Blanding is a football town, there's no doubt about it.
"There's not a lot to do down in Blanding. You can go play around in the hills, get in trouble or play sports, and that's kind of where football kind of takes you," said Brad Burthenshaw, a 1995 graduate of San Juan. "It's similar to other small towns. There's a good tradition and a good base of kids that are hard working."
San Juan football is a culture for many in the southeast corner of Utah, and for some it's tough to let go. Mike Bowring never did.
"It's a strong tradition, that at least for me was one of those things that it was a big enough impact that I didn't ever want it to be gone. I didn't want it to ever be the last game or the last bus ride, so that's one of the reasons I'm still in it," said Bowring, a 1990 San Juan graduate.
Burtenshaw and Bowring are two of five San Juan alums who are currently head football coaches in Utah. Bowring has been coaching for 14 years — seven at Monticello and seven at Juab — and he just picked up his 100th coaching victory Friday. Burtenshaw, meanwhile, is in his second year as Maple Mountain's head coach.
The other three coaches with Blanding roots are Emery's Jim Jones (23rd year), San Juan's Monty Lee (8th year) and Monument Valley's Powers Whiskers (1st year). Collectively, the quintet represents 5 percent of the football coaches in Utah. Roy has produced four current head coaches
"I know the love of the game is instilled in these kids from the time they're young, and that carries on with them," said Lee, who had the coaching fever back in the late '60s when he was coaching little league baseball while still in high school. "I think I wanted to be a coach from the time I was just a kid. I just fell in love with it. I don't really know why."
The five San Juan graduates all took different paths to coaching, yet Lee's the only one who ever actually coached at his alma mater. He graduated in 1970, assisted Art Burtenshaw for 16 years at San Juan and then took over as head coach when Art Burtenshaw bolted for Ben Lomond in 2003.
During his time as an assistant, Lee coached Bowring and Brad Burtenshaw, and Lee knew all along that coaching was in their blood.
"Very, very smart, intelligent kids. They had a sense for the game from the first time they walked on the football field," said Lee.
Jones' path to Emery's coaching job was pretty straight forward. He graduated from San Juan in 1979 and did his student teaching at Manti for a year while also serving as an assistant coach. In 1985, he was hired to be Emery's coach.
Bowring took a similar path to coaching. After playing at Southern Utah, he served as a grad assistant to Rich Ellerson for one year before being hired by Monticello when he was just 25. He eventually led the Buckaroos to two state championships, but things weren't always so cushy.
"Those first two years, I only won one game each year. There were a few nights I thought, one, I was going to be divorced, and two, I better get into something else because I wasn't built for this job," he said," said Bowring.
He's followed his successful stint at Monticello with similar success at Juab. the past seven years.
Unlike Bowring, Brad Burtenshaw really had no interest in coaching. He wanted to be a physical therapist and pursued it for about two years while playing college football at the University of Utah, but changed his mind.
"I didn't like that, and I'd been around the teaching and coaching my whole life, and I enjoyed that so I made the switch," said Burtenshaw.
After graduating from the U. in 2003, he moved up the coaching ladder for six years as an assistant at Morgan and was tabbed to be Maple Mountain's first head coach last year. One of his goals is to make football as fun for his players as it was for him.
"Most coaches had a great experience, whether it's Blanding or anywhere else, and they want other kids to have a good experience just like they did," said Burtenshaw.
Whiskers' path to coaching is probably the most unusual. He graduated from San Juan in 1993, and though he loved football, he never played it.
He got his coaching start at the junior high level in Monument Valley, and eventually moved up to assistant coach at the high school. This year, he was hired as head coach, and his team is 2-2 so far in 2010.
With Blanding's great tradition of producing football coaches, don't be surprised if the five San Juan alums are joined by a sixth soon.
e-mail: jedward@desnews.com