WHSAA Rejects Bid to Move High School football to Laramie

Wyoming High School sports, pro sports, other college sports
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CASPER (AP) — The Wyoming High School Activities Association board of directors rejected a proposal to move the state’s high school football championship games to War Memorial Stadium in Laramie.

The 9-8 vote Tuesday means the state’s high school football championship games will continue to be held at host sites.

The 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 on a one-year trial basis. 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.

Burns’ Bill Fullmer, the only head football coach on the WHSAA board, said community influence played a role in the vote.

“The town, or the town dads, were against it,” Fullmer said after Tuesday’s meeting.

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.

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.”
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