SANDY – Alta High school principal Mont Widerberg and athletic director Morgan Brown announced the hiring of its new football coach Bob Stephens early Wednesday morning. Stephens has been with the program for 13 years as an offensive line and head JV coach while teaching wildlife biology.
He replaces previous head coach Les Hamilton who resigned after the 2010 season for an opportunity for career advancement in the fishing industry in Chile after compiling a 60-19 record with back-to-back state championships in 2007 and 2008, respectively.
"I'm feelin' great. I'm feeling relieved," stated Stephens who waited weeks as the intern coach to finally hear the decision, "I feel a big responsibility that's been placed on me."
Stephens inherits one of the most successful programs in the last decade and the largest school based on enrollment in the state. However, after an unheralded 4-7 record last season, he has the task of restoring winning ways back into the program.
"Our juniors and sophomores both had great seasons this year. On the JV level and on the sophomore level – no doubt about that," Stephens said, "Our seniors, even though we struggled a little bit they were a great group of kids and it was kind of hard for us."
"Winning is a product in the program as a whole. Winning is a byproduct of all the hard work that goes into it all year long. I'm here to raise young men to become great people in the future and we get the great opportunity to do that through the medium of football."
Stephens played at BYU from 1987-90 and was the center for Heisman winning quarterback Ty Detmer. He also had a short stint with the New England Patriots after signing a free agent contract, but his career was cut short after sustaining an injury.
Stephens is adamant Alta's offensive scheme will stay intact with only a few changes during the transition. The defense is a work in progress and will be evaluated throughout the coming months leading up to the 2011 season.
"Coach Hamilton (took) Alta to where (it is) as far as the offense that he brought. I'm a true subscriber to the spread – I love it," said Stephens, " I'm not going to change much; obviously it's going to have little tweaks here and there on the way that I want to do things. I don't plan to make any huge modifications to (the offense) at all."
Stephens will undergo an extensive personnel assessment to finalize his coaching staff with no positions set in stone thus far. Nonetheless, he feels that offensively, he has already established a staff that can be successful.
"As far as coaching staffs in general, we'll be evaluating the coaches and seeing what other coaches' plans are and putting together and solidifying the coaching staff in the future. I can't really comment on too much on that," he said.
"As far as offensively goes, I have what I feel could be a great a coaching staff already in place for the most part. There might be some changes here and there, obviously, but if I could have someone take over and really work with the offensive line to free me up to be able to call the offense and work more on a coordinating role, then great. We've got a lot to look at."
email: tphibbs@desnews.com