Felt’s Facts: New schools and everything you need to know as the 2019 high school football season kicks off

The 127th season of Utah prep football welcomes four new programs to the varsity ranks. That’s the most since 1949 when five schools — Altamont, Alterra, Cedar City, Hurricane and Parowan — began teams.

This year, Crimson Cliffs (Washington, Washington County), Cedar Valley (Eagle Mountain), Mountain Ridge (Herriman) and Providence Hall (Herriman) start competing. The first three are new schools, while Providence Hall is a charter school that opened its high school in 2014.

Over the history of Utah prep football, 140 schools have played football. However, this season, since Altamont dropped the sport for at least this year because of low participation, the current number grows by three to 109.

Of those 140 schools that have played football, 33 — about 24-percent — won their first-ever game.

Endowment games — longest series

The ’19 season kicks off with 52 endowment games. Despite a record number of teams this year, the 2018 season saw 53 contests the first weekend.

The longest current endowment game series, and second-longest all-time, belongs to Dixie and Springville. Those two battle for the 14th consecutive year (since 2006), this season at Springville. (For 15 straight years, from 2002-16, Bountiful and Lone Peak met in the season opener.)

Endowment week’s rivalry games (minimum of 40 games)

Park City and Wasatch grapple for the 84th time since 1924; Park City holds a 43-37-3 series lead. Murray and Cyprus tangle for the 78th time since 1926; Murray leads the series 41-32-4. American Fork plays Lehi for the 74th time since 1927; AF controls this series 50-19-4. South Sevier and North Sevier clash for the 48th time since 1922; South Sevier is ahead 37-10 in the series.

Long time no see

Seven games pit teams that haven’t seen each other since the last century:

• Clearfield at West (last met in 1975), West leads 6-2
• Bountiful at Hillcrest (1978), Bountiful leads 3-1
• Milford at South Summit (1982), South Summit leads 1-0
• Cedar City at Spanish Fork (1992), Cedar City leads 8-4
• Hunter at Bonneville (1993), Hunter leads 1-0
• West Jordan at Roy (1996), West Jordan leads 3-0
• Logan at Provo (1999), Provo leads 4-2

Three more match schools that haven’t met in at least 10 seasons: Box Elder at Kearns (2004), Skyline at Layton (2008) and East at Snow Canyon (2009).

First-time meetings

• Cedar Valley at Maple Mountain
• Crimson Cliffs at Manti
• Herriman at Davis
• Jordan at Mission Hills (San Marcos, California)
• Olympus at Mountain Ridge
• Pine View at Ridgeline
• Providence Hall at Richfield
• Summit Academy at Cottonwood
• Tooele at Green Canyon

Streaks

Milford is on a state-high 19-game winning streak. Corner Canyon has won 12 straight, Orem 10, South Summit nine, Summit Academy eight and Lone Peak seven. At least two of those streaks end this week: Orem visits Corner Canyon while South Summit hosts Milford.

Five teams didn’t make the playoffs in 2018, but finished on a winning note. Bonneville has won two in a row, while Bear River, Bountiful, Monument Valley and Westlake enter the season on a one-game winning “streak.”

Landmark seasons

Jordan competes in its 110th year of football. Spanish Fork celebrates its 100th season. Richfield takes the field for the 90th year, while Beaver marks its 80th season and Dixie its 75th. Kanab starts its 70th year, Bonneville its 60th and Cottonwood its 50th.

Milestone games

Clearfield tries for its 250th victory. Westlake plays for the 100th time.

Juab coach Mike Bowring directs his 250th game including a previous stop at Monticello. Olympus’ Aaron Whitehead coaches his 150th contest including 60 games at East. He’s also aiming for this 100th career win including 39 at East.

Rivalries lost … and gained

The latest realignment reunited some long-lost rivals, but severed a couple of long-running series. Park City and South Summit won’t battle in the state’s 19th most-played rivalry. The two have met 77 times since 1913.

Other long-time rivalries that won’t be renewed this season include: Logan-Ogden (71-game series), Altamont-Duchesne (70 games, an uninterrupted series it began in 1973), Monticello-San Juan (68), Bear River-Ogden (66), Lehi-Springville (58), Bonneville-Roy (53), Payson-Orem (53), Juab-Richfield (53) and Orem-Spanish Fork (50).

On the other hand, Beaver and Milford spar this season for the first time since 2010. Other long-running series revived this year include Beaver-Parowan (last met in 2014), Provo-Spanish Fork (2014), Payson-Provo (2015) and Payson-Springville (2016).

