This week’s column comes as Spring Break is about to begin for kids and parents of LCSD #2. The rest of us? We’ll be working and marveling at the reduced traffic (not that there’s much anyway) and relaxed feel of the area.
This past week I experienced something that was new to me. I took pictures at a home track meet in March and there was no snow to be seen on the valley floor. Zero. Not only that, I left my Ballard Johnson-style track hat in winter storage and I just about burned my face under the (relatively) blistering sun of 65 degrees. It’s hard to ignore just how odd this past winter was. Especially when just three years ago, the area set new records for accumulated snowfall. A winter that wore out even the locals. That was 2023 and the track kids were in lawn chairs staring DOWN at the track from the snowbanks with “Planet Hoth Track Club” shirts on. I’m assuming this past winter was an anomaly. Time will tell but it was a very nice day where historically you would never get such atmospheric cooperation.
No complaints from me. If winters were like this last one it would lead to more people and eventually a stop light on Afton’s main street. And nobody wants that. Except during the lunch hour.
Anyway, I hope this week finds you and your NCAA Tournament bracket doing well but the odds are that they aren’t. This past field of 64 effectively marks the end of the current Mountain West members as things will move forward post-basketball for a July 1 beginning of the new membership and the flag raising of the PAC-Random Number league. The courts are still figuring out just where the money will go from that split. The only thing that is certain is that the lawyers will get more than their fair share.
Utah State, the MWC’s lone representative at the Big Dance, is looking for their fifth new head coach in the past decade. Typically this is a terrible thing to be attached to your program. It hasn’t mattered to the Aggies as they just keep winning. But a new league, new coach and a lot of uncertainty heading into next season. At least on paper.
Soccer started their season as well, back on the road in Casper which is honestly a very tough way to start the season for SVHS. Even in the best of times with a program that is firing on all cylinders, that’s a big ask. Some of those players spent five days in the Oil City for State basketball and were back there in less than a week. I don’t know how the season will play out, but I do want to encourage the local populace to come to Braves Field on April 9 for the home openers against Evanston. Spring Break will be over, the rust should be shaken off and a chance to win a match at home against the Devils might be a real bright spot. So circle it on your calendar, or better yet, type it into your phone, and plan to be there and make some noise and hopefully the Star Valley teams can capture a victory.
