Douglas' Greatest Athlete

This story took first place for Sports Feature Writing in the 2009 Wyoming Press Association awards. It also received second place for Sports Feature Story in the 2010 National Newspaper Association awards.

Douglas' Greatest Athlete

Bud Spicer graduated from Douglas High School in 1958 owning eight state records. He would go on to play professional football and qualify for the Olympics. This is the story of a city’s best sportsman, as told by those who knew him then, and the man himself.

By BRENDAN BURNETT-KURIE

Bob Adams spoke with a powerful surety as he stood in a corner of the windowless Moose Lodge, dressed in a checkered shirt and green slacks.

“Bud Spicer was definitely the greatest high school athlete ever in Wyoming.”

Bob’s salt-and-pepper hair gave him an aura of expertise, but his opinion carried more gravitas than that. The 1959 Douglas High School graduate had protected Spicer, a former Bearcat quarterback, as a starting guard on the 1957 football team. From Bob’s spot on the basketball team’s bench, he also had a revealing view of the man who many believe is the greatest high school athlete the Cowboy State has ever produced.

He’s certainly the best to ever roam the halls of Douglas High School.

“There was only one of him,” 1959 grad Rita Russell says.

• • • • 

Bud Spicer was only 6 feet tall and weighed 190 pounds as a senior. His brown hair was trimmed in the same sloppy crew cut that most of his senior class sported. He was handsome and wiry, with cheekbones set high on his face, a pointy nose and squinting eyes, as if he was perpetualy looking into the sun. He was a mischievous boy, often a part of schoolyard pranks and childhood tomfoolery.

But then he started to impress on the track oval, the hashmarked-football field and the varnished hardcourt, and people are still talking about him a half-century later.

By the time Bud graduated in May of 1958, he held the national high school record in the decathlon, state records in most track and field events (see chart at right), had the highest single-season scoring total in state basketball history and was headed to the University of Wyoming football team as a running back. He would qualify for the 1960 Olympics and play in both the American Football League (which later merged to become the NFL) and the Canadian Football League.

Now, 70, and living in Florida, he is close friends with former Ted Williams confidant Steve Brown, just produced a five-hour documentary on the baseball legend and is raising his 16-year-old daughter, Kelsey.

Yet, if it wasn’t for the desperation of one local football coach – and the welcoming spirit of his wife – no one in Bearcat Country would remember the name Bud Spicer.

• • • •

Bud’s parents split when he was just an infant, and his mother, Nora Miller – who was born in Shawnee, the daughter of Paul and Hazel Miller – re-married to Jim Thomas, who did road work for the Nisley Construction Company. Due to the transient nature of Jim’s work, Bud had already attended 11 schools by the time he moved to Douglas in the seventh grade.

Within a year, Jim and Nora were on the move again, but this time Bud had made an ally in Douglas football coach Pete Petranovich. Pete was starry-eyed at the prospect of having Bud stay and compete for the Bearcats. Even by that age, Bud’s athletic acumen was widely known around town.

“He looked very promising,” Pete’s wife Dorothy, now 97, says. “It was our request because he didn’t have any place to stay.”

“Pete took me under his wing,” Bud says. “He recognized that I had some athletic ability. He wanted to cultivate that a little bit.”

So Bud watched one summer day as his mother and stepfather packed up the family car and drove out of town. It wasn’t heart-breaking for him, though, as he was used to living with aunts and uncles as a child while his stepfather was transferred around the state.

“I ironed his shirts,” Charla Petranovich (now Morton) says. She was Pete and Dorothy’s daughter, two years younger than Bud and a cheerleader. “He was outstanding. It was thrilling to be with him those years. He was such a natural athlete.”

“He was an easy boy to handle,” Dorothy says. “He was a very good student and a good athlete.”

• • • •

But good probably isn’t a worthy adjective. At the end of Bud’s freshman year, he tied for first place in the pole vault at the state meet.

“I was winning state titles from my freshman year on,” he says.

By his senior year, he owned the state record in the shot put, pole vault, discus, low hurdles, long jump and high jump. On April 19, 1958, he traveled to Provo, Utah for the BYU Decathlon.

A Provo newspaper would describe him as “the greatest prep athlete to appear at the BYU Invitational.”

He went on to break Brian “Wizard” Wright’s national high school record in the decathlon by scoring 6,555 points. He became the first Wyoming athlete to win the competition.

His exploits were legendary. Bob laughed as he recalled a time when Bud threw his discus so far they had to bring in a mathematician to score it.

“He was probably a better track athlete than anything,” 1959 grad Jim Richendifer says. “He was great at every sport, but in track he would enter eight events and would win eight first places.”

“I was always gifted athletically,” Bud says. “Track and field allowed me the opportunity to achieve more because it’s an individual sport. You don’t necessarily depend on everyone else.”

• • • •

It may have been a lack of team success that prevented Bud from gaining more notoriety statewide. Still, his senior year the football team finished with a competitive 6-3 record.

