The Wyoming Coaches Association and Gatorade combined to release their Coaches of the Year for the Fall season.
A pair of unsurprising coaches made that list from Star Valley High School with Ty Draney and McKay Young earning the honors.
Coach Draney helms both the boys and girls cross-country teams with and was named the 4A Boys Coach of the year as the Braves repeated as the Wyoming state champs. The team whisked past the competition with a team score of 24, 50 better than second-place Cheyenne Central. Habtamu Wetzel repeated as the individual champion with a time of 15:48.26 and Jase Burton was second with a time of 15:58.60 to pace the effort and then Peter Lorch (6th), Colton Cranney (7th) and Drake Plowman (8th) all finished in an All-State wolfpack to seal the deal.
It was the ninth state championship under Draney for SVXC, seven in the 3A class and the last two in the 4A class. He has also been the head coach for three girls championships, three boys track and field championships and a pair of girls track and field titles.
Coach Young helped the Braves repeat as the 3A football champs. He has been the head coach for five championships in the last eight years. The Braves have won six of the last nine.
In those eight seasons, the Braves have won five state titles and compiled a record of (74-18), a winning percentage of (.804). That win total is third all-time for Star Valley and nine more wins would put him at the top along with Robert Linford.
In 1A Volleyball, Kirsten Vierig took the Cokeville Panthers to their 26th program title while Diana Tims coached Mountain View to their sixth program title and a repeat of last year’s championship.
WCA Coach of the Year Awards (Fall 2023)
Cross-Country:
2A Girls Sarah Glasser (Wright)
3A Girls Ashley Hildebrand (Powell)
4A Girls (Becky Sondag (Natrona County)
2A Boys Ryan Olson (Burlington)
3A Boys Nathan Conrad (Evanston)
4A Boys Ty Draney (Star Valley)
Assistant: Sarah Seamands (Wright)
Golf
2A Girls Brandon Deromedi (Thermopolis)
3A Girls Anthony Nichols (Wheatland)
4A Girls Joseph Quinn (Sheridan)
2A Boys Beau Garcia (Upton)
3A Boys Lars Flanagan (Riverton)
4A Boys Todd Oswald (Cheyenne East)
Assistant: Juli Kane (Sheridan)
Volleyball
1A Kristen Vierig (Cokeville)
2A Alli Nikont (Big Horn)
3A Diana Tims (Mountain View
4A Jill Stucky (Laramie)
Assistant: Jessica Anderson (Mountain View)
Football
1A 6-Man Trent Aagard (Burllington)
1A 9-Man Jeromy Moffat (Big Piney)
2A – Russell Stienmetz (Torrington)
3A – McKay Young (Star Valley)
4A – Jeff Mowry (Sheridan)
Assistants: Robb Nicolay (Torrington) & Henry Glackin (Buffalo)
