Olympus High School and Maple Mountain High School, scheduled to open in Mapleton next school year, each announced the hiring of football coaches on Tuesday.
Olympus tabbed Mike Smith as its 12th head coach in school history, whereas Maple Mountain went with Brad Burtenshaw.
Smith has spent the past two years as the head coach at Southern Virginia University. He's no stranger to Utah though. He played linebacker at Dixie College from 1990 to 1993, and then had head coaching stints at both Dixie and Copper Hills High School before heading to the NAIA ranks for a couple seasons.
Smith coached at Dixie from 1994 to 2000, leading the Flyers to the 1998 3A state championship. Smith then moved to Copper Hills from 2000 to 2004 before taking a few years off to complete his masters degree at BYU.
Turning the Olympus program around will be a tough task. The Titans haven't had a winning season in the past five years under coach Mark Smith, amassing a 20-34 during that span with three playoff appearances.
Smith will meet with Olympus players and parents for the first time this Tuesday night.
First-year school Maple Mountain is going with a first-year head coach in Burtenshaw. The Blanding native, and the son of legendary football coach Art Burtenshaw, was most recently the defensive coordinator and JV head coach at Morgan High School.
Burtenshaw's defense helped lead Morgan to 10-3 record in 2008 and a state semifinal appearance by surrendering only 15.5 ppg, the fourth stingiest total in 3A.
Maple Mountain begins play next season in Class 4A's Region 8 along with Payson, Uintah, Salem Hills, Spanish Fork and Springville.