The Hive Sports

by AJ Conlin

*Read the Region 10 Post-Season Analysis for more information on last year’s season.*

As the yearly cycle continues, high school football is making a glorious return! Thousands of athletes across the state have been gearing up for this upcoming season. Some of them have been working since the end of the 2023 season last November.

Looking to feed into the energy radiating off of seven particular programs in Utah, this article aims to give the reader the highest quality breakdown of every football team in Region 10. Each school is eager to show their communities what they’ve been working towards every Friday night, starting on August 16th at 7PM for every team.

Cottonwood

2023 record: 2-8

The Colts seem to have been a broken record the past couple of seasons, struggling to win more than two wins each year. In fact, it took them nine games this past season just to win one. To make things worse, the Colts were outscored 154-15 in their first four games last season. Their only two wins were over Murray and Hillcrest.

By way of stats, the Colts ran a balanced attack last season but found much more success on the ground. They ran for 16 touchdowns while passing for just six. Turnovers riddled their offense, giving the ball away 28 times.

On the defensive side, they recorded 30 TFLs and 17 sacks, while forcing 24 turnovers of their own. Although impressive, their offense was unable to put much together when given those opportunities by the defense.

The Colts are entering this season under a brand new head coach, Tui Satuala, who used to play Tight End for Weber State. Needing to fill holes left by the likes of Ryan Nielson, graduated 5 Star K/P/WR, will be something he focuses on, as well as establishing a solid offensive line to bring Cottonwood back into contention. Their first game will be at home against the Ogden Tigers.

Hillcrest

2023 record: 1-9

The Hillcrest Huskies finally snapped their 17-game losing streak last year in a 41-20 win over the Carbon Dinos. The rest of their season didn’t go quite as well, but they did contend with the bottom teams in the 4A classification, instead of getting blown out. Slowly but surely, the Huskies are on the rise.

“Something unique about our team is how many new football players have come out for our team this year, Robert Kaelin, coach of the Huskies said. ” Whether they played in Little League and decided not to play once they got to high school or have never played before, a solid percentage of our team consists of first-year players to our program. They have seen what we have been building these past 18 months and want to be part of it.”

“…we have put a focus on toughness and increasing our strength this offseason,” Kaelin continued, “bring a stingier defense, decreasing turnovers and scoring in the red zone as an offense.”

Coach Kaelin obviously has his priorities straight and is trying to bring life to a team that has been unimpressive in recent years. Their first opponent will be against the Logan Grizzlies, and Kaelin weighed in on how they have been preparing for that game.

“With a new coaching staff and group of coordinators for our opponent, we aren’t able to pinpoint what to expect from them on either side of the ball. However, we are focusing on our own execution offensively, and being aggressive defensively, throwing a lot of formations at them so that they feel more comfortable with whatever we see from our opponent. “

Jordan

2023 record: 3-7

The Jordan Beetdiggers struggled this season. Their three wins were close games against bottom 4A teams. Jordan played just 9 regular season games as opposed to the regular 10. They ended up making the playoffs and playing region opponent Stansbury, in which they got humbled 62-7 to end their season.

The Beetdiggers struggled mightily this season in every aspect of the game. Despite being a 4A school, they had a small roster with less talent. Their two standout players played offense, defense, and special teams, leading every one of them in stats. Both seniors, Jakarin Owens and Derell Nichols will not be there for Jordan this year as go-to guys.

Under first-year head coach Marc Albertson of the Te’o coaching tree at Alta, the Beetdiggers have the odds stacked against them this year. He’ll need to rebuild a struggling program and turn his players into a team to contend in years to come. Their first game this year will be against the Timpanogos Timberwolves.

Murray

2023 record: 1-9

The Spartans of Murray have been struggling for relevance in recent years. Last season, they snapped their 20-game losing streak with a 31-20 victory over Hillcrest. They struggled to do a whole lot of anything on both sides of the ball, but are trending upwards this year.

There is an entirely new energy and excitement surrounding Murray Football this season. The Spartans welcome Coach Dalton Dunn of the Zabriskie coaching tree at Cedar Valley, as well as new coordinators, and even a media/marketing staff.

The Spartans are excited to get things rolling this season, beginning with their first game against the Northridge Knights. With big plans for the future and lots of offseason prep, the Spartans could be a fun team to watch this season.

“The main importance is to have connection with each other and have chemistry,” Senior Anthony Thompson commented. Along with his remarks, Senior QB Alex Bojorquez cited similar focuses this offseason.

