The Wranglers made three straight November trips to Laramie for the Class 1-A 9-man state championship game. They dropped two close games to Pine Bluffs and won the state title over rival Rocky Mountain in 2021.
With 34 players out for football, ninth-year head coach Tony Truempler has a lot of choices to make, but few of them come with a lot of varsity experience.
The Wranglers suit just a pair of seniors in Ethan Tarango and Wyatt Edus, but have a good nucleus of 11 juniors returning.
One of those juniors is the only returning starter in cornerback Quintan Clark.
“We’re a little bit young,” Truempler said. Our big focus is our offensive line, we go from an average of 230 on the O-line last year to 180.”
Clark at 6-3 will be a big target at wide receiver for the Wranglers.
Max Mills, Jody Good, and Toby Wood return as assistant coaches with Drew Peregoy volunteering a couple of days a week.
With so many new faces and new positions to learn a starting lineup may have to wait until the season opener in two weeks when Shoshoni hosts Pine Bluffs.
“Big Piney is the team to beat,” Truempler said. “Wind River is up there. It should be Rocky and us after that.”
On the east side of the 9-man league, teams are largely underclassmen this season. Pine Bluffs is young but has a reported 57 boys out for football.
“I think it will go, Lingle, Pine Bluffs, Southeast, Lusk, Saratoga, and Guernsey in that order on the other side, “Truempler said. “I’m excited when I see what we have, we’ll take some bumps and bruises, but I think we’ll be ok at the end of the season.”
The Wranglers have a Zero Week jamboree in Wright next Friday playing Lusk and Wright. In a strange twist, Class 2-A, 11-man, Newcastle will also be at the jamboree, but the Wranglers won’t see the Dogies.
Shoshoni hosts a jamboree with Saratoga, Rocky, Riverside, and Greybull the next day, but the Wranglers may not play in it.