Sheridan County HS Football Teams Prepare For 2024 Versions Of Energy and Thunder Bowl Games

It’s rivalry week in Sheridan County, and 2 #1 seeds for the playoffs could be secured tomorrow night (Friday).

Energy Bowl: Sheridan will host Campbell County in the Energy Bowl for homecoming and not only is it a matchup of undefeated vs. undefeated, it’s also the top 2 overall offenses and defenses in Class 4A vs. each other.

The Camels haven’t been this good since 2016, which was the year before Gillette split into 2 schools and Thunder Basin HS opened.

This year’s resurgence has been partially thanks to their senior quarterback Mason Drube who has committed to play for the University of Wyoming Cowboys.

Broncs Head Coach Jeff Mowry explains what Campbell County has to offer on both sides of the ball.

“They have a tremendous defense. They’ve done a tremendous job stopping the run and holding people to very, very few points. Lots of shutouts and very few points and so our offense has its hands full, and then you flip it on the other side of things, they’ve got a quarterback that’s going to go play at the University of Wyoming, that can throw the ball better than most high school quarterbacks you’ll see in not only in our state, but across the region here and he can sling it and they’ve got a receiver, we have Chance (Morris) that’s a 100 meter dash champion, well their receiver was right there behind him. He wasn’t giving Chance much of a lead and so he’s about 6’2″ and can go get the ball. They throw the ball over the top a lot to him and they can throw the ball 50-60 yards in the air. Drube’s got a tremendous arm and we can’t give up. He starts to scramble, we’ve got to stay deep on our receivers and we’ve got to eliminate that big play, because they’re used to having a big play and a big score.”

Kickoff this Friday is scheduled for 6pm.

With a win, Sheridan will secure the #1 seed for the upcoming playoffs.

Also, because last week’s game was moved, the Sheridan High School Band will perform at halftime of tomorrow’s game instead.

The State Marching Band competition is this Saturday in Casper.

Thunder Bowl: Tongue River and Big Horn will renew their rivalry tomorrow night in the Thunder Bowl at BH.

The Rams can secure the #1 seed out of the 2A East with a win, while the Eagles are looking to play spoiler, because they’ve already been eliminated from playoff contention.

Big Horn Head Coach Kirk McLaughlin says the players on both sides have known each other for a long time, even before their middle school football days.

That could make it a bit difficult to try something that the other team hasn’t seen before, and both teams may just have to stick with what works.

“They’re going to have stuff for us, we’ve got stuff for them that they haven’t seen, but as far as personnel goes they know each other. They know the names of each other, they know how good they are and who the tough players are and all of that, so they even got one of ours. They got a kid that moved there from our team last year, so they really know us.”

Tongue River Coach Steve Hanson says this rivalry is more a friendly one, and both sides know that when it’s kickoff time, it’s go time.

“They’re friends in the off-season, they see each other around town. I’m sure they’re all buddies on social media, or at least communicate that way. Come Friday night, we’re rivals and come about 8:30 on Friday night, we’ll shake hands as competitors and go back to being good neighbors and good people to each other, but it’s a fun rivalry, but there’s no secret. When we’re watching film, we’re calling players from BH out by first name and everybody knows who they are.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 6pm.