This past weekend was a busy one for folks at SVI. We could probably say that every weekend, but this one always requires a little more focus as we made the annual football broadcast trek to Park County. This year that was to face the Cody Broncs in a game that we all already knew was a big one, but Maxpreps decided it was the 10th biggest game in the nation and it gave it some extra juice. But more on that in a minute.

Now in our 12th season of providing video broadcast for SVHS sports and activities, I wouldn’t blame you as a viewer if you felt a little complacent by this point. You might just expect the game to be on and for everything to work. We like that. We strive for that. But it takes a lot of effort to get to that point. Not just during the week or the season, but even over those 12 seasons. I shared a picture on my Instagram account of the pile of stuff that we pack Tetris-style into our vehicles to get to a place like Cody to do our thing. It’s a long week, capped off by a long day.

Thankfully the job itself is pretty fun. I get asked about that sometimes. Do I have a fun job? The answer is yes a lot of the time. The games themselves are the payoff of the prep work and the driving and the website posts and the stories themselves. As it turns out, all the prep work was seen by a heck of a lot of people. According to Vimeo, the service we use to post and archive our work, there was over 72,000 LIVE viewers for that game in Cody. By the time I got to work on Monday, the number of overall views was over 101,000. That’s devices, not people. No idea how many people, but you can guess it’s a bigger number than that.

For some perspective, War Memorial Stadium in Laramie holds about 25,500 these days. Rice-Eccles in Salt Lake City is about 44,000 and LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo is over 60,000. Heck the whole population of Wyoming is about 575,000.

All these years and games later and I’m still floored at the support this school and community draws from our part of the country and all over the world really. Our very first contest we ever did was a JV football game on a Saturday weekend test. No promotion, no anything, just a test. It had over 1,000 total viewers. I thought, “there’s no way that’s right.” More than a decade later, it was just a sign of what was to come. Thank you all for making our video broadcasts something special.

Now, on to the Cowboys who made me really work for my fandom on Saturday night. Already lagging from about 500 mg of caffeine in a 36-hour span, I still found the energy to be really angry at the Pokes as they continued to make mistakes. On top of that, San Jose State’s Walker Eget threw for 200 yards in the FIRST QUARTER, while Danny Scudero caught four touchdowns in the first half. Game over right? Turns out, no, it wasn’t.

There are things I really like about this team. They don’t give up. We saw that last year in the final contests that included a close loss to Boise State and a road win against Washington State when they really could have packed up the season and called it quits. To make a long story short, the Cowboys found a way to score the last 21 points of the game and pick up a much-needed win over the Spartans using a punt return for a score, a defensive score and an improbable last-minute touchdown run. Am I still wary of the game-day management of this team? Yes. But the most explosive players on this team are playing their butts off for these coaches, that should probably tell me enough of what I need to know.

Also, I learned that you need three seconds to try and spike the ball and stop the clock in a halftime or end of game situation. I didn’t know that. And it didn’t stop me from complaining about it on my X account either. Live and learn.

Another thing I learned this week, that 12-men on the field for high school is a lot more frowned upon than it is for the professionals. Toward the end of the game for the Braves, Star Valley faced a 2nd and 21 situation after a penalty that I thought was a five yard variety. As it turns out, it was a 15-yarder for having 12 men on the field. I’ve thought all weekend why it’s so much more serious in high school than in the pros where it’s a five yard penalty. It seems getting that many high schools organized is a lot more challenging than a team of paid professionals.

Finally, it’s cool to live and work in a place that continues to surprise. I’ve made that trip through Yellowstone probably a 100 times by now, but I’ve NEVER seen bears so close to the road as I did on Saturday. Two grizzlies were hanging out on a slope five feet from the roadway about 30 minutes inside the South Entrance and I was genuinely surprised to see them there. I kept driving and a passenger took a shot as we creeped by. There were at least 30 people across the road with cameras aimed at the duo who seemed curious as to why they were the focus of attention. I’d never get out of my car for that situation, and I felt lucky we were able to have the technology to just snap a picture while we were moving and keep right on rolling while still enjoying the show.

It’s a good metaphor for all of us in life I suppose. Just keep getting up and plugging away. You never know if something new might pop in your day, and just how many people might just see your work.

This week the cross-country runners are in Casper for the 4A West Regionals, the volleyball team has matches in Rock Springs and Jackson and the footballers will be at home for Senior Night against Evanston. In addition, the SVHS Marching Braves will be in Casper for their State competition. Good luck to all!

Follow Dahl Erickson on X (@DahlErickson) for uninformed opinions on spiking the ball and scores of SVHS sports. Follow him on Instagram (@sportsllama) to see photos of just what he was talking about in this column.