WHSFB HQ debate, circa 2011 — What about South?

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Welcome, Cheyenne South.

And good luck, Wyoming High School Activities Association.

Although Wyoming’s newest high school on Cheyenne’s south side won’t be opening until next fall, freshman will begin participating for South at the sub-varsity level in team sports and at the varsity level in individual sports this fall.

The South football team, meanwhile, will not be heading for varsity play until 2011. It’s perfect timing, since that’s when the WHSAA will reclassify its schools again and align them into new divisions.

The question with realigning football to fit Cheyenne South into the scheme boils down to one simple question: Will the WHSAA choose to keep Class 4A at 10 teams, or expand it to 11 or 12?

10 Teams

If the WHSAA elects to stay at 10 for 4A — and, by default, stick with the 10-12-16 split it has now in football for 4A, 3A and 2A — South will bump out the smallest 4A football school (right now Green River) into 3A. And Green River will bump the smallest 3A football school, right now Wheatland, into 2A. And Wheatland will bump the smallest 2A football school, right now Wyoming Indian, into 1A.

The other option is to go to a 10-14-14 split, where Green River will still be bumped down to 3A but the largest 2A school, right now Pinedale, will be bumped up from 2A into 3A. With that set-up, the smallest 2A (now Wyoming Indian) heads to 1A.

Another question that comes out of this: Would Green River ACCEPT a “demotion” to 3A? It’s possible the Wolves could just opt up to 4A, rendering the whole 10-team league idea moot.

11 Teams

The possibility is there that the WHSAA could just expand 4A to 11 teams, much like it had before the most recent reclassification cycle. Of course, that means the division would need to be split into two conferences and the round-robin schedule in place now would be gone. It sounds like a disaster situation for scheduling, especially if the other divisions remain with limited out-of-conference play, and I think the WHSAA would do everything it could to avoid this situation. I think the only way this happens is if Green River and Star Valley both push hard — Green River to stay 4A and Star Valley to stay 3A.

12 Teams

If the WHSAA expands to 12 for 4A, South and the No. 12 school, right now Star Valley, would join the 4A football ranks. From there, the question becomes: How many in 3A? A 12-12 split makes the most sense, as the largest 2A football school, right now Pinedale, jumps in to take Star Valley’s spot in 3A. And then the largest 1A football school, right now Pine Bluffs, jumps to take Pinedale’s spot in 2A.

Given its past history, I don’t see the WHSAA putting more than 24 schools into 4A and 3A combined for football.

Of course, enrollment changes and school shifts could help dictate the alignment of the classifications and conferences much more than the addition of one school.

Even so, there will be change in 2011. And there will plenty of possibilities.

And I’m sure the WHSAA leadership has already jumped on some ideas — and the phone — to see what might be coming down the pipe during reclassification debates when it comes up for vote next fall.

Also….

I made a couple quick updates to the site today. I posted an updated list of missing games to reflect what games still need updates. Check it out and see if you can add some information into the scores database that I don’t have.

I also corrected Upton’s record for 2004. The Bobcats were 8-3; I had them listed at 7-4. The correction has been made on all the relevant pages.

–patrick

Maxpreps preseason rankings

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The annual Maxpreps preseason rankings are out (click here for the Wyoming previews), and the Green River Wolves are in the overall No. 1 spot.

You can get pretty into the Maxpreps ratings, which rank the 11-man schools in Wyoming 1-54 (six-man schools aren’t ranked in the preseason for Wyoming, probably because so many schools are new). Burns is ranked tops in 2A and third overall; Douglas is No. 1 in 3A and fifth overall; and Wind River is the top 1A 11-man team and is 13th overall.

Take a look at the rankings, then let me know what you think: bogus or beautiful? Post a comment below.

Maxpreps and the Massey Ratings are the only computer rankings that I know of that rank high school teams throughout the year. Maxpreps generally gives small schools too much credit; Massey ratings are generally kinder to larger schools. Massey ratings usually take about three weeks to get up to speed, but once they do I’ll try to remember to post the rankings here each week.

Season kickoff is in two-plus days for the 4As…. nine-plus days for everyone else…. it’s starting to get fun.

