In their last 69 games, the Sugar-Salem Diggers are 63-6. Over that same stretch, Star Valley is 55-15. Five of those Star Valley losses have been to the Diggers.

Sugar-Salem has won five of the last six Idaho state titles they’ve played for. Star Valley has won six Wyoming titles since 2015. This week will feature a (3-0) Sugar-Salem team hosting a (2-0) Star Valley team in another battle of two programs who have arguably been the best in Idaho and Wyoming in the last decade. Braves head coach, McKay Young, has nothing but respect for what the Diggers have accomplished.

“I want to say they have won 25 in a row,” Young said of the Diggers. “I think they are one-inch shy of winning six straight championships. That’s an unbelievably impressive resume. It’s always a great game for all three levels; freshman, JV and varsity. Obviously for the varsity they’ve had our number lately so it’s a good game where we learn a lot about ourselves. We’ve had this one circled for awhile and we hope to play our best.”

The junior varsity teams play each other Thursday in Afton at 5 p.m. The freshman meet at 4 p.m. on Friday prior to the varsity kick at 7 p.m.

Young praised the Sugar-Salem program for their rock-solid  development at all positions.

“They don’t necessarily do anything fancy,” he continued. “They run the football, run the clock, go for it on fourth down and move the chains. Defensively they play man to man and know they put in the work to be better than everybody else. They don’t have to do a lot of crazy coverage disguises. They are just good at everything.”

Kickoff for Star Valley at Sugar-Salem is scheduled for 7 p.m. this Friday with the First Bank of Wyoming Countdown to Kickoff starting at 6:30 p.m at svinews.com and on the SVI Media YouTube channel.

The game will also be the first of four straight road games for Star Valley. Next week they face the Teton Timberwolves, the team that fell to Sugar-Salem in last November’s title game, before facing rival Jackson. After that, the Braves make the Yellowstone trek to Powell to face the Panthers before returning home to host fellow 3A West power Cody in the Star Valley Homecoming game.