My family destiny

This was a post I orginally wrote back in March for my old TribTown blog, from back when I worked at the Casper Star-Tribune.

My grandfather died last night, and in his memory I want to repost it here:

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With five high school football programs starting from scratch this fall, I’m working on a story that will touch on all the schools, a “progress report” for the six-man schools waiting to join the fray come August.

So far, I’ve reached six of the 10 ADs in charge of the programs that will make up Wyoming’s new six-man division (watch for the story next week, part of a series of stories relating to Wyoming’s changing football landscape). All six, unanimously, are thrilled for the chance they have this fall.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently — how to start a football program from scratch. I already know someone who did so and someone else who tried.

My grandfather, Jacque, started the Huntley High School football program way back in 1951. Even though his high school in South Dakota was too small to field a team, he excelled on the gridiron in college, even making the all-conference team at Augustana in 1947 and playing for a while at Bowling Green.

When he came to Huntley, though, the Cardinals didn’t have a football team. So he drummed up support however he could, earned the school board’s approval and, in 1951, put the Cards on the field.

Grandpa must have seen something good in the boys in Huntley to go to all that effort…. and in his first two games, his players proved him right. The Cards thumped Albin 50-0 and Lingle 48-0 in their first two games. From there, Huntley beat Glenrock, Manville and Albin again to set up a date with Hanna for the right to play in the state’s Class B six-man state championship.

After staking a 20-0 lead, though, the Cards stumbled. Hanna came roaring back to win, 27-20, and earned the right to play in the state title game. (For what it’s worth, Hanna lost that title game 47-0 to Byron.)

The Huntley program survived until 1969; the school until 1980. Today, the Huntley boys play at Southeast — the three-time defending state champions. Even though he’s long since removed from Goshen County’s sports scene, I’d like to think Grandpa has a little something to do with the Cyclones’ run.

Flip forward to 1973, my dad’s first year in Rock River. Just like my grandpa, my dad never played high school football (he was a golfer), but in Rock River he wanted to try something different.

But the Longhorns weren’t quite ready to take on that task. With anywhere from 12-15 boys in the high school at any time — and with no growth spurts coming in the foreseeable future — any idealistic plans for Rock River football were crushed by reality.

Flip forward to 2009. Rock River will have football for the first time this fall. Kaycee and Fort Washakie, too, are building programs from nothing, while Farson and Snake River are resurrecting long-dormant programs as part of the state’s new six-man league.

This fall, only four Wyoming high schools — Arapaho Charter, Arvada-Clearmont, Chugwater and Glendo — will have no football whatsoever.

And for some reason, I keep having this dream. I’m moving… maybe to Clearmont or Platte County…. and I’m trying to start a football program…. like somebody before me has tried it…. like it’s my destiny….

Naahhh. 🙂