Well it goes without saying that I’d like to be watching the Braves again this week, but scores of other schools are saying the same thing.

Congratulations to the Bison on a hard-fought victory over the Braves and for a season that seemed fairly unexpected from their fans and staff. I don’t believe anyone felt Buffalo would be 10-0 at this point in 2007, but they’re certainly believing now.

On the other side of the state, the Bearcats kind of clawed the mystique off the Jackson Broncs in a 16-14 Jackson victory. That was the case in both semi-final games I think, now instead of immortal legions clashing in Teton County, there will at least be some good gutty high school football.

I suppose one can make whatever opinion about the 2007 Star Valley squad as they like, I for one was a big mix of several emotions throughout the season. Surprised, frustrated, amazed, demoralized and tickled pink, I felt ‘em all at some point during the campaign.

With the end of the season for the Braves, I’d like to enlist some help from you all, I’d love to have a leading rusher, passer, receiver, interception thief, sack artist, etc. from Star Valley’s past. In the absence of any kind of long-term statistics on this type of thing, I want to know who is THE MAN when you and your team was on the field. Was it Mel Olsen, Mack Balls, Jason Cazier, Joe Linford, Jason Sanderson, Casey Erickson or Clint Nicholes? It doesn’t have to be any of those guys, but I want to know, who was the person who impressed you either as a team mate or as player in the Crimson and Gold. Please let me know at svidahl@silverstar.com and I’ll post ‘em here while we still work out the red tape of the comment section.

Well, with that assignment out of the way, let’s get down to work and pick a champion in 4A this year. I don’t have any business picking the other classifications, but I will anyway.

(10-0) Buffalo Bison @ (10-0) Jackson Broncs - Even the most ardent fans of either team would probably admit they didn’t think an undefeated season was in the cards. The exciting thing is that somebody will get to notch another perfect season in their history books. (FYI: Star Valley has had undefeated seasons in ‘61,’62, ‘65, ‘66 and ‘67) The thing that will drive the urgency in this game will be this: Nobody wants to remember this as the year that they were 10-0 and lost in the state game. It happens, and it doesn’t mean you didn’t have a great season, but it does mean you have to live the Runner-Up title instead of State Champion. Don’t get me wrong, it’s like having a cake with frosting as opposed to cake without. Sure cake is still a lot better than green beans, but man, is that frosting ever sweet.

Anyway, to get away from the food topic, there’s what I see happening in this ball game. Buffalo’s best quality to me is that they are blue-collar. They work together and they don’t have a superstar. They have guys with terrific numbers, but they all do their part and they’re fine with that. You win a lot of games with chemistry, and Buffalo has it. They love to use this confidence to make a couple of big plays early on in the game and they always seem to be able to be ready out of the locker room. For this reason, they are generally playing with the lead and then beating the team into submission with their running game and a very physical offensive line. On the other hand, the Broncs are flat-out fast and athletic. People will say that the Bison have the edge in experience because of their recent winning tradition, but a large portion of the Broncs have started for three years. They’ll be excited, maybe even a little anxious, but I don’t see them being nervous. These are the two best teams in Class 4A in turnover margin, so it goes without saying that this will go a long way towards determining the winner. If all things remain somewhat equal in that department, I think the Broncs will break a big play or two either on defense or with their passing game to secure the early lead. There is a ton of anxiety in Jackson over this game, but the crowd should be stellar and loud. I see a very entertaining game that will be lower scoring than what people may expect from two high-scoring teams, with Jackson winning the game. Llama says- Broncs - 20-16.

Congratulations to both teams, and here’s to a good game played all around.

Here’s the other selections for the weekend’s games

Southeast over Guernsey-Sunrise: 24-14

Riverside over Big Horn: 13-10

Kemmerer over Glenrock: 27-21

Evanston over East: 38-34

Well, there you have it. Folks in Southwest Wyoming can take their pick of 3A or 4A title games, with both of them shaping up to be fantastic.

Congratulations to all the coaches and players!