The Secret To Sheridan High Football's 55-0 Dynasty: Blindfolds And Book Clubs

At the beginning of Joshua Medcalf's young adult novel "Pound The Stone," a player and a coach confront a few difficult truths. It gets raw with the coach accusing the player of failing drug tests and cheating in class.

"I'm not a magician. There are some mistakes I can't cover you on," the coach tells the player.

Last spring, rising seniors on the Sheridan High School football team read "Pound The Stone" as part of their preseason training. Those seniors would go on to lead the Broncs to their fifth straight state Class 4A Wyoming state football championship and perfect, undefeated season.

"We do a leadership meeting in the spring, every single week of the spring," head coach Jeff Mowry told Cowboy State Daily. "From March until the end of school, we meet every Wednesday at lunch, and we talk about leadership and we read a book together." 

Those players in the book club would go on to beat Cheyenne East 17-10 in the state championship game. They never lost a game in high school and now, Sheridan's 55-game winning streak stands as the second or third-longest active streak in the nation, as accounts vary. 

Rather than avoiding discussion of the streak's pressure, Mowry confronted it directly throughout the season. 

"We talked about it every week. We said the pressure is OK, and it's OK to be in a pressure situation because it is what it is,” recalled Mowry. “You got to focus on your job, on every single play. And if you do that, the scoreboard will take care of itself."

The foundation for this approach was laid by former head coach Don Julian, who took over the program in 2007 when Sheridan hadn't had a winning season in eight years. 

"Don really changed the culture of Sheridan," Mowry said. "Don really changed the culture of what it is to be a good person and be a good football player."

Julian and Mowry's relationship stretch back to when Mowry played for Julian at Riverton High School. 

"Nine of the 10 state championships that I've coached in, he was either a player or an assistant coach of mine,” said Julian. "I had him as a student in my math class in Riverton, so our relationship is close."

Into the Woods

The signature element of Sheridan's program — the mountain leadership retreat — originated from “a guy named Ron Thon," Julian explained. "He was a wrestling coach and counselor in Riverton. And he wanted to start this retreat, this leadership retreat."

That first retreat took place at Louis Lake at the southern end of the Wind River Mountains, Julian said, pointing to a copy of a retreat agenda. 

The agenda reveals a carefully orchestrated two-day immersion. Players engage in "chalk talks" covering topics titled "Habits" to "Courage-Trust-Great to Good" to an item titled "The Enforcer,” which is followed by the serving of s'mores. 

"We take planks and stuff, and they have to help each other through obstacles," Julian described. "We have a spider web activity where we put ropes between trees of all different sizes, and they've got to get through”

Perhaps most memorably, the players are "blindfolded leading people through the timber," as Julian puts it — high school football players trusting their teammates to guide them through a wild, unfamiliar place. 

It was all in preparation for challenges to come, and this year's team faced plenty beyond the pressure of maintaining the winning streak. 

"We had a player on our team lose their mother this year during the football season to cancer," Mowry recalled. "Going to one of your players' funerals for their mom. That was incredibly challenging. You know, their whole world just gets shaken up upside down. And we're asking him to play football on Friday."

Camels Vs. Broncs

When Julian arrived in 2007, Campbell County had dominated the Broncs for years. Now the tide has thoroughly turned, with Sheridan beating the Camels twice this season. 

During the regular season game against Campbell County, the Broncs were down at halftime 10 to 7. It’s these moments when the book clubs and backwoods retreats start paying off, said Mowry, when in the tensest moments, players need keen focus and steady hands. 

In the second half, the Sheridan defense shutout Campbell County’s offense and the Broncs went on to win handily. 

“He really preaches an even keel,” explained Julian, describing Mowry’s emphasis on not letting his players get too amped up or low and mopey. “Stay even, stay in control. That's really important to Jeff." 

Former Campbell County head coach Orah Garst could have used some of this kind of coaching himself. He was terminated on Nov. 6 following a profanity-laced outburst directed at a player after the team's 17-14 Halloween playoff victory over Laramie. 

The incident was captured on video by players, showing Garst yelling expletives and telling the player "We don't f***ing need you.”

It was as if the scene described in the novel “Pound The Stone” played out in reverse, with the coach needing a teaching moment instead of the player. 

"The wins are great, but those interactions are better,” said Mowry of the coach-player relationship. 

"These kids need to be learning skills they're going to be able to use beyond football because we have 24 seniors this year, and maybe four of them will go play college football. The other 20 will go on to college and in the workforce, who knows what. And for them to be able to learn those skills, I think is critical."

"In the end, football is just a small window in our lives,” he said.

David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.