Kelly Walsh High School is not known as a football school. Anyone who knows anything about 4A football in Wyoming knows that the powerhouse schools for football are Sheridan, Cheyenne East and Natrona County.
But Kelly Walsh is the largest high school in the state. So how is a school like Sheridan that literally has half as many students as KW, so dominant at football and how is KW so bad at it?
That question has a lot of answers. Natrona County School District is a school choice district. The only school choice district in the entire state, in fact. And one of the biggest criticisms of school choice in the state is that it allows for the two high schools that have competitive sports in NCSD, Kelly Walsh and Natrona County, to potentially get the cream of the crop in any given sport based on past program success.
Kelly Walsh often benefits from school choice. For example, the school’s volleyball program is the most successful program in class 4A in the state according to champslist.com. KW volleyball has made it to the title game 20 times since 1971 and won 10 of them. Nine out of the 10 volleyball titles came after school choice went into effect in 1993. Folks in Casper may not like to admit it, but school choice gives the two Casper schools an advantage over the rest of the state in 4A sports.
For Natrona County, they benefit most in football. It’s just an accepted reality in the community. Since school choice was enacted, Mustang football has 11 title game appearances and six wins.
If anyone has a right to complain, it would have to be the other 4A schools across the state. But in Casper, no one is complaining. Everyone wants the chance to compete.
For the storied rivalry between Kelly Walsh and Natrona County, regardless of the sport, the pressure is there to win. And that is something that has eluded KW football since 1981.
So how does a coach contend when the odds are so heavily in favor of one school?
Randy Roden is probably more familiar with the advantages of school choice than any other coach has been in this district. He began his Casper coaching career in 1998 when he took over as head coach of the Natrona County volleyball program. He led them to two state titles in nine seasons, at a time when KW was dominating the state in volleyball titles.
He then moved on to coach varsity basketball for Natrona County from 2000 to 2009. He was even more successful in his stint in basketball, winning four state titles in nine years.
Then, Roden took a job across town at Kelly Walsh and began coaching the Trojans varsity basketball team, adding two more titles to his resume. Under Roden, KW won its first state basketball title since 1981. In his tenure as head coach for the Trojans, he has led them to three state title games in 12 years. The man knows how to succeed.
But Roden has never met a challenge like the one he is facing now. How will he make KW football capable of competing with the disadvantage school choice deals him? Why would he even want that job with the legacy he has built for himself? The simple answer is that Roden likes a challenge.
“I think for me it’s the chance to build something. Coaching is so much about getting everyone united toward one belief and goal. It’s incredibly hard but incredibly rewarding,” said Roden.
Bryan Coventry was an assistant coach under Roden for eight years and has 30 years of coaching experience at the high school level. He had high praise for Roden’s coaching abilities.
“He can find another team’s weakness and then he can build his week-long training and practice around that weakness so that his teams can be prepared to exploit that other team’s weakness and it’s genius. It really is.”
There’s no doubt that Roden has the street cred with coaches around the state. He’s earned his reputation as an outstanding coach. But it isn’t just the challenge that school choice presents in fixing Trojan football.
Roden is a strong believer in the idea that when a kid plays a high school sport, it’s a family commitment. Parents have a lot of responsibility in contributing to a successful sports program for their children. According to an article on the website for the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, the parents have to commit their time and their finances to ensure their child is successful in sports.
“I’m going to have a big expectation meeting with the parents this spring. Never done that before. But they need to understand you know…your kid needs to lift weights and it’s your job to get him out of bed and get him there. Your kid needs to watch film. Your kid may have to skip the dance routine for the homecoming assembly to come to film. You’re gonna have to support these things, otherwise you’re condoning losing.”
Roden also believes everyone needs to be on the same page about what the expectations are on his team.
“You could hire Nick Saban and nothing’s going to change until the kids and the parents expectations align with the coaches and they meet those expectations.”
Roden knows that the majority of the responsibility still lies with the student athlete. He wants to see a major shift in the commitment he gets from his players.
“We’ve had we have 27 kids that show up to the weight room. Natrona has 100. East has 100. Sheridan only has 65 but that’s all they have playing. Every kid is there, every day. I mean, we’re not doing any of those little things that give us a chance to compete,” said Roden.
Since acquiring the job as head football coach, Roden has made the rounds and talked to potential players. Commitment will be key.
“We’re lifting at 6:00 AM three times a week during the summer. I’ve got 82 kids that say they’ll be there and we’ve had 27 in the past so we’ll see. Should be interesting.”
In his interview for the job, Roden was asked what his five-year plan was. He told them he only needs two.
If I fail in two years I’ll walk and say ‘I can’t do it’ I don’t need five. I think five is just complacency. The last two coaches had five each and it just hasn’t worked.”
Roden has a lot of people behind him that believe he might be the one to turn things around. Coventry acknowledged that school choice and the outstanding tradition of Mustang football makes Roden’s task especially difficult. But he believes if anyone can do it, Roden can.
“With his preparedness and with this style of coaching and with his accountability that he holds all of his athletes to, the program will experience success under Coach Roden,” said Coventry.
According to an article on Coach&AD.com, coaches need to “Be a model of hard work and commitment” for their players if they want their teams to be successful. Anyone who knows Roden, knows he works hard. Coventry can attest to that.
“Coach Roden is the most prepared coach I have ever worked with. I love working with him because he strategizes like nobody else I’ve ever met.”
There is no question that this job will require a lot of hard work by all parties involved. Athletes, parents, and coaches will have to work together to make the change the Trojan football program needs. And for Roden, hard work is just an expectation.
“What people think of me bothers me, but I also think that drives me. I want them to think that I’m doing a good job, so I try to outwork all the other coaches, so I am doing a good job,” said Roden.
Trojan football has not had a glorious history. And regardless of what the reasons are, Roden appears to be up to the challenge of fixing it.
That'll Teach You! 
Leave a comment