PATRICK SCHMIEDT Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 12:00 am
For more than 50 years, the only way for a Wyoming native to play a football game that counted inside War Memorial Stadium was to earn a Division I scholarship.
After Tuesday, it still is.
The Wyoming High School Activities Association's board of directors voted 9-8 on Tuesday to keep the state's high school football championship games at host sites, ditching an idea to move the five title games to Laramie and War Memorial Stadium on a one-year trial basis.
Tuesday's vote swung in part on the influence of school boards. Wyoming's school boards, particularly those in the northern half and the southwest corner of the state, had voiced their concerns to both WHSAA board members and to the Wyoming School Boards Association.
Because of the availability of artificial playing surfaces, Casper and Riverton had also been mentioned as possible host sites for all five state championship football games. But WHSAA board members had said in previous meetings, as well as on Tuesday, that War Memorial - on the campus of the University of Wyoming - was the only stadium in the state that could host such an event.
"I don't think our kids or administration are willing to go anywhere else than the University of Wyoming," WHSAA board member Tim Winland of Rocky Mountain said. " … We don't go to Laramie very often, and when we do, it's usually because we're excited about going to something at the University of Wyoming."
Burns' Bill Fullmer, the only head football coach on the WHSAA board, also said community influence played a role in the vote.
"The town, or the town dads, were against it," Fullmer said after Tuesday's meeting.
Undoubtedly, the Wyoming Football Coaches Association was for the move. In July, WFCA members voted 62-0 to have the WHSAA seek out bids and voted 57-5 to have the WHSAA move state championship football games to UW.
Fullmer voted in favor of seeking bids on Tuesday. He said he was in support of a neutral-field title game, "as were 57 other football coaches in the state."
Glen Legler, a WHSAA board member and Natrona County High School's activities director, cast one of the nine votes against the bid process.
"There's been a lot of discussion on it and it was a tough decision," Legler said after the meeting. "I think the coaches' thing was to go a neutral site. I think the way it is right now, everyone thought that Laramie was the only one who could do it. And according to the school board rep (WHSAA board member Jim Malkowski of Pinedale), the school board's association was all against it.
"Ultimately, you listen to all the discussion and you make a call."
The WHSAA's four districts could not agree on the proposal at separate meetings earlier this month, either. The proposal narrowly passed in the Northeast District and was defeated in the Southwest District. The Northwest District also passed the proposal, and the Southeast District passed an amended version of the proposal that would bypass the bid process completely and award the games to UW - a proposal that was not discussed on Tuesday.
"This was by far our most discussed item in our last round (of district meetings)," WHSAA Commissioner Ron Laird said.
Fullmer said that despite Tuesday's vote, the idea for a collective-site championship is not going away.
"I know it would have been a great experience for kids to play there," Fullmer said. " … I can guarantee it'll come back around, probably before the next meeting."
Contact high school sports coordinator Patrick Schmiedt at (307) 266-0615 or patrick.schmiedt@casperstartribune.net