GRANTSVILLE — In every good small town, high school sports movie, there's a barber shop. Without a barber shop, where would the locals discuss current events, and most notably the exploits of their high school football team.
Also, in every good sports movie, the underdog must overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to beat the best team.
For the citizens of Grantsville, a rural farming town 38 miles west of downtown Salt Lake City, that sounds eerily familiar.
A few blocks from Grantsville High School there is just such a barber shop — Cook's Barber Shop. Paul is the owner, and business should be outstanding this week. With Grantsville's football team playing No. 1 Bear River for the 3A state championship at Rice-Eccles Stadium this Friday, the locals need an outlet to discuss the Cowboy's chances.
For coach Les Hamilton, a Bay Area native, he's continually amazed at the support the community gives his football team.
"This place will be ghost town Friday," said first-year coach Hamilton. "Everyone will be at the game."
Don't be surprised if the Cowboys knock off mighty Bear River, either. The rallying cry around practice this week is that "Grantsville is destined to win."
Hamilton never could have imagined himself saying that four months ago, but he's his team's biggest supporter right now.
Before the season started, Hamilton and the team's 17 seniors went on an overnight campout to the mountains surrounding Grantsville. As the team was sitting around the campfire, he asked the seniors to state their goals for the upcoming season.
All 17 of them said they wanted to win a state championship.
"I was surprised their goal was to play for a state championship," said Hamilton, who would have been satisfied with merely a playoff berth.
Five games into the season, it appeared Hamilton's expectations were much more realistic than his seniors. On Sept. 19, Grantsville lost an embarrassing 42-0 game to Bear River and dropped to 2-3.
After that loss, Hamilton challenged his team. "You can work harder and get better, or you can pack it up and go home," said Hamilton.
Naturally the seniors, who'd won four little league championships, wanted to do anything they could to win one more championship.
"Growing up, I always thought we had a good group," said running back Kevin Mouritsen.
The next two games, Grantsville shut out Ogden and Ben Lomond, which gave the Cowboys plenty of confidence heading into its showdown with long-time rival Morgan. It was the 65th meeting between the teams since World War II, and Morgan returned a kickoff 73 yards with 20 seconds left to spoil Grantsville's seemingly game-winning touchdown a few seconds earlier.
The team hasn't lost since, and the community support keeps growing each game.
A huge pep rally is planned Wednesday night in the school auditorium, with the team being fed barbecue ribs. Thursday night the team will gather and watch a light-hearted movie — most likely "The Waterboy."
The next morning, when the team piles into big yellow buses to make the trek to Rice-Eccles Stadium, they'll be escorted out of town by the police and fire department. Along the main route, they'll pass Cook's Barber Shop, with a big "closed" sign in the window.
Haircuts will have to wait a day. The citizens of Grantsville have been waiting for a day like Friday since the Cowboys won their last state championship in 1997. That was as a 2A school though, and they're trying to turn the trick as a 3A school.
"It's been awesome," said offensive lineman Troy Prince. "Everyone's pulling together, even the ones that didn't have faith when we jumped to 3A."
Those doubters didn't have any reason to think otherwise eight games into the season with Grantsville sitting on a 4-4 record. With two games remaining against No. 3 Pine View and defending champion Tooele, the Cowboys appeared headed for a third straight losing season. Then something happened. Grantsville won both of those games.
Then, during the first round of the state tournament, the Cowboys beat a very good North Sanpete team. While the win was nice, surely Grantsville would lose its quarterfinal game against Park City — a team it lost to 41-10 during the preseason. Nope, Grantsville won 12-9.
In the semifinals, it avenged another loss by beating Morgan 10-9. Now, with one game remaining, it has another opportunity to avenge one more loss.
"When we come away with a win on Friday, remember, this is a team of destiny," said Hamilton.
E-MAIL: jedward@desnews.com