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.
A new season begins Friday for Class 1-A, 2-A and 3-A football teams. Since Class 4-A has just 10 teams, and no conference alignments, they needed the extra week of competition so everyone can play each other once during the regular season.
Starting with the big boys, the Sheridan Broncs are rolling on a 31-game win streak, the longest in the school’s illustrious football history and a testament to the coaching of former Riverton standout Jeff Mowry.
The Broncs opened the season with a 79-0 blowout of Cheyenne South in a game that saw Sheridan score in nearly every conceivable way on offense and defense, including not one, but two safeties. Look for the Broncs to extend that streak and make yet another trip to Laramie in November.
Class 1-A 9-man is a depleted division with just six teams in the West Conference and seven in the East. State champion Big Piney is favored in the west, but a huge line, and young backfield talent at Cowley make the Rocky Mountain Grizz a dark horse.
Greybull should be improved, as will Shoshoni. Wind River brings a good group back from their 2023 state runner-up finish.
Gone from 9-man are the Riverside Rebels, dropping back to 6-man football yet carrying a roster of 28 players. Something doesn’t add up, but Big Horn County rival Burlington is also playing 6-man with 26 players out.
You’ll see an odd score in late October when the Cokeville Panthers host the Worland Warriors. By enrollment Cokeville should be playing 6-man football, or at least 9-man, but the pride and tradition that permeates the Panther program has them playing 11-man football against schools with three to five times their enrollment.
It hasn’t mattered. They make the playoffs every year, and while they’re not piling up state titles as the did in Class 1-A 11-man a few years ago, they continue to play well.
Worland, a powerhouse in AA (the old Class 4-A) just two generations ago has fallen victim to the diaspora of their youth. The school has steadily decreased enrollment over the last few decades. There are currently only about 350 students at Worland High School.
The state’s smallest division, 6-man has a new, rising power in Casper Christian Academy. The private, parochial school now has 70 students, putting them on par with Cokeville, but playing down two full divisions.
The most competitive division in Wyoming prep football remains Class 2-A with 16 teams, broken equally into an eight team West and eight team East Conference. Just a generation ago, Wind River, Shoshoni and Dubois routinely played a dozen of these 16 teams in the regular season or the playoffs. Aside from Worland, Newcastle, Wheatland and Thermopolis they were all in the same division as Fremont County’s Class 2-A schools, and the dwindling enrollment of the Dubois Rams.
Time and demographics lead to fluctuations in enrollment and the only constant in Wyoming prep athletics is that some schools have a new conference alignment that benefits them in the works.
No matter how you slice it, somebody gets to be the biggest school in the division and someone else the smallest.
The Riverton Wolverines know that all too well in sports they compete against Class 4-A schools in.
On the Wolverines, it’s been a long time since Riverton beat Powell, but they pulled it off last Friday night in Park County in a tough, defensive struggle that saw the Wolverines escape with a 7-0 win over the third ranked Panthers.
The knock on Riverton football has been their lack of toughness over the last few years. That’s changed with second-year head coach Mark Lenhardt.
That intensity was on display in the final play of the game last Friday when the Wolverines stopped the Panthers just inches from the goal line as the horn sounded.
This year’s team isn’t afraid to tighten up the gaps, go “Mano au mano” on the line of scrimmage and pound the ball inside. It will be a fun season to follow Riverton.
They’ll have their work cut out for them in the first week of the regular season this Friday at Cody but look for another close game.
Now onto another subject, officiating. Football crews are paper thin. If your team must play an afternoon game on Friday, or perhaps a night game on Thursday or even a late morning Saturday contest, don’t blame your athletic director, or the WHSAA. Blame the loudmouth, know-it-all sitting next to you in the stands.
There is a crucial shortage of officials in football and basketball. It’s not getting any better as older, seasoned officials put away the whistle instead of facing the constant, clueless abuse. Parents, and fans are out of control. Add to that problem the fact that the most obnoxious of them don’t even know the rules. They just scream and assume that what they watch on Monday Night Football is the same rule on Friday night at the local high school. It’s not, and their little darlings are not professional players.
It will be the end of organized prep athletics if these bozos are allowed to continue.
It’s spread to the college game as well.
I was disappointed with the poor showing the Cowboys made against Arizona State, but it’s just a football game.
The moron who emailed first year head coach Jay Sawvel with a death threat after Wyoming’s 48-7 loss needs to be investigated and prosecuted.
Odds are it’s a drunken slob who emailed the message that he hopes Sawvel is shot in the head, but that’s no excuse.
Wyoming is better than that. There is no room for this type of behavior at any level of sport. It’s time to get a grip. Find the idiot and prosecute him. Period.
So, we’re off to another season. Football takes the lead, but cross country, volleyball, golf and girls’ swimming are all in full swing as well. Get out and support the kids