The former Campbell County High School football coach fired in November during the Class 4A playoffs for a profanity-laced outburst aimed at a player has been cleared by the state board that licenses teachers and coaches.
The Wyoming Professional Teaching Standards Board dismissed a complaint against Orah Garst last month, clearing the way for Garst to coach again in Wyoming.
The board also found that the behavior Garst exhibited in his dressing down of a player, which was captured on video, was unprofessional and worth an advisory that there’s “opportunity to improve,” said Jillian Reagan, who reviews discipline complaints for the board.
Reagan told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday that while she can’t comment on specific cases and complaints the board handles, Garst’s is considered closed and that “he still has an active coaching permit.”
Garst said the finding by the standards board is a big relief, because he very much wants to coach high school football again.
Missing the final playoff games for the Camels this past season was difficult, he said. After he was fired, the team advanced to the state championship, losing a close 17-10 game to the Sheridan Broncs.
Watching that from afar made him “incredibly proud of those boys,” Garst told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
Garst also echoed the position he took after his firing — he accepts the outcome for what he called an uncharacteristic outburst.
“That was wrong,” he said. “I pride myself on being a man of God above all, and a father, and a husband, and a son. After that, I’m driven as someone who constantly thinks about football at all times.”
That Night
The complaint to the Wyoming Professional Teaching Standards Board was triggered by a tirade Garst directed at a player after a 17-14 Halloween playoff win against Laramie High School.
In a 25-second video clip of the incident obtained by Cowboy State Daily at the time, parts of Garst’s outburst toward the player can be clearly heard, while some parts are unintelligible.
“… you can f***ing quit,” Garst can be heard yelling. “We don’t f***ing need you. Do you understand?”
The audio then isn’t quite clear, but it references something that happened “outside in front of my family.”
The coach also tells the player regarding whatever happened to set off the outburst, “… I don’t want to deal with that f***ing shit ever again.”
Other players can be seen sitting in the room with at least one other person also recording the incident on a smartphone.
Garst is from Gillette and played for the Camels, graduating from Campbell County High School in 2006.
Still Wants To Coach
Garst said he has “no hard feelings” over being fired and that he feels “extreme thankfulness and gratitude” in the state board’s finding.
That means he can coach again, if there’s a high school willing to give him a chance.
Asked if he’d consider going back to Campbell County or across town to Thunder Basin High School, Garst said he wouldn’t rule it out, but that would be difficult.
“If they asked me to come back, I would say that I would be super grateful and gracious,” he said. “Then I would want to know how that would look going forward to build trust and know I wouldn’t be fired again that quickly.
“I don’t want to say we wouldn’t build those bridges back, but how would we rebuild trust on both ends? Yeah, I would absolutely talk, but the base of any good marriage is trust.”
His tenure with the Camels was short, coaching just shy of three seasons. His first year in 2023, the team finished 6-4, then was 9-2 in 2024 and 10-2 and the Class 4A runner-up this past season. The team was 9-1 when he was fired.
Garst said he preaches accountability to players on and off the field, so he wants to model that.
“I want to be the best coach I can be, and any good coach doesn’t make excuses,” he said. “It is what it is, I did that and I’m not proud at all of it.
“I did make it clear I felt I was unjustly terminated, but at this juncture, I’m done blaming anyone. I said those things, it’s my fault. I’m now glad they fired me, because it opens another door for other things.”
Like his favorite NFL football player John Elway, Garst said there’s always a comeback win attainable after falling behind early.
“I’m not going to hang my head in shame,” he said. “We still went to the championship and came within a few points against that (powerhouse) Sheridan team.”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
