Shoshoni football prepares to try and defend state title in 2022

SHOSHONI, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - After 35 years without claiming a state football championship, the Shoshoni Wranglers brought home the championship hardware in 2021. Every team at 1A 9-Man will be relishing its opportunity to try and knock the Wranglers from their perch this season.

“We definitely know coming in that you’ve kind of got a target on your back,” said Tony Truempler, Shoshoni’s head football coach, earlier this month. “Everybody wants to knock you off, so that’s one of the big things we’re pushing with the boys is to stay humble and don’t get a big head because it’s a new season. We’re better but so is everybody else.”

“We lost some pretty good people, but I think we can fill those positions,” said Korbin Dewitt, the Wranglers’ center on the offensive line. “It will be a lot harder and might be meaner in the games, but I think we are just as much excited to get back into it.”

Shoshoni had nine all-state selections last season, including Dewitt, and seven of those players will return to try and repeat as state champions. Alex Mills, who was the 2021 1A 9-Man Defensive Player of the Year and an all-state selection, will run the show offensively again as the Wranglers’ quarterback. He said he was excited to get another crack at playing alongside his friends.

“The competition’s high. The stakes are high. Everyone’s going to want to beat us,” said the senior. “[So] we [have to] come out and play our hardest every day and that starts right back here on the practice field.”

Mills and 2022 Prep Athlete to Watch For Pehton Truempler, who churned up over 1,500 yards on the ground last season, looked like they were in midseason form at a jamboree last Friday in Casper.

The duo was preparing to face Pine Bluffs in the season opener this Thursday, who was the only team to knock off the Wranglers in 2021.

“I’m excited [about] it,” said Truempler about taking on the Hornets in Week 1. “We let that one go last year, and we’re not going to let it happen again. Can’t let it happen again.”

Kickoff for that game is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. in Shoshoni.

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