For schools a half-hour apart, Cokeville and Bear Lake, Idaho, do not have much football history between them.
With good reason.
At 314 students, Bear Lake is the largest Class 2A school in Idaho; the Bears moved to 2A this year after spending decades as a Class 3A school. Even as a small 3A school, though, Bear Lake was always a tough team to beat. I worked one football season in Idaho and had to make picks of the high school games, and I learned one phrase quickly: “Always take the Lake, unless they’re playing Snake.” (Snake River, a consistent 3A power, was always Bear Lake’s nemesis in Idaho’s 3A District V.)
Cokeville, meanwhile, enrolls 74 students, and is the smallest 11-man football school in Wyoming.
That size disparity was, in part, why the Bears rarely played the Panthers, even though the two schools are only 32 miles apart. In fact, Bear Lake (and its predecessor in name, Montpelier High) have only played each other three times.
And guess who has the advantage? The little guys.
Cokeville is 2-1 all-time against Bear Lake/Montpelier. Montpelier beat Cokeville 13-0 in 1934, but Cokeville beat Montpelier 12-6 in 1969 and Bear Lake 22-0 in 1982.
Take note, though: Cokeville tends to play Bear Lake/Montpelier only when the Panthers have loaded teams.
For example, the Panthers’ 1969 squad (with quarterback Todd Dayton) is considered one of the school’s best. Cokeville went 8-0 that season, winning five of those games by at least 50 points on their way to a mythical Class B championship. The Panthers’ two closest games were against Byron in the season opener (20-18) and against Montpelier in the season finale (12-6). While the first seven victories helped Cokeville prove its strength, the eight victory against the big guys up the road was the one that cemented the squad as legendary in the Cokeville coffee klatsches.
And in 1982, the Panthers finished one point away from the playoffs. That year, Cokeville lost 8-7 to eventual Class B champ Lyman in the regular-season finale. The two actually tied for the conference championship, but Lyman’s head-to-head victory earned it the Southwest’s lone Class B playoff spot. The next year, Cokeville moved to the newly created Class 1A and ran off a string of eight championships in nine years.
Now, in 2014, Cokeville and Bear Lake play again, thanks in part to Zero Week’s freedom for Wyoming small schools and Bear Lake’s schedule changes due to its move to 2A.
Cokeville has won three Class 1A 11-man championships the past four years and has one of the largest senior classes in recent memory. Like 1969 and 1982, these Panthers could be one of the best teams in school history.
After all, Bear Lake only shows up on the schedule when Cokeville is better than usual.
Here are the Zero Week picks, with projected winners in bold:
Friday
Class 4A
Cheyenne Central at Natrona
Cheyenne East at Rock Springs
Evanston at Cheyenne South
Kelly Walsh at Gillette
Laramie at Sheridan
Class 3A
Riverton at Worland
Class 1A six-man
Midwest at Meeteetse
Interstate
Jackson at Teton, Idaho
Lyman at Altamont, Utah
Newcastle at Custer, S.D.
Powell at Miles City, Mont.
Saturday
Interstate
Bridgeport, Neb., at Southeast
Cody at Laurel, Mont.
Cokeville at Bear Lake, Idaho
The rest of the Zero Week schedule includes these scrimmages and jamborees:
Friday
Big Piney at Pinedale
Big Horn vs. Lander, at Casper (Kelly Walsh)
Greybull, Shoshoni at Thermopolis
Kemmerer, Riverside, Tongue River at Riverton
Wheatland at Torrington
Saturday
Burns at Lusk
Dubois, Farson, Hanna at Lander
Glenrock at Rawlins
Green River vs. Douglas, at Laramie
Guernsey, Ten Sleep at KayceeLingle vs. Wind River, at Kelly Walsh (this scrimmage was canceled)
Lovell at Buffalo
Rock River at Snake River
Saratoga at Pine Bluffs
Upton-Sundance at Wright
For a full schedule, including kickoff times, click here.
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As usual, Zero Week picks for all classifications except 4A come with a disclaimer about what’s a “game” and counted in the standings and what’s not. Remember, I count different than the WHSAA does. For the record, here are the criteria I use to judge whether or not to call an event a “game,” and therefore list it in the standings (and, eventually, as part of the team record on this site):
1. Was the game played with four 12-minute quarters with normal timing rules?
2. Were officials used? And were normal rules of play instituted for the game?
3. Was score kept?
In short, if you don’t want it to count, don’t keep score….
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The best part about Zero Week is that we finally get to stop talking and start playing. It feels nice, doesn’t it? Any games drawing your interest? Any picks you think I got wrong? Any scrimmages or jamborees that could be telling despite not counting? Post a comment and let’s talk about it.
–patrick