Wyoming’s top returning high school football players — by uniform number

It’s pretty easy to figure out which players are among Wyoming’s top returners this year.

Take a look at last year’s all-conference, all-state and Super 25 listings, and just remove the seniors.

Or (shameless plug alert) read the upcoming annual Wyoming high school football preview magazine, which I wrote again this year with previews on every team in the state and will be out in mid- to late August.

Rarely, if ever, do typical season previews and postseason recognition lists indicate the number of the player’s jersey. However, that’s the most common way for fans to figure out who’s who on the field.

So what if we put together a team of returning players and chose the best players based on the number of their jerseys — choosing only one player per number?

Let’s do this for Wyoming high school football’s 2019 returners.

I’m certainly not the first to do this. The specific inspiration for this post, though, came from one of my former students, Sam Herder, who’s doing something similar for players at the FCS level of college football for HeroSports.

The problem with taking something that’s normally reserved for the NFL or college teams and applying it to Wyoming high schools is that, um… how to put it politely?… not every number has a bunch of good players from which to choose.

One of the things that became readily apparent during the production of this list was that Wyoming high schools rarely use numbers in the 90s. In fact, using last year’s final stats as my starting point, I couldn’t find a single returning player in the entire state at any level who wore number 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97 or 98 last year.

Similarly, I couldn’t find a returner who wore 46 or 59, either. A few numbers had only one returner in the state (and, no, I won’t tell you which ones, because I don’t want to embarrass anyone who’s listed below). On the flipside, some numbers — like 1, 2, 5 and 12, among others — were overloaded with talented players who would have easily made this list if they had worn a less-common number.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that any of these returning players will wear the same number this year that they did last year. And there’s a chance that the players listed here may not go out, or may have moved or transferred since the end of last season.

The list here is subjective; it’s my opinion, and I made it for fun. Hopefully, you have fun with it too… and I’m more than happy if you disagree with me. 🙂

Anyway, here’s Wyoming’s top returning high school football players for 2019 by jersey number:

Number	Name	School
1	Mason Hamilton	Thunder Basin
2	Dax Yeradi	Wright
3	Kirby Castagno	Jackson
4	Chance Aumiller	Cheyenne East
5	Garrett Coon	Sheridan
6	Peter Goettler	Jackson
7	Hunter Hays	Cody
8	Rowen Ruby	Buffalo
9	Andrew Johnson	Cheyenne Central
10	A.J. Yeaman	Douglas
11	Dawson Macleary	Cheyenne Central
12	Quinn McCafferty	Big Horn
13	Graedyn Buell	Cheyenne East
14	Todd Paisley	Wheatland
15	Kaden Raza	Big Piney
16	Seth Hymas	Rock Springs
17	Riggen Myers	Snake River
18	Tristan Blatt	Cody
19	Kimball Madsen	Mountain View
20	Devon Mercado	Worland
21	R.J. Cazier	Star Valley
22	A.J. McCool	Jackson
23	Favor Okere	Rock Springs
24	Jhett Letellier	Hulett
25	Wyatt Duncan	Snake River
26	Jeydon Cox	Jackson
27	Hunter Kramer	Gillette
28	Jaxon Pikula	Thunder Basin
29	Emory Yoosook	Kelly Walsh
30	Rowdy Pfeil	Moorcroft
31	Austin Sansoucie	Midwest
32	David Castillo	Star Valley
33	Dante Wallace	Natrona
34	Hyrum Hatch	Buffalo
35	Caden Werbelow	Riverton
36	Josiah Divers	St. Stephens
37	McCaffrey Billings	Big Horn
38	Eli Dickey	Thermopolis
39	Carson Olsen	Powell
40	Drake Lamp	Lusk
41	James Stone	Lusk
42	Damien Molzahn	Lusk
43	Bryson Davis	Evanston
44	Logan Cole	Thermopolis
45	Jeremy Hartt	Guernsey-Sunrise
46	No returners identified
47	Bryston Jennings*	Glenrock
48	Luke Mullinax	Big Horn
49	Nick Talich	Cody
50	Hunter Gross	Mountain View
51	Anthony Graves	Buffalo
52	Gavin Thomas	Kelly Walsh
53	Cody Pinkerton	Douglas
54	Hansen Bradshaw	Lyman
55	Nathan Swanston	Buffalo
56	Keith Connor	Cody
57	Riley Shaffer	Thermopolis
58	Parker Merritt	Star Valley
59	No returners identified
60	Nate Barnes	Cokeville
61	Brandon Mortenson*	Rock Springs
62	Brendan Miller*	Kemmerer
63	Colter Collver*	Wind River
64	Mitch Miller	Burns
65	Remington Ferree	Thermopolis
66	Garrett King	Cokeville
67	Edel Diaz-Jaime	Douglas
68	Tyler Schaub	Torrington
69	Parker Schlater	Moorcroft
70	Kie Foster	Rawlins
71	Zane Taylor	Riverton
72	Cam Thomas	Big Piney
73	Jasper Caldera	Lusk
74	Jeff Williams	Cody
75	Corbin Harris	Torrington
76	Hunter Meeks	Mountain View
77	Hunter Pope	Buffalo
78	Jacob Knobloch	Tongue River
79	Reid Foster	Douglas
80	Brady Storebo	Cheyenne Central
81	Zion Graham	Kelly Walsh
82	Tyler Moyes	Cokeville
83	Tyson Christiansen	Rocky Mountain
84	Chase Merrell	Star Valley
85	Kaden Redding	Meeteetse
86	Jaret Taylor	Cheyenne East
87	Johnathon True	Natrona
88	Mason Masteller	Thunder Basin
89	Kaden Gautenbein	Riverton
90	Hunter Bailey	Hulett
91	No returners identified
92	No returners identified
93	Garrett Oswald	Cheyenne East
94	No returners identified
95	No returners identified
96	No returners identified
97	No returners identified
98	No returners identified
99	Rhiley Grubbs*	Torrington

*-Jennings wore both 47 and 64 last year; Mortenson wore both 61 and 63 last year; Miller wore both 62 and 77 last year; Collver wore both 63 and 40 last year; Grubbs wore both 55 and 99 last year.

If you have suggestions for folks I should have put in each spot, leave a comment, or consider hitting me up on Twitter or Facebook.

–patrick