Just weeks after the end of her first season at the helm, Lovell’s Jeny Gardner has been removed as the Bulldogs’ head football coach.

Gardner, a Powell resident, made history in May when she became the first female to be named the head coach of a Wyoming high school football program. A three-year assistant under former Lovell head coach Doug Hazen, Gardner applied for the position following Hazen’s resignation last year.

The Bulldogs were 1-7 this season, in what Gardner had expected to be a “rebuilding year.”

“I wish I had been given more time to develop the program,” she said. “I had some ideas for things in the offseason I would have liked to try. But I’m grateful for the time I did have.”

The highlight of the Bulldogs’ 2018 season was a week two rout of Shoshoni, 57-0. Lovell found itself on the receiving end of similar scores against conference opponents like Greybull and Mountain View, but by the end of the season, things were beginning to click for the young team. That the Bulldogs were competitive against a pair of conference foes in Pinedale and Kemmerer to close out the season made the school’s decision to let her go that much more frustrating for Gardner.

“Our record obviously wasn’t what we wanted, but it was a good group of kids that we had,” she explained. “They stayed positive, they worked hard the whole season. I was really proud of the fact that even though we had a losing season, no varsity players quit.”

Despite a few lopsided losses, Gardner said the kids continued to work hard and buy into the culture she and her staff were trying to cultivate.

“For me, that speaks a lot to what we were doing and trying to develop,” she said. “We lost one game 0-57; it’s easy for kids to walk away from a program they don’t believe in. We didn’t have any kids do that.”

Asked what she’ll remember most about this season, Gardner said the relationships with the players stand out — that and the seemingly endless bus rides. One memory in particular she’ll remember the most.

“I learned about a term called a ‘cuddle puddle,’ something I wasn’t familiar with,” she said, laughing. “That was when my whole O-line and my linebackers are on a bus on the tail-end of a 14-hour trip down and back, and they’re all sleeping in a pile, like a litter of puppies. I was like, ‘What is happening?’”

As the news of Gardner’s termination began to circulate late last week, Gardner said former and current players began to reach out to her in support.

“All I’ve heard back has been very positive,” she said. “I think they [her players] were surprised, more than anything.”

Dylan Hereth played on the offensive line for Gardner at Lovell during her three seasons as an assistant. Now graduated, Hereth said he was excited when he heard Gardner was offered the head coach position, and praised her as a coach.

“She was an outstanding coach to work with at practice because she taught us the principles [and pushed] us to our full potential,” he said. “She had a way of making it a fun and enjoyable experience. She was able to bring the best out in us.”

Hereth added that it seemed Gardner was set up to fail, with the short amount of time she had to assemble a staff, and the team’s inexperience.

“I feel that [Gardner] was not given a fair shot by any means,” he said. “She had a young and less talented team than in years past and she had a young and new coaching staff as well. No coach can make a team of mainly freshmen and sophomores into a playoff team within one year, especially it being the first year for the coach to get a feel for the team.”

Sophomore lineman Hunter Mayes said he was “heartbroken” when he heard the news of Gardner’s dismissal, calling her a coach with “a lot of good ideas and tactics,” and laying the onus of the losing season on the players.

“We as a team just didn’t meet her expectations,” he said. “It just didn’t seem right, they should have given her a second chance. ... They [school administrators] should not have based her potential off of one bad season.”

Lovell High School athletic director Joe Koritnik and principal Scott O’Tremba didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.

As for Gardner, who’s still a math teacher in the Big Horn County School District, she’s unsure of what the future holds at this point of her coaching career — though she hopes another opportunity presents itself.

“I definitely don’t think this is the last you’ll hear of me in football,” she said. “I’m not planning on giving up that dream. But I wasn’t expecting this, so I’m just trying to process and deal with it. I still teach here, so I want to make sure I’m still doing the best job I can in the classroom. Then I’ll take some time and figure out what my next step is.”

“The biggest thing is that I hope nobody looks at our record and says, ‘That’s why women shouldn’t be in football,’” Gardner added. “That’s my biggest worry — it’s not even my personal situation. Obviously I wish I were still coaching, but that’s been my fear from the beginning.”