Laramie’s first chance at hosting all five state football championship games went about as well as it could have.
Except for the weather.
There wasn’t much the University of Wyoming or the Wyoming High School Activities Association could do about the weather, which, right on cue, struck a mid-November tone. Snow covered the field, and it was deep. Really deep. Remnants from that snow are still hanging around War Memorial Stadium more than a week after the first kickoff.
Given the conditions, the two groups with the most influence (UW and the WHSAA) put on a pretty good show.
Although I haven’t heard a final count on the attendance, crowds were pretty good all weekend. Even if 4,000 or 5,000 people doesn’t look like many in a 30,000-seat stadium, it’s still a good crowd for a high school game. In fact, after the 1A 11-man championship — where the crowd was not very large considering the size of the stadium but huge considering it was a Class 1A game — Southeast coach Mark Bullington said he and his coaches weren’t ready for the noise in the stadium. Never mind what the crowd looked liked and accept it for what it was in all five cases: really good for a neutral-site high school game.
Across the board, players and coaches enjoyed the experience. I covered all five championship games and didn’t hear a single complaint from anyone on the field, even despite the weather. Players and coaches understood that there was only so much that could be done with the weather. It was unrealistic to expect those fields to be clear on Friday, not with how fast the snow was falling.
Of course, home-field advantage was one of the most cited reasons for not moving the games to Laramie. And since last Saturday, the most vocal complaints about the weekend came in two forms — about the weather and about the idea in and of itself.
Weather? OK, I understand the complaint. Laramie in November ain’t Honolulu. Nowhere in Wyoming is. Any of the games in the southeastern corner would have been struck with the same problems that Laramie was last week. Look at today’s weather: low 30s, clouds, but no snow. If you can predict the weather, go work for DayWeather and put your skills to better use.
As for the idea itself… I think it proved itself on Friday and Saturday. This is a good idea. There were no complaints — at least no public complaints — from any of the participants. The only complaints came from people on the fringes of this event, from people that don’t like driving, from people that don’t like brushing the snow off their own seats in the stadium, from people who don’t understand how cool it is for those players to step on the turf at War Memorial Stadium for a surreal experience.
Those who are still against it are nostalgic. And I understand that. I even empathize with it. State football championships are a special event, and it’s hard to let go of that.
The championships at the War do take away the opportunity for a special event at five other Wyoming towns. But those towns’ losses will be the state’s gain. Rather than being five small and separate events for those towns, the War provides a chance for one large event for the entire state.
Wyoming has been described as one small town with long streets. Let’s give the town of Wyoming something to make its own. In time, it will be more special than anything any one community could do.
–patrick