Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
It’s like déjà vu all over again. The more things change, the more they stay the same. There are two enduring concerns in high school athletics, concerns unique to states like Wyoming, Nevada, and Alaska.
Who do you play? And where will the final season tournament be held?
If you live in the Denver Metro, it’s not much of an issue. Our nephew Aaron played football and was a hurdler and triple jumper for Bear Creek High School in Southwest Denver. He only played one game a year away from the Arvada County Stadium.
All eight teams in the league used the same stadium. Much like Jonah Field during the state football championships, they staggered games beginning with a Friday afternoon and evening, then played two or three on Saturday.
That’s tough to do when your football conference stretches from Cowley, just a dozen miles from Montana, to Saratoga, almost on the Colorado line.
Culminating tournament sites are even harder to finalize, though Casper seems to have a permanent lock with the WHSAA for volleyball, basketball, wrestling, and the all-class track and field championships.
It wasn’t always that way.
Lander hosted the state track meet in the mid-70s. Riverton was the host for the state wrestling championships in the early 80s, and Laramie, Sheridan, Cody, Cheyenne, and Rock Springs have all been the location of the state basketball tournament over the last three generations.
Riverton just competed in the Class 4-A West track meet in Afton. The Braves play Idaho teams often. They should. You can’t get to Cokeville, another school in the Lincoln County District, without driving into Idaho.
The soccer teams played in Jackson, also just a stone’s throw from the Potato State.
Riverton has been the host site for the Class 2-A West Regional for over a quarter-century now. Lander has the same resume with the Class 1-A tournament.
A handful of fans and coaches hate these two locations. They feel it is unfair for their teams since Wyoming Indian, Shoshoni, Wind River, Dubois, St. Stephen’s and now Fort Washakie have an advantage. Here’s a dose of reality to those annoyed with the site, they don’t. Yes, they get to sleep in their own beds instead of a motel room. But they don’t get to play all that often on the Lander and Riverton floors.
The claim that they get to see these gyms in middle school falls logically to the curb as well. Riverton and Lander play their middle school games…yes, at their middle schools.
The idea of moving from a central location like Fremont County, blessed with multiple gyms within walking distance for both Riverton and Lander Valley High Schools, is ludicrous.
I’ve heard people from the Big Horn Basin say, “Why not Powell? Or Worland, or Cody?”
OK, why not?
In the distant past, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, we played our conference basketball tournaments in succession from my freshman to senior years at Shoshoni, Basin, Thermopolis, and Riverton.
The old Riverton Gym, the one that was leveled just two years ago, sat above Tonkin Stadium. It didn’t seat that many people, even when they rolled the bleachers out on the stage.
A couple of things have changed since the early 70s. First, Title IX and the doubling of tournament games since we now have both boys’ and girls’ teams playing. The second is the fan following that kids enjoy today.
My mom watched me play in two football games. In her first game, I had my ACL destroyed on a chop block. Yes, she was distraught.
A year later, on a blazing Saturday season opener in Shoshoni, she ended up in the Riverton Emergency Room with heat stroke. It did hit 104 degrees that hot August afternoon.
The point is, some parents never miss a single game their children play, home or away, from sixth grade through graduation today.
That means more people in the stands, more motel rooms rented, and more meals eaten at local restaurants.
Regional track just concluded in Star Valley, Pinedale, and Shoshoni for Fremont County boys and girls.
The Class 1A/2A West has benefited from Shoshoni’s well-managed meet for several years. Part of the charm is location. Part is the dedication of the Shoshoni staff and the third is Mistalyn Steffen’s incredible Hospitality Room.
I overhear coaches, bus drivers, and officials talk about Mistalyn’s “Hospo” at events across the state. It is incredible.
We won’t be seeing teams from the western half of the state gathering in Shoshoni for a while.
Next year’s Class 1A/2A meet will be held in Kemmerer. Yes, Kemmerer, with three motels, three pizza places, one Mexican restaurant, and a steak and whiskey bar.
That should be more than enough to accommodate 21 boys and 21 girls track teams. Of those 21 schools, everyone except Cokeville, Kemmerer, and Big Piney will have to stay over one or more nights.
If you’re planning on staying at the Fossil Butte, Antler, or Best Western Plus Fossil Country, I’d get my reservation now.
Some claim that it’s only one night, but that won’t be the case for Rocky Mountain, Greybull, Ten Sleep, Meeteetse, Riverside, and Burlington. They’ll have to leave on Thursday for the Friday / Saturday event.
This is something the athletic directors of the West Region brought on themselves. They aren’t just talking about track, they want to host basketball, volleyball, and wrestling as well.
The compromise is a rotation for track. Kemmerer and Big Piney in the distant southwest and Shoshoni and Thermopolis in the centrally located middle of the state.
Evanston is just 50 miles from Kemmerer and the buses will keep the road hot between the two towns. The motels and restaurants in Evanston will appreciate the business. It’s just sad that the several hundred boys and girls won’t get to experience Little America. It closed recently.
The Big Horn Basin schools were in on the decision, even though it means a lot more time on the bus and an extra night’s expense in a motel for many.
In recent years, the Class 1A, 2A, and 3A West Regional track meets were held at Lander a couple of times and twice at Thermopolis.
It was great. There was minimal downtime. It was fun to compare the kids from small towns against some of the larger 3A schools.
Watching Ben Mancuso, a Class 1-A Burlington high jumper, clear 6-9 while 6-2 won Class 3-A was memorable. Seeing the Wind River and Big Piney hurdlers blow away the boys from a division higher was exciting as well.
If I had my way. Riverton, Lander, and possibly Shoshoni or Thermopolis would rotate an all-class regional track meet on a rotation basis. That means 1A through 4A.
The same would hold in the east with Douglas, Natrona County and Kelly Walsh rotating sites in the eastern regionals.
But that won’t happen. It makes too much sense, and it’s too enjoyable for the fans, and too centrally located for the policy makers.
Should it be a surprise when the state capital is just 12 miles from Colorado? The state university is isolated by blizzards for much of the year on a high plateau just 40 miles from Colorado as well.
Let’s do it the hard, inconvenient, expensive way… it’s our heritage.