Fall sports scheduling coming together with changes

The outlook for the fall sports season in Wyoming has come into better focus this week following a “re-scheduling” meeting for athletic directors conducted by the Wyoming High School Activities Association Monday in Casper.

While scheduled contests for football will remain almost unchanged, schedules for other sports have been modified to reflect the health and safety requirements for competition in the era of COVID-19.

Practices for golf, tennis and Class 4A football are scheduled to begin next Monday, Aug. 10, and practices for all other fall sports will start a week later, on Aug. 17.

“Every district is developing a plan to work with the county and make sure we comply with guidelines recommended by the WHSAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations, everything from water bottles to locker rooms to equipment,” Lovell AD Joe Koritnik said. “We’re looking at everything, including recommendations on how to group players at practice.

“Coaches have to be major players in developing the plan. They know their sport and how they typically hold practice. They need to be fully engaged in all of the guidelines.”

The first sport out of the starting gate for local schools is golf, and coach Craig Lundberg will find some new rules in place when practice begins next Monday.

“There will be no putting green or driving range for warming up (at a tournament),” Koritnik said. “You’ll show up, stretch and play.”

There will also be no awards ceremonies after a golf tournament or cross country meet, he said, adding, “You’ll play and leave to avoid large group settings.”

Golf tournaments may be tweaked a bit, Koritnik said. For instance, a team may host a two-day tournament, but some teams will play on the first day and others the next day. For the Lovell/Thermopolis tournament on Aug. 28-29, three teams would play in the morning on Aug. 28 in Lovell and three others in the afternoon. The next day, the two groups would switch in Thermop, with the afternoon trio golfing in the morning on Aug. 29 and the other three in the afternoon.

“That way nobody has to stay overnight,” Koritnik said. “They’re trying to reduce it (travel with an overnight stay). We’ll have no tournament type settings where somebody has to spend the night. There will be a couple of situations where the volleyball and football teams have to spend the night (for individual games), plus culminating events.”

Lovell will open the 2020 golf season at the Cody Invitational Aug. 13-14.

Cross country

Lovell will open the cross country season on Friday, Aug. 28, with a Beck Lake Run in Cody, which will take the place of Lovell’s traditional attendance at the Billings Invitational. The Buffalo Invitational follows on Sept. 5. The Rocky Mountain Invitational will be held at Foster Gulch on Sept. 21.

The Rocky Mountain schedule lists the Big Horn Invitational as the first meet on Friday, Sept. 11, followed by the Wyoming Indian meet on Sept. 12.

Koritnik said there will be a maximum of 112 runners allowed at a given meet, and while middle school races used to sometimes be included in a high school meet, that will no longer be the case.

“Middle school (officials) will meet next Wednesday. I don’t know how it will unfold,” he said.

Koritnik also said a maximum of 30 runners will be allowed to start at once, so either starting times will be staggered or a division like varsity boys may have to have multiple races – all to promote social distancing.

“Times (for cross country meets on the schedule) are tentative, depending on the numbers,” Winland said. “We may get bumped out of a meet, even though we had signed up. They’ll see how many kids there are, tally it up and not go over a certain limit.

“There was a lot of problem solving going on (in Casper). It was ‘How about we run a meet like this?’ There will be cross country meets. What they will look like is what we’re waiting for.”

Volleyball

The long held North Big Horn Invitational will not kick off the volleyball season this year since no in-season tournaments will be allowed this year. Instead, Lovell will host Riverside and Burlington on Aug. 28 and Greybull and Tongue River on Aug. 29. Rocky Mountain will travel to Meeteetse on Aug. 28 and host Wind River on Aug. 29.

Koritnik said Big Horn Basin schools are fortunate to have so many possible opponents within a short distance for games to replace tournaments, pointing out that Class 4A schools are much more spread out.

“We were able to schedule teams from the Basin for opening weekend. We’re happy the kids will get a chance to compete,” Koritnik said. “It’s kind of an unusual year, but it worked out well.”

Lovell was able to add an additional match with Rocky Mountain in week two (Sept. 4 in Cowley) with the Montana-Wyoming Duals cancelled, and the Lady Bulldogs will host Big Horn on Sept. 5.

In week three, a large Class 3A tournament in Rawlins has been replaced by a trip to Pinedale and Kemmerer, and the Oct. 9-10 Conference Duals, which were to be hosted by Lovell, will be replaced by home matches against Lyman and Mountain View, meaning that, at least, Lovell will see all four southwest 3A teams during the regular season.

Rocky Mountain, too, had to make numerous schedule changes, Winland said.

“I was scrambling,” he said. “At one point I was at 14 games. But I made my way around and luckily was able to get Cody (Oct. 1) and Worland (Oct. 22) on the schedule. I got up to 17 games.

“But in a normal year you might have 25 matches with tournaments. So you fill the schedule, but it’s not really full. When you miss out on a tournament you miss out on six matches, at least.”

Koritnik said regional tournaments will actually be district tournaments, with only four teams competing to promote social distancing and the top two advancing to State. Lovell’s “quad” district for the 3A Northwest will feature Lovell, Powell, Worland and Lander at a site to be determined, Koritnik said. The eight-team 3A West Regional had been scheduled for Lyman.

The Rocky Mountain schedule lists the regional tournament as being on Friday, Oct. 30, in Lander, while the WHSAA website list the tournament as being held in Riverton, with eight teams participating. 

The state tournament will be played one classification at a time over four days, Koritnik said.

Football

The Lovell football schedule has not changed, Koritnik said. Lovell will host Tongue River in a “week zero” game on Saturday, Aug. 29, then open the regular season at Big Horn on Friday, Sept. 4. The home and conference opener will be Friday, Sept. 11, against Mountain View. Lovell will have only one overnight trip on Oct. 16 at Kemmerer.

Rocky Mountain has a seven-game schedule right now for its inaugural nine-man football season.

“What hurt us was losing St. Stephen’s,” Winland said, noting that St. Stephen’s has cancelled all sports for the 2020-21 school year. “And Wyoming Indian is on the bubble. They haven’t fully committed to having a football season yet.

“That hurts us because we can’t pick up any games with the bigger schools (whose schedules are filled). All of the schools were willing to make accommodations for a modified game (nine-man with the Grizz on offense, 11-man with the Grizz on defense). That was never a concern. Now it’s ‘hey, can you fit us in?’”

Winland said he is also concerned about a possible shortage of football officials due to COVID-19. He said he will not be able to referee this fall on home dates because he will be on campus making sure COVID-19 policies are carried out.

The Grizzlies will open the season on Friday, Sept. 4, by hosting Wright, then travel to Shoshoni Sept. 11 for a key early season conference game. That game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. to allow referees to officiate multiple games. Riverside comes to town on Friday, Sept. 18.

With St. Stephen’s cancelling the season, the Grizz will have an open date on Oct. 23, one week before the playoffs begin, and if Wyoming Indian packs it in, there will be another open date on Oct. 2.

Koritnik said attendance levels and rules have yet to be finalized.

Editor’s note: The sports website Wyoming-Football.com reported Wednesday morning that Wyoming Indian has cancelled all fall sports for 2020.

By David Peck