–patrick

Updates: Lusk, Wyoming Indian, Guernsey-Sunrise, Lingle, Rocky Mountain, Moorcroft, Big Horn and Mountain View

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Seven more games were added to the database today courtesy of the Byes Project:

Wyoming Indian’s 16-0 loss to the Dubois JV on Sept. 15, 1972

Wyoming Indian’s 28-12 loss to the Meeteetse JV on Oct. 5, 1972

Wyoming Indian’s 56-28 loss to the Dubois JV on Oct. 14, 1972

Lusk’s 28-7 loss to Lingle on Sept. 19, 1980

Lusk’s 16-0 win over Guernsey-Sunrise on Sept. 26, 1980

Rocky Mountain’s 36-6 loss to Shepherd, Mont., on Sept. 3, 1988

Mountain View’s 36-18 win over the Rock Springs sophs on Sept. 13, 1990

If you’ll notice, three of the games are from Wyoming Indian’s inaugural 1972 season. One of the more interesting quirks in Wyoming football is that the Chiefs’ first game in program history came against Medicine Bow (or Bow-Basin, depending on the era in which you grew up) on Sept. 9, 1972 — and that game was also Medicine Bow’s first game in ITS program history. Quirky. I also added the Chiefs’ coaches for the 1972, 1973 and 1974 seasons to their team page.

Two of the other games came from Lusk’s 1980 season.

I also deleted a duplicate entry from 1964 involving the Oct. 2 game between Big Horn and Moorcroft.

Also, research for the years 1947-50 is complete. I likely won’t be posting those results until after the 2009 season, as it’s much easier to updates like that in one fell swoop rather than bit by bit. My hope is to be able to finish up research on all years from 1940-50 before the end of this season and have all those results posted by Christmas. Wish me luck….

–patrick

Party like it’s 1994… two quick updates. And a new coach in Guernsey.

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Two new updates, both from 1994:

The first comes with a corrected score. Thermopolis beat Glenrock 58-16 on Sept. 30; I had the score reversed, with Glenrock beating Thermopolis.

The second comes with a game found with the Byes Project. Pine Bluffs beat the Cheyenne Central sophomores 28-6 on Sept. 12 in Cheyenne.

Both games have been added/corrected, with updates made to the relevant pages.

Also, some news out of Guernsey: boys basketball coach Casey Moats has taken the reins of the football program. Moats was Guernsey’s defensive coordinator the past few years (Guernsey Gazette).

–patrick

Caught streaking: Star Valley

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I somehow missed Star Valley’s 26-game unbeaten streak from 1960-63 the first time I went around collecting winning and losing streaks. I noticed the run today and added it to the streaks page. It’s tied for the ninth-longest unbeaten streak in state history, tying Cokeville’s run from 1987-90, Glenrock’s from 1966-69 and Riverton’s from 1997-99.

It’s also the second-longest in Star Valley’s history; the Braves went 35 games unbeaten from 1964-68.

–patrick

Byes Project updates: Bridger Valley, 1980

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The 1980 season is one of those I know I’ve under-researched, and I put a big dent into that today by adding six games involving Lyman and Mountain View. For Lyman, I added a 6-0 loss to Big Piney on Aug. 29, a 42-6 victory over Mountain View on Sept. 12, a 7-6 victory over Big Piney on Sept. 19 and a 49-0 victory over Mountain View on Oct. 10. For Mountain View, I added the two Lyman losses, a 46-0 loss to the Rock Springs JV on Sept. 6 and a 26-12 loss to the Evanston JV on Sept. 17.

Conversely, I added the two Lyman games to Big Piney’s records, too.

For the season, Lyman finished 3-5, Mountain View 0-7 and Big Piney 3-5. The changes have all been recorded on the relevant pages.

–patrick

Coaches Project updates/checklist

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I’m reposting and updating a bit of information from the Coaches Project, which I started in earnest this spring. I’m trying to find out the head coach for every school for each season. I got a huge boost from the 1994 Shrine Bowl program, but I’ve still got a few questions that have yet to be answered….

Below is a list of schools and years for which the head coach is not known. Take a look at the list and see if you know who was the head coach at these schools in the years listed.

Cokeville, Green River, Guernsey-Sunrise, Hanna, Jackson, Lander, Lingle, Lyman, Mountain View, Pinedale, Ten Sleep, Tongue River, Torrington and Wyoming Indian are the lists in greatest need of updates and help.

