Week 4 picks: Saratoga joins the ranks of the nighttime football

Saratoga’s football team is trying out something new this year — night home games.

The Panthers are the latest school to add lights to their field, debuting the new lights in a 28-6 loss to Lingle in the opening week of the season. In doing so, Saratoga joined a growing trend of schools adding the night option to their schedule.

Upton added lights recently when it built its new school and field a few years ago; Pinedale added lights in a stadium upgrade that also included artificial turf; Wind River added lights a couple years ago despite some setbacks that pushed back making night football a consistent event in Pavillion.

Now, of the 63 high schools in Wyoming that sponsor varsity high school football, only 18 don’t have lights on their home field.

The no-lights schools tend to be clumped together. There’s the “Crook County Clump” of Hulett, Sundance and Moorcroft… the “Sheridan County District 1 Clump” of Tongue River and Big Horn… the “Southwest Clump” of Lyman, Mountain View, Kemmerer, Big Piney and Cokeville… the “Big Horn County District 1 Clump” of Rocky Mountain and Burlington…. and the “Six-man Clump” of Kaycee, Snake River, Farson, Hanna, Dubois and Ten Sleep (and Hulett, again; with their move to six-man last year, the Red Devils are now in two clumps).

Speaking of six-man… Guernsey, Meeteetse and Midwest are the only six-man schools with lights; however, both Meeteetse and Guernsey have no night home games this year. Midwest is the opposite, and is scheduled to play all of its home games at night — the lone torch bearer of night six-man football in Wyoming.

Of course, most of the schools without lights are fairly small — the Bridger Valley schools of Mountain View and Lyman are the two largest schools in the state without lights, and they tally in at about 225 students apiece 9-12. However, of the 18 schools without lights, seven are in Class 2A and seven are in Class 1A six-man; only four schools in Class 1A 11-man don’t have lights.

Don’t expect lights for most of these schools any time soon. I haven’t heard any rumors of any of these schools adding lights any time soon. (If I’m wrong about that, let me know by posting a comment below or emailing me: pschmiedt@yahoo.com.)

As for Saratoga… well, after this week, the Panthers have two more home games. One will be under the lights, but the regular-season finale will be played in the mid-afternoon. Is it too early to call it a throwback game?

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I’m not purposely trying to neglect this week’s games by talking about lights. Several key games dot the schedule, including Buffalo-Douglas, Glenrock-Big Horn, Cokeville-Shoshoni and Dubois-Kaycee. At least two undefeated teams will fall this week, as the Glenrock-Big Horn and Dubois-Kaycee games pit two unbeaten teams against each other.

Here are this week’s picks, with projected winners in bold:

Friday
Class 4A
Cheyenne Central at Evanston
Cheyenne South at Cheyenne East
Gillette at Laramie
Sheridan at Rock Springs
Class 3A
Buffalo at Douglas
Cody at Green River
Lander at Torrington
Powell at Jackson
Rawlins at Riverton
Worland at Star Valley
Class 2A
Burns at Tongue River
Glenrock at Big Horn
Greybull at Pinedale
Lyman at Big Piney
Moorcroft at Wheatland
Mountain View at Lovell
Wright at Newcastle
Class 1A 11-man
Burlington at Riverside
Cokeville at Shoshoni
Lusk at Lingle
Pine Bluffs at Southeast
Wind River at Rocky Mountain
Wyoming Indian at Saratoga
Class 1A six-man
Guernsey at Hanna
Meeteetse at Snake River
Saturday
Class 4A
Natrona at Kelly Walsh
Class 2A
Thermopolis at Kemmerer
Class 1A six-man
Dubois at Kaycee
Hulett at Ten Sleep
Midwest at Farson
Interclass
Big Horn JV at Normative Services
Open: Upton-Sundance.

Last week: 27-5 (84 percent). This season: 90-21 (81 percent).

Thoughts on the upcoming week? Thoughts on lights? Thoughts on anything Wyoming high school football-related? Post away below. Let’s start a conversation.

–patrick