It’s the summertime and area sports stories tend to come in fits and starts. Here are a few things that have made it across my desk that may only interest me.
• Open date now closed
Previously, the two-time defending state champion Braves football team had an open date on September 20. This had several reasons. One, it’s week three for Wyoming but week four for Idaho and by then, many of the regional teams are into conference play. Another obstacle is Star Valley’s success. Teams that maybe don’t mind the game decide to start thinking twice when the score rolls into blowout territory. Add that to the fact that the Braves have gone 84-19 over the last nine seasons and if some teams have other options, they probably take it. Well, now that date can be filled out for the time being after the Braves will now travel to face the Teton Timberwolves on September 20 and former Jackson Broncs head coach, David Joyce. Not only is that a difficult game on the road but it will also close in what will become four consecutive road games which will now have the Braves going to Sugar-Salem, Teton, Jackson and then Powell before returning home to face rival Cody. That’s quite a stretch. But Coach Young has never shied away from a difficult regular season schedule and the results speak for themselves. In 20 years of broadcasting SVHS games I’ve never done one at Teton, so getting to cross off another venue is always exciting.
• New Reclassification Structures
This has always been a pet subject of mine going back to my part-time sports column days in 2002 for the Independent. The classifications of Wyoming high school sports and where Star Valley fits into it. For most of that time, the Wyoming High School Activities Association (WHSAA) tried to fit a model of a certain number of schools in each classification and then trying to make two even sides out of that class. For example, 16 teams in a class and eight in each conference. It was always a real challenge, especially when it came to student population, travel and competitiveness. Honestly, I don’t know that there was a perfect answer. I really do think it was a tough ask for schools who straddled those lines to move back and forth. No school did it more than Lyman who have moved from 2A to 3A and back and forth several times.
Well now the WHSAA decided (correctly in my opinion) that the numbers don’t have to necessarily make sense. That’s why they passed student enrollment thresholds for sports and other activities that will start this next fall. In other words, all schools above 700 students will be in the 4A Class, Wyoming’s largest, moving forward. For everything (except football, which has their own set of classifications), Star Valley is in 4A. This is not new. But what is new is that there will be 15 schools in that class (an odd number) and both Casper schools will be in the same conference as SVHS. What that also means is that the long-time trip for broadcasters and fans alike to Park County in the winter will no longer be a thing. What once included games in Powell, Cody and even the occasional Lovell contest will no longer be on the slate. Not exactly heart-breaking when it comes to a seven-hour drive through Wyoming in the winter. That trip will now be replaced with what, I assume is a six-hour drive that ends in Casper, where the two largest schools in the state will be waiting.
Along those lines, with all the growth expected to come to south Lincoln County, it makes me wonder how the growth of other area schools like Kemmerer and Cokeville will be affected. Cokeville is projected for 68 students on average over the next two school years with the cut-off to move from 1A to 2A at 110. That seems like a stretch. But when it comes to Kemmerer, who projects to have 188 and return to 3A threshold of 210 currently on the books, it only seems like a matter of when not if the Rangers will be back up to where they were for decades. The question of just how big will Kemmerer get? Seems more accurate.