“If we were all of his caliber, we’d have been 9-0,” Richendifer, who started at left end, says.

Bud was varsity quarterback for three years and played defensive back on defense.

“We didn’t have a very good football team,” Bud says. “We had a tough schedule my senior year.”

Individually,  though, Bud was thriving. He scored 49 points as a senior and soon the Petranovich’s mailbox was stuffed with recruiting letters from Division I universities.

“I can remember getting hundreds and hundreds of letters from colleges and universities,” Bud says. “I probably could have gone anywhere.”

“A lot of colleges were interested,” Dorothy says. “I remember Southern University in Texas. But, I think he made up his mind to go to the University of Wyoming.”

First, it took a contingent of some of the most powerful men in the region to convince a young Bud to stay in his home state.

Bud had received offers from Wyoming, Texas, Colorado, BYU, Kansas and Nebraska. So to ensure they would get the All-Conference and All-District player, Wyoming football coach Bob Devaney, Gov. Millward Simpson and Wyoming-born sportscaster Curt Gowdy all drove to Douglas on Dec. 9, 1957. They showed up at the doorstep of Pete’s house and commandeered the senior.

They took him to the LaBonte Saloon, stuffed him full of steak and pitched to his home-state loyalty.

“I think it was that night I really committed to the University of Wyoming,” Bud says. “They had been after me. They made sure I was going to UW.”

• • • •

But Bud still had his senior basketball season to play. While the team wasn’t much to sniff at – they finished 7-9 his senior year – the 6-foot center averaged 20 points a game and set the state’s scoring record with 408 points (including the playoffs).

“We would pass the ball four times and give it to Bud,” Jim, who played backup center, says. “When he got the ball, he shot it every time.”

During practices, Bud and Ralph Hanson would hold races around the gym while carrying 150-pound barbells.

“Bud won,” Jim laughs.

“All of Bud’s talent was truly natural,” Bob says.

On Jan. 31, 1958, Bud hit 20 free throws and scored 37 points in an 81-44 win over Newcastle. Both the free throw and point totals were new school records, besting Bill Jones’ previous mark of 32 points. The free throw record still stands.

Through the years, the Douglas Budget would alternately call him a “tricky track star and all-around athlete,” “one man gang among thin-clads,” and “ace Douglas quarterback.” He was named King of the Basketball prom, alongside Queen Lucille England. At the Valentine Dance, he requested Judy Scott’s There Goes My Heart.

Throughout his high school career, Pete and Dorothy had also imbued the importance of education on Bud. He was named DHS Outstanding Student-Athlete in 1958.

“He was a good student,” Dorothy says. “I mentioned it to Bud, that I thought he could get that honor. And he did.”

As he left Douglas for Laramie the summer after his senior year, his basketball and track coach, John Berleffi told a local reporter, “Bud will be an All-American in college.”

• • • •

When Bud arrived at the University of Wyoming, Delaney’s team was coming off an appearance in the 1958 Sun Bowl, a 14-6 win over Hardin-Simmons. Devaney – one of the most successful coaches in team history – would win 35 games, against only ten losses, in five seasons.

During Bud’s first season, the team was still running an archaic (even for 1958) single-wing formation. The offense would switch to multiple formations the following year, but by then Bud had made a decision to delay his athletic career.

Coming out of his freshman year, Bud was afraid of getting drafted, as the country was stuck between the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Bud signed up under the Federal Reserve program, meaning he had to serve two years active duty, two years active reserve and two years inactive reserve. He was assigned to an anti-aircraft unit on the Lindsey Air Station in Weisbaden, Germany.

“That was my choice,” Bud says. “That way I could avoid the draft and having to go wherever they sent me.”

While playing on the base’s football and basketball teams, he drew the attention of a local coach, who asked his commanding officer to allow Bud to work for the European Command. The U.S. Army agreed, and Bud was named EC Athletic Director.

“I traveled around Europe working (to) run little leagues or tennis and golf matches for the military,” Bud says. “It was a great job. I got to see all of Europe. I played all of these sports while I was in the service.”

While competing in Europe, he took part in a qualifying meet for the 1960 Rome Olympics. Bud qualified, barely, for the world’s games, but was still feeling the effects of a broken leg from the previous year. He was pained by calcium deposits on his bones that would get increasingly inflamed the more he worked out.

“I got to the point I couldn’t run,” he says.  “It was really (disappointing). I was only 19, so my mental attitude was ‘I’ll just catch the next one.’ But by that time, I was playing professional football.”

• • • •

Bud returned to UW in the fall of 1961, joining a team that would go 6-1-2 in its final season under Devaney. Bud was used as a part-time running back and kick and punt returner. He led the team with six punt returns for 143 yards, a 23.8 per return average.

