current 1A 11-man team (without forfeiting it later) was 2006. It’s been quite a dry spell for the boys in blue, but the young Wranglers could be better this fall and should be more competitive; the only problem is that they play in the West, where every team is tough to beat week in and week out.
Four players to watch
Jordan Johnson, Cokeville. The Panther lineman was an all-state choice last fall, and with his play on both offense and defense, it’s easy to see why. He was second on the stout Panther defense last year with 137 defensive points and notched 17 tackles for loss and three sacks.
Brigham Teichert, Cokeville. The only Panther who had more defensive points than Johnson was Teichert. The junior led Cokeville with 198 team points last year, racking up 23 solo tackles, 16 tackles for loss and three fumble recoveries. The top defense in 1A 11-man returning its top two tacklers from an undefeated team? Doesn’t seem fair, does it?
Zac Zimmerer, Southeast. Zimmerer carried 152 times for 1,025 yards and 13 touchdowns last year and comes into 2011 as the classification’s top returning rusher. He also led the Cyclones with four interceptions on defense last year.
Anson George, Burlington. All George did last year was lead Burlington in receiving, punt returns, kick returns, scoring, kicking, defensive points, solo tackles and assisted tackles. Oh, and he was second on the team in rushing, too.
Four key games
Lusk at Southeast, Week 3. While Lingle and Pine Bluffs will have a say in who finishes atop the East Conference when it’s all said and done, this early-season showdown should help give everyone a good idea of where the top teams stand.
Rocky Mountain at Wind River, Week 4. The winner of this game probably has the best chance of challenging Cokeville for West Conference supremacy.
Cokeville at Rocky Mountain, Week 5. The Panthers’ toughest road trip this season may be the one to Cowley at the season’s midpoint.
Lingle at Southeast, Week 8. This game has had huge conference title and playoff seeding impacts the past two years. Look for this game in the regular-season finale to be just as important this year. (By the way, note that Southeast gets both Lusk and Lingle at home this year…)
Predicted order of finish
East: Southeast; Lingle; Lusk; Pine Bluffs; Sundance; Upton; Normative Services.
West: Cokeville; Rocky Mountain; Burlington; Wind River; Riverside; Saratoga; Wyoming Indian; Shoshoni.
Trivia
All-time, Cokeville is an incredible 100-19 (number corrected from original post) against current 1A 11-man programs. The Panthers are at least .500 against each of the other 14 schools in the classification. Two current 1A 11-man schools, though, have beaten the Panthers a classification high of five times apiece, combining to give Cokeville 10 of those 19 losses. Which two schools can claim this? Comment below if you have a guess, or if you want to talk about the 1A 11-man expectations you have for 2011.
–patrick
I assume that Southeast is one of the two teams with 5 wins over Cokeville. Is the other team either Lusk or Pine Bluffs? Or has Burlington (or another Big Horn Baisn team) managed 5 wins at one point or another over the years?
Good, only a week till the 2A Season preview
Boyd, you are 0-for-4. Southeast, Lusk, Pine Bluffs and Burlington are all wrong… Although Southeast is 4-4 against Cokeville all-time, which is the best percentage-wise of any current 1A 11-man school. Actually, the other three schools you mentioned have combined to beat Cokeville just once (Burlington’s victory over Cokeville a couple years ago).
–patrick
Wind River and Saratoga.
There they are. Wind River is 5-14 all-time against Cokeville, last beating the Panthers in 2000. Saratoga is 5-19 all-time against the Panthers, but their last win in that series came all the way back in 1987. … I found it interesting that Cokeville has never lost to Rocky Mountain (6-0 all-time) or Riverside (8-0) and is an astonishing 19-1 all-time against Shoshoni. I also thought it was odd that, despite the runaway success of both programs, Cokeville and Lusk have only played against each other twice.
–patrick
Your records have Riverside beating Cokeville in 1992. Byron beat Cokeville in 1968 (again according to your records). Does that count as Rocky Mountain?
I’m curious (but too lazy to count) about Cokeville’s all-time record against Pinedale and Big Piney. They must account for a huge percentage of Cokeville’s losses.
