Coach Crosby honors team, thanks many for successful season

Coach Crosby honors team, thanks many for successful season

By David Peck

The Lovell Bulldogs may not have reached their ultimate goal on the gridiron this season, but they did produce a winning record for the seventh consecutive season and, even more importantly, proudly lived up to their mission statement of “developing men built for others,” head coach Nicc Crosby said as the team celebrated the 2025 season Monday night.

Coaches, players, parents and fans gathered at the Lovell High School Multipurpose Room to reflect on and celebrate the season that ended in the Class 2A semifinals with a 6-4 record.

“When you set a goal to be state champions, anything short of that is always a disappointment. It just is,” Crosby said. “I think those of us who watched the state championship game on Friday (Big Horn vs. Mountain View) can see those were two dang good football teams, and unfortunately, between health and other things going on, we weren’t able to field the squad that we thought we were going to, but certainly we would have had to play some really good football to beat both of those teams, and we played them both, one of the teams obviously twice, and we were able to play them close and be right there.

“So certainly we know that we’re doing a lot of good things, and just like in life, with football, there’s a lot of stuff out of your control, and so I hope that our young men learned this year to do the best they can, to control the things they can control, and when things don’t go the way you’re hoping, to make the best out of those situations. I’m proud of how we fought this year.”

The Bulldogs started the season with close losses to the two top teams in the state on the road, falling to defending state champion Big Horn 17-15 and eventual state champion Mountain View 21-12. After beating Lyman and falling at Thermopolis, the Bulldogs reeled off five consecutive wins over Worland, Pinedale, Kemmerer, Cokeville and, in the first round of the playoffs, Newcastle, 21-14, on the road. They then fell to Mountain View in the playoff semifinals.

“Newcastle was a really tough matchup, and a lot of things did not go our way, from the bus ride over there to super windy (conditions) when we wanted to throw the ball,” Crosby said. “We felt like we had good matchups. The weather didn’t cooperate. There wasn’t a lot that did cooperate, but the game just showed the will and determination of these guys to get that win. We were a better team than Newcastle, for sure.”

There are life lessons in football, Crosby noted, perhaps especially in a season filled with setbacks.

“I’m super proud of these guys and their determination to just keep going, no matter what,” he said. “There were a lot of life lessons this year. It’s awesome when things turn out just the way you hope, but honestly, in life, things don’t turn out the way you hope near as often as we hope, and I’m really, really proud of these guys, again, for their determination and their hard work despite setbacks and a lot of things that were outside of our control.”

Building young men

Crosby noted the team mission statement, which is to “help parents and community members develop men built for others.”

“Football is a sport where you’ve got to have people willing to make sacrifices for other people,” he said. “And as someone who reads the news probably more than I should, I just wonder what the world would be like, how much less problematic, how much better it would be, if more people cared more about others than they did themselves. If there was more selflessness and less selfishness. I think as I scroll through the news, I would see a lot more positive stories, a lot more good things and a lot fewer sad stories and tragedies than what’s out there. And so we’re very fortunate.

“You’re going to be hard pressed to find a place like Lovell, Wyoming. It’s a special place. You’ve got a lot of hard-working people with good values, and this is a place where nothing’s given to you. Look at the people who settled here. It’s a desert. This isn’t a tropical paradise. They had to work their tails off, dig canals and all that stuff just to be able to grow a decent crop. And after decades and decades of doing that, we have a pretty nice place. … But it didn’t come just at the snap of the fingers. It came from a lot of hard work, and it’s a really, really good place to be able to raise a family. And I’m glad and very grateful for the people in the community that have helped my kids learn to be built for others.”

Crosby showed on the PowerPoint screen lists of seniors from the recent past who his current class of seniors looked up to, “whose sacrifice showed you what it’s like to put other people’s needs ahead of your own.” And he said he hopes this year’s senior class will be remembered in the same positive light by the younger players on the team.

He asked seniors Chase Crosby, Matthew Newman, Jaxon Whittington, Owen Walker, Owen Edwards, Cash Wassmer, Halen Strom, Brody Muller, Kyle Wilson and Kalell Gruell to step forward.