Bud played strong-side safety for a ‘61 team that was known for its stifling defense; it still holds school records for fewest first downs allowed, fewest rushes allowed and fewest pass attempts allowed. The following year, Devaney was replaced by Lloyd Eaton. In the ‘62 season opener, Bud would take a carry six yards around the left end to score the lone touchdown of a 13-0 win.

In addition to football, Bud also played on the track and field and basketball teams.

“Back then – now I don’t know this definitively – I was the high scorer my freshman year and also my sophomore year when I went out (for basketball),” Bud says.

• • • •

After his junior year, Bud was signed by the San Diego Chargers of the American Football League. At the time, the rules didn’t allow a player to be drafted until his freshman class graduated. With his two years in the Army, Bud was eligible early. He had been planning on forgoing football his senior year, instead concentrating on track.

“I felt I had more potential in track and I was trying to work on the decathlon,” he says.

But the Chargers had different plans. They signed him to a $9,500 contract and shipped him to the Daytona Beach Thunderbirds, a semi-pro team in Florida.

The next year, 1964, Bud joined the Chargers for an entire season, but played sparingly. He was mostly used on special teams, although his notoriety came as Lance Alworth’s backup. Alworth was generally considered the best receiver in AFL history and was named league MVP in 1969. He was also the league’s highest paid player, making $75,000 per season.

But still, things weren’t exactly rosy.

“I wasn’t playing,” Bud says. “I thought I could do better in Canada. But I enjoyed it, it was a good experience.”

Frustrated with a lack of playing time, Bud accepted a $25,000 one-year contract with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League.

For the Lions, he played split end, linebacker and punter. But three games into the season – with one interception to show for it – Bud injured his groin. He met with the coach, Dave Skrien, to discuss how much he should be paid as an injured player.

“I need my full salary or I’m going back to school,” Bud told Skrien.

Skrien looked back at Bud, shook his head, and said “You’d better go back to school.”

“That was a surprise because I started on offense and defense,” Bud says. “I really enjoyed it up there. I thought for sure they would pay me.”

• • • •

Suddenly, the owner of eight Wyoming high school records had fizzled out as a pro. One season of minimal impact with the Chargers and three games with the BC Lions and he found himself as just another college student, one semester from graduation, and contemplating a life beyond athletic glory.

Bud returned and graduated from UW in 1967.

“I was very thankful that I got cut,” he says now, with 40 years of retrospection. “Because I came back to UW and I got right back in. If it wasn’t for that, I might not have ever graduated.”

After a short stint in graduate school at the University of Oregon, he took a job as the only white teacher at all-black Campbell Senior High School in Daytona Beach.

Two years later, the school system was integrated and he moved to Mainland High School and became the athletic director and a gym teacher. After 16 years at Mainland, he returned to his western routes to take a position as director of the Colorado Springs College of Business. In 1986, he traveled back to the east coast to take over as assistant principal at Sea Breeze Senior High School in Daytona Beach.

After retiring from education, he became marketing director for a production company – Gabby Mobile Productions – which just finished creating a five-hour documentary on Ted Williams in conjunction with former Splendid Splinter buddy Steve Brown.

“It’s going to be a great documentary,” Bud says. “We were going to do two hours, but there’s so much stuff on Ted, with his military career, his fishing, baseball.”

Along the way, Bud raised a son, Justin, now 38, and 16-year-old Kelsey.

• • • •

Although he has only returned to Douglas a few times since he left 50 years ago – he was back in town last summer for his 50th high school reunion, and will return this August for another visit – he still carries fond memories of the Jackalope City.

“The education, the friends and playing sports in Douglas were all good memories,” he says.

He still keeps in contact with Jerry Payne, who now lives in Glenrock, and remembers high school pals Joe Piro, Jack Morton and Mike Sullivan, who later became governor.

The longer he talks, the more memories of Douglas start seeping out. His mind drifts back to Cokes and curly-q french fries at the Kandy Koop. He remembers seeing Elvis Presley in Love Me Tender at the Mesa Theater. He talks about how the road on the west side of the North Platte was vacant, except for a drive-in theater.

Life has been pretty good to Bud Spicer, the greatest athlete in Douglas history. He’s known the thrill of succeeding at the top and he’s felt the crushing despair of being cut; but through it all he’s had character to fall back on. Character he learned at Pete and Dorothy’s house on top of the hill.

“Athletics has been very good to me through the years,” Bud says. “It’s opened a lot of doors.”

State Champs!

This story took first place in Sports News Writing in the 2009 Wyoming Press Association awards.

State Champs!

By BRENDAN BURNETT-KURIE

Ten years ago, a group of elementary school kids would show up 20 minutes before school just to play football on the playground.

On Saturday, a decade of dedication paid off as those same young men hugged, cried and kissed a trophy symbolizing Douglas’ first state football championship in 30 years.

“I remember going to school 20 minutes early to play a little football,” senior reciever Jake Vogel said. “We’ve been dreaming about this since we were little.”

