The Midwest Oilers took to their football field in maroon and white for perhaps the last time Thursday night to face the junior varsity from Casper’s Kelly Walsh High School.
The Oilers’ 6-Man football team boasts an 11-man squad of four seniors, one junior, three sophomores and three freshmen. The hometown fans standing along the fence, sitting in the stands and watching from vehicles surrounding the field did not leave disappointed.
The big scoreboard at the southwest side of the field read 52-24 when the game clock ran out, taking Midwest's record to 3-4.
Midwest won’t have its 6-Man squad next year if the Natrona County School District 1 board moves grades 6-12 to Casper, as a memo from Midwest Schools' interim principal earlier this month seemed to indicate.
That decision could possibly come Monday night,
Football coach Josh Lindsay, in his first year leading the program, posted on social media earlier in the week asking for supporters to show up for the game.
He said he and the team were excited about playing Kelly Walsh and despite a “roller coaster” year was happy that his Oilers were going to be part of the 6-Man playoffs next week.
“It makes me nervous, it makes me upset that this could potentially be the last game of forever,” he said. “It’s our last home game, so there is already a little bit of sadness there. Hopefully we get to show up here next year and play some more next year.”
On the first play of the game, the Oilers' onside kick resulted in them having the ball on offense.
They had their first points at 6:49 in the first quarter. Interceptions, trick pass plays and hard-nosed runs in traffic kept their fans excited.
Most of those who gathered understood this was no ordinary football game. It was an opportunity to potentially be part of a final chapter of history and culture that stretches back 101 years, a legacy that includes being the first U.S. community to stage a high school football game under the lights.
That also happened on a Thursday — Nov. 19, 1925.
Trinade Jost graduated from Midwest High School and was at the game taking photos and cheering on her brother. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The Midwest Oilers huddle up prior to the contest with the Kelly Walsh JV squad. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Football under the lights Thursday represents the 101st year since Midwest school had the first high school game in the nation under the lights in 1925. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Rhei Tharp traveled more than six hours from Montana to be at the Thursday game. He hopes the school he graduated from in 2004 continues. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Drive From Montana
Rhei Tharp graduated from Midwest High School in 2005 and drove 6 1/2 hours from Malta, Montana, to witness maybe the last chapter of the school’s football existence.
“It’s sad because small communities need something like this. They need Thursday night football, they need the sports, the extracurriculars,” he said. “This is being forced on the Midwest and Edgerton kids, forcing them to be bused into Casper.”
Tharp said his class graduated 10 people and he believes many students fall through the cracks at bigger schools. Now the owner of a radio station in Malta, he characterizes the education and “life lessons” he received at the school as “phenomenal.”
He said when he learned the school district board was potentially moving grades 6-12 to Casper, he fired off a letter just before driving down. In the letter, he shared a quote from a former Midwest assistant principal and basketball coach that never left him.
“Everybody operates at 98%,” Tharp said, quoting his mentor. “Strive to be that top 2%. That’s how I’ve operated through life and I wanted to come down here and at least show up and do what I can to help keep this school open.”
Midwest High School English and Spanish teacher Daphne Vaughn, who also is assistant boys basketball coach and junior high girls basketball coach, was headed into the concession stand to fry burgers, sell sodas, and to support her son, who plays on the football team. She said the thought that the team was playing its last home game “hurt her heart.”
She’s trying to stay optimistic for a solution that will keep the high school grades in town. Vaughn said she has taught at the Midwest High School for 10 years.
“I love small schools,” she said.
The Casper-based officials for potentially Midwest’s final game included from left, Cody Hult, Benito Vann, Jerry Kramer, Matthew Nicholson, and Zane Keizer. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Daphne Vaughn, an English and Spanish teacher at the high school, has a son on the team. She loves small schools and hopes Thursday’s game isn’t the last one in Midwest. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Josh Lindsay, the Midwest Oilers coach, speaks with an official before the football game. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The Midwest Oilers take the ball in for a touchdown on a pass play. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
A crowd was on hand to watch potentially their school’s last home football game. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Official's Perspective
Matthew Nicholson, one of five referees assigned to the game, said he learned from another official that it might be the last home football contest at Midwest.
He called it “sad” that another small school in the state might have its last-ever football game.
“I think it’s kind of cool that we got to be on the assignment if that is the case,” he said. “We can soak it all up and be here for the kids with that. It’s sad to see that it’s happening all over Wyoming with lower numbers for football and things like that.”
Sitting behind the fence in a lawn chair, Mike Smith, executive director at Antelope Health Center in Midwest, said he has been in the community for the past 21 years, and in the early 1980s worked in the oil field outside town.
He said understanding that he might be witnessing the final game of the town’s high school stirred up a “whole bag of mixed emotions, none of them really very good.”
Sports represent one of the few activities in a small town for residents. Should the school district take grades 6-12, the town will likely become a Powder River or Lynch, Smith said.
“It’ll roll up and there won’t be anything left,” he said. “There will be the oil field.”
He said the community might shut down with little opportunity to do anything to stop it.
Trinade Jost graduated from Midwest in 2023 and was walking the football field taking photos she planned to post on social media. Her brother is a sophomore on the team.
Jost said attending Midwest felt like being part of a family and the students were more than “just a number to a teacher.”
“They care about you and your grades and want you to succeed,” she said. “I know that I could not have made it without Midwest. I know my little brother couldn’t make it without Midwest.”
Jost said she hopes they can save the school, but as her parents look to the future for her brother, “everything is up in the air.”
Eighth grader Mason Knight calls the thought that he might not get to play on a Midwest high school team “depressing.” (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Midwest residents take in the game from the hill above the football field. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Mike Smith said if the town loses the junior high and high school grade, Midwest will “roll up.” (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Ray Clymer attended Midwest school through all of the grades and played football on the same field where his son performed on Thursday night. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
'Depressing'
Eighth-grade student Mason Knight plays football on the junior high team and characterized it as “depressing” if the high school grades are moved to Casper and he never gets to play high school ball on the Oilers field. He said he has lived in Midwest for the past two years and hopes he does not have to move.
“I really like it here,” he said.
His team, the Pumpers, will play their last home game at 4 p.m. Saturday.
Members of this year’s high school team are seniors Ryan Barnes, Noah Dickerson, Payton Schmitt, and Domnick Sothan, junior Austin Schmitt, sophomores Jack Clymer, Douglas Jost, and Jesus Bustillos Ruiz, and freshmen Xavier Kossman, Ashton Neuman and Isaac Williams.
Ray Clymer, the father of Jack Clymer, said he attended Midwest’s school from kindergarten through graduation and, like his son, played football on the same field. He said if the school district does what the community fears, his son likely will not be able to play football again unless it is at another smaller school.
He said his son loves to play football and is “thriving” as part of the student body, partly because of “one-on-one” attention from teachers when he needs extra help.
Clymer said the school board thinking about “taking away” the high school and closing down the rich history and football tradition “hurts.”
“It’s just an emotional time,” he said.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
