What more could a sports fan want out of a fall season than that provided by high school sports across Wyoming?
Dynasties in the making, record winning streaks snapped, and juicy storylines that transcended wins and loses columns.
Autumn 2026 saw yet another Cody-Star Valley championship showdown in 3A football, a Mustangs football team send off its coach on a winning note, and a Kelly Walsh Trojans volleyball squad that was literally unbeatable.
4A Football
Changing of the gridiron guards
A November showdown in Laramie without the Sheridan Broncs has been unheard of since the pandemic. A remarkable 59-game win streak was snapped during the regular season by eventual champs: Natrona Mustangs. The Broncs were later bounced from the playoffs on November 6 by a plucky Cheyenne East club in an overtime thriller.
“We were very fortunate to be on this incredible run. I mean, some of our sophomores had not experienced a loss since they were in fourth grade,” Broncs coach Jeff Mowry said. “Honestly, it came to be an incredible amount of pressure for these young men, shouldering five years’ worth of wins. Our staff did a real good job every week of playing that down.”
Like a baseball pitcher who does not want to be reminded when he is throwing a no-hitter, Mowry admitted the historic win streak began to take on a life of its own. The weight of it was there in the locker room every Friday but no one dared mention it.
“It’s funny, I've already heard talk around the conference that, at 9-2 this season, our dynasty is over. Well, when we first moved to Sheridan, if we would have won nine games in a season they would have built us statues,” Mowry joked.
Natrona, a team of destiny?
Scriptwriters would love the plot that played out in the Natrona Mustangs undefeated season.
Legendary coach Steve Harshman announced it would be his last season patrolling the sidelines for the Mustangs the past 36 years, albeit only if he was elected state superintendent of public instruction. He was, and his new day job begins January 4, 2027.
“Win one for the Super,” could have been the refrain in Casper but Harshman deflected any notion of a Hollywood plot line, preferring to credit fundamentals, focus, and a little luck.
“It’s all about putting in the work, having things go your way, and staying healthy,” Harshman told Cowboy State Daily.
Having the state’s best running game, led by Brodey Wilcox (1,653 yards, 20 touchdowns) and Patton True (854 yards, 18 touchdowns), didn’t hurt either.
Harshman’s senior-heavy Mustangs met with little resistance on the way to their first state title in eight years. Regular-season wins included seven shutouts as Natrona outscored their opponents 398 to 40.
Is Natrona starting its own “Sheridan win streak?”
“I coached against some of their dads back in the ‘90s,” Harshman chuckled.
“But we don’t think about that for one second. That’s dangerous thoughts in athletics,” he added. “We don’t live in the past or the future. We live in the moment, taking one day, one game at a time.”
East not least
The Thunderbirds of Cheyenne East are likely sick of playing the bridesmaid. In 2022, 2023, and 2024, the T-Birds lost three conference championships in a row — all to Sheridan.
Finally, in a season where East did manage to beat the Sheridan Broncs (a 15-14 overtime win in the semifinals), they had to take on Natrona in the title game.
Head coach Chad Goff said he was proud of his team’s resilience and ability to find ways to win all season.
“Winning those close games is how you learn to win. We were in games where we had to stage big comebacks, and games where we had to hold on to a lead,” the 21-year coaching veteran said.
Championship Saturday: Natrona 28, East 13
The speed of Cheyenne East gave Natrona trouble early in the title game Saturday afternoon until the Mustangs settled in.
At times, the contest became a two-man sport. For Natrona, Wilcox had a player-of-the-game kind of day, gobbling up nearly 200 yards rushing and scoring all four of Natrona’s TDs.
East’s dual-threat quarterback Trace Eldridge exemplified the Thunderbirds’ trademark scrappiness at War Memorial Stadium Saturday. The 5-foot-10 senior saved his best performance of season for his final game as a T-Bird.
3A Football
Star Valley and Cody … again
A football season that began in the triple-digit heat of mid-August culminated this past weekend in the crisp fall air of Laramie.
Ten teams with an invitation to the War — hallowed collegiate grounds for the Wyoming Cowboys. Five dreams culminating in a state championship, five ending in “we’ll get ‘em next year” refrains.
In the 3A, it was déjà vu all over again as Star Valley and Cody renewed a familiar postseason rendezvous. Five straight meetings between the Braves and Broncs dating back to 2022 have all resulted in Star Valley victories.
Star Valley head coach MacKay Young credited his team’s success this year to a robust preseason schedule that included road trips to Alaska and Alberta, Canada ahead of conference play.
“We stack our preseason pretty heavy,” Young said. “So, we felt battle tested out of the gate.”
Dating back 12 years, state titles in 3A football have been shared by either Star Valley or Cody. With the Braves snatching up nine of those to the Broncs’ four.
The culture of winning in Afton is palpable.
“Star Valley has been good at football for over a century,” noted Young, who took over coaching duties in 2013. “We emphasize all the time about standing on the shoulders of giants and those that came before. For a lot of these kids it was their fathers and grandfathers who were winning state championships.”
