Six- and 9-Man football is a unique tradition, particular to rural America and small-town Wyoming, reflecting the tight-knit culture of the communities where it's played. The games are high-scoring and pass-heavy — a true spectator sport and a rich slice of Americana.
But this variation of America's favorite sport has some struggles in Wyoming. Meeteetse, Kaycee and Shoshoni — three teams that competed last season — are unable to field varsity squads this season due to low roster numbers.
Kaycee head coach Jordan Largent said a string of bad circumstances led him to cancel the Buckaroos' upcoming season, rather than any growing student disinterest in football.
After a tough 2025 season, in which Largent barely had enough players to field a team and won one game, an even smaller pool of available boys and concerns about injuries left only a few players wanting to play this year.
"A lot of them figured with our numbers so low, we can't do well this season," Largent said, adding that he disagrees. He attributed the Buckaroos' 2025 struggles to it being his first year as coach.
"We can win," Largent said. "There's not another 6-Man team in the state we can't play with."
A typical 6-Man team in Wyoming usually fields 12-16 players, Largent said, while the top programs boast 20-30.
Largent and three of his players have joined the Midwest High School football team, 30 minutes to the south, this season.
Slim Margin Of Error
One factor in small Wyoming schools' struggle to field teams is the year-to-year ebb and flow of enrollment. When a school averages around 25 total students, a single year with a shortage of boys can end a football season.
That's what happened in Meeteetse. Only six boys are enrolled out of an entire student body of 24.
When head coach Zeb Hagen found out only a few of those six wanted to play, he knew he had to cancel the season.
Although other 6-Man teams have struggled to fill their rosters at times, it's a new problem for Meeteetse. This is the second time in the Longhorns' 88-year history they won't have a team. The only other absence came during the height of World War II, in 1943, according to Wyoming-football.com.
Hagen, who coached the team from 2006-2008 and again since 2019, said it's an adjustment not to go to practice every afternoon as usual. Two of his players are traveling nearly an hour to Basin to play for the Riverside Rebels this season.
Largent said team numbers at Kaycee have always fluctuated. When he played football at the school in 2009, it had 18-20 kids.
Numbers declined after he left but rose again during their stretch of three state championships from 2015-17, which is why he says winning also plays a big role in the equation.
Ten Sleep athletic director Ernie Beckley agreed, noting that Little Snake River in Baggs — which has seven state championships in the past 15 years, including last season — falls about in the middle of the pack for enrollment among 6-Man schools yet routinely has one of the biggest football rosters.
"Winning begets winning," Beckley said. "When you're losing all the time, it can be demoralizing."
Ten Sleep, which has often struggled to field a football team, has a similar problem this year with a different high school sport. The tiny school in north-central Wyoming has a surplus of 24 boys but only nine girls, so it won't have a volleyball team.
Solving puzzles like these is just one part of Beckley's many duties — he also serves as the school bus driver and town mayor.
Even when Ten Sleep has had football teams, Beckley said, they often didn't have enough players to run offense against their own defense in practice. This year will be different, however, as they'll have their first double-digit roster in more than a decade.
They hope to build on their two-win 2025 campaign, which included their first home victory in eight years.
Beckley said simply having a team means a lot to the community of 246 people. It's no different in Meeteetse, where a sizable share of the town turns out for Longhorns' games.
"Whether it's 6, 9 or 11-man football, it's always been a big part of Meeteetse," Hagen said. "It's kind of like a town get-together or party in the afternoon or evening before games."
Larger Schools Faring Better
Larger schools are having an easier time filling out rosters.
Matt McFadden, coach of the 3A Cody Broncs, a perennial state championship contender, said they usually average between 85 and 105 players per year.
The numbers are also strong in Riverton, where Max Mills, assistant athletic director and recent past president of the Wyoming High School Athletic Association board, said the Rangers will have 72 players this season, after averaging around 55-65 in previous years.
Some larger trends are also at play, with downstream effects on football rosters.
From 2019 to 2024, Wyoming saw a 5% drop in public-school enrollment, coupled with a 14% drop in the birth rate from 2014 to 2019, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Despite gaining about 95,000 residents since 2000, Wyoming's public-school enrollment has declined by about 850 students over that time.
A bigger school can absorb these losses more easily than a school like Meeteetse, where losing 10 students means a substantial cut. According to the Powell Tribune, Meeteetse's high school enrollment has dropped by almost 50% over the past decade, down from 41 students in the 2016-2017 school year.
Although it's looking better for football in Ten Sleep these days, Beckley is already nervous about the future. He sees some upcoming middle school classes with few boys — and even fewer football players.
Hagen is hopeful new programs at the high school, like project-based learning and expanded access to career and technical education, will help win some students back.
Like much of rural America, Wyoming is struggling with a lack of affordable housing, well-paying jobs and other issues. A 2025 analysis of U.S. Census data by the Wyoming Department of Administration & Information found 11 rural Wyoming counties where population declined.
It's part of a larger trend in America, where more than half the country's rural counties lost population between 2020 and last year.
Part of a Larger Decline in Football?
Links between football and the degenerative brain disease known as CTE, usually brought on by repeated severe impacts to the head, have affected participation in the sport over the past decade. New data released this summer shows shows that at least one in four of the brains donated by NFL players had developed the disease.
Mills said he believes Wyoming has gone above and beyond to enact concussion protocols over the past decade.
Current rules require any player with possible concussion symptoms to get a doctor's approval before returning to competitive action.
The WHSAA also offers free insurance covering the full extent of treatment for athletes' concussions.
Although Largent said he's confident interest in football in Kaycee hasn't declined, he did say fear of injuries, stemming from the team's low roster numbers, scared away some kids from playing this season.
It's possible last season served as a warning for some — the Buckaroos barely had enough players to field a team most weeks, meaning those who were available played almost every snap of every game.
"Some were worried about getting hurt; football is an injury sport," Largent said.
Despite a USA Today story showing high school football participation dropping 7.4% nationally between 2008 and 2024, none of these athletic directors or coaches believe football is losing popularity in the Cowboy State.
"It's a tradition in these communities, and people feel strongly about that," Mills said. "These communities really hang their hat on being able to see a game on Friday night."
Although the USA Today report showed a 15% drop in players in Wyoming, the WHSAA collected a much higher participation figure. It's likely USA Today and its source, the National Federation of State High School Associations, did not count Wyoming's 9-Man and 6-Man rosters in their tally.
In Montana, which has a large contingent of 6- and 8-Man teams, the reported drop was above 30%. In Nebraska, which has three tiers of 8-Man football and one level of 6-Man, the number was even higher.
Mills also pointed out that Shoshoni High School, where he previously coached football, will still have a 9-man team but will play only at the junior-varsity level this season due to low numbers.
Hagen and Largent both hope they'll be able to field teams next season, with bigger eighth-grade classes and more boys on the way.
"I'm very confident in saying we will have a team next year," Largent said. "I think we'll have 8-10 players comfortably, at a minimum."