All-comers tournaments — except in 3A

The Utah High School Activities Association adopted a playoff format to include all teams — well, almost all teams — and seed them according to a ranking formula. In the 3A class, the two lowest-ranking squads are automatically eliminated so just 16 of the 18 teams qualify. In addition, teams that play an independent schedule — Monument Valley, Providence Hall and Whitehorse — won’t qualify. That allows for the 3A and 2A classifications to have four weeks of postseason competition while 6A, 5A and 4A will have five.

This year, there’ll be a record 98 playoff games, an increase of almost 33% over the previous high of 74 each of the past two seasons. And a record 635 contests are scheduled this year, including the playoffs. That’s an increase of 7% over the previous record of 594 games played in 2016. It took 28 seasons, from 1893 to 1921, for the first 635 games to be played.

Most …

In the history of Utah prep football, West has played the most games, 1,045, but Davis has the most victories with 590. The Darts are followed by East at 584 wins, Millard at 578, Box Elder at 570 and West at 567.

Cedar confusion

With Cedar Valley opening, the administration of Cedar High in Cedar City requested it now be known as Cedar City High for sports. The school’s marquee and signage remain as “Cedar High.”

Rule changes

The National Federation of State High School Associations Football Rules Committee made few rule changes this year.

Continuing to focus on player safely, tripping the runner is illegal. “It is now a foul to intentionally use the lower leg or foot to obstruct a runner below the knees.”

In addition, “grabbing the name plate area of the jersey of the runner, directly below the back collar, and pulling the runner to the ground” constitutes a horse-collar tackle.

Another change redefined legal formations: at least five offensive players must be on the line of scrimmage with no more than four backs, making it easier to identify legal formations.

Other alterations clarified use of the 40-second clock and legal numerals

More about the changes can be found at nfhs.org/sports-resource-content/football-rules-changes-2019.

First-game matchups

With four new programs this season, the most in 70 years, here’s a list of each school’s first-ever game.

