Ten Grizzly gridders receive all-conference and all-state honors

When you reach a state championship game, you receive lots of postseason recognition, and such was the case with the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies as they placed 10 players on Class 1A 9-man all-conference and all-state teams, including two honorable mention selections.

Named to the Class 1A 9-man All-State team were seniors Triffen Jolley, Tayt Beall, Juan Rodriguez and Landon Pruett, junior Masen Twomey and sophomore Mason Moss. They are joined on the 9-man West All-Conference team by senior Colten Bitton and sophomore Cooper Ward.

Seniors Will Watts and Coby Wachob received honorable mention recognition.

Triffen Jolley

Jolley was also named both the West Conference and Wyoming State defensive player of the year.

Jolley was a standout running back and middle linebacker for the Grizzlies. He rushed for 1,311 yards on 167 carries (7.9 yards per carry), second in 1A 9-man, and scored 17 touchdowns. He also caught five passes for 29 yards. He was second on the team and fifth in 9-man with 213 defensive point including 124 tackles, 66 of which were solo tackles, seven tackles for a loss and two interceptions.

“Triffen is the type of kid you want to build a program around,” Rocky head coach Jessee Wilson said. “He’s a tremendous leader. I think that’s one of his best attributes, and just his work ethic. We could certainly count on him at any time, offensively or defensively. He’s just a great kid all the way around.

“He has good speed, for sure, but it’s just his toughness and his lower half. He was difficult to tackle, and he wouldn’t necessarily make kids miss, he would just run right through them.

“As a linebacker, Triffin is an instinctive player. And a lot of that, too, is just relentless pursuit, hustle for him. That’s why he had so many tackles.”

Tayt Beall

Wilson said Beall was an anchor on both sides of the ball at guard and defensive tackle. He finished fifth on the team with 98 defensive points including 60 tackles, 27 of them solo stops and eight tackles for a loss.

“I would call him Mr. Dependable,” Wilson said. “He probably has the best footwork of any lineman that I’ve ever coached. He’s just so athletic for being a big guy, and the other thing about Tayt is that he’s the nicest kid you’ll ever meet off the field, but he has a mean streak when he’s playing, on both sides of the ball. He had so many pancake blocks that, half the time, I felt like he was taking guys to the ground. He loved to finish blocks. And then defensively he was great at controlling his gap, and people ran away from him, and he would command double teams all the time.”

Juan Rodriguez

Another athletic lineman was Rodriguez, who was the center on offense and a defensive tackle. Rodriguez recorded 79 defensive points including 50 tackles, seven tackles for a loss and two fumble recoveries.

“Juan was the quarterback of the offensive line,” Wilson noted. “He would set our protections and would adjust our blocking schemes. He was a really smart kid up front, on offense, and did a great job of directing traffic. It absolutely makes a huge difference to have a kid like that there (at center).

“I think defensively Juan was also very athletic for how big he was, really quick, and so he was able to get off blocks and run things down just because of his athleticism.”

Landon Pruett

An outside linebacker on defense and both an H-back and tight end on offense, the versatile Pruett had a strong senior season, Wilson said, finishing sixth on the team in defensive points with 95 including 39 tackles, 26 of them solo tackles, eight tackles for a loss, two fumble recoveries and three pass breakups. On offense he caught 10 passes for 199 yards, 19.9 yards per reception, with two touchdowns.

Landon was a kid who I felt came on kind of later in his career,” Wilson said. “He’s also a very, very smart kid. We would have him go back and forth between H-back and tight end on offense. And he was very good. He understood his job. He did a good job this year developing and being a very physical player in those spots. So oftentimes he would end up having to block some of a team’s better players, their Mike (middle) backer or any one of those other linebackers. And then this year he also developed into a receiving threat.

“He had some really big catches for us this year and ended up being number three on our team. We’d move him around a little bit to try to make a mismatch. As a linebacker he did a really good job of setting the edge in the run game and in spilling kick-out blocks. He did a great job of that this year and turned into one of the better linebackers in the state.”

Masen Twomey

Twomey was another lineman with athleticism, Wilson said, noting, “Masen is another big, athletic dude as an offensive lineman (guard) and defensive lineman (tackle). He brought another really big, physical presence to our offensive line. Again, we had three great athletes on our offensive and defensive line this year, and he was one of those kids. He runs like a 4.9 40, and he’s 220-something pounds, just a super tough kid.

“He did a great job pulling on offense with kick-out blocks and lead blocks, and defensively, he’s another one like Triffin with tremendous hustle and pursuit. He made a lot of really big plays for us.”