Is there a much longer trip in the state than Lusk to Cokeville? I’m sure that’s something you’ve thought on before, and you could probably tell me off the top of your head.
What’s the status on the book? I’d like to put it under my own Festivus pole if it’s ready by then.
Thanks for the Riverside catch. And no, beating Byron does not equal beating Rocky Mountain, the same way that beating Huntley doesn’t equal beating Southeast or beating Ranchester doesn’t equal beating Tongue River or… or… or…. 😛
You got me curious so I counted up Cokeville’s record against all those southwest foes (Big Piney, Pinedale, Lyman, Mountain View). My gut tells me that it would be more the Bridger Valley than Sublette County that would account for more Cokeville losses. OK, computing… computing…
Cokeville vs.
Lyman: 37-21-1
Mountain View: 31-16-1
Pinedale: 36-22-1
Big Piney: 34-31-1
Those four schools together account for 90 of Cokeville’s 147 losses all-time.
Lusk to Cokeville is bad. Hulett to Cokeville is bad. Torrington to Star Valley is probably the worst, though, because you have to come into the valley from the north or south.
Book is coming along, but I am going to wait and include the 2011 season in it. Maybe ready by December 1?
–patrick
SV to Torrington (or vice-versa) is a dang long trip. In my middle school/high school days, we went to play the Blazers three years in a row from ’90-’92, then I think there were two out of three years when they came to Afton. I’m too lazy to look it up on your list Patrick but it is a doozy.
When I was in high school the Braves played Gillette in Afton then in Gillette, that’s a long stretch as well.
Hey Patrick, while reading through this, something interesting came up. You may have already dove into this but my question is, what is the longest (mileage) that a team has had to travel to win a state championship? So just doing playoff travel for example, in 2004 Guernsey had a home game first round, so 0 miles, went to Burlington 326 miles one way, then went to Cokeville 420 miles one way. A total of 1,492 (counting there and back) miles for their championship. I realize this would take a ridiculous amount of time to find out, but it may spark some good conversation.
DE,
No clue. I could dig it up but, yes, it would take forever.
I did do a blog post back in the day of teams that had reached the state title game after playing a first-round road game. There were surprisingly few. Only two teams since 1990 have won state titles after opening the playoffs on the road (eight-team brackets only).
Here is the list, updated:
State champions
Big Piney, 2006 (quarterfinals on the road, semifinals at home, title game on the road)
Glenrock, 2003 (all three games on the road)
State runners-up
Kaycee, 2009; Evanston, 1993 and 2007; Cheyenne East, 2006; Gillette, 2003; Lovell, 2003 (hosted title game) and 1990; Lusk, 2003; Normative Services, 2001; Mountain View, 2000; Sheridan, 1996 and 1997; Pine Bluffs, 1991 and 1994; Wind River, 1992.
So, in short, Glenrock in 2003 and Big Piney in 2006 might be my best guesses to start, but the answer to your question could actually be a team that played the first round at home, then had long trips the next two rounds, like your example. Not sure…. but good question!
–patrick
Yes, In 2006 Big Piney traveled a long way. I used “directions” and took the shortest distance in Google maps, so teams may actually have travelled longer depending on weather and travel preference. Anyways, Big Piney went to Newcastle: 438 miles, Glenrock: 299 miles, then to Tongue River: 368 miles. So there and back was a total of 2210 miles. I would assume that would be right up there. Glenrock in 2003 didn’t travel that far but in going to Wright 103 miles, Big Piney 299, and then Lovell 271, they totaled 1346 miles. As stated above, Guernsey beat that in 2004.
DE, Big Piney’s 2006 semifinal against Glenrock was at home. That was a crazy year for that 3A bracket. Glenrock upset Mountain View 7-0 and Big Piney upset Newcastle 12-6. Six and seventh seeds, I believe, and they met in the semis.
–patrick
Pine Bluffs to Byron (Rocky Mtn) is a looong haul. In fact, Pine Bluffs is a long ways from everywhere except Burns, Cheyenne and Nebraska.