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Sports Goulash

Odds and ends of Wyoming high school sports.

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Undefeated Love(ll)

Posted by: Patrick Schmiedt on December 27, 2007 at 7:54PM EST

One month into the basketball season, 11 teams are still undefeated. And one school -- Lovell -- boasts two of those teams.

The Bulldogs made a quick assimilation into Class 3A, as the boys and girls are both 6-0. LHS is the only school in Wyoming that has two unbeaten basketball teams.

The other undefeated boys teams are Natrona (7-0), Buffalo (6-0), Wind River (7-0), Meeteetse (7-0) and Ten Sleep (6-0). The remaining unbeaten girls teams are Sheridan (7-0), Big Horn (6-0), Arvada-Clearmont (6-0) and St. Stephens (8-0).

(And I don't know why I just got around to noticing this, but... Did you see that three of the remaining five undefeated girls teams are from Sheridan County? Pretty cool. And it's also worth noting that Big Horn plays Arvada-Clearmont on Jan. 19 in Clearmont).

Of course, not every team listed here will finish the season unbeaten, and if history continues on its current trend, no team in Wyoming will go undefeated. Since 2002, only three teams (Thermopolis boys in 2004 and Douglas and Tongue River girls in 2005) have gone undefeated.

Of the 11, which one do you think has the best chance of finishing with the goose egg in the loss column? Will any of them do so? Add a comment and let the world know.

Posted by patrick.schmiedt@trib.com

(PS -- I'm heading out of town for the next few days, so if you ask me a question on here or on e-mail it might be a while before I get back to you...)

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(13) Comments

Posted by: bball mom on December 28, 2007 9:28AM EST

Most of Lovell's girls' wins come against 2A teams. It will be interesting to see what happens when they start playing more conference games. I haven't seen NC boys play but have heard they are pretty hard to stop.

Posted by: WyomingGal on December 30, 2007 5:41PM EST

WooHoo!! Go Dogs Go!!

Posted by: HS Sports Fan on December 31, 2007 5:25PM EST

I noticed that the WHSAA has posted the latest ADM figures on their web page. With reclassification just around the corner isn't it time to start more discussion. A quick glimpse at the numbers suggest that there will be very little change if the numbers stay the same. I would offer the following idea for reclassification. 4A - Top 8 schools in the state (#1 Central to #8 SHeridan - all 1000+ students). 3A - Next 16 schools from #9 Evanston (905 students) to #24 Glenrock (253 students). 2A Next 16 schools from #25 Pinedale (249 students) to #40 Riverside (125 students). 1A - all the remaining schools. I also think we should not worry about balancing the conferences or regions. For example in 3A it would be best for everyone mileage wise to have unbalanced conferences (9 teams in the west and 7 teams in the east) and still qualify the top 4 teams from each region for state (basketball, volleyball, soccer.

Posted by: Patrick on January 1, 2008 2:14AM EST

URL: http://my.trib.com/post/patrickschmiedt/blog

HS Sports Fan: The WHSAA numbers posted on their Web site are the numbers they used for the last reclass cycle (the 2007-08 and 2008-09 cycle). Nothing new there. They normally have an "in-between" crunch of the numbers for years like this one, but it's usually only as an FYI for the WHSAA board, ADs, etc. .... ANYWAY... I think we're getting closer and closer to the Super 8 league in Wyoming, but I don't know if anyone has/will propose that within the next four months. As for unbalanced regions, I don't think you'll see it. I think there would be too much backlash from the teams in the overloaded conferences. One option is to play an unbalanced conference schedule, then the team that finishes last in the 9-team conference (in this case) goes over to the other side of the state for regionals, that way the regionals are still balanced.... Just an idea.
--patrick

Posted by: HS Sports Fan on January 1, 2008 7:27PM EST

I like the idea of having the #9 team from the overloaded region come in as #8 team. They may have to travel a great deal, but it would be that or no post season. You could also have the #8 and #9 teams play a pigtail game and just give the #1 team in the 7 team region a bye in the regional tournament. I think this should be looked at very closely. When you look at the map of the participating schools on the WHSAA website, it is really goofy to have Lander in the East for 3A. --- Patrick please keep us posted on what happens!!!! Is anyone else ready for the Winter Activities to start up again?????? I am chomping at the bit and I just get to watch!!!!

Posted by: xcskier on January 1, 2008 10:19PM EST

A while back I suggested a three confernce system for 3a ( where the East/West balance is an issue) that would greatly reduce travel time. I'm not sure if it is still possible to access comments on the old site, but I f so there are more details there. Generally it amounts to a big horn basin conference, a powder river conference and a southwest conference, reduced travel times, but a tradeoff of a complicated state tournament format, the bes I can come up with is the top two teams from each conference go to state with first round byes going to two of the #1 seeds on a rotating basis.

Posted by: HS Sports Fan on January 1, 2008 11:35PM EST

XCskier - I remember your idea and it is ok but taking only 6 teams to state is unforgiveable. Qualify 2 from the Big Horn Basin; 2 from the Southwest and 4 from the Powder River Basin, and I could support it.

Posted by: XCskier on January 2, 2008 4:33PM EST

I've thought about that although I don't think four from that conference would be fair as it only has one additional team on the other two (5,5,6) I just thought of this with the current teams in 3a. I tried to figure a way to make a fair 8 team state tournament but I couldn't get it I'm open to suggestions though. By the way my conferences were
Powder River: Newcastle, Buffalo, Wheatland, Torrington, Douglas, Glenrock (current East minus Lander and Rawlins)
Southwest: Jackson, Pinedale, Kemmerer, Lyman, Rawlins
Big Horn Basin: Lander, Cody, Powell, Worland, Lovell ( This is the old Northwest soccer conference with lovell instead of riverton)

Posted by: HS Sports Fan on January 2, 2008 10:33PM EST

I like your set up with the following change. Keep Rawlins in the East and you keep most of the traditional rivalries of the EAST. That gives you a 7 team East regional, than keep the Powder River and Big Horn Conferences the same and have them feed into the West regional. Then either do the 8 vs 9 pigtail game or have #9 come to the East for regionals as their playin to the State tournament. I would like to hear from someone from Lander, since they probably have the most travel in 3A.

Posted by: XCskier on January 2, 2008 11:10PM EST

Alright i can buy that I'm less familiar with the eastern rivalries. I'm originally from Lander, but I'm away at school now,I know for soccer that is more or less how the north regional worked. Basically what you are proposing is the way the west used to work except moving jackson from the northwest to the southwest and replacing them with lovell, I remember that the drive from Lander to Cody is long enough and most of Lander's new drives are as long or longer than that. My motive was mostly travel and less with rivalries, I also think that ruly big rivalries will be played regardless of conference like Lander Riverton is still a 2 game series even though riverton is 4a. some sort of unbalanced system definitely makes the most sense in 3a

Posted by: HS Sports Fan on January 3, 2008 1:26AM EST

Well Patrick - There you have it! I think perhaps you should get this to the commissioner. If XCskier and I can agree it must be gold!!!

Posted by: XCskier on January 3, 2008 5:46PM EST

I agree we have the 3a solution now if only we could figure out the other three classes and how to put who in what class

Posted by: Billy on January 17, 2008 1:45PM EST

URL: http://my.trib.com/post/patrickschmiedt/blog/undefeated_lovell.html

I say that Natrona will stay undefeated!! No one can touch them.