Baggs, Wyo., hosts 1st football game in 56 years

Junior center Alaska Burnell soaked up the moment as he and his teammates on the Little Snake River Valley School varsity football team made use of a sliver of shade behind a set of bleachers. It was not lost on him, he said, that roughly the entire 348-person population of Baggs, Wyo., was on the other side of the stands, anticipating the town’s first home football game in 56 years. Little Snake is in Wyoming’s new six-man football league, started this year with eight teams from across the state. It’s the first state sanctioned six-man football league in Wyoming since 1953, referee Lane Buchanan said, and even he needed some education about how the game works. It took everyone to make it happen, too, Little Snake athletic director Ann Wille said. The school bought one bleacher, students repaired a few broken ones and a local rancher donated another, Wille added. Devon Energy, one of Baggs’ major employers, donated hundreds of dollars worth of electrical equipment, she said, and sent two of its electricians over to the field to rewire the press box. “All you have to do is ask this community, and they’ll do anything,” Wille said...CraigDailyPress