“It’s everything we’ve been dreaming of since we were in second grade,” senior running back Cody Bohlander said. “When we were little, we loved football. It was 18 years in the making for me.”

“We had more heart. We played like a team. We’re brothers,” Vogel said.

Dream. Heart. Brothers.

Those three words summed up Douglas’ run to a state title, culminating in a commanding 34-21 win over Buffalo in the 4A State Championship game Nov. 15 at Bearcat Stadium.

“This group of seniors, when I took the job here they were sophomores and they were the group everyone talked about,” head coach Jay Rhoades said. “I would ask ‘Does Douglas have a chance of winning a state title in the next few years?’ People would say ‘Yeah, they have a great group of sophomores. It’s a great place to be.’”

The Bearcats overcame an early 7-0 deficit and scored 21 points in 1:41 during the second quarter to take a 28-7 lead it would never relinquish. Senior Shane Richendifer was 13-for-21 passing for 179 yards and two touchdowns against a Bison team he lit up for 289 yards in their regular season matchup.

“It’s kind of surreal right now,” Richendifer said. “It hasn’t really sunk in that we’re state champions. When it actually does set in, I’m just going to sit there with a smile on my face.”

Cody Bohlander had 135 yards catching and receiving and three touchdowns and Jake Vogel and Michael Hogan found the end zone in a game that was decided in just 19 minutes.

“I knew if we came out and played our game that we could get it done and it wouldn’t be close,” senior receiver Daniel Hancock said after catching three passes for 58 yards. “It’s indescribable. This is what we’ve been playing for all year, and to get it done, I’m dumbfounded.”

It was Douglas’ first state championship in 30 years, since the 1978 team captured the crown. It was also the third state title for Douglas during the fall season, possibly a first in Douglas’ class.

“We are state champions,” Rhoades said. “You can’t really say much more. I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet. It’s a great feeling. It’s a very deserving feeling.”

But in the early going, the chances of an easy Douglas victory appeared slim. Buffalo returned the opening kickoff to the Douglas 46 and then embarked on a 10-play, 44-yard scoring drive that clicked nearly five minutes off the clock.

“It took us a drive to figure out they’re changes, and once we did it was pretty much game over,” defensive coordinator Wes Gamble said. “We’re resilient. They’re the type of kids that if you went to war, you’d want to take them with you. Every one of them would run through fire or through a wall if we asked them.”

So the Douglas offense stepped onto the field, trailing 7-0, and took no time killing the Bison momentum. Richendifer connected with Hancock on 15 and 30-yard passing plays, setting Bohlander up for a two-yard touchdown scamper to knot the game at seven with 3:45 remaining in the first half.

“Had we not come back and scored on that next drive, I think we would have had to fight and scratch a lot harder,” Rhoades said. “I think Buffalo thought ‘Uh oh.’”

Jake Vogel intercepted Buffalo quarterback Tyler Gibbs on the Bison’s next possession, the first of two picks for the senior cornerback and one of four for the Bearcats defense. Douglas drove 48-yards early in the second quarter, capped by a 14-yard pass from Richendifer to Hogan. Hancock intercepted Gibbs three plays later and Bohlander slipped into the end zone for a 21-7 lead with 7:16 left before the half.

That’s when things got exciting for the Bearcats. Bohlander kicked off, with his boot landing near the 30 yard line where Pierre Etchemendy lept on it for an uncoventional onsides recovery. On first down, Bohlander beat the Buffalo secondary and Richendifer found him with a rainbow toss into the end zone where Bohlander made a diving catch to put Buffalo away with a 28-7 lead.

“I came open, Gibbs was over the top of me and I ran by him,” Bohlander said. “I knew if Shane put it over my outside shoulder I’d come down with it, and that’s where he put it.”

“That was huge,” Rhoades said. “That was such a momentum-changer. That kind of sealed the deal, I think.”

Buffalo would tack on a touchdown with 53 seconds left in the half, pulling with 14 with 24 minutes left.

On the way out of the locker room at halftime, each player slapped a football at the top of the locker room stairs, reminding themselves that the following 24 minutes had better be the best football of their lives.

Vogel intercepted another Bison pass late in the third quarter, setting Douglas up with the ball on the 22-yard line. Four plays later, Vogel spun into the end zone on a reverse for a 34-14 lead. Hancock would add his second interception of the game later in the fourth quarter and Buffalo wouldn’t score until 4:15 remaining in the game.

“To not just win it but to hand it to them, to play our style of football, to initiate the contact and be physical was great,” Gamble said. “We’re the ones left standing. We’re the champs. They showed up, they did it, and they’re an awesome group.”

In the end, Douglas dominated a team that it had barely defeated 21-14 in an overtime win Oct. 17.

“We were a better team all along,” Rhoades said. “We were a better team a few weeks ago. We were better than 21-14. I think the kids knew that. Today the challenge was to go prove it. It shows these kids’ character. They’re not going to lie down against anybody.”