• Alta lost to Jordan, 8-0, Sept. 1, 1978.
• Altamont lost to Roosevelt, 24-6, Sept. 24, 1949.
• Alterra lost to Uintah, 29-0, Sept. 24, 1949.
• American Fork defeated Springville, 5-0, Oct. 31, 1908.
• American Leadership forfeited to Carbon, Aug. 18, 2006.
• Bear River lost to Weber Academy (now Weber State), 49-0, Oct. 19, 1922.
• Beaver defeated Milford, 34-0, Nov. 12, 1925.
• Ben Lomond lost to East, 24-0, Sept. 11, 1953.
• Bingham lost to Collegiate Institute, 16-5, Oct. 7, 1910.
• Bonneville lost to Murray, 14-7, Sept. 16, 1960.
• Bountiful lost to East, 36-0, Sept. 7, 1956.
• Box Elder lost to Utah Agriculture College (now Utah State) freshmen, 29-0, Nov. 3, 1917.
• Branch Agricultural lost to Dixie 13-6, Oct. 16, 1936.
• Brighton lost to Bingham, 18-0, Aug. 29, 1969.
• BY High lost to BYU, 24-0, Oct. 21, 1919.
• Canyon View lost to Juab, 27-0, Aug. 29, 1997.
• Carbon lost to Price Academy, 13-7, Oct. 18, 1912.
• Cedar City lost to Dixie, 6-0, Sept. 9, 1949.
• Cedar Valley plays Maple Mountain, Aug. 16, 2019.
• Central defeated South Emery, 54-0, Oct. 24, 1925.
• Clearfield lost to South Cache, 21-0, Sept. 8, 1961.
• Copper Hills lost to Hillcrest, 52-0, Aug. 25, 1995.
• Corner Canyon lost to Juan Diego, 21-14, Aug. 23, 2013.
• Cottonwood lost to Kearns, 50-0, Aug. 28, 1970.
• Crimson Cliffs plays Manti, Aug. 16, 2019.
• Cyprus defeated Tooele, 7-0, Oct. 1, 1926.
• Davis tied Park City, 0-0, Oct. 30, 1915.
• Delta defeated Hinckley, 12-0, Nov. 25, 1920.
• Desert Hills defeated Uintah, 37-3, Aug. 22, 2008.
• Diamond Ranch defeated Parowan, 20-6, Aug. 19, 2011.
• Dixie tied Moapa Valley (Overton, Nevada), 12-12, Oct. 17, 1935.
• Duchesne lost to Roosevelt, 6-0, Oct. 9, 1931.
• Dugway lost to Grantsville, 13-6, Sept. 11, 1954.
• East lost to West, 23-0, Oct. 13, 1914.
• East Carbon defeated Park City, 46-0, Sept. 11, 1959.
• Emery County lost to Carbon JV, Sept. 21, 1962 (score not reported).
• Enterprise defeated Dixie JV, 38-0, Aug. 29, 1997.
• Ephraim lost to Richfield, 13-0, Oct. 12, 1923.
• Farmington lost to Timpanogos, 48-7, Aug. 17, 2018.
• Fremont defeated Tooele, 7-6, Aug. 26, 1994.
• Grand County defeated Blanding Club, 12-6, Nov. 19, 1921.
• Granger lost to White Pine (Ely, Nevada), 31-7, Sept. 12, 1958.
• Granite defeated Park City, 64-0, Oct. 19, 1907.
• Grantsville lost to All Hallows, 49-0, Oct. 22, 1915.
• Green Canyon lost to Pine View, 69-21, Aug. 18, 2017.
• Green River lost to Grand County, 114-0, Nov. 4, 1922.
• Gunnison Valley lost to Parowan, 38-6, Aug. 24, 1990.
• Helper lost to North Emery, 33-0, Sept. 30, 1933.
• Herriman lost to Hillcrest, 17-7, Aug. 20, 2010.
• Highland defeated Judge Memorial, 31-0, Sept. 13, 1957.
• Hillcrest lost to Box Elder, 26-6, Sept. 7, 1962.
• Hinckley lost to Delta, 12-0, Nov. 25, 1920.
• Hunter lost to Pine View, 24-22, Aug. 24, 1990.
• Hurricane lost to Basic (Henderson, Nevada), 19-13, Sept. 10, 1949.
• Intermountain lost to North Summit, 47-0, Sept. 5, 1975.
• Jordan lost to Granite, 73-0, Oct. 15, 1909.
• Juab lost to Richfield, 25-12, Sept. 23, 1966.
• Juan Diego defeated Granite, 24-20, Aug. 18, 2000.
• Judge Memorial lost to Tooele, 31-0, Nov. 24, 1924.
• Kanab defeated Valley, 41-0, Nov. 20, 1919.
• Kearns lost to Cyprus, 54-6, Sept. 9, 1966.
• Layton lost to South, 26-14, Aug. 30, 1968.
• Layton Christian lost to Granite, 50-19, Aug. 20, 2004.
• LDS High lost to West, 18-6, Sept. 30, 1919.
• Lehi lost to BYU, 25-6, Oct. 24, 1919.
• Logan defeated South Cache, 34-0, Oct. 10, 1919.
• Lone Peak lost to Delta, 38-7, Aug. 29, 1997.
• Manti lost to Snow College, 30-0, Nov. 5, 1920.
• Maple Mountain lost to Stansbury, 35-7, Aug. 21, 2009.
• Milford lost to Beaver, 34-0, Nov. 12, 1925.
• Millard tied Beaver, 0-0, Oct. 15, 1926.
• Monticello lost to Grand County, 48-0, Nov. 9, 1934.