“This offseason, my main goal was to get everyone together as much as possible and just start building the chemistry and start getting things going off into the season,” Bojorquez said. “We’d have 15-20 guys going out consistently… I’ve also been doing things like reading books to get my mindset right and to help out the team mentally.”

“Right now, we’re really focusing on what we can do well,” Coach Dunn said. “As a new coaching staff, we’ve installed a new offense, new defense, so we might have a few surprises for Northridge. It’ll be a little bit different of a team than what they saw last year.”

“I think we’re gonna be firing on all cylinders,” Dunn said about his offense. “We’re installing a very hybrid-type of defense, so they’ll see lots of different fronts, lots of different blitzes, and we’re hoping that week one, it will be very overwhelming for their O-line… I think 4-6 wins is where we’re aiming for, and making the playoffs.”

Park City

2023 record: 11-2

The Miners of Park City were incredible last year. They beat Stansbury for the region championship and made it to the semifinals of the state playoffs. Their lineman were like sentinels for their run game, their running backs like horses, eager to gallop free on the field. Their passing game was also highly respected.

A lot of their talent at the line has moved on, but the Miners are likely to bring in another class that rivals their talent level. Along with returning QB Bash Bodily and RB Eli Warner, the Miners should be in good shape to make another run in the playoffs.

“Coach Montzingo always has us ready to play and puts us in the right positions to succeed,” Bodily stated in an interview. “This year we have a lot of returning talent on offense and a lot of young athletic players on defense. We have some big boys on the offensive and defensive lines that can dominate. We have some amazing receivers and running backs. One of our biggest strengths is our team speed. Our defense can fly around and crack people. I’m excited to see what we do this year! We want to go 1-0 every week. Our coaches have us focused on improving each practice, game, and week. If we put in the work in the weight room, on the practice field, and watching film, I feel like we can compete with anyone.”

“Several ran track and have really added a lot of speed this off-season,” Bodily said about preparation. “We have a strength coach and speed coach that have helped us get bigger, faster, and stronger. We also competed in 7v7 and had players go to several college camps.”

Stansbury

2023 record: 7-5

The Stansbury Stallions had a pretty good season last year. They beat a couple of respectable teams and clobbered the rest. Most of their losses were pretty close to, with the exception of their 62-20 loss to Crimson Cliffs and their 52-21 loss to Ridgeline in the playoffs.

After Coach Eric Alder left Stansbury this past season, the Stallions had a very successful coaching search and hired Coach Lee Leslie. Leslie is in his 41st year of coaching and has coached all over the nation, including taking Stansbury’s cross-town rivals, the Tooele Buffaloes, to a state championship before the school was built.

Running a balanced offensive attack, the Stallions are looking to continue recent success and build upon concepts already in place. With a huge focus on conditioning in the offseason, the whole team is abnormally fast and flexible.

It’s still unclear who will be the starting quarterback throughout the season, but Senior Cole Dearden appears to be in that position to start the season. Sophomore Brighton Reutzel has been bringing steep competition for the starting job.

“The main focus of this season is taking it one game at a time,” Dearden said. “Last year we were too busy looking at where we wanted to be, we didn’t take care of business week by week.”

“Our team is a brotherhood with full trust in each other,” Senior WR Luke Rich said. “We play hard and tough. Our new coaches are amazing. They bring in winning experience and a belief that we can hang with anyone.”

Tooele

2023 record: 4-7

The struggles continue for Tooele Football. The Buffaloes beat bottom-feeder teams in region play and lost to everyone else who was decent in dramatic fashion. Their offense struggled to stay fresh throughout the second half, and their defense struggled to make tackles.

Running the Wing T offense, the Buffaloes struggle to stay ahead of opponents. Because they pass the ball very little, their offense becomes predictable. With good, strong runners, the Buffs are usually able to stay in contention throughout the beginning of the game, but with their hurry-up style game plan, their linemen are easily exhausted, causing the defense to putter out.

On the defense, it isn’t much better. Their defenders seem afraid to make contact and heavily struggle to wrap up and bring guys down. They have above-average stats in interceptions, averaging one per game, but that appears to be their only saving grace.

The Buffs enter their third season under Coach BJ Hunter, an old-style, offensive-minded head coach. He’ll need to start putting together winning seasons soon, or else his job could be on the hot seat.

Support your local teams!

Region 10 is on the rise. Support these teams and any other teams that may be local to you by attending their games on Friday night and bringing your spirit!

Featured image credit: AJ Conlin, The Hive Sports

*Authors note* “Seniorits is hitting exceptionally hard. I’d like to apologize for the tardiness of this article.” -AJ Conlin