Wyoming
Wyoming 3A and 4A Girls State Basketball Tournament Set for Casper
The final weekend in the 2026 Wyoming High School basketball season is here. The 3A and 4A girls’ basketball state championships are in Casper, where two teams will win a state title during the second weekend in March. The Class 3A and 4A girls’ games will be at the Ford Wyoming Center (FWC) and Casper College (CC). Both defending champions can defend their title after qualifying for the state tournament. The defending champions in Class 3A are the Douglas Bearcats, who have officially won seven in a row. The Cheyenne Central Indians will try to repeat in 4A.
WYOPREPS 3A-4A GIRLS BASKETBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE 2026
Day one action in 3A is at the Ford Wyoming Center. Day two is at Casper College. The consolation and third-place games are at Casper College. The championship is at the Ford Wyoming Center on Saturday, March 14. It is the first of the four big school state championship games.
THURSDAY, MARCH 12:
Final Score: (2W) Lander 52 (3E) Burns 43 – The Tigers’ 13-point lead was trimmed to 2 in the 4th quarter, but Lander answered with a 7-0 run to regain control of the game. Then a 10-0 run over the last 3 minutes helped them pull away. Goklish had 13 points to lead 3 Tigers in double figures. Barrett scored a game-high 24 points for the Broncs.
Final Score: (4W) Lovell 57 (1E) Wheatland 48 – The Bulldogs pulled away with a 15-7 third quarter. Ali Walker and Brooklin Clark combined for 36 points and 13 rebounds. Anderson had 19 pts to lead 3 Bulldogs in double figures. Lovell shot 51 percent, including 62.5 percent in the 2nd half. They also had 12 second-chance points.
Final Score: (2E) Douglas 39 (3W) Pinedale 37 – The Bearcats built a 9-point lead in the 2nd half and held off a Wranglers comeback. Pinedale had a chance to tie the game with 5.1 seconds left, but missed a free throw. Douglas makes 1-2 FTs, and the Wranglers didn’t get a shot off in the last 2.1 seconds. Leah Ewing led Douglas with 12 points. Sarah Smith added 9 points & 15 rebounds. Alyxis White scored 11 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Wranglers.
Final Score: (1W) Cody 82 (4E) Buffalo 43 – The Fillies used a 23-point 2nd quarter to pull away, and then added 26 in the 3rd quarter. Grace Hays scored 24 points to lead five Fillies in double figures. Cody scored 18 points off turnovers and had 17 second-chance points. The Fillies shot 55 percent and held the Bison to 29 percent from the floor. Karly Davis scored 22 points to lead Buffalo.
FRIDAY, MARCH 13:
Game 5: Burns vs. Wheatland, 9 a.m. (CC) – loser out
Game 6: Pinedale vs. Buffalo, 10:30 a.m. (CC) – loser out
Game 7: Lander vs. Lovell, 3:30 p.m. (CC) – semifinal
Game 8: Douglas vs. Cody, 5 p.m. (CC) – semifinal
SATURDAY, MARCH 14:
Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 9 a.m. (CC) – Consolation Trophy Game
Game 10: Loser Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8, 10:30 a.m. (CC) – 3rd Place Game
Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 2:30 p.m. (FWC) – Championship Game
Read More Girls Basketball News from WyoPreps
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Standings 3-9-26
WyoPreps 1A-2A Girls State Basketball Scoreboard 2026
WyoPreps 3A-4A Girls Regional Basketball Scoreboard 2026
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Final Basketball Poll 2026
WyoPreps 1A-2A Girls Regional Basketball Scoreboard 2026
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Poll 2-25-26
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 10 Scores 2026
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Poll 2-18-26
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 9 Scores 2026
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-11-26
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 8 Scores 2026
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Day one action in 4A is at Casper College. Day two is at the Ford Wyoming Center. Day three is trophy day, and for 4A, all the games are at the Ford Wyoming Center. The championship is at the Ford Wyoming Center on Saturday, March 14. It is the third of the four big school state championship games.