Buffalo did recover an onside kick with four minutes left, but four incomplete passes later, Douglas just had to run out the clock, dump Gatorade on Gamble and storm the field to celebrate the long-awaited championship.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” Bohlander said. “It’s an amazing feeling. It’s crazy.”

“I was so excited, I couldn’t believe it,” Vogel said. “I’ve waited 17 years for this and I just want to thank God for everything he’s given me. There’s no words for it, it’s just love.”

“We didn’t play for ourselves,” senior linebacker Ryan Adams said. “We played for each other and today it showed on the field.”

“The kids did it,” Gamble said. “We get to enjoy it with them. It’s the sweetest feeling of them all.”

For more than 20 seniors, this was their final high school football game. For the majority of them, it will be their final organized game. But they wanted to revel in the victory just a little longer before the inevitable reality set in.

“I’m just living in the moment right now, enjoying the victory,” Bohlander said.

But the coaches couldn’t say enough about this endearing group of upperclassmen.

“I couldn’t be happier with how they responded and how coachable they were,” Gamble said. “They played together and with heart. I will miss them. It’s been the funnest time coaching a defense because they’re a special group of kids.”

“Thank you,” Rhoades said to his seniors. “Thank you for all your effort. It’s been an extraordinary ride. This will be a group of seniors I will never forget.”

Finally, the trophy was brought out and a scrum of players jostled for a chance to touch the prize.

“I just grabbed it, held it up and kissed it,” Richendifer said. “I thought ‘It doesn’t get any better than this.’”

Cat-astrophic

This story took first place in Sports News Writing during the 2008 Wyoming Press Association awards.

Cat-astrophic

By BRENDAN BURNETT-KURIE

“You just feel like you’ve been kicked in the stomach and you can’t do anything about it,” Douglas girls basketball coach Jaci Heny said after a bizarre and controversial series of calls essentially put an end to the Lady Cats’ state championship aspirations.

With top-seeded Douglas trailing 42-40 with six minutes remaining in its opening round matchup with Worland during the 3A State Championship tournament in Casper March 6, Kelsey Scott was fouled underneath the basket and stepped up to the free throw line. The Lady Cats were in the double bonus, meaning Scott had two free throw attempts regardless of the outcome of her first shot.

Scott’s first freebie clanked off the rim and was pulled down by a Worland player, but instead of whistling the play dead, the referees allowed play to continue and the Lady Warriors scored a basket and were fouled.

“I’ve never seen anything like that. I figured that (the ref) would stop it as soon as he saw that my kids weren’t going for the ball,” Heny said. “We didn’t even go anywhere. All five of my girls were still standing there waiting for Kelsey to get her (second) free throw. I’m yelling at the ref, Kelsey is yelling at the ref, the fans are yelling at the ref. Neither one of them would stop the game.”

Before Worland attempted its first free throw, the referees finally realized their error and awarded Scott her second free throw. But, they still counted the Lady Warriors basket and the free throw, giving Worland a 45-40 lead with 5:30 left in the game.

“I’m going to be honest, we all felt -- I don’t know how else to put it -- a little cheated,” Heny said. I talked to Ron Laird, the (WHSAA) commissioner, and he’s going to go back and review film, but that doesn’t bring back the game. It doesn’t bring back that call. It doesn’t bring back the outcome of the game.”

The outcome did not favor the Lady Cats as they could never recover from the demoralizing turn of events and fell 55-49, ending their hopes at a third state championship in five years.

“You could tell that after that the momentum was gone,” Heny said. “It’s hard for high school kids to not feel that way after a call like that. It’s hard to overcome something like that.”

The free throw mishap wasn’t the only strange scoring situation of the game. Earlier in the quarter Heny was forced to argue with the scorers who had marked point guard Raegen Scott down for seven fouls, when in fact she only had four.

“I’m at the scorers table trying to figure that all out while the game is going on,” Heny said. “The game is happening, I’m at the scorers table trying to defend the fact that my point guard didn’t have seven fouls.”

Despite all the frustrating calls, the Lady Cats battled hard to the end, pulling with three with 3:37 left on a Scott free throw before Worland pulled away down the stretch.

The game started off in Douglas’ favor as the Lady Cats took a 13-10 lead after the first quarter. Poor shooting eventually doomed the girls, however, as they shot only 29 percent from the field, and 20 percent if you take out K. Scott’s 50 percent mark. Senior shooting guard Rachel Saunders, the team’s resident three-point specialist, was suffering from influenza.

“Rachel wasn’t feeling well so it took everything she had to play defense, then to play offense,” Heny said of the senior who attempted 143 triples this season, 107 more than any of her teammates. “To get her shot up was even more to ask. We weren’t 100 percent but I told the girls that (injuries) won’t be anything we use as an excuse. But, you could tell by the way they were playing that they were exhausted.”

Worland pulled ahead 28-22 at halftime and held a 39-34 lead after three quarters. The Lady Cats did roar back early in the fourth quarter after a riveting pep talk from Heny.

