Friday, November 20th, 2009
More six-man football
As I promised last Saturday, here are some additional quotes from my interviews for the enterprise story I wrote on the addition of six-man football to the Wyoming high school ranks.
Kaycee coach Dustin Sipe
Kaycee used to bus kids to Buffalo to play football. During two-a-days that meant nearly four hours per day spent on a bus.
“They gained a lot of valuable football experience, but it was a lot of work to stay up on studies and commit that time. Having our own football team has been huge for academics because they’ve got so much more time to do homework.”
Sipe also sees Montana’s six-man growth as the model for Wyoming.
“Montana started out with 10 in their league and, I believe, they’ve got 28 now. I see a lot more (Wyoming teams) joining. I’ve heard of more teams that want to join already.”
Guernsey-Sunrise coach Casey Moats
The coach of this year’s state champion also sees a bright future for six-man football in the Cowboy State.
“There are other schools (in Class 1A) that are looking at coming down in two years. I think it will stick around. Enrollment-wise, we’re the biggest. But the number of kids out, we’re the smallest. Some of the other schools are getting good numbers and a lot of kids.”
At the time Guernsey had a quarter of its 12-man roster sitting out with injuries.
Wyoming High School Activities Association commissioner Ron Laird
“We had a meeting two or three weeks ago with the eight remaining teams looking at next year. We started the meeting by asking, ‘How do you think it’s gone for the first year?’ Everyone was positive. That made us feel good. We think it’s been successful for a first venture.”
Farson-Eden coach Ryan Lane
The Pronghorns had 12 boys go out for football, that’s just three short of every boy in the school. Still, Farson was hit with the injury bug, which forced players to learn a part of football that doesn’t appear on a whiteboard or playbook: Playing through pain.
“Our quarterback hurt his knee our third game of the year. One of our seniors dislocated his shoulder twice during the year. It was a tough season for the kids. They really had to battle through some injuries. We had a kid bruise a liver and we put him in a flack jacket and he played. The kids learned how to be football players and play with some pain. We taped every kid’s ankles before every game to try and minimize our injuries.”
Lane had a lot to say about the potential growth of the sport in Wyoming.
“I know there are quite a few teams in 11-man that could move down. Guernsey is a great example. At the end of the year, they ended up with 10 kids. Seven of those were seniors that played for an 11-man state championship as freshmen and sophomores. As the interest in the sport died down in the school, except for those seniors, you’re looking at just three or four kids that got any experience this year.
Dubois’ school population is close to what our school population is. They could possibly come down. I don’t know if it’s a pride thing, but right now, we have eight teams. It didn’t work out for Rock River or Fort Washakie, but I think the eight teams that are in it will do quite well.
You look at Kaycee for example. They never had football and they’re playing in the state championship game. Snake River had more than 20 kids come out. These schools that have an in between population could do well at this level. They may not have the kids to field an 11-man team, but they can easily field a six-man team. I’d like to see other schools come down.”
That pretty much does it. It was a really fun project to work on because the participants were so eager to talk about the sport.
As a linelong Wyoming resident, I think six-man football is a perfect fit for the Cowboy State. There are so many rural schools with small enrollments. Those kids would love nothing more than to play football, but their options are limited. The only option for many schools is athletes getting bused to a neighboring school that has football. But, often times, they ended up buried on the depth chart and see limited playing time — if any. Six-man football gives them a chance to wear their school’s colors, play with their friends and compete for a state championship. Hopefully, it only continues to grow.