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 few observations as the regular football season comes to a close this weekend with Wyoming Indian, Lander, and Shoshoni packing the trunk for another year, and Dubois, Wind River, and Riverton looking forward to the post-season.
Let’s start with Wyoming Indian. It’s been a tough year for head coach Nate Reinhardt and his Chiefs, but they showed up for every game and played as well as they could. Wyoming Indian wasn’t playoff eligible this season and played a mixed schedule of varsity and junior varsity opponents, but they filled out the schedule and didn’t forfeit.
Next season the Chiefs are in the West 9-Man division as a playoff-eligible program.
Turning to Shoshoni, the Wranglers have a firmer grip on scheduling than perhaps any other program in Wyoming thanks to athletic director Max Mills. Last spring, he arranged to play Wyoming Indian with the Shoshoni Junior Varsity and predicted that St. Stephen’s either would not field a team or would play the Wranglers at the JV level. Mills had the Cheyenne East JV at Shoshoni a few weeks ago and the Wrangler varsity plays the Natrona County JV at Dick Cheney Field in their season finale on Thursday. The younger players face the Chiefs on Friday.
It wasn’t the season head coach Tony Truempler hoped for, but the Wranglers were in every game, and as is the nature of football, a ball bouncing one way or the other could have Shoshoni in the playoffs with as many as four wins. With a small senior class, and a lot of experience returning, the Wranglers will be back.
Lander is on the cusp of a perfect season. Not the Hollywood version, but one where the team doesn’t win a game. Barring a big upset of Douglas this Friday the Tigers will lose all eight regular season games and a Week Zero contest with Cody.
Oh well, the kids aren’t professionals, the coaches can’t recruit, and you play with the hand you’re dealt, that’s the nature of high school sports. The Tigers, like the Chiefs, showed up every week. They played hard, they improved and the young men on the team are better for having played the game, win, or lose.
Dubois remains a dangerous team. The Rams are on the road for the playoffs playing the Kaycee Buckaroos in the opening round. Despite their third-place seed, Dubois is heavily favored to return to Little Snake River for a semi-final matchup with the Rattlers.
This is head coach David Trembly’s last season as he’s already announced his retirement. Trembly has amassed an impressive record at Dubois in both 6 and 11-man football. His battle with cancer over the last few years has been a source of inspiration for an entire region.
His son, senior Wyatt Trembly, is destined for an outstanding college career, but the fleet-footed halfback, hurdler, and wrestler would like to win it all for his dad. Let’s hope they get the chance to play in Laramie in November.
Last Friday, first-year Riverton head coach Mark Lenhardt had a decision to make against Buffalo. The Wolverines had a chance to host in the opening round with a win over the Bison by 10 or more points or so it was thought. They could take the top seed despite an earlier loss to Douglas and had the chance to host in the semi-finals as well thanks to the tie-breaker formula and a final regular season win over Worland.
On Riverton’s last score, Lenhardt waved off sensational sophomore kicker Hunter Saltsgaver and told the team to go for the two-point conversion and an 11-point lead. After the game, he realized they didn’t need to do that. If the two-point try failed, many thought the Wolverines would lose the home-field advantage, they would not have. It turns out that nine points would be enough with the head-to-head win over Buffalo.
“You’d think with three math teachers and a doctor on the staff (assistant coach Corte McGuffey) that they’d make the calculation instead of the social studies teacher,” Lenhardt said as he officiated an RJFL game on Saturday.
It didn’t matter, Darrick DeVries hit Ty Sheets on a tiptoe reception in the corner of the end zone on the conversion and the Wolverines will host if they can beat Worland at home this Friday.
That leaves Wind River with a single regular season game to play in Cowley this week against Rocky Mountain. The West 9-man is sewn up with the Cougars alone at the top, Big Piney is likely second but has to beat Riverside in Basin on Friday to avoid a trip to Pine Bluffs. A win by the Rebels puts them in second place. Rocky is the fourth seed and will travel to Lingle.
The Cougars will most likely face Southeast Goshen, (their 2022 opening-round opponent) in Pavillion this time. Their second-round opponent, should they beat the Cyclones, should be the defending state champion Pine Bluffs Hornets. Then it’s a trip to Laramie for a purple team.
Playoff scenarios are fun to debate, predict, and calculate, but if you’re right no one remembers, and if you’re wrong no one forgets.
On the subject of wrong. There was an incident at Shoshoni on Friday against Wind River that should never occur in a high school sporting event.
The play on the field was spirited, as it should be in a rivalry. I’m good friends with many of the coaches on both sides and know the fire of competition. What’s said on the sideline, in a huddle, or the locker room is between the coaches and the players. It is the confidentiality of a team and shouldn’t be breached by anyone.
When one of the chain crew took out his cell phone and started recording comments made by the Wind River coaching staff during the game, it was uncalled for. The people running the chains and the down marker are part of the officiating crew, they are no different than the scorekeeper in a basketball or volleyball game or a wrestling match.
When the same guy started popping off to the Wind River staff, it was time for him to leave the sidelines for good.
Social media depictions of high school coaches or players in the heat of the game have no place being published.
The Wranglers and Cougars are a rivalry, which means a little more mustard on the tackles, a few more cheap shots in the pileups, and possibly a few comments about each other’s lineage on the line of scrimmage. That’s all part of the game and something veteran officials are aware of and watch for.
My friend and fellow coach, Tim Ervin, said it best a few years ago, “No one can be impartial when it comes to their own kid.”
Tim was right, even coaches who are harder on their sons and daughters than anyone else on the team can get angry when they feel their child is being threatened, targeted, or treated unfairly.
As an impartial observer of last Friday’s game in Shoshoni, I didn’t see any of that, but then again, my son wasn’t playing.
Let’s enjoy the final week of the regular season supporting the Chiefs, Tigers, and Wranglers one more time and get those Cougars, Wolverines, and Rams into the second round.
Here’s to a good week.