CHEYENNE – It took only a few weeks of practice for Gavin Goff to understand just how good a quarterback Graedyn Buell could be.

Buell’s family moved to Cheyenne prior to his sophomore year, and he earned the starting nod for Cheyenne East that season. Buell spent his freshman campaign as Rock Springs’ starting signal-caller.

“He moved in when I was a freshman, and you could tell how good of a quarterback he is and how great of an arm he has,” said Goff, who first started playing quarterback as a third-grader. “I knew I was going to have to find another way to get onto the field if I was going to play varsity before my senior year.”

That meant moving to wide receiver. Goff has been solid since changing positions, but has only gotten better throughout the season.

The 5-foot-9, 165-pounder has caught 36 passes for 621 yards and nine touchdowns this season. His 62.1 yards per game make him Class 4A’s fourth-leading receiver as Cheyenne East (9-1) gets ready to host Sheridan (7-3) in the state semifinals tonight. The game kicks off at 6 p.m. at Okie Blanchard Stadium.

Goff’s move to receiver actually started last season.

He and Buell would engage in a game of chicken to see who was going to quarterback East’s scout team during practice. Goff split out wide when Buell won those battles.

“We got a good connection going pretty quickly, and I would throw to him all the time,” Buell said. “I never had any fears about how well he was going to do as a receiver this year.

“Seeing how well he played on the scout team last year helped, but I knew he was going to go out there, make plays and make my job easier.”

Learning to play receiver came fairly easy because of Goff’s knowledge of the T-Birds’ playbook. The biggest hurdles in the transition were route running and blocking. East receivers coach Paul Garcia continues to help him hone the former, while the latter is a work in progress.

“I’m never going to be perfect at blocking, but I feel like I have improved as the season has gone on,” Goff said. “One thing I have had a huge problem with is lunging at guys. If you don’t break your feet down and you just lunge at them, that’s an easy block to shed, or you could whiff and miss them altogether.

“I have been working on getting my feet down and contacting with my shoulders first instead of my arms. I really want to get into the blocks.”

East coach Chad Goff – who is Gavin’s father – was an offensive lineman in high school and college, and coaches East’s linemen. He takes blocking seriously. Gavin Goff has been tasked with blocking on the point of attack for the Thunderbirds outside running game.

Being a good blocker isn’t always about dominating the player you’re assigned to block, Chad Goff said.

“There are times (Gavin) has come off the field pretty upset with himself because he got tossed off a block,” Chad Goff said. “I have to tell him – and all our other guys – that most of the time when they’re tossed off a block, that guy doesn’t make the play.

“If the defender is so worried about the guy blocking him that he doesn’t make the play, that’s as good as successfully blocking the guy. Receivers just have to get into a guy’s face and be like a gnat that flies around, bothers him and never goes away.”

Gavin Goff is just the latest quarterback turned receiver for East. Chance Aumiller was an all-state pass-catcher after finishing second in East’s 2018 quarterback derby. Last fall, Aumiller repeated as an all-state pick after setting Wyoming’s single-season record for receiving yards with 1,121. He is currently a freshman receiver at NCAA Division II Colorado Mesa University.

Senior Jake Rayl was once a quarterback, but is the second-leading receiver in 4A this fall (81.4 yards per game). Sophomore Keagan Bartlett has seen time behind center this season, but also has caught nine passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns.

“Quarterbacks are athletes, and they’re smart,” Chad Goff said. “They know where the open spots are going to be because they have been trained to look for them.”

The younger Goff hasn’t given up on his dream of quarterbacking East. He is going to give it another shot this off-season, but he knows the job won’t just be handed to him once Buell graduates.

“(Bartlett) is a really good quarterback,” Gavin Goff said. “If the team is better with both of us out on the field, I’ll be happy to play receiver again.”

Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on Twitter at @jjohnke.