This week, I acquired several old game tapes from my alma mater, Midwest. One of the tapes in the stack was the Class 1A nine-man state championship game from 1989 between the Oilers and the Hanna Miners. Hanna won the game, and the video — now more than 26 years old — was worth digitizing (and uploading to YouTube).
If you have old game videos, especially of playoff and championship games, that you’d like me to digitize and share here, let me know! I’m happy to do so.
–patrick
That’s crazy to watch. You can hear a lot of names that are still heard at high school games today. Nine man was a great game and wold be perfect for the big 6 man schools and small 11 man schools. Looks and plays just like 11 man. Great memories. Thanks for posting this Patrick. I lost my copy of that game 20 years ago.
One of the things that I found really interesting in this game is that Midwest runs an unbalanced line, strong right, all game long. The left side has the tight end lined up next to the center and the right side has a guard, tackle and end just like in 11-man. I wonder if Midwest did that because this was the first year of nine-man and it made the transition easier for them?
This was also Dallas Hoff’s last game as coach at Midwest. He had quite the career there.
And if I’m not mistaken, isn’t that you, Clif, running for the last TD? HEM had quite a team that season!
–patrick
It was our first year of playing 9-man as well. In fact, that was the first season that 9-man was sanctioned by the WHSAA. We were fortunate to have a great group of seniors that year. I had three touchdowns and Paul Clark #12 had two in that game. I now coach his daughter in track, she is a senior at HEM. I do remember it was Mr. Hoff’s last game and our coach, Brad Barlow, telling us before the game what a good coach he was and that we would have to be at our best because Midwest was heavily favored. We upset Meeteetse the week before in the semi-finals, and had to beat Farson, and then played an extra quarter against them as a tie breaker to see which team made the playoffs. In those days we played everyone in the conference twice and we had split with them. The quarterback for that Farson team was Trip Applequist, who now coaches at Farson. I heard the name Rouse mentioned quite a bit in the video. Is he any relation to the assistant coach in Kaycee, would be something to have that many players from the first 9-man season now coaching in the 6-man ranks.
Thanks again Patrick, I alway enjoy reading your posts and thoughts about Wyoming High School Football.
Clif
The Rouse playing for Midwest in the video is Tony, who is now the assistant coach at Kaycee. He was a sophomore that year. His senior class was the one that helped Midwest win state in 1991. And, of course, his son won a state title as a senior, too. Nice family connection there. 🙂
–patrick