The postseason all-conference and all-state teams have yet to be voted on, Coach Crosby said, but he said that’s OK, because he believes that, as a team sport, football needs more than good players, a team needs good teammates. He then asked three players to come forward who were voted by their teammates, their peers, to be team captains because of their leadership qualities, work ethic and willingness to be mentors to younger players, explaining a scheme, a technique or how a drill works and doing so in a way that builds up their teammates.

Captains Newman, Strom and Walker were so honored.

Crosby also honored managers Sady Espinoza, Jaelen Mayes and Tyson Ballard, praising each for their hard work. As a senior, Espinoza will be difficult to replace, he said, and Ballard “brings happiness and energy to the team.”

Letter winners from the freshman, sophomore and junior classes were honored, and Crosby praised the non-varsity players for continuing to practice after the junior varsity season was over, playing a vital role as scout team players and practice participants.

Assistant coach Bob Weber noted that the JV team went 4-1 despite the roster challenges of not knowing who would be available from game to game due to injuries or varsity call-ups while learning the systems. He agreed with Crosby in praising the players who “stuck it out to the very end for the last few weeks, where they didn’t have a game to look forward to, but they came to practice week after week simply to be the meat squad and get beat up on by our varsity players to get them ready for the game each week,” adding, “I look forward to having you back, and it’s always great to see the boys grow in fundamentals and everything that they do.”

Coach Crosby also noted the academic excellence of the team, saying the team was recognized by the state for having a 3.5 team grade point average, which he called “pretty stinkin’ amazing.”

Thanks expressed

Crosby started the program by giving thanks to numerous individuals and groups, starting those who set up for the evening’s program. He thanked the school board and administration, along with school secretary Kristin Lloyd, for supporting the program in myriad ways, and the district office – Tess Peterson, Sher Jolley and Lane Black-Partridge, who help with travel, equipment and supplies and “do a great job keeping me on track and making sure I always know how much money we have.”

He thanked athletic director Chris Edwards, who he said “has just been outstanding to work with over the last couple of years and goes above and beyond and makes sure that, as coaches, we always have everything that we need and our athletes have everything that they need.”

Crosby thanked trainer Cammie Brost for her work with the athletes, noting, “We’re so lucky to have her.” He said when a player suffered a broken leg at Mountain View, that school had no one at the game to provide aid, calling the time “a pretty helpless situation.” Brost attends every home game and is available during the week, as well, to work with players and coaches.

“She does a great job giving players good advice and good care and treatment,” Crosby said. “We’re really, really grateful to have such a high-quality athletic trainer.”

He thanked the Lovell Chronicle for coverage in the newspaper, telling the audience that, among communities Lovell’s size, they won’t find a newspaper that does a better job covering youth sports and activities.

Crosby thanked the Bulldog Booster Club and the team moms who support the team in so many ways and “just take so much of a load off of us as a coaching staff and our young men,” adding, “You seniors, especially as you go off into the world and seek your fame and fortune, don’t be afraid when you’re out on your own for a little while to call your mom and let her know how truly grateful you are.”

He also thanked his assistant coaches and their wives, noting, “I’m guessing that, over the course of the football season, most of their husbands spend more time with me than they do with them. And for better or for worse, hopefully I’m not too bad of an influence on them, but very grateful.

“I can’t imagine doing this without a quality staff. Assistant coaches do so much. I was an assistant coach for longer than I have been a head coach, and a lot of times I know as an assistant those things that you do at the moment, they go kind of unnoticed. But I want my assistant coaches to know how grateful I am.”

And last, but far from least, Coach Crosby thanked his wife, Aimee, who he said was there for him during his most stressful season as a head coach.

“There were difficult situations, out of all of our hands between injuries and different personnel decisions, people deciding that they didn’t want to keep playing football,” he said. “And those are tough things to not take personally. You invest a lot of time and effort into kids, and you try to help them out.

“It’s tough when you come into the season with certain expectations and things that are outside of your control happen and make it really difficult for you to be as successful as you want to be. And I already knew I was a pretty lucky guy to have Aimee for my wife. She does a great job with raising our kids and supporting me. But this year there were some tough nights, and she picked up the slack even more than usual and was always there to encourage me and help me pick my chin up and keep going when there were some times I didn’t want to, to be honest with you.”