• Girls start at 4:45 with boys to follow.

For a generation 50 years ago, Christopher Walken is an accomplished actor. For today’s people 40 and under, he is probably best well-known as the “More Cowbell” guy from a popular skit on Saturday Night Live. He plays rock legend Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) who exhorts Will Ferrell’s character to fully explore the studio space with his cowbell as part of the Blue Oyster Cult hit, “Don’t Fear The Reaper.”

This is the background for the More Cowbell Invite, the second such event hosted by Star Valley Cross-Country as the program will be competing with several other schools for a picture of Walken’s image as the main prize at Afton’s Valli Vu Golf Course.

The races will begin at 4:45 p.m. with the girls and then the boys to follow. According to Draney there will be other fun prizes for the meet as well with a predict-your-own-time element as well as a King of the Hill prize for those first to the top of the hill. The combined girls and boys team score will win the Walken as it were.

Teams expected to attend include Mountain View and Lyman from the Bridger Valley as well as many squads from Idaho including Soda Springs, Hillcrest, Skyline and Thunder Ridge.

Although a lot of work has been done over the summer, the times and effort on Thursday will be used to gauge just where things stand as students begin their school year.

“We’ll know a lot more on Thursday,” Draney added. “We had an amazing week of two-a-day practices [last week]. We have more girls out than we ever have so that’s exciting. We worked really hard and had a lot of fun last week and are looking for ways to step it up. The excitement level is high. We’ll take some lumps getting school started and get into a routine and we’re trying to see where we can be by the end the season.”