Jackson Hole football ready for run at first state title in 13 years
JACKSON, Wyo. (BVM) — The Jackson Hole Broncs were a winless high school football team just three years ago. Now they’re ranked No. 1 the state.
It’s a nice honor and a deserved one for a group of players who have worked hard to improve over the past two seasons and during the offseason, but the Broncs’ work isn’t anywhere near complete.
“It definitely feels great, but it’s something that can be taken away from week to week,” Jackson junior quarterback Sadler Smith said. “If we don’t perform, we’re not going to be the No. 1-ranked team next week.”
And being No. 1 after the first two games of the regular season wasn’t the ultimate goal. Not for a program that hasn’t won a state title in 13 years and has fallen a win short of the Class 3A championship game in each of the past two postseasons.
“We completely and fully expected to take a shot at state this year,” Jackson head coach David Joyce said. “Our guys want to make a run.”
Prior to convincing victories over Teton, 34-12, and Bear Lake, 50-21, to open the 2020 season, the Broncs were ranked No. 7 by MaxPreps in the preseason top 25. The No. 1 spot belonged to Star Valley, the back-to-back 3A state champions who ended Jackson’s run last year and entered this season on a 21-game winning streak. But the Braves have lost their first two games while the Broncs have impressed early on.
“We’ve been building up to this spot,” Joyce said. “We’ve got a very good junior class that has a lot of talent in it. … It’s still early in the season and there’s still a lot of stuff to play out, but the guys definitely have played good enough to get that ranking.”
Jackson’s solid junior class is led by Smith, who set the school’s single-season passing yards record last season when he threw for 1,391 yards and 13 touchdowns. Joyce calls the 6-foot-2, 200-pound QB a “student of the game” who’s constantly studying and working to improve. Smith has been ranked among the top 100 pro-style quarterbacks in the Class of 2022 by QB Hit List and with his smarts, toughness and size, he’s an extremely valuable leader for the Broncs.
“He gets everyone on the same page quickly,” Joyce said. “He’s definitely a difference maker. … He’s hard to sack when you get a hold of him. He wrestles, and not very many quarterbacks that you have wrestle. He takes that hard nosed, come-at-you mentality to the quarterback position.”
That mentality was on display in Jackson’s Week 2 blowout of Bear Lake in which Smith threw for 193 yards and a touchdown and also rushed 15 times for 84 yards and two TDs. But the star of that victory was another junior. Running back Brody Hasenack broke out for 275 yards and two touchdowns. Hasenack spent last season behind all-state rusher Jeydon Cox, who graduated from Jackson after two straight 2,000-yard rushing seasons — a feat never before accomplished in Wyoming.
“Brody got to sit there and watch that,” Joyce said, “and last year he pushed Jeydon to the brink where if Jeydon didn’t have a good week of practice, Brody could’ve went in there and played and so he was chomping at the bit for his first opportunity to do what Jeydon did. … We’re hoping he can continue that.”
More of that kind of production will only benefit the Broncs’ offense, which is in great hands with Smith, who has his sights set on big things for himself and his team.
“I just want a state title,” Smith said. “I believe that within the next two years I can break the state (single-season passing yards) record. What I did last year I feel like I was just scratching the surface of what I’m capable of.”
The same could be said for the Broncs, who won’t be satisfied with their early-season consideration as the top team in Wyoming. They want to finish the season as No. 1.
“If we can get to the playoffs healthy, I think we can beat anybody in the state,” Joyce said.
