(Fremont County, WY) – Since 2010, he’s been a fixture at Shoshoni High School, in many ways, the face of the Wrangler and Lady Blue athletic programs. After 15 years, Activities Director, head girls basketball coach, science teacher and assistant football coach Max Mills is heading for a new challenge.
At Tuesday evening’s School District 25 Board of Trustees Meeting, Riverton High School hired Mills as its new activities director.
Mills, a 1999 graduate of Newcastle High School, was active in football, basketball and baseball in high school before taking a football scholarship to Dakota State University in Madison, South Dakota.
The summer after graduation at a National Youth Basketball Tournament in Columbus, Ohio, he met his wife of almost a quarter-century, Christina.
“My grandpa (the late George Burns) was looking through the roster for girls from Wyoming and came across Christina Condit of Saratoga,” Mills said. “Grandpa said, I wonder if she’s Wynn Condit’s granddaughter.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Christina played volleyball and basketball at Wind River her freshman year before moving to Saratoga, the place much of the Condit family calls home.
Max earned the starting position at quarterback for Dakota State his sophomore year, but his career was short-lived.
“I was injured in a game against Black Hills State, “Max said. “It was third and short, nobody was open, so I sidestepped the middle linebacker, and a 320-pound defensive tackle jumped on me. The first thing that hit the ground was my right shoulder.
Injuries aren’t always apparent in a football game and Max didn’t know the extent of his.
“I didn’t know what happened, I thought he broke my shoulder pad, something was poking down. I dropped back to throw the ball and knew there was something wrong,” Max said.
There wasn’t anything wrong with his pads, his clavicle was sticking up hitting the pad. It ended his career in the fall of 2000.
“That was it,” Max said. “The worst part of it was my backup went into the game, threw four touchdowns and got the Dac-10 player of the week. We beat Black Hills. That could have been mine.”
Christina was attending the University of Northern Colorado when they met that summer, after walking on to the Lady Bears basketball team. At Christmas, she transferred to Dakota State.
The couple was married while in college, and after graduation, they took jobs in Goshen County.
Christina taught high school English at Lingle-Ft. Laramie and Max was the biology teacher at Torrington High School
They taught for six years in the two schools separated by just eight miles, before taking positions at Shoshoni.
Their son Alex was born in 2004, and Braxton in 2006.
“We had two young boys, we were both working on master’s programs in the same building, and we could get close to family,” Max said.
Alex is currently a sophomore at the University of Central Oklahoma majoring in kinesiology, eventually pursuing a doctorate in occupational therapy.
Braxton is a senior at Shoshoni and will study geological and environmental science at the University of Montana in Missoula.
Christina taught English at Shoshoni, was the head volleyball coach and transitioned into curriculum director and high school principal. In 2023, she took an assistant superintendent position at Riverton.
Max taught Biology, U.S. Government, Economics, U.S. History, World History, General Science, and Human Anatomy. His classroom was the site for many outstanding hospitality rooms at wrestling and basketball tournaments and regional track meets organized by his sister Mistalyn Steffen.
“I was technically hired to teach social studies,” Max said. “A teacher was going to take a year of absence, and she never came back.”
Max was the boy’s head coach for two years, inheriting the longest losing streak in school history before posting six- and nine-win seasons. After that, he was the girls’ head coach for the next 13 years, taking the Lady Blue to the state tournament four times.
He coached track, was an assistant football coach and the Activities Director for 12 years.
He became interested in a full-time AD role a few years ago.
“It’s something I was thinking about for a while,” Max said.
He is finishing his Educational Administration degree at the University of Wyoming this summer.
Jumping from a 2-A to a Class 4-A program will have challenges.
“I think the biggest thing will be honoring the cultures and traditions that are there while enhancing participation,” Max said. “We’ve had great participation in Shoshoni, above 70% for quite a while now. I always had the goal of 100%.”
He starts in Riverton on August 1 but will be on site much sooner than that.
Mark Lenhardt will continue to work with Max as assistant activities director.
“We both served on the Wyoming Coaches Association Board, I’ve known him for quite a while, with Torrington connections. We met years ago. I knew Thomas Jassman (Riverton Principal) as the AD in Rock Springs. I’ve worked well with him in that role,” Max said. “I’m excited to join them and still have Reggie (Miller former AD) in the building.”
It’s never easy to leave a school after a long time.
“I’ll miss the relationships I’ve built in 15 years. There are a lot of staff and students, it will be hard to say goodbye to, community members as well,” Max said. “You have those parents you don’t always love, but you have a relationship with them. After the fact when they don’t have the parent goggles on, they’re actually good people to talk to.”
With a daily commute about a mile shorter, Christina and Max will turn south on Burma Road rather than north each day.
“I’m looking forward to jumping in and building relationships with the community, students and staff of Riverton. I’m excited to start the next chapter,” Max concluded.