“If you want it, go get it,” Heny said in the team’s huddle. “It’s yours if you want it.”

Douglas opened the quarter with a 5-0 run to lead 40-39 with 6:31 remaining. Thirty seconds later, the now-infamous double-bonus play occurred.

“I’ve never, in all my years playing, coaching as a student assistant, felt that way after a loss,” Heny said. “It’s one thing to get beat. But we didn’t feel like we got beat. We felt it came down to a call or two.”

K. Scott scored 16 points and had five rebounds. Saunders scored eight points, but was only 2-of-13 from the field. Tristyn Panasuk had six rebounds and five points. Douglas only had two assists all game.

Lovell 63

Douglas 50

The following morning, playing another 9 a.m. game, the Lady Cats couldn’t shake the disappointment of the opening-round loss and dropped a consolation match 63-50 to Lovell.

“There was definitely a carry-over the next day,” Heny said. “I tried to get them out of that. I tried to get them to stop thinking about the day before. We came out pretty well. But, I think by the time the second half rolled around we were gassed and emotionally drained.”

Douglas went up 18-12 after the first eight minutes, but a 19-9 second quarter for the Lady Bulldogs put them up 31-27 at the half. Lovell’s Kristen Scheffler, who has committed to play for Wyoming next year, racked up 21 points and 11 rebounds on the Lady Cats.

“Scheffler had a great game against us,” Heny said. “There’s a reason she’s going to play Division I basketball. I put everybody on her. I tried to put Kelsey on her, Rachel, Elisa (Etchemendy), Tristyn. We just couldn’t find someone to stop her. Our scouting report said if we can stop this one player, we should be fine. We just didn’t have anyone who could do that.”

K. Scott had a team-high 12 points in the loss, while Panasuk scored 10. Etchemendy, a senior, pulled down a Lady Cat-best six rebounds. Despite the disappointment of a two-game elimination, Heny was proud of how her team held its head high despite the chaotic circumstances.

“I was really happy with our kids,” Heny said. “They didn’t let a lot of controversial things get to them. They kept pushing through all of that. That’s hard for high school girls to do in the first place.”

Heny reflected after the tournament on her three seniors: K. Scott, Saunders and Etchemendy.

“We’re going to miss Kelsey like crazy,” she said. “Her numbers -- 16 (points) and 10 (rebounds) -- all season long we jumped on her back and said ‘Lead us’ and she did. It’s going to be hard to find someone to fill her shoes and I don’t think one person can do it. I think it’s going to take two, maybe three people to fill her numbers. Her leadership this year, for a first-year coach, was great to see. There was times when I didn’t have to be a leader, she was that leader.

“Elisa, she’s the greatest athlete I’ve ever seen. Not the greatest basketball player, but she has nothing but heart. She sat out two years and came back and started some games for us. She just brought it every single day.

“Rachel, there’s our shooter. We have to find a shooter, someone to step up and make some shots. She took the majority of our threes this year. With her, it’s not going to be one person, it’s going to take two or three (to replace her).

“I’m going to miss them. They were the best three seniors I could ask for. They’re three of the best kids I’ve ever been around.”

The Lady Cats finished the season with a 19-8 record. Starters R. Scott and Panasuk, as well as rotation stalwarts Beka Russell and Whitney Darr will be returning next year.

“I think it will take some adjusting to not having Kelsey in there,” Heny said of next year. “It will be a different look for us with Beka and Darr, but they both really stepped up toward the end of the season. I expect a lot out of both of them. I’ll go to work with both of them over the summer.”

From Herder to Cowboy

This story took second place for Sports News Writing during the 2008 Wyoming Press Association awards.

From Herder to Cowboy

By BRENDAN BURNETT-KURIE

His dream just came true.

“If you had told me a year ago that I would be signing a national letter of intent, I would have called you a liar,” Glenrock senior Jim Downs said just moments before signing on to play football at the University of Wyoming Feb. 6 at Glenrock High School. “Ever since I was a little kid I wanted to be a Cowboy. I grew up watching the Cowboys and they’ve been my heros ever since. From Jerry Hill all the way to Casey Bramlett and Chase Johnson. It’s definitely where I wanted to be.”

Flanked by his mother, Sally, and, father Brooke, Downs put his John Hancock on what may be the most important piece of paper he’s ever seen: His national letter of intent to play offensive tackle at the University of Wyoming. Making it even more special is the fact that he’s the only Wyoming native in this year’s Cowboy recruiting class.

“It makes me feel real special,” Downs said. “Everyone’s been calling me the True Cowboys. I’m the only one in this recruiting class representing Wyoming and it’s a great feeling.”

The Pokes first expressed interest in the 6’7” 280 lb. offensive tackle with an invitation to their Junior Day last spring. Downs was one of two Wyoming athletes invited to the event, and it was his first opportunity to meet his future coaches.

