Hometown Supports Coach Sawvel
AKRON – Over 100 Barnesville residents and natives showed up at InfoCison Stadium last Thursday night to support local native Jay Sawvel as his University of Wyoming Cowboys took on the Akron University Zips.
The University’s website noted “the Cowboys posted the first shut out in a season opener since the 1977 season with a 10-0 win. It was also the first shutout since the Pokes beat Gardner-Webb 27-0 in 2017.”
“I know that going into Week two we’re going to be a substantially better team than what we were in Week one. We’re going to learn a lot from this tonight. We’ve got a lot of things to clean up. We should have been able to put some separation between us a little bit more,” Coach Jay Sawvel said on the college’s sports website.
“Defensively, that was pretty dag-gone good performance by a collective group of people. We played a number of people defensively. A year ago we weren’t able to do that. We covered well. A year ago we weren’t able to do that. We were more physical. So there’s a lot to build off there.”
The Cowboys return to action Saturday hosting Northern Iowa inside the newly remodeled War Memorial Stadium for a 2 p.m. start. The contest will be a Gold Out as fans are encouraged to wear gold for a “gold out.”
Sawvel, the son of Polly Sawvel and the late John Sawvel, is a 1989 BHS grad. He played college football as a linebacker for the University of Mount Union.
The game was also an opportunity for a family reunion of sorts. Attending the game were his mother, Polly and two brothers, John and Jeff. It was the first time the Sawvel brothers were together in nine years!
Prior to taking over as head coach at Laramie last year, Sawvel, served as an assistant coach at Wake Forest University, University of Minnesota, Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Ferris State University, University of Notre Dame and Eastern Kentucky University.
A complete account of the game from the Cowboy point of view is available on the college’s website.
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