DIAMONDVILLE — The Lincoln County School District #1 board meeting was attended by over 40 community members the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 21.
The topic of student participation in sports — or lack thereof — and how the schools and community can support our athletes.
Resident Brent Hartmann said he has a passion for Ranger sports and wants to see more participation.
“That success is a powerful reminder of what’s possible when everyone works together toward a common goal,” Hartmann told the trustees.
He acknowledged the achievement of Kemmerer having the second-best high school in Wyoming.
“We’ve proven that Kemmerer students and staff can compete with anyone in the classroom,” he said. “Now let’s give them the tools and support to compete with anyone on the field and court, as well.”
A former KHS athlete, Hartmann said he wants to see the pride that he had and felt back when he was in school return to the school and community.
Not only did Hartmann say that he was not there to criticize coaches, he admitted that “coaching is not an easy job,” before citing dismal records for some of Kemmerer’s major sports in the past 10 years.
“I know our current students — and those who will come after them want to be part of winning teams. They want to be proud to wear that Ranger uniform, and I truly believe we already have the talent, ability and heart in our school to make that happen,” Hartmann said. “What our kids need most is belief and support from all of us, to show them that success here in Kemmerer is possible and that being a Ranger still means something special.
“It’s time to bring new life into our programs,” Hartmann continued. “I don’t want to just point out problems. I want to be part of the solution.”
He then proposed a four-phase approach.
• Phase 1 – Reconnect and Recruit: “We start by rebuilding pride and awareness. Let’s highlight our athletes and celebrate their efforts,” he said.
• Phase 2 – Build Energy and Excitement: Focus on creating positive momentum, open gyms, multi-sport camps and community events that bring people together. This would also include promoting “Ranger Pride Fridays” or student-athlete spotlights.
Phase 3 – Support and Engagement: “As enthusiasm grows, we need to strengthen the foundation,” he said. “That means supporting our coaches and giving them the tools they need to succeed. It also means encouraging parent, alumni, and local business to get involved.”
Phase 4 – Long-term Growth & Culture: Focus on building a lasting culture of pride and success. Continue to develop youth programs. Success won’t happen overnight but with steady effort, unity, and belief we can rebuild something truly lasting.
Hartmann was stopped after his five-minutes were up, but trustee Don Lamborn asked board chair Kristi Dearden if they could do away with that and let Hartmann finish.
Hartmann concluded by saying, “I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t expect to do this alone. I am asking for ideas from everyone. I truly believe that if we work together we can bring back the pride and excitement that once defined Kemmerer athletics.”
Hartmann received a round of applause and praise for not only addressing a problem, but offering suggestions on how to move forward in fixing them.
Team sports
Jessica Lozier said that, as her last group of kids started high school, she has heard several people say that you should focus on individual sports because it doesn’t matter how good of an athlete you are in Kemmerer, you will never be successful at team sports, “which breaks my heart,” she said. “I want my kids to be successful; I want them to have a good team to be on.”
She asked people what they thought is wrong with team sports and said several people who work at the school say the kids are different and they’re to blame and vice versa. She said the kids want to hunt.
Lozier said she has children who started high school almost 15 years ago in this district and those kids were the same as current students.
“There were good and bad parents back then, and there are good and parents now, too,” Lozier said. “I just don’t think those kinds of excuses work anymore for what’s going on.”
Lozier brought out statistics and pictures from yearbooks to show the general trend of what has been going on. The fist couple of pages were the class of 2023 from freshman to senior year.
“One thing for sure,” she said, “we have a retention problem. We can’t retain these kids freshman through senior year.”
The next pages showed the number of kids and the number of wins in the last 20 years. Lozier pointed out that her kids have had some of the best coaches in the whole country at this school district — but, when you look at the statistics and you see how long some of this has been going on and the low numbers and the perpetual side effects of whatever the problem is, it’s been going on for a long time.
“I look at it like this. I’m at Opera House and I’m cooking the same bread, and I wonder why it just keeps flopping. I can only blame it on the yeast and the flour for so long if I am just using the same recipe every day. That’s kind of my fault because I need to change up the recipe in order for it to be successful. We need to all work together.”