“I got a letter inviting me to Junior Day at the University of Wyoming, and that’s when this thing really got rolling,” Downs said. “I went down and gave them a tape, and after that they sent me a letter saying ‘We like what we see on your tape, we’ll be keeping in touch with you.’”

With two years starting on the offensive line, and one year as a starter for the defense, Downs headed down for a summer camp at the university. After a scrimmage one day he was approached by head coach Joe Glenn.

“I thought, I don’t compare to these kids and I wasn’t expecting anything,” Downs said. One day I was coming out of a scrimmage and getting a drink of water and coach Glenn pulled me aside and said, ‘If you choose to be a Cowboy, we have a full ride waiting for you.’”

It’s that modesty, combined with an incredible drive to succeed that has allowed Downs to reach his lifetime goal of playing Division I football.

“He’s the one who set his goal at Division I football,” Glenrock head coach Ray Kumpula said. “We kind of went along with him and pushed him a little bit, but he was the one who said ‘I can do this.’ He just went around getting it done.”

The word dream was used by almost everyone surrounding the beaming senior.

“He called me upon the phone and said, ‘What this means is I’m going to be a Wyoming Cowboy,’ and he said it the way only Jim could say it,” Kumpula said. “You knew he just made his dream.”

“Like he said, it’s a dream come true,” his dad, Brooke Downs, said. “I didn’t expect that it would come to him, but he’s worked hard both academically and in the weight room to achieve this. He’s got a great opportunity ahead of him.”

Moments after his life-changing chat with a Wyoming legend, Downs scrambled to find his cell phone and call his parents.

“It was exciting,” Downs said. “It was hard to describe. I ran right home and called my mom. Neither my mom or dad answered so I called my grandma and she couldn’t believe it. I finally got a hold of my mom and dad and they thought I was pulling a joke on them.”

But it wasn’t a joke. Kumpula remembers sitting at his cabin when he got a phone call.

“I was vacationing at my cabin and coach (Donnie) Stewart called me and said ‘Jim got offered.’ I said ‘Offered what?’ He said ‘Wyoming offered him a scholarship.’ I said ‘Well that’s tremendous’,” he said.

In December, coach Glenn traveled to Glenrock to watch a boys basketball practice and then spent about an hour with the Downs family in their living room.

“I remember it was a Monday night because there was a Monday Night Football game on, the Packers,” Brooke said. When asked if it was the game Brett Favre ended in overtime with an 80-yard pass to Donald Driver he responded, “I don’t remember because we weren’t watching.”

“That was a lot of fun,” the younger Downs said. “Before he left, coach Glenn sat down at our piano and played ‘Ragtime Cowboy Joe’ on our piano and we all sang along to it. It was a fun experience.”

As a GHS senior, after having committed to being a Cowboy for the next four years, Downs led an offensive line that led the Herders to the state championship game, setting Glenrock single season records for rushing yards, total yards and points. Kumpula explained, however, that it wasn’t just Downs’ size that helped him become such a great member of two teams that made it to the state championship.

“We got pretty comfortable running behind him,” he said, noting the Herders ran behind Downs on 80-90 percent of their plays. “The greatest thing Jim brings is his personality. When he came back from Wyoming, he realized that a Division I scholarship meant he had to be a leader. The kids saw that and elected him captain of the team. It got to the point where he was instructing the younger kids on the field.”

In Kumpula’s 27 years as a coach, he has had two players sign national letters of intent: Downs and Jeston Karns, a tight end who committed to Wyoming in 2002. The coach went on to explain why Downs was a D-I prospect.

“First of all, he fits the filters of a Division I athlete: the height, the weight, the size,” Kumpula said. “As Joe Glenn says you can’t coach that part of the game. Secondly, his willingness to work to get to that point.”

Downs was ranked by the website footballgameplan.com as the No. 1 prospect in the state of Wyoming, ahead of Jackson’s Blaine Woodfin.

In its press release announcing the signing of Downs, the University of Wyoming described him as “the top recruit at any position in the state of Wyoming.”

Despite being such a prized commodity to college football programs, Downs can sometimes sound like the 18-year-old kid he actually is.

“Today is a very exciting day,” Downs said. “I had trouble sleeping last night because I knew everything was going to be official today.”

This summer, Downs will enroll in the second summer session at UW and take a light load of classes. He is prepared for the differences between the high school game and the college version.

“It’s faster and a lot bigger,” he said. “I’ve only gone up against kids my size a couple times and now I’ll be going up against kids bigger than me. It will definitely take a lot of work and it’ll be interesting.”

The Race of Life

This story took second place in Sports Feature Writing during the 2007 Wyoming Press Association awards.

The race of life

By BRENDAN BURNETT-KURIE

I asked Seth Townsend how long he had been sober. He paused, looked down at his left bicep and flexed. There, amid the plethora of body art, were three numbers 08-24-04.

