After starting the season 5-1, Tongue River girls basketball coach Dianne Moser now has a career record of 702-205.
Moser will probably break the state record for basketball victories this season, regardless of gender, a record held by longtime Cheyenne Central boys coach Okie Blanchard.
But exactly when Moser will break that record? No one knows for sure.
When he retired from basketball coaching after the 1958 season, Blanchard had 706 or 708 career victories, depending on the source; his loss total is either 126 or 127, again depending on the source. Blanchard also came out of retirement and coached Hillsdale in 1968-69, a season that isn’t counted in those career totals. No one who I’ve contacted has been able to find Hillsdale’s record for that 1968-69 season.
For what it’s worth, I tend to believe Blanchard had 706 career victories entering the Hillsdale season. The number 706 was the total cited upon his retirement from coaching (well, his first retirement) in 1958.
Blanchard’s career spanned three-plus decades with stops at Glenrock, Cokeville, Rock Springs, Natrona and Cheyenne Central, with a two-year stint at the University of Wyoming in the middle of all that, too. The citing of 708 total victories came out only after he returned to Hillsdale, prior to the start of that season.
Hillsdale High School closed after that 1969 season, and — to the best of my knowledge — Blanchard’s second go-round of basketball coaching ended after that one-year stint in Hillsdale.
So the number Moser has to beat? Blanchard’s 706 plus Hillsdale’s 1968-69 season.
She’ll get it, probably this season.
For now, though, we can’t celebrate Moser’s accomplishment at the moment… unless someone finds Hillsdale’s record from 1969…
–patrick
Are coach Mosers wins all at Tongue River High School if so that is something to celebrate?
Kim-yes, coach Moser is the only girls basketball coach Tongue River has ever had. I don’t know if that’s more or less impressive than bouncing around to several schools, but it is different.
–patrick
I would suggest a call to the museum in Pine Bluffs. When the high schools in Hillsdale and Carpenter closed, many of their yearbooks and trophies ended up at the museum in Pine Bluffs. Just a thought. I also know a couple of people that played at Hillsdale…I will see if they have it somewhere.
Thanks Chad! Good to know where those yearbooks ended up. Great starting point.
–patrick
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