THURSDAY, MARCH 12:
Final Score: (2E) Cheyenne Central 57 (3W) Evanston 42 – Central jumped out to a 9-0 lead and never trailed. Evanston pulled within 10 in the 4th quarter, but was outscored 10-5 the rest of the game. Wade & Needham scored 10 points each for the Indians, who scored 30 points off 29 Evanston turnovers. Hiatt had 21 points for the Red Devils.
Final Score: (1W) Green River 45 (4E) Sheridan 38 – OT – The Wolves survive the Broncs. They outscored them 10-3 in the extra session. Isa Vasco scored 23 points to lead all scorers. She scored the last 13 points of the game for GR and had the tying 3-pointer with 10.8 seconds left in regulation. Bilyeu & Erramouspe had 11 pts each for Sheridan.
Final Score: (3E) Thunder Basin 44 (2W) Star Valley 39 – OT – The Bolts outscored the Lady Braves 13-8 in OT. Addy Rouse led 3 TB players in double figures with 18 points. TB was 11-13 at the FT line in OT. The Bolts scored 15 points off 18 SV turnovers. Ambrey Nelson paced the Braves with 9 points and 10 rebounds.
Final Score: (1E) Cheyenne East 63 (4W) Natrona County 22 – The Thunderbirds used a 21-point 2nd quarter to pull away. East had 6 players score between 9 and 12 points. They scored 23 points off 24 NC turnovers, and East shot 54 percent for the game.
FRIDAY, MARCH 13:
Game 5: Evaston vs. Sheridan, 9 a.m. (FWC) – loser out
Game 6: Star Valley vs. Natrona County, 10:30 a.m. (FWC) – loser out
Game 7: Cheyenne Central vs. Green River, 3:30 p.m. (FWC) – semifinal
Game 8: Thunder Basin vs. Cheyenne East, 5 p.m. (FWC) – semifinal
SATURDAY, MARCH 14:
Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 9 a.m. (FWC) – Consolation Trophy Game
Game 10: Loser Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8, 10:30 a.m. (FWC) – 3rd Place Game
Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 5:30 p.m. (FWC) – Championship Game
James Johnson Winter Showcase Basketball Tournament 2026
Photos from game action at the James Johnson Winter Showcase tournament in Cheyenne.
Gallery Credit: Courtesy: Shannon Dutcher
Wyoming
Red Flag Warning issued for northeast Wyoming as high winds increase fire danger
Wyoming
In Tiny Yoder, Wyoming — Population 134 — Firefighting Is In Their Blood
Most 18-year-olds focus on deciding what they want to do after high school.
Alyssa Shade already knows.
The Yoder teen already is a certified EMT, a red-carded wildland firefighter and a member of the all-volunteer Yoder Fire Department.
Another 18-year-old, J.R. Ruiz, joined the department only a few months ago. He recently returned from a wildfire-severity assignment in Colorado and, this past week, was helping on the South Fork Fire near Cody.
Behind them is another generation waiting in the wings. Fire Chief Justin Burkart’s 17-year-old son, Jayden, is already part of the department, while his 16-year-old daughter, Maykayla, recently joined as a junior firefighter.
In a profession where volunteer departments nationwide are struggling to recruit younger members, Yoder appears to be on a different track.
How does a town of just 134 people keep producing firefighters sought out and trusted to fight some of the nation’s biggest wildfires?
The answer starts with volunteers investing in one another.
“We’re 100% volunteer,” Burkart told Cowboy State Daily.
Beyond Wyoming
The tiny Goshen County community sits along U.S. Highway 85 south of Torrington, surrounded by hay fields and open prairie.
The Yoder Volunteer Fire Department protects roughly 248 square miles and serves about 700 residents throughout its fire district.
