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.
Harold Bailey and I arrived early, entering through the Northeast gate at Tonkin Stadium. We used our Wyoming Coaches Association passes to bypass the admission fee and beelined for the north side of the field.
Harold was wise in many ways, and though the stadium only had a thousand or so fans in attendance at the time, he found a spot for us above the visiting team bench, behind one of those towering power poles, with ample room between the pole and the chain link fence in front of it.
For the next three hours, we didn’t move. We watched the ebb and flow of what many consider, me included, the greatest high school football game ever played in Fremont County. That pole kept the overflow crowd from pushing us into the fence and the view of the game was excellent.
It was 1994, and the Tigers and Wolverines were in the “Big Dance” for all the marbles that afternoon.
Lander had beaten head coach Don Julian’s team 13-7 in the third week of the season on the same field.
The Tigers had a single 15-6 loss at Star Valley entering the contest. Riverton had a pair of losses, the first to Powell and the second to Torrington suffered mid-season, but the Wolverines beat the Star Valley Braves the week before to set up the title game.
The 33-27 Riverton win is one of those rare scores that clearly defined the type of game it was. Lander fell two yards short on a fourth down attempt late in the game, or the roles might have been reversed.
Jeff Savage fielded arguably the best Lander teams in school history, but in a Wyoming high school copy of the Buffalo Bills and their repeated Super Bowl frustrations, the Tigers lost three state championships in a row.
In 1993 it was the dreaded Braves winning 14-12 in Afton, and in 1995, it was Star Valley again, this time 35-14 also in Lincoln County. Lander beat Riverton 35-28 in another classic game at Tonkin Stadium to advance to that 1995 championship.
The estimated 4,000 or so fans in attendance at the 1994 title game at Tonkin is the largest crowd to ever watch a sporting event in Fremont County.
For a couple of Shoshoni coaches, playing in Class 2-A, the 3-A game was a treat. It was a memorable event for fans from across the county.
We don’t get that opportunity any longer.
Now all five championship games are played at Jonah Field in Laramie. Yes, I know all the hype associated with kids playing on the same field their beloved Cowboys compete on. I know it’s a great recruiting tool to bring students to the University of Wyoming campus, and yes, it is a neutral field.
I don’t care, I still don’t like it.
In 1997 I was on the sidelines at Pavillion, before it was named Leroy Sinner field to watch Wind River complete a perfect 10-0 season with an 18-0 win over the Upton Bobcats in the Class 1-A state title game.
The Cougars shut out Cokeville 14-0 in the semi-finals and held Upton scoreless in the finals.
There is something to be said for the home-field advantage, and for the intimate nature of playing high school football in a high school stadium with all the festive atmosphere that brings.
Four thousand fans at Tonkin was a raucous, memorable afternoon, four thousand fans at War Memorial Stadium looks like the bleachers are empty.
If you think the home field creates an unfair advantage, think again. In 1997, the Wolverines faced a team many considered unbeatable, the Star Valley Braves, in the 3-A championship game on the road.
The boys from Afton held five opponents scoreless and allowed just 20 points the entire regular season and in the semi-finals combined.
They gave up three more than that in the final against Riverton with the Wolverines shocking the football Gods in a 23-20 win on a cold, wet afternoon on the Idaho border.
It was the beginning of Riverton’s longest consecutive win streak, 26 straight games, and two more state championships, a 9-7 win over the Braves in Riverton in 98’ and a 14-6 win over Douglas at Tonkin in 1999.
You win at home, but you can win on the road just as well.
In my early career, we held our semi-final and final opponents scoreless at Gibson Field in Lusk in 1981. We beat Sundance 12-0 in the semis and Pinedale 21-0 in the championship game. The home field didn’t mean much on the short drive to Lusk from Crook County, but Pinedale head coach Gene Andrews made the mistake of staying in Lusk on October 30, 1981.
If the Wranglers had stayed in Douglas, they would have gotten a much better night’s sleep since the local yokels of Niobrara County raised Cain all night in the Covered Wagon Motel parking lot keeping the Pinedale boys awake.
Cheyenne is about as far from anywhere in Wyoming as you can get. It has become a bedroom community for Ft. Collins and Greeley and many state employees commute from Colorado each day for their jobs at the state capitol complex.
In 1985 we beat a good Big Piney team in Shoshoni, in the first playoff win ever for the Wranglers, then headed to Okie Blanchard Stadium in Cheyenne to play the now defunct Cheyenne Seton Gaels.
A snowstorm hampered the game, but the Wranglers emerged victorious 18-7 on a foreign field that was decidedly hostile.
Kerosene heaters and straw bales kept the Seton players warm on the west sidelines. We stood in the howling wind and snow with no protection across the field. It didn’t matter, Shoshoni was the better team.
Seton was so confident of their win that a couple of fans had cases of sparkling apple juice cooling off in a snow drift by their bench.
My late friend, and fellow coach Chuck Wells, had two sons playing for the Wranglers. PJ, the quarterback and all-state safety, and all-state sophomore noseguard Shannon. Chuck spotted the sparkling water from across the field.
Ever the entrepreneur, Chuck approached the downtrodden Seton fans, bought the non-alcoholic champagne substitute for 30 cents on the dollar, and let the boys celebrate with it in the locker room.
So much for the home-field advantage.
Wind River hosts Southeast Goshen on Friday at 2 p.m. in Pavillion. If you’re a football fan, head coach Rod Frederick’s boys are good this year. It’ll be great to see them win a spot at Jonah Field next weekend.
Dubois is on the road Friday with an identical kickoff time. They have a long road trip to play the two-time defending state champion Little Snake River Rattlers. Hopefully, the Rams can pull off the upset and send legendary head coach David Trembly back to Laramie for one final game.
Good luck Cougars and Rams.