• Monument Valley lost to Tuba City (Arizona), 35-12, Aug. 31, 1984.
• Morgan lost to Park City, 24-0, Oct. 5, 1928.
• Mountain Crest lost to Bonneville, 28-0, Sept. 2, 1983.
• Mountain Ridge plays Olympus, Aug. 16, 2019.
• Mountain View defeated Carbon, 7-0, Aug. 29, 1980.
• Murray lost to Grantville, 37-0, Oct. 20, 1916.
• North Cache defeated South Cache, 12-0, Nov. 21, 1919.
• North Emery lost to Central, 60-0, Oct. 30, 1925.
• North Rich lost to Cokeville (Wyoming), 32-7, Oct. 5, 1966.
• North Sanpete defeated Wasatch Academy, 18-0, Nov. 15, 1912.
• North Sevier lost to Snow College, 95-0, Oct. 14, 1922.
• North Summit lost to Wasatch, 13-0, Oct. 1, 1926.
• Northridge lost to Ogden, 14-3, Aug. 28, 1992.
• Notre Dame defeated Monticello, 13-7, Oct. 20, 1955.
• Ogden lost to West (then Salt Lake High), 29-0, Oct. 22, 1898.
• Olympus defeated Ben Lomond, 20-6, Sept. 17, 1953.
• Orem (originally Lincoln High) lost to American Fork, 12-0, Oct. 1, 1929.
• Panguitch lost to North Sanpete, 34-0, Aug. 28, 1970.
• Park City lost to All Hallows Seconds (JV), 12-0, Nov. 28, 1901.
• Parowan lost to Kanab, 19-0, Sept. 17, 1949.
• Payson lost to Pleasant Grove, 14-0, Oct. 2, 1909.
• Pine View lost to North Sanpete, 14-0, Aug. 26, 1983.
• Pleasant Grove lost to Provo, 11-0, Oct. 31, 1908.
• Providence Hall plays Richfield, Aug. 16, 2019.
• Provo defeated Provo, 11-0, Oct. 31, 1908.
• Rich defeated Altamont, 12-8, Aug. 30, 1985.
• Richfield lost to South Sevier, 13-0, Oct. 15, 1920.
• Ridgeline lost to Skyridge, 33-14, Aug. 18, 2016.
• Riverton lost to Brighton, 54-0, Aug. 27, 1999.
• Roosevelt lost to Roosevelt Club, 7-0, Oct. 14, 1927.
• Roy defeated Logan, 6-0, Sept. 10, 1965.
• Salem Hills lost to Desert Hills, 33-26, Aug. 29, 2008.
• San Juan lost to Grand County, 47-0, Sept. 21, 1956.
• Sky View lost to Burley (Idaho), 21-13, Sept. 11, 1964.
• Skyline lost to Ogden, 52-0, Sept. 7, 1962.
• Skyridge defeated Ridgeline, 33-14, Aug. 18, 2016
• Snow Canyon lost to Virgin Valley (Mesquite, Nevada), 12-7, Aug. 26, 1994.
• South lost to West, 20-0, Oct. 9, 1931.
• South Cache lost to Brigham Young College, 31-12, Oct. 3, 1919.
• South Emery lost to Central, 54-0, Oct. 24, 1925.
• South Rich lost to Pinedale (Wyoming), 33-0, Oct. 4, 1968.
• South Sevier defeated Richfield, 13-0, Oct. 15, 1920.
• South Summit lost to Park City, 36-0, Nov. 25, 1913.
• Spanish Fork lost to Tintic, 27-0, Oct. 14, 1916.
• Springville lost to American Fork, 5-0, Oct. 31, 1908.
• Stansbury defeated Maple Mountain, 35-7, Aug. 21, 2009.
• Summit Academy defeated Milford, 48-0, Aug. 17, 2012.
• Syracuse lost to Roy, 41-6, Aug. 17, 2007.
• Taylorsville lost to Murray, 56-13, Aug. 28, 1981.
• Timpanogos lost to Uintah, 49-13, Aug. 30, 1996.
• Timpview defeated Payson, 26-6, Sept. 2, 1977.
• Tintic lost to Jordan, 76-0, Oct. 16, 1913.
• Tooele lost to Tintic, 57-0, Oct. 22, 1915.
• Topaz tied Commissary Team, 0-0, Sept. 24, 1943.
• Uintah defeated North Emery, 20-0, Oct. 5, 1929.
• Union lost to Pleasant Grove, 7-0, Sept. 14, 1951.
• Utah Deaf School lost to South Rich, 34-14, Sept. 26, 1969.
• Valley lost to Kanab, 41-0, Nov. 20, 1919.
• Viewmont lost to Morgan, 19-7, Sept. 11, 1964.
• Wasatch lost to Park City, 30-0, Oct. 24, 1924.
• Wasatch Academy defeated Price Academy, 66-7, Oct. 26, 1912.
• Wayne lost to Gunnison Valley, 43-8, Aug. 21, 2015.
• Weber lost to Springville, 39-0, Oct. 1, 1926.
• West (originally Salt Lake High) defeated City Club, 4-0, Nov. 15, 1893.
• West Jordan lost to Sky View, 44-0, Aug. 28, 1981.
• Westlake lost to Delta, 28-14, Aug. 21, 2009.
• Whitehorse lost to Shiprock (New Mexico), Sept. 11, 1979 (score not reported).
• Woods Cross defeated Morgan, 8-3, Sept. 2, 1977.

Felt’s Facts welcomes questions by email at utahprepfb@gmail.com