Yet those volunteers routinely deploy across the West, cutting fire lines with bulldozers, staffing engines on major incidents and supporting wildfire operations from Colorado to Virginia.
“We have a reputation of really sending out some professional firefighters to these incidents,” Burkart said. “It’s not a game to us. It’s something that we really take some pride in.”
Burkart joined the department as an 18-year-old in 1999 after discovering federal wildfire assignments could help pay for college.
“I found out it was a good way for me to pay for college,” he said.
Today, the department routinely sends engines, a water tender and two dozers on federal assignments, with about 22 members participating regularly in the federal fire program.
Last year, Yoder firefighters collectively spent about three months helping battle wildfires in California. Burkart said the department paid roughly $1 million to firefighters and seasonal personnel through federal assignments in 2025.
For a department staffed entirely by volunteers, those assignments have become far more than an opportunity to earn extra income.
“They’ll have more contact with live fire over a two-week period than most volunteers would have in a three- or four-year period,” Burkart said.
The knowledge comes home.
Heather Trompke, who serves on a Rocky Mountain incident management team, works in the finance section tracking personnel and equipment time during major incidents.
“We get to bring all of this stuff back,” Trompke said. “We can train and show how to fill out documents properly, and that translates into a smoother fire for everyone else when they go out.”
“There’s always something to learn in wildland firefighting,” added firefighter Bailey Powell. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve been doing it for 60 years or five.”
Growing Firefighters
Like volunteer departments across America, Yoder faces a challenge that has nothing to do with flames.
Recruiting.
“If you look nationwide, the volunteer fire service is aging out,” Burkart said. “The younger generation is not really involved in that.”
Instead of waiting for volunteers to walk through the station doors, Yoder and neighboring Goshen County departments are trying to grow their own.
Robert Shade helps coordinate a countywide junior firefighter program that introduces teenagers to the fire service before they turn 18.
“Right now, nationally, pretty much every trade, every job there is, there’s a lack of young people getting involved,” Shade said.
Junior firefighters learn equipment familiarization, truck maintenance, hose deployment, pump operations and safety procedures before becoming full firefighters.
“They’re the future,” Shade said. “We’ve got to make sure that we get them involved.”
Rather than keeping the program confined to Yoder, departments across Goshen County work together so young firefighters train alongside one another.
“We’re reaching out and kind of working with the whole county,” Shade said. “It helps everyone get to know each other.”
The program appears to be paying off.
Shade started attending meetings as a teenager after encouragement from her boyfriend, who happens to be Burkart’s son.
“I kind of started coming for fun,” she said. “Then I got a true understanding of everything, and it just became really interesting.”
A Family Tradition
Volunteer firefighting isn’t just passed from one generation to the next in Yoder.
It’s often passed around the dinner table.
Burkart’s wife left this week for a federal wildfire assignment in Colorado. Robert Shade serves alongside daughter Alyssa.
“There are families on the department,” Shade said. “Husbands and wives, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters.”
For him, volunteering alongside Alyssa is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
“It’s a lot of fun to go out with Alyssa and do what we both love,” he said.
The work isn’t without sacrifice.
“When the pager goes off, you could be at a dinner with your family,” Burkart said. “You could be at your kid’s birthday party. You could be at a track event for your kids.”
And the sacrifice isn’t limited to firefighters.
“It’s not only the members that have to make that sacrifice,” he said. “It’s also the family.”
When firefighters deploy on federal assignments, the department still has to answer calls at home.
“We do have a lot of members that deploy nationally, but we also have to protect home when they’re gone,” Burkart said.
That responsibility is shared with neighboring departments through mutual-aid agreements.
Last year alone, Yoder firefighters assisted neighboring agencies 26 times, while local farmers and ranchers helped firefighters cut fire lines during large grass fires.
Yoder’s firefighters have built something much larger than a volunteer department.
They’ve built a pipeline to answer the call.
One generation trains the next.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
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