This list does not include the fact that I’m missing the names of coaches for basically every single defunct program, too. So… if you can find coaches for Albin, Arvada-Clearmont, Basin, Bow-Basin, Byron, St. Mary’s, Chugwater, Cowley, Dayton, Deaver-Frannie, Encampment, Farson, Glendo, Goshen Hole, Guernsey, Huntley, LaGrange, Manderson, Manville, Morton, North Big Horn, Pavillion, Ranchester, Reliance, St. Stephens, Snake River, Sunrise, Superior or Worland Institute, I will be glad to post those, as well.

I’m also missing first names for a ton of coaches, and if you can fill those in, that would be awesome. Take a look at the individual team pages to see where you might be able to help.

For existing schools, the following coaches’ names are needed (big missing gaps in bold):

Burlington: 1955 and 1958

Cokeville: All from 1951-79

Green River: All from 1951-71

Greybull: 1951

Guernsey-Sunrise: All from 1963-66

Hanna: All from 1951-91

Hulett: 1955 and 1961

Jackson: All from 1952-55, 1965 and 1966

Lander: All from 1951-91

Lingle: All from 1951-69

Lyman: 1962, all from 1964-67 and all from 1969-88

Meeteetse: 1987

Mountain View: 1956, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976 and 1979

Moorcroft: 1951, 1954 and 1956

Pinedale: 1951 and all from 1953-64

Saratoga: 1998 and 1999

Sundance: 1955

Ten Sleep: All from 1957-64, and all from 1972-91

Torrington: 1951, 1952, all from 1960-64 and 1966

Tongue River: All from 1956-64

Wheatland: 1971 and 1973

Wyoming Indian: All from 1972-92

You can e-mail updates to me directly at pschmiedt@yahoo.com or just leave a reply on this post.

–patrick

Six-man updates, plus some summer news

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I’ve added pages for Kaycee and Fort Washakie, even though those programs have yet to put an official game in. I also added details for Kaycee, Fort Washakie, Snake River and Farson to the fields page.

Personally, I’m glad to see that the WHSAA is giving six-man a chance. It’ll be interesting to see if it grows over the next couple years or if it slowly dwindles and dies like nine-man did about 15 years ago…

A couple news items to pass along:

Kaycee’s facilities are still under construction, but will be ready for the season opener (Buffalo Bulletin)…. Pinedale has preliminary funding for a new turf field (read the bottom of the story, Pinedale Roundup)…. and Evanston has already begun thinking about opening day (Uinta County Herald).

–patrick

Two more quick updates: Riverton and Saratoga

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Two more corrections made today: First, I corrected Riverton’s 1973 record to 7-3; I had listed 8-2. Second, I corrected Saratoga’s 1981 record to 6-2; I had listed 6-1. All the corrections have been made on the relevant pages.

–patrick

Quick updates: Pinedale, Cokeville, Morton, Pavillion, Torrington and Newcastle

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Four quick updates that I’ve posted today:

1. I noted that Torrington’s 27-7 victory over Newcastle in 1957 was indeed a playoff game. It wasn’t marked as a playoff game the first time around. But I double-checked and my hunch was right, it was a Class A semifinal….

2. I’ve removed a game listed on Oct. 11, 1960, between Pavillion and Morton. I had duplicated the score from earlier in the season and slapped another date on there, but the second duplicate entry has been removed….

3. I corrected a game listed for Torrington on Oct. 26, 1951. That day, the Blazers played Mitchell, Neb., NOT Mitchell, S.D. …

4. I’ve corrected the score for the first game between Pinedale and Cokeville for Sept. 5, 1975. The score was 32-0 Pinedale, NOT 32-0 Cokeville. The Pinedale Roundup was especially clear, saying something to the effect of, “Despite what you may have read in other newspapers, Pinedale indeed defeated Cokeville…” in the first sentence of the game recap. Of note, Pinedale went 10-0 that 1975 season (not 9-1 as I had listed) and beat Cokeville again by an identical 32-0 score later that season. …

That’s it for now. My big secret project, in which I’m really delving into the game-by-game results, continues — hence the reason for catching all the mistakes I made the first time around and all of the updates recently.

–patrick