With a lot on the line, the Braves and Lady Braves were fighting for different things.  One wanted to come home, the other wanted to go on yet another trip.  They both got their wish.

After sorting out all of the fallout for the 4A Classification, the Star Valley Braves, who earned the West’s number two seed by virtue of a strength of schedule tiebreaker, will host the very team who defeated them over the weekend.  The Worland Warriors will be in Afton this upcoming Friday to try and advance to the 4A semi-finals.  *See below for a more detailed explanation of this pairing.

In other matchups, the Cody Broncs will also repeat their final game, traveling back to Jackson to take on the Western Conference champion Broncs.  Wheatland will travel to play Douglas, while Powell makes the lone inter-conference matchup as they travel to play undefeated and East champion Buffalo

In volleyball action, the Lady Braves earned the number four seed from the Western Conference and their first trip to the 4A State Tournament over the weekend with victories over Green River and Rock Springs.  The Lady Braves will be back in Casper, this time at the Events Center, where they will face Eastern Champion Sheridan in the opening round.  The match is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m on Thursday afternoon.  The winner of the opening match between SVHS and Sheridan will face the winner of Campbell County (Gillette) and Natrona.

The Cross-Country team wrapped up their season with fine showings in Douglas at the 4A Championship meet.  Trevor Ricks placed third overall as the Braves finished fourth in the field of the best teams in the Cowboy State.  The Lady Braves finished seventh and will return most of their varsity runners, losing senior Sage Draney.  It was a banner day for X-C powerhouse Cheyenne Central, who took both the boys and girls team titles in impressive fashion.  The Indians edged Rock Springs for the guys title while the Lady Indians ran away from second place Gillette.

Congratulations to the athletes, coaches, parents and fans who faced huge odds and angry weather to support the Braves and Lady Braves in an action packed weekend.  The Star Valley Independent and yours truly cannot stress enough how important fan support is for the success of the programs involved. 

Be sure to look for a special look at the opening round of the playoffs in the October 25, 2007 edition of the Star Valley Independent  as the Braves face Worland for the second consecutive week

* With a loss to Worland, the Braves fell to 3-2 in the Western Conference, as did Cody with their loss in Jackson.  With their win, the Warriors improved to 3-2 in the West, forcing a three-way tie for the West’s second seed which comes with an opening round playoff game.  The playoffs are compiled using conference records for the W1, W2, E1 and E2 positions.  The remaining four positions are determined by using power ratings.  With the initial tiebreaker (head-to-head games) proving a wash, the second tie-breaker was considered, that of out of conference common opponents.  None of the three teams involved played a common OOC opponent which forced a third tiebreaker, strength of schedule.  The Braves had a SOS of 3.75, while Cody and Worland had 3.50 and 3.13 respectively.  Once it was determined that Star Valley had obtained the W2 position, Worland then claimed the number 6 seed with a higher overall power rating than that of Cody.  The 4A opening round is the following:

#8 Cody @ W1 Jackson

#5 Wheatland @ E2 Douglas

#6 Worland @ W2 Star Valley

#7 Powell @ E1 Buffalo

- Torrington, Rawlins and Lander eliminated