Generational success with the Star Valley football program has been the envy of the conference for decades and, for the Cody Broncs again last Friday, another obstacle on the way to a trophy of their own.
Individual success stories in 2026 include University of Wyoming commit Cache McFadden, a coach’s son who quarterbacked the Cody Broncs to their No. 2 rated offense. And Jackson running back Cooper Kintzler, who may be Wyoming’s most complete athlete, leading all 3A rushers with 1,042 yards from scrimmage on the ground.
Championship Friday – Star Valley 16, Cody 13
As they did in a regular season matchup — a 28-27 loss on Oct. 2 — Cody gave Star Valley all they wanted and then some in the championship game Friday.
Both teams showed big-game nerves for most of the first half as defenses for both teams flexed.
In the end, the Braves were able to overcome a monster game on both sides of the ball from Cody’s Cache McFadden.
For Star Valley, an unlikely hero emerged to seal the 16-13 win. Sophomore Owen Brown kicked a 22-yard game-winning field goal with 21 seconds left. It was his first field goal all year.
Final results: 4A Natrona County 28, Cheyenne East 13; 3A Star Valley 16, Cody 13; 2A Big Horn 31, Cokeville 7; 1A 9-man Pine Bluffs 48, Sundance 6; 1A 6-man Burlington 54, Casper Christian 6.
4A Volleyball
Green with envy
In a season that saw dominance at several levels, it was the Trojans of Kelly Walsh that stole the headlines in the 4A. The defending champion Big Green were looking for a three-peat, boasting a lineup loaded with star power.
Kelly Walsh went wire-to-wire as the No. 1 ranked team in the WyoPreps Coaches and Media Poll, capping an unblemished season with their third straight title and 13th in school history.
And how could they not?
Hall of Fame coach Jeff Barkell admitted there were times during the Trojans' 37-0 run that the best thing he could do was stay out of his girls’ way.
“This is a special group. It’s very rare that you ever are able to put this caliber of a team on the court,” Barkell said. “As a coach, there is a danger of out-thinking yourself, tweaking a few things here and there to be better. But with a team like this, it became obvious maybe the best approach was to get out of their way and not screw it up.”
Barkell had horses in the barn any coach would covet, starting with multi-sport athlete Lillian Hudson. The 5-10 outside hitter finished the season averaging 3.2 kills per game (1,000-plus on the season), earning her all-state honors for the second straight year.
“We were so deep this year I feel like we just knew what each other would be doing on the court,” Hudson said. “We started to connect early in preseason even — setters to hitters — and we all just started connecting more and more throughout the season.”
Hudson, who is also a basketball standout, is headed to Duke after graduation for track and field.
Fellow senior Gia Ireland, a two-time all-state athlete as well, paced the Trojans all season with a team-leading 550 assists while snagging Player of the Year honors. Ireland last week committed to play volleyball for Cal State-Northridge.
Penny Thompson’s net presence length (6-1), Sedar Smith’s serving prowess (72 aces), and libero Jenee Cantrell’s digs (team-high 390) also helped fuel K-Dub’s run for the history books. They lost just six sets all year.
And it might just be only just getting started in Casper.
“We graduate six but we’ve got a pretty good group coming through. The JV team was undefeated and maybe even a little taller than the varsity team,” Barkell shared.
3A & 2A Volleyball
Twinning with the Walker sisters
Elsewhere in volleyball, the Lovell Bulldogs were on a mission to make it back-to-back championships in 3A.
The dual attack of Ali and Avery Walker (they are literal twin sisters) was too much for Tongue River in the state title match. The two-time all-stats are 5-10 bookends on the court, both juniors, and rangy as saguaro cacti.
Lovell finished the season with one loss to 27 wins, earning its fourth title in school history.
Individual accolades belong to Douglas star Leah Ewing who wrapped her high school career with a rare feat — 1,000-plus career kills and 1,000-plus career digs.
Ewing started varsity as a freshman, earning all-state distinction in all four years of high school. She was also named 2026 Player of the Year in 3A.
Big Horn made it four in a row with its win over Southeast in the 2A. The Rams won 36 matches, with their three defeats coming from out-of-class and out-of-state opponents.
Despite losing seniors Afton Cummins, Leah Phillips, and Teeka Baker to graduation, Big Horn returns Hannah Clark, Maci Winterland, Lilly Thomas (libero), and Ava Taylor — all juniors who had stellar seasons.
Final results: 4A Kelly Walsh 3, Cody 1 (25-13, 25-16, 21-25, 25-17); 3A Lovell 3, Tongue River 1 (25-15, 25-16, 23-25, 25-19); 2A Big Horn 3, Southeast 0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-15); 1A Hulett 3, Cokeville 0 (25-23, 25-13, 25-13).
Jake Nichols can be reached at jake@cowboystatedaily.com.