“I’m all tattooed up so I remember it,” Townsend says. “Just so I remember.”

Steve Smoot remembers Seth well.

“He was a talented athlete,” Smoot, Seth’s cross country coach in high school, says. “He probably could have played football. He’s an athlete at a 3A school who can pick any sport and have some success. He and some of his friends, they chose to run. He was on my best boy’s team ever but he was the fifth man. He wasn’t the top runner but, man, he was a great support guy.”

I sit in his dining room, seated across the table from me is Seth’s youngest, 4-year-old Kamdynn, scribbling furiously in her coloring book. While the tattoos ingrained in his skin give hints at a hard past, nothing in this scene would tell of a life fallen apart, and then rebuilt with the help of running. As a junior and senior in high school, Townsend was an integral part of the 1993 and 1994 Bearcats cross country teams that took home consecutive state championships. After high school, however, Townsend’s life took a devastating turn.

“I got hard-core into drugs and alcohol and ended up in rehab,” Townsend says. “When I got out I got back into running. It was something I always knew I would get back into once I got my head on straight. It’s something I can do with my whole family.”

For Townsend, his road to recovery has featured many roads, as well as many trails and grasslands. Hundreds of miles have passed under his weathered shoes. Many hours have been spent pounding the pavement, mile after mile, reinventing not just himself, but his entire family.

“For me it’s personal gain. I’m trying to better myself from where I was. Also, just to show my kids. I want them to see the outlets there are other than going up to Esterbrook and partying,” Townsend says. “I guess it’s different for everybody, going to rehab. Everyone has their own reasons, but mine was my family. I wanted to get my life back in order. You don’t realize how much you’re screwing it up sometimes.”

Most families, in fact, most people, myself included, would cheer Seth. They would stand on the side of the race and extend a paper cup of water. They would support him as his body gives out at the end of another grueling half-marathon. But Seth’s family goes a step further. They run the race too.

It was Kamdynn’s own idea to run the Bolder Boulder 10K this year. She had seen her dad, her mom Jamie, her grandfather Mark, her brothers Kenyion and Kohlten, even Seth’s three half-sisters Lisa, Heather and Sarah run, and she did not want to be left out. The Bolder Boulder featured nine Townsends. Seth ran the race with his dad, then ran back to where his wife and children were and finished the race at their sides. A family united. A family that had traveled much further than ten kilometers.

“He lost his way,” Smoot says. “He got into drugs and alcohol, and he’ll tell you that. He was a screwed up puppy. Finally, he reached his bottom, said ‘I’m tired of this’ and he knew running had been something that had been good and positive in his life. Not the wins, not the recognition, but what it was doing for him on the inside. He knew that was a way that he could get that balance that he needed in his life.”

The man seated in a wooden chair in front of me is a man rebuilt. It is a man who has fallen and who has gotten back up and suddenly found himself taller than when fell.

“It’s not about running, I mean, yeah it is, but it’s a lot about life too,” Smoot said. “He really wants to be the dad and he wants to be the husband and he wants to be the man he needs to be. He wants to help others that have gone through the problems that he’s had to struggle with.”

This last weekend Seth ran Meeteetse Absaraka Challenge with his entire family. The grueling course starts with four and a half miles of incline, followed by a scramble over loose ground to the top of a hill before a terrifying descent atop loose gravel. Seth has also tackled the Deadwood Mickelson half-marathon June 3, the Wagenbach Social June 30, the Indian River Peaks Trail Run Aug. 4 with high school runners Derek Enciso and Max Deininger, the Shane Shatto 5k and the Rock Cut Hobo 15.5 mile run. His goal is to run a marathon next year, and to get back to racing at his high school times.

“Running is up and down. You’ll have a really good week of training and the next week it’s hard to walk out to door (to run). I don’t know what drives me. Mainly, I’m just in a habit now. About 2-3 months in I knew I was going to keep doing it,” Seth says. “I don’t really even know why I started running. Now, it’s just something I do. It’s something I do instead of partying. It helps recovery.”

Seth, co-owner of his own construction company for nine years,  tackles 35-40 miles of training a week and has already reduced his time from eight-minute mile paces to just over six minutes per mile. He stays in contact with Smoot, receiving workout suggestions and advice about racing.

“I just call him and he helps me train,” Seth says. “He tells me what I need to do. How much distance and how many hills. He knows all that stuff. I’ll call him once in awhile for advice.”

Seth looks me right in eye when I ask him how he deals with the mental and physical pitfalls of running. I ask him how he deals with the pain of running 9,000 feet above sea level, about the vertical involved in many races in the area. How does he do something that can be so difficult? He smiles.

“What I’ve been through before running, there’s not a cramp or a pain or a stitch that can be any worse than where I was when I was using drugs and alcohol,” he says. “I could run until I puked and I’d feel better than I did back in the day. I know I can’t hurt myself running like I could when I was drinkin’ and druggin’. Running to me is easier than anything I’ve done.”