More support
McKinzie Ellis said that, as a parent, she notices that the JV teams go out and that the varsity team doesn’t sit behind the JV team to cheer for them, but when the varsity team goes out, the JV team is to sit behind the varsity team and cheer. Ellis said she was not blaming anyone, but that she would like to see teams supporting each other and more leadership from the seniors. She said she would love to see spirit brought back in and would love to help with that.
Brianna Krell wanted to know how the school can help with college recruitment and what the steps are, adding that a lot of people don’t know where to start.
Lamborn made a few suggestions about what parents need to do, such as contact the college they want to go to. NCAA registration, highlight films and that ACT scores are also important.
Kemmerer Junior/Senior High School Principal Shawn Rogers said they did have an assembly last year and that the students were encouraged to make a Twitter account to help in the process, and that this year they will extend the assembly to parents, as well.
Opt down?
There was talk about possibly moving to nine-man football and KJSHS Athletic Director Cody Hartung gave a presentation. He first showed current participation and potential participation numbers. If the students continue to play through their senior year, by the year 2030-31 the potential is 43 students. This is with the assumption that all students continue to play.
The classifications in football through WHSAA is 4-A (10 largest schools), 3A (the next 12 largest), 2A (the next 14 largest),1A nine-man (the next 14 largest), and 1A six-man ( remaining schools).
The average from the October count for the last two school years helps determine the classification of the teams. Kemmerer has the lowest number of students in 2A , other than Cokeville, which has opted up from their 1A classification.
If Kemmerer were to opt down, they would not be eligible for the postseason. The state has already done a lot of work on next year’s nine-man football schedule. Hartung recommends that Kemmerer not go down to nine-man at this time, because the commissioner had already said he would deny it based on the time frame. Although they have until Nov. 4, the commissioner would like it by August or September.
LCSD#1 Superintendent Teresa Chalk said, “WHSAA need to change their handbook to reflect when they want the boards to submit requests by.”
Board Clerk Aarika Walker was in favor of giving the teams a better chance at success by moving down to nine-man football.
Dearden said, “We are not saying we are opting down; we just asked Mr. Hartung to look into it.” If Kemmerer were to opt down, they would have to get permission from the WHSAA and be at that level for a minimum of two years.
A work meeting will be held to discuss further actions on how to get kids involved and whether nine-man football would be in the best interest of the school and its student-athletes.
No playoffs in nine-man format
Lamborn said he’s against nine-man because he feels the players should be able to play in the playoffs.
“In Pinedale, there were several kids in the stands supporting the football team,” Lamborn said. “If those kids can drive to Pinedale to support the team, why can’t they be out there playing instead?”
“We welcome anyone in the community to come to help with coaching,” Dearden said. They must be willing to get certified with the Professional Teaching Standards Board.
Lamborn said he feels they need more help.
Principal Rogers said they advertised two openings each at the middle school and high school level.
“We had zero applications at the high school level, and one application at the middle school level, and we hired them,” Rogers said. “We had left it open for three to four months.”
Lamborn said he thinks the district needs to start recruiting.
“We would love to recruit but, when we try to recruit students to play sports, they get some feedback from parents saying that school employees are harassing their children to play,” Chaulk said.
Lamborn replied, “Let’s not stay in that mindset. Are we going to let the few negatives tell us not to recruit? We need to change. We will always get beat up by negative parents.”
Ellis said her daughter spent all summer working to play basketball and that Laynee Walker recruited her and some of her friends to wrestle. She said the support and camaraderie that was shown on girls’ wrestling team is something she hopes to see on other teams.
Lamborn said Kemmerer had a coach that a player didn’t like and they fired him. “Todd Dayton went on to coach at Cokeville and is a winning coach,” he said.
Abby Housley said, “Maybe we need a coaching change. … The heart of the football team is the coach, and maybe we need a new heartbeat. We need a coach that has the passion and drive and the want to make the team better.”
Rogers cautioned the board to be careful when comparing team sports with individual sports. “They are not the same thing,” he said.
He also advised that any anonymous survey be worded carefully and trustees should think about the intent of such a survey.
“You don’t want it to turn into a witch hunt,” Rogers said. “I know you will use caution and your best judgment.”
In other business, LCSD#1 Business Manager Kim Zuniga was appointed to the Wyoming Government Fund Investment board. Lexi Scherr was appointed as a Building Leadership Team member. Aarika Walker was appointed to the Wyoming School Boards Association. School accreditation will take place on Oct 30-31.