Twomey was third on the team and 20th in the state with 158 defensive points, recording 78 tackles including 37 solo tackles, eight tackles for a loss and two sacks. He recovered four fumbles and forced two.

Mason Moss

Just a sophomore, Moss was a top player on both offense at quarterback and defense as a free safety. He led the team in defensive points and was fourth in the state with 231 points including 89 tackles, 65 of them solo tackles, 10 interceptions, eight pass breakups, two fumble recoveries and two defensive touchdowns.

He led the state with his 10 interceptions, the closest players behind him with six each.

Moss completed 72 of 122 passes (59 percent) for 881 yards and nine touchdowns, with five interceptions. He also gained 626 yards on the ground on 87 carries, 7.2 yards per carry, with 12 touchdowns for a total of 21 touchdowns running and passing.

He also led the state in punting at 43.1 yards per kick and net yardage of 38.7.

“Mason really took ahold of the offense this year, and I gave him quite a bit (of leeway) as a sophomore,” Wilson said. “I wasn’t really sure how much of the reins I was going to give him, but, man, he continued week after week to progress in making some different reads. A lot of our really big passing games came off of ROPs (read/pass option), which are reads from him. And boy, you want to talk about just arm talent, that kid can throw a ball and he can put it just about anywhere he wants. It’s impressive.

“And not to mention he’s a running threat any time he has the ball in his hands. He’s a great athlete, really smart, and those are kind of the two ingredients for a really good quarterback. I think what also is underrated about him is just how strong he is. If you go back and you watch a lot of his big runs, he’s running through contact and breaking tackles. I still remember a 40- or 50-yard run against Greybull. Kids were bouncing off of him left and right.”

Wilson said Moss is equally effective on defense.

“As a safety, he’s just very instinctive,” the coach said. “Ten interceptions on the year, that’s crazy. He does such a good job of being in the right place at the right time. And I think he’s only going to get better.”

Colten Bitton

Bitton came on strong his senior year as a wide receiver and cornerback. He led the team in receiving with 21 catches for 288 yards, 13.7 yards per catch, and a pair of touchdowns. He also placed fourth on the team in defensive points with 100 including 45 tackles, 32 solo, two fumble recoveries and two interceptions.

“Colten is one of those kids that, as a freshman, we kind of wondered how he was going to develop, but he’s turned into a pretty solid football player. He has good hands and ended up being a really good tackler for us on defense. He made a lot of really big tackles, big plays.”

Cooper Ward

The sophomore speedster finished third on the team in rushing as a running back and slot with 445 yards on 51 carries, averaging 8.7 yards per carry. He scored five touchdowns. He also caught nine passes for 108 yards and two TDs. He was the team’s top punt and kick returner.

“He’s a spark plug, with big play ability any time he touches the ball,” Wilson said. “He’s quick and fast. He has good vision and is deceptively strong for his size. As a sophomore, I think he was squatting well over 300 pounds for reps. So he was a kid that I knew we could rely on to make big plays when we needed him to.”

Will Watts

A senior, Watts played wide receiver and some cornerback while also serving as the team placekicker. He caught seven passes for 106 yards (15.1 yards per catch) and two touchdowns. He also made 24 of 29 extra-point attempts and booted the winning field goal in the playoff semifinals at Greybull.

“Will ended up having some issues with his shoulder, but he brought good speed to our team and had that big play potential when we could get him the ball,” Wilson said. “He’s come a long way in terms of being a good football player for us in these last few years. I’m really proud of him for that.

“He has a great leg, and he kicked really well for us. Obviously, the one everybody will remember is his game winning field goal at Greybull, but he also had some really great onside kicks, some squib kicks and stuff, too. At corner he was a little bit limited this year because of his shoulder, so we didn’t get to play him on both sides of the ball as much. But in a pinch, we’d put him out there if we needed him, and I thought he did a really good job of just playing coverage.”

Coby Wachob

Jacoby “Coby” Wachob played wide receiver and cornerback for the Grizz and caught 17 passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns. At corner, he recorded 29 defensive points with 19 tackles.

“Coby was another kid that just really developed over these last few years, and he absolutely loves football,” Wilson said. “Coby did a great job offensively. He ran those jet sweeps, and he caught a few passes. Did a good job at slot, running some slant patterns and making some plays when he got there.

“Defensively, he played corner, and despite being undersized, I thought he played corner pretty well, broke up a lot of passes and played pretty good defense throughout the season. With him being undersized, he really had to work on his technique, and that’s where he really improved a lot these last two years.”