Although school starts Thursday for the academic portion of the year, the activities slate has already begun with golf last week and now the remainder of the SVHS sports team beginning practice and tryouts this week. Football and cross-country will be trying to extend championship three-peats after last season while volleyball will be looking to extend a ten-year streak of state qualification and perhaps bring home their first hardware since 2020. 

For cross-country, gone are two Division I runners in Jase Burton and Habi Wetzel who signed to run for BYU and UW respectively. But a trio of strong competitors are there to fill the void in Colton Cranney, Brigham Hahn and Sully Wilson. 

“We had a great start with about 40 kids out,” stated head coach Ty Draney. “Coach Alex Scharmann came up from the middle school. We’ve had a really good summer. The miles run has bene exponentially greater so we’re super excited to see both teams.”

After winning three straight 4A titles, one question kicking off the season is will the field be overlooking the Braves? 

“Our captains have done a great job,” Draney added. “It will be interesting to see if other steams sleep on our guys a little bit.”

The Lady Braves have already drawn praise from the staff. 

“I don’t remember my 20-plus years that we’ve had such a great pack,” Draney continued. “We’re super excited for where they are at together as a team. Grace [Visser] has done a bang-up job with them all summer long.”

Star Valley will host the More Cowbell Invite on August 28, an event that has gained a lot of popularity now in it’s third year.  

“It has kind of exploded on us,” Draney laughed. “I think we have 17 teams signed up now. We’ll have two sections. Each have their own individual awards and their Christopher Walken head. Word’s out and people want to build gold records.”

For the volleyball team, first-year head coach Kalin Schwab likes what he sees so far. 

“Its a really competitive gym and we’re hitting really well,” he replied. “We have some really impressive hitters out there. Our passing is really good and I”ve been really happy with the intensity that they are bringing to the gym. Whether we are doing drills or being competitive and they want to be really good.”

The Lady Braves will be in Cheyenne to start their 2025 campaign, although the tournament schedule has not yet been released. 

 The Star Valley Football team rolls into 2025 riding a 21-game winning streak and a championship three-peat. Coach McKay Young says that the expectations for more are fueling motivation for this year’s team. 

“This is a group we’ve been excited about for a long time,” he said. “A lot of them got experience last year. I think a lot of them would have been good varsity players for a lot of programs but they waited their turn. They are hungry to prove themselves. We have guys coming back from injuries so that will be an interesting part as they mesh back into the group.”

Once again, Young pointed to the week-long camp as a highly important part of the off-season process.  

“Camp went really well and it’s fun to see kids progress,” he added. “They gave us a lot to be excited about. Rather than avoid the talk this group is embracing the four-peat talk and chasing after that.”

Star Valley starts their schedule next Friday, August 29, with a road game at Shelley High School against the Russets.