A Tough Decision: Ten Sleep to forfeit 2018 football season

TEN SLEEP - It's always nice easing into a new position before the tougher aspects and decisions of the job begin to take shape. For Ten Sleep's newly appointed Activities Director Sarah Novak, she had no such luxury.

As the new TSHS AD, after the departure of principal and AD, Russ Budmayr, Novak's first order of business in May was to figure out what to do with the football program. After exploring different options and only having four players 100 percent committed to the season, Novak, and rather unfortunately, came to the conclusion the Pioneers needed to forfeit the 2018 season.

"We've been working on it for about a month and trying to think outside the box. Our numbers are just too low. We informed the board and we have been letting the kids know too," said Novak. "It's been a busy summer. I may not be a popular decision but everyone in this community understands. Everyone has been frustrated because we've had success. When I first came here we were in the playoffs."

Before deciding to forfeit the upcoming season Pioneer football was in a tough spot. Last year's head coach Ross Hauptman left the district to take a teaching job in Gillette. Finding his replacement was proving tough as many of the new teachers entering the district didn't have coaching experience or the interest.

Even with a coach in place the issue of fielding a team still remained for Novak. The Pioneers have struggled with their numbers the past few seasons and often only had six players on roster. Now throw in the physicality of football and frequency at which injuries happen, there were times Ten Sleep had to call games at halftime due to a third of the team getting hurt.

The low numbers also made player development tough. Most 1A 6-man teams have 15 to 20 players on the roster. With so few bodies the Pioneer's practices by midseason were walkthroughs in an effort to avoid injuries, making the only form of contact on gamedays.

The Pioneers also had to start freshman against seniors and juniors. Even though the Pioneers fought their hardest, constantly being pitted against more experienced and physically mature players took its toll. And the scoreboard reflected that.

Just in the 2017 season the Pioneers, in eight games, were outscored 441-99 and went 1-7. Those results tend to wear down even the most positive dispositions. Ten Sleep gave maximum effort each game, but when you have just seven players and going against state title contender Farson-Eden with their experienced starters, 18-man roster and rotation, eventually things fold.

Over the past five seasons, Ten Sleep as gone 6-32. That kind of recorded makes it tough to recruit or even retain players for the next season.

"It's just hard when those freshmen have to come in and play seniors and juniors. It's just discouraging. We have to look into the future, this is just my opinion and I think Mr. Phelps is in agreement with me, but we want to continue pursuing the co-op with Basin. We're never going to field a team of 15 to 18 kids like Farson-Eden or Burlington do. If our kids are going to have a positive experience in football, a co-op is the way to go," said Novak. "I think it will get done, it's just unfortunate that it won't happen this year."

Added Novak, "Going forward and talking with Superintendent [Jimmy] Phelps, we felt that we needed to have a strong nine to even try to play 6-man football. We've tried playing with six and seven the past few years but it's not working. The injuries incurred and having to forfeit games due to those injuries, you want the experience to be positive and I'm not sure we've had that during that time."

In her attempts to salvage a season for the Pioneer players, Novak reached out to Riverside High School in Basin to talk about a potential co-op. Sundance and Upton in 1A 11-man are currently the only co-op football team in the state.

Novak wasn't able to make it happen but that was due to Riverside being locked into 6-man football for the 2018 and '19 seasons. Once a deal is reached, to which Novak is hopeful of, the Ten Sleep-Riverside co-op will play in the 1A 11-man class. Something both schools are looking forward to.

"We've talked with Riverside about a co-op but they're not in a position right now. They still have their commitment to 6-man for the next two years. They want to return to 11-man football... I think when it gets closer to that time we'll be able to work something out. We also want to go back to 11-man. The middle school will have a season and we've got double-digit kids planning on playing," said Novak.

As for the 2018 season Novak is hoping to get approval from the Wyoming High School Activities Association to allow the Pioneers to play at Worland High School.

"We have kids that want to play football. The plan is to have them play JV level in Worland, I definitely want to find a spot for those kids to play and don't want them to lose a year of skill development," said Novak.

WINNING CULTURE

Working on striking a deal with Basin is the current focus but as a whole Novak has a bigger goal, and that's to change the culture at TSHS. As the Lady Pioneer basketball coach, developing that winning culture has been the big picture goal and now she wants to bring about that same goal not only for Ten Sleep sports but all activities.

Going about that culture change Novak believes it's going to take not just those involved in the school but the whole Ten Sleep community.

"We need to sit down not only as a school community but as a community and see what we can do to change this atmosphere. It's a long road and it's got to be a cultural change. Everyone wants to follow a winner.

"We've got to keep finding ways to boost that winning culture. It's going to be a task and it has to be important to everybody. Whether it's FFA, art club or a sport it has to be important to everyone, the student, their family and friends," said Novak.

Changing the culture is easier said than done but with the recent success of the Lady Pioneer track team, second-place finish at state in '18, maybe that